Week 8: Investigating Pumpkins

Books We Read

How Many Seeds Are In A Pumpkin?
Feathertop
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Poem of the Week
Scarecrow Dan

I am silly old Scarecrow Dan.
I flip and I flop like a scarecrow can!
I move my arms.
I move my wrists.
I shake my legs
And I shake my fists!
I lean way down
And I lean way back.
I jump up and down like a jumping jack!
I stand real still and don't make a sound.
Then, I sit back down upon the ground!

Centres
Language
We did a big practice session of all of the letters we've learned to write this year in preparation for writing the next part of our monthly portfolio.

Sight Words & Sorting
We sorted seven sight words - a, the, on, is, and, in, of - matching small strips of paper to much larger word cards.

Art
We drew what were we are going to be (or what we think we are going to be) for Halloween.

Building Bins
Students were challenged to use the materials in our building bins to reach one end of the carpet to the other.

Sand Table
Students made sand castles but also discovered items like marbles and bones in the sandbox.

Other Things
We learned how to predict how many seeds are in a pumpkin based on its size and colour.

We predicted if pumpkins would float or sink.

We also predicted how many seeds we would find in a pumpkin.


By trial and error, we figured out the difference in size between a small pumpkin and a medium pumpkin by using snap cubes.

How's Your Engine?

Hey Jackman Families!

In all of our kindergarten and primary classes, teachers are working on the idea of self-regulation with our students. 

Students are being asked to “check in” on their engagement level to make sure they are consistently calm, focused and alert.  They will check in on a regular basis using our “Engine Chart”.

The engine chart shows a car going through three different levels. 

Level 1 – Low or “Idling”

At this stage, students aren’t causing a distraction to other students, but they are not attending to the task at hand. 

Level 2 – Just Right or “Running Well”

Here, the students have engaged their minds to the task at hand and are actively and productively participating in the classroom environment.

Level 3 – High or “Out of Control”

At this point, students are over-stimulated and are focused on something other than our lesson in a way that takes other students off task.

Our class will be creating criteria for each one of these levels over the next few weeks.  We will be using the above language on a daily basis and parents are encouraged to use the same language at home for reinforcement.  For example;

"How's your engine?"

"Is your engine running too high right now?"

"I think your engine is a bit low."

The end goal is to have students actively thinking about how they are doing through the day and for them to be able to recognize when they need to get their engine running properly (and how to do it!)

Thanks folks!  Talk to you soon!

Week 7: Finding Clues

Books We Read

Max's Words

The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin

Chalk

Song of the Week

The Three Ghosts

Ooooooooh, 1, 2, 3!

Ooooooooh, ghost are we!

Ooooooooh, when you sleep!

Ooooooooh, we will creep!

Ooooooooh, you won't hear!

Ooooooooh, when we're near!

Ooooooooh, what we do!

Ooooooooh, we scare you!

BOO!!!!

Centres
Language
We started working on the letter "T" this week and introduced the sight words "is" and "the" to our sight word magnet board.

Math

We added numbers 5 through 10 on our number lines and added dots that match the number.

Drama

We learned how to properly use puppets and put on simple, improvised "plays" in our drama centre.

Art

Using egg cartons, scrap paper cuttings, markers and pipe cleaner, we made hanging ghosts, which are now hanging above the kindergarten entrance.

Blocks

Our block centre was our free centre this week, where students got to design whatever structure they like.

Other Things

We got into our colour groups for the rest of the term and learned how to use our names, the colour of the sign and our friends to find out where our work centre is.

We talked about what a clue is and how we can use it to find all sorts of information.

We started in on Jolly Phonics, using the "E" song to learn the short "e" song.

After looking through the story "Chalk", a story without words, we "told" the story the next day using only the pictures as clues.

Using "and" and "is" on a small chalkboard, we helped finish Mr. McCullough's sentences while learning our sight words.

Week 6: Sorting Ourselves

On a four day week, the kids can be a bit squirmish.  Plus, there was a supply teacher in on Wednesday afternoon. so we moved away from the organized centres format this time around and tried a few different things here and there.

Books We Read
Chicka Chicka 1 2 3

Song of the Week
And When You're 1

And when you're one, one, one,
Show me your thumb, thumb, thumb.
And when you're two, two, two,
Tap with your shoe, shoe, shoe.
(repeat)

And when you're three, three, three,
Bend at your knee, knee, knee.
And when you're four, four, four,
Stomp on the floor, floor, floor.
(repeat)

And when you're five, five, five,
You do the jive, jive, jive.
And when you're six, six, six,
You do the mix, mix, mix.
(repeat)

And when you're seven, seven, seven,
Jump up to heaven, heaven, heaven.
And when you're eight, eight, eight,
Stand well and wait, wait, wait.
(repeat)

And when you're nine, nine, nine,
Ya ya ya, nine, nine, nine.
And when you're ten, ten, ten,
Start it again.....
(repeat)

Activities

Printing and Letters
We worked on making our letter "P" and also did some work with magnets on the sight words "to" and "and"

Math

We sorted ourselves as a class by who ate turkey at Thanksgiving and who didn't.  Then we had to guess a different sorting rule every day when Mr. McCullough sorted us.  We came up with sorting rules like boy/girl, colour of clothes, types of shoes and who was wearing a sweater.

We also started working on our own number lines, using a Promethean Board to organized the numbers first, and then gluing the numbers onto long pieces of cardstock.

Children also were able to use the castle centre, playdough centre and sand centre in a variety of activities.

Week 5: Giving Thanks

Apologies for the delay in posting this week.  Blame a combination of Thanksgiving and Mr. McCullough's other job at Jackman for the late post.  Pictures will be added to the blog on Thursday.

Books We Read
Children Make Terrible Pets
Let It Fall
A Selection of Thanksgiving Poems for Children

Song of the Week
The Turkey Song
(Sung to the tune of "Do Your Ears Hang Low", with arms positioned like turkey wings)
Well you turkey to the left (move left)
And you turkey to the right (move right)
Then you take your turkey foot (stick out one foot, heel to the ground)
And you scratch with all your might (scratch heel on ground)
Then you take your turkey head (point to head)
And you move it wobble-wobble (shake head up and down)
Then you turn around in place (turn around)
And you say "Gobble-Gobble!"

Weekly Centres

Printing and Letters
We kept practicing writing letters, this time working on the letter D.  We also started looking at the sight words "the" and "of".  Then, we glued the individual letters to cardstock.

Math
We continued the theme of sorting.  The week, students chose a bucket of items ranging from animals to dinosaurs to cars and sorted them by an attribute of their choosing.

Art
Part two of our leaf rubbing project.  We took our rubbings from the week before and covered them with watercolours, with the intention of being able to see the pastel through the watercolour.

Drama
In our house centre, students were asked to re-enact family dinners, with the focus on trying to put together a Thanksgiving dinner.

Other Things We Did

We talked about what being "thankful" is and why being thankful for things like family, friends, food and shelter is different than liking things like Ninjago and skeletons.

We've officially started exchanging books at the library!  Don't forget to send you old ones in so you can get new ones!

We talked about words that start with the letters "S" and "A".

We read "The Three Little Kids" through an interactive RAZ-Kids book and answered questions on the touch-screen on our library Smartboard.