Week 7: G-Leaf-ully back!

Books We Read
The Grumpy Bird
All By Myself

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

Weekly Centres

GLeaves!
We put some of our leaf collection to good use this week, creating happy little leaves after Mr. McCullough taught us that the word "glee" is another word for happy!  We painted our leaves using autumn colours, then bent a red pipe cleaner into a smile, added some googly eyes and then "mounted" them on a paper plate.  The result was pretty funny!

Sight Word Magnet Mania
Using last week's sight words of and and to, as well as our brand new sight words, on and is, we used magnet letters to make each sight word as many different times as possible.

My Own Five Line
After a quick reminder on number order, we made our own number lines from 1 to 5, using poster board, paper numbers and glue sticks!  We'll be using these number lines next week once we learn a bit more about five frames!

The Letter B
We're working on the letter "B" this week.  Like all of our letters, we're starting at the TOP, moving down, frog jumping back to the TOP and then making two "bumps" to get down to the bottom, all words that we figured out started with B!

Other Things We Did
Mr. McCullough introduced us to the five frame!  Some of us thought it was a hopscotch course at first, but after we figured out it wasn't, we learned the first way we could use a five frame, which was ordering numbers.  We'll be learning different ways over the next few weeks!  We also matched items to numbers in the five frame when it was all mixed up!

On Tuesday, everybody got to plant a daffodil bulb in our kinder garden!  Once spring happens, we'll get to see the beautiful yellow daffodils in bloom!

We put our Jolly Jingle letters (S A T I P and N) into a six-letter word that we were using this week - PAINTS!!!  More words to come!

We figured out the word sounds that start "egg" and "hop" and added them to our song repertoire!

Week 6: What Does "Thankful" Mean?

Due to Mr. McCullough's illness at the start of the week and photo day on Wednesday, plans had to be slightly adjusted to accommodate for supply teachers, hence the shortened blog entry this week.

Books We Read
All of Me: A Book of Thanks

Song of the Week
The Turkey Dance
(Sung to "Turkey in the Straw)
Well you turkey to the left, then you turkey to the right.
And you take your turkey foot and you scratch with all your might.
Next you take your turkey head and you move it wobble wobble
And you spin around in place and you say "Gobble Gobble".

Other Thing We Did
We learned that the letter C sometimes sounds just like the letter K, like at the start of cat, cake and cartoon.

We added the letter P to our printing list, and it was the first letter that we've both used in printing and in our Jolly Jingles!

Sight words were introduced this week, as Mr. McCullough started playing "Sight Word Snap-Up" on our message!  While Mr. McCullough read the message a second time, we had to play close attention and say "ZIP!" whenever he said a sight word.  Somebody then got a turn to circle that sight word!

Picture Day on Wednesday!  We all looked pretty fabulous!

The class talked about what we were thankful for, and how being thankful is different than just liking something.  We also acted out the story of "The Old Lady and the Vinegar Bottle", about an old lady who never said thank you and took all the gifts given to her by a magical fish for granted!

October Calendar & Colour Groups

Below are the class colour groups for the next six or so weeks.  After that time, the groups will switch.  The groups are used at the start of some activity periods, the beginning of centre times, and for activities such as show and share.  

Eliot Ezra Aidan Ella Christina	Matija Samson Roslyn Natalie
Unaswi Matthew Ana Sofia Talia	Vasili Nolan Isaac Shaugnessy Ayana

Week 5: Mixing and Fixing

Books We Read
If You Give A Moose A Muffin
I Love My New Toy
Children Make Terrible Pets

Weekly Centres
Fix The Mix
In our new groups, we had to figure out how Mr. McCullough had sorted some mixed up buckets, and then work together to put the right item in the right bucket.

What Fall Will Look Like
We took old, crumbling leaves we gathered and created fall scenes, using fall crayon and marker colours, glue sticks, and crumbled leaves.

Drama Centre - The School House
Everybody was given a chance to explore our new drama centre, which has been set up like a classroom for older students.

Sand Centre 
This was a free centre this week, where we got to explore and experiment with the different sand toys.

Other Things We Did
We went on a Leaf Hunt on Tuesday, sorting the leaves we found by good leaves (which we will use for an art activity next week) and "crumby leaves".  Those leaves will be used for an activity this week.

The rain on Monday rearranged our plans a bit, so we did our printing as a full class, with everybody working on the letter "D!"

We used our Feel Good Friends to explain what a line looks like, how we're supposed to go to the back and, if somebody accidentally goes in front of us, we politely tell them "the back is over there!"

In If You Give A Moose A Muffin, we looked for clues that told us it was fall (cold air, falling leaves, sweaters) and then acted out the story, trying our best to remember what happens after something else happens first.

To get ready for it in our Centres, we played "Fix the Mix!"  Mr. McCullough accidentally dropped a bunch of our sorting items on the floor and we had to figure out which ones go in which bucket by using the clues we found in each bucket.

Our drama centre is being turned from school to house!  With help from the Jackman Daycare, our centre will change every once in a while so we can have all sorts of different dramatic experiences.

Week 4: Autumn Has Fallen!

Books We Read
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
The Great Fuzz Frenzy

Song of the Week
Autumn Leaves are Falling Down (to the tune of "London Bridge")

Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down!
Autumn leaves are falling down.  Welcome to autumn!

Grab a rake and rake them up, rake them up, rake them up!
Grab a rake and rake them up.  Welcome to autumn!

Make a pile and jump right in, jump right in, jump right in!
Make a pile and jump right in.  Welcome to autumn!

Weekly Centres
Letter E
We learned that, by adding an extra line to the letter "F", we can easily make a letter "E"!

Autumn Branches
Using brown pipe cleaner and leaves with holes in them, we worked on our fine motor skills, winding pipe cleaner in and out of the hole to make branches with autumn leaves!

Sorting by...????
We used some non-traditional sorting items, like dinosaurs, cars, ponies and Jenga blocks, and figured out how we could sort them into different groups.

Other Things We Did
Madame DeGroot showed us a few videos on Terry Fox to get us ready for our Terry Fox run on Thursday!  A few of us also got to exchange our old books for new ones.

We learned that the other word for fall is "autumn" and talked about clues that let us know autumn is coming.

The letters "T" and "I" were added to our Jolly Jingles repertoire!  We also started blending some letters together with our Word Wizard program, figuring out that with the letters S, A, T, F, E and I, we could make words like "eat", "safe", "at" and "sat".

We met our Reading Buddies!  The grade four and five students from Ms. Stillman's class will be coming to our room every Day 1 with a fun selection of books to read!

Wednesday was Crazy Head Day!  We had some amazing hats, hairstyles and headwear, which we then tried to draw onto a head that Mr. McCullough gave us.  Everybody got lots of compliments from the other teachers and students in the school!

Our Terry Fox Run happened on Thursday afternoon!  It was more of a Terry Fox Run, Jog, Hop, Skip, Slow-Motion and Walk, but we had lots of fun running for Terry!

Week 3: Sorting Out Heroes!

Books We Read
We Share Everything
A Sick Day For Amos McGee
Enemy Pie
Good Little Wolf

Song of the Week
Where Do We Start Our Letters? (to the tune of "If You're Happy And You Know It!")

Where do you start your letters?  At the top!

Where do you start your letters?  At the top!

If you want to start a letter then you better, better, better,

Remember to start it at the top!

Is this the top, top, top?  No, it’s the bottom!

Is this the top, top, top?  No, it’s the middle!

Is this the top, top, top?  Yes, it’s the top, top, top!

Remember, to start them at the top!

Weekly Centres
The Letter F
We started our first printing practice of the week, using the "Frog Jump" motion of our hand to make the letter "F"!  We also learned that, as the song says, if you want to start a letter, then you better remember to start it at the top!

Sorting
Our sorting centre involved moving magnets, making groups with coloured bears and buttons and figuring out what else in the class we could sort.

Prediction: Sink or Float
We used our Water Table for the first time this year, but before we did, we had to predict if what we were putting in the table was going to sink or float.

Who's My Hero
Everybody coloured in a picture showing who their "hero" was, real or imagined, and we made a list of their "Special Abilities".

Other Activities
Everybody got a giant envelope for their work!  The envelope will hold a bunch of our writing, math and art projects through the year and, at the end of the year, we get to take it home! We decorated the envelope with whatever we wanted, and we'll get to add to it as the year goes along!

Somebody left Mr. McCullough a challenge that said "Sort Me".  So, we figured out that sorting meant putting things that were the same (like the same colour) into groups!  We also tried sorting by a bunch of different attributes.  During the week we sorted things by colour, size, shape, type, and we sorted ourselves by boys and girls!

We talked about what a "hero" is and decided it was somebody who helps people, keeps them safe and healthy and tries to do good things.  Along with the usual superheroes, we figured out that policemen, ambulance drivers, firemen and even PARENTS could be heroes!!!

We also talked about "villains" and "enemies".  We talked about how you can't judge a villain by how they look (Good Little Wolf) and how having "enemies" can sometimes be solved by being nice to them and trying to make friends (Enemy Pie).

Getting ready for the Terry Fox Run next week, we told the story of Terry Fox and talked about what makes him a hero.

Mme. Degroot took us "on the roof" while we were in the library, as we watched an amazing video about the Jackman Green Roof!

We learned a couple of mini-songs from our Jolly Phonics book, focusing on the letter S and the letter A.  We then tried to put the letters S, A and F together to see if we could make words.  We couldn't, so we might need to learn more letters.

On Tuesday, the Jackman Gardening Committee came to the Kindergarten Garden!  We helped them clean up the garden, sweeping wood chips off the concrete, putting pruned leaves and branches in a recyclable bag and shoveling some mulch into the garden!

Week 2: How Do You Fill Your Bucket?

Books We Read
Those Shoes
Chicka Chicka 123
I Am Absolutely Extremely Boiling
The Giving Tree
On My First Day of School

Song of the Week
Fill A Bucket (sung to Frere Jacques)

Fill a bucket (fill a bucket)
Every day (every day)
I can fill a bucket (I can fill a bucket)
You can too! (You can too)

Fill a bucket (fill a bucket)
Every day (every day)
I like filling buckets (I like filling buckets)
You will, too! (You will, too!)

Weekly Centres
We give children a chance to explore a variety of centres during the week, making their own discoveries as they go.  Every week, we have a variety of "guided" centres that focus on specific skills.  These will be the centres listed.

September Portfolio
Our first page of our writing portfolio was finished this week!  We were asked to write our name and draw a picture of anything we like!  Then, Mr. McCullough wrote down what we drew!

Bucket Pictures
Keeping with the "What fills your bucket?" idea, everybody drew a picture of the things that fill their bucket.  Some people drew kisses, others drew toys, some drew families and some drew hugs! 

Sensory Centres
Mr. McCullough brought out a bucket with things that squish, smoosh, shake, make sounds, light-up and move!  It was our job to figure out how everything w
orks. 

Blocks & Buckets
We figured out the different items in our building buckets, which include train tracks, magnet blocks and building straws, among other things. 

Other Things We Did
We talked some more about what fills our buckets and, after singing the "Fill A Bucket" song, we shared what filled our bucket.  For some people, it changed every day!

Stories like "Those Shoes" and "I Am Absolutely Extremely Boiling" taught us about sharing, and we had a few talks about how to ask for things politely.

We kept counting the days of school and everybody made a guess about how many days were in school.  We had guesses from 2 to 1000200....

...and then we had a talk about how some of us might be wrong, and it's okay to be wrong because being wrong sometimes helps us learn!

We also "tucked away" the ending of Chicka Chicka 123, because Mr. McCullough said we'd need to remember it on a very special day of school (although we're not sure what day that is yet).

Mme. Degroot had us practice taking books off of shelves in the library, and soon we'll be able to take some home!

We learned the two different meanings of "boiling", and talked about how sometimes we use a word to describe something that isn't actually happening (none of us were REALLY boiling on Wednesday, even though it was REALLY hot!)

After reading "The Giving Tree", we talked about what it means to be a good friend, and how being a good friend means sharing, but also being honest with other friends if you're not feeling okay about what they're doing.

Our sensory centre had a Slinky, but NOBODY had ever seen a Slinky work in the real world!  So, we tried it out on the steps of the school and it DIDN'T WORK!  So, we came up with ideas of why not (steps were too wide, black stripes were making the slinky stick) before building our own steps in the classroom from our block centre!  Everybody loved watching the Slinky go!