This Week in Kindergarten!

Not only was this a short week at school but also a very busy one.  Tuesday was a super fun day of literacy activities held in different classrooms in the school.  The children were grouped with other students from grade 1 to 5 and enjoyed a variety of activities such as Bingo, iPad activities, making Valentine cards, listening to stories and SMARTboard activities, all focused on literacy skills.

                               We were also introduced to this special little robot.  His name is Bee-Bot.

We have to program Bee-Bot to move through mazes by using the arrows on his back.  We also have to count how many times he moves forward, when he has to turn, etc.

                Some of the children spent time creating their own mazes for Bee-Bot during Play Time!

                                                        Practicing to print the letter U.

                                              Circling words in our daily songs and poems.

On Wednesday, Mme Donna came for her first classroom visit.  She told us all about creating things with clay. 

Mme Donna brought many of her own beautiful works of art to show us.  We got to touch all of the different textures on the objects and looked carefully at all of the beautiful colours.

                                   As part of this first lesson the children had to draw a plan.

                                                  They will be creating their own bowls.

                             The boys and girls designed what the inside of their bowls will look like.

                  They also drew pictures of what they would like the exterior of their bowls to look like.

                                             Mme Donna showed us a real Narwhale tusk!

                                                    Examples of Mme Donna's artwork.

                         We will use our designs to help us when we make our clay bowls in a few weeks.

                                   The boys and girls worked very hard to put their ideas on paper.

They were so excited when Mme Donna told them that they would be able to use their bowls at home when they were all done.

            Now the boys and girls can hardly wait until Mme Donna's next visit on February 13th.

                       The boys and girls ended off the week identifying the core (le motif) of a pattern.

                                   We also continued to practice printing numbers correctly.

                                            And a quick game of lower-case letter match.

Important Dates!

*image found at clipartlibrary.com

Monday, January 29th:  Music for the afternoon class.

Tuesday, January 30th:  Library for the morning class.  Please return all library books!
Literacy Day! - The boys and girls will be participating in a variety of literacy based activities throughout the school.

Wednesday, January 31st:  Phys. Ed. for the afternoon class.
Learning Through the Arts for both the morning and afternoon class.  This term we will be welcoming Donna Garofalo who is a ceramic artist.  

Thursday, February 1st:  Music for the afternoon class.
Letter Day!  The boys and girls may wear a shirt with writing on it.
The pink Hearts with an Act of Kindness are due back today!

Friday, February 2nd:  Inservice (No school for the students today!)

This Week in Kindergarten!

This week I left a few new provocations set up in the classroom.  The students were asked if they could create a snowflake.

They could also create snowflakes by rubbing wax crayons over snowflake templates.

Many beautiful snowflakes were created!  One little girl decided that it would be fun to make her name using the materials at this center.  Very creative!

The boys and girls really enjoyed discovering the beautiful snowflakes after rubbing a wax crayon over the paper.  "It was like magic" one of the students said.

Printing the letter M.

Exploring tally marks.

The children practiced printing the number 5.

How many?

A guessing game on the number line.  One of the children told me a number (quietly so no one could hear) and the rest of the class took turns guessing the number.  I would ask the child who picked the number if the number that his/her friend picked was plus que (more than) or moins que (less than) the correct number.  There is a stick on the number 9 and a stick on the number 5 so the children guessing know that it is bigger than 5 and smaller than 9.

Playing insect jenga with a friend.

I believe these boys built a rocket ship.

Building with small wooden blocks.

Ordering boxes by size to build a castle.

Important Dates!

*image found at clipartlibrary.com

Monday, January 22nd:  Library for the morning class.  Please return all library books!
Phys. Ed. for the morning class.

Tuesday, January 23rd:  Phys. Ed. for the afternoon class.
Early dismissal at 2:45 p.m.

Wednesday, January 24th:  Music for the morning class.
There will be a substitute teacher for the first two periods of the morning class as I am attending an Integrated Arts planning meeting.

Thursday, January 25th:  Phys. Ed. for the morning class.
Library for the afternoon class.  Please return all library books!
There will be a substitute teacher for the afternoon class as I am attending a Kindergarten Play-Based Learning workshop.

Friday, January 26th:  Phys. Ed. for the afternoon class.
Fuzzy Buddy Day!  The boys and girls may wear pyjamas to school today.  They may also bring a stuffed animal.  Please make sure that the stuffy is small enough to fit in your child's backpack.

This Week in Kindergarten!

This week's Discovery Bins, included, a winter themed memory game.

Memory games are a great way to practice new French vocabulary!

Another group of children played the alphabet game that I introduced last week as a large group activity.

Taking turns and helping our friends name the letters of the alphabet in French.

A penguin math game.

The first player to fill his ice block with ten penguins wins the game.

Strengthening our fine motor skills by picking up tiny wooden cubes and placing them on top of the matching cubes on the cards.

The students made many beautiful designs.

Circling the core (le motif) of the pattern (la régularité).

The morning class playing "Bingo d'hiver".

Introducing a new math problem to the whole class with mitten manipulatives.  The children are learning different ways of making the number 5 ( 5 blue mittens and 0 red mittens is the same as 5, 4 blue mittens and 1 red mitten is the same as 5).  We will continue to explore this problem as a whole group and early next week the children will demonstrate their learning to me individually.

Printing the number that comes after a given number.

Circling the core (le motif) of a pattern (la régularité).

The boys and girls are hard at work counting the buttons on the snowmen.

Earlier this week, the children completed the colour "blanc" in their colour booklets.  They made "le nuage blanc" ( a white cloud).

We have been learning positional words in French (sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière, à côté de)  - on, under, in, in front of, behind, beside.

Storybook characters playing together on Friday.

Sandbox birthday cakes.

So much crafting and artwork.

A special creation on the light cube.

Today's guest reader was Mme Heather.  She is a librarian at "la DREF" which is a special library at the University of St. Boniface for teachers.  Can you guess which storybook character she was?

Mme Heather read three books to the morning class and three books to the afternoon class as well.

We also listened to some stories on the SMARTboard.

What a fun way to the end the week!  Don't forget next Friday is "Fuzzy Buddy" day!

The boys and girls may wear their pyjamas and bring a stuffed animal to school on Friday, January 26th!  Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!!!