iIt was a big Monday in Kindergarten today! We started the day off by going to RH Terrace to visit our friends. As we entered the building, our friends greeted us with a big smiles! The kiddos pointed out the similarities and differences of the building as we walked into the activity room. The Christmas decorations were put away and we had the chance to see what RH Terrace looks like from day to day. We got busy with making snowflakes. The kiddos snipped their papers and chatted away with some new and old friends from last time. Everyone was so happy and excited to be there! It was such a joy to walk around and watch everyone's faces as they opened up their folded snowflake to see the bigger picture. Next the residents read us some of our favorite books! Some of the kiddos mustered up the courage to read the pictures to their friends as well. The kiddos sang their hearts out for the residents. Our line up today was: "Baby Bumblebee", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "ABCs" (in four different ways!). Our friends at RH Terrace were so kind and gave each of us a cookie and juice. The kiddos enjoyed their snack and chat with their friends. Thank-you once again to RH Terrace for having us and treating us so well! We are truly lucky to get to spend time with such wonderful people who live in our community.
Have a great night everyone!
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This week we had Brandon Biologist, Dan Chranowski of the Brandon Wildlife Association came to our classroom and answered our final questions we cam up with for our After Christmas Tree research. He was a wealth of knowledge and presented us with some very interesting facts. He shared that Brandon is the home of many birds that do not migrate in the winter. Among some of these are: chickadees, grouse, blue jays and crows. He also mentioned that another animal we could feed on our after Christmas tree would be rabbits as they are plentiful and adapt in the winter. Rabbits are herbivores so we can feed them plant pelts and for the birds, he shared, seeds would be best! The last question the kiddos had was "How do animals know what to do in the winter?" Dan explained that they are born with instincts or they are taught by older animals of the same kind. Very interesting!! Dan also brought in two taxidermy birds. One being a snowy owl and the other, a sharp-tailed grouse! The sharp-tailed grouse adapts to the winter by growing feathers around its legs to protect it from the cold snow. The snowy owl also adapts to the harsh tundra up north with their white plumage for camouflage, fully feathered feet, serrated wing feathers, sharp talons and beaks. The kiddos all received the opportunity to see the grouse up close and point out the feathers on its feet!
We enjoyed Dan's visit so much and appreciated him sharing his knowledge. The kiddos all wanted to give him a hug on their way out for recess! We are now ready to complete our After Christmas Tree project by decorating it with food for the animals on Monday!! We can't wait. The kiddos BEAMED with excitement today as we went on our very first bus field trip together! They danced, sang, laughed and cheered their hearts out. Check out all the fun we had!! The sense of community in the gym was, unreal. This week we learned our very first "popcorn" words! These words are words that are frequently found in books and may also be referred to as sight words. The kiddos know that they are no excuse words that we need to know "just like that!" At the beginning of each week the words start out as a popcorn kernel. Each time we practice the words, the kernel "heats up in our brains" and by the end of the week, we have hopes of making the seed "pop! into popcorn." Once we fill up our popcorn bucket with all our popcorn words, the kiddos receive a well deserved popcorn party for their hard work in solidifying the popcorn words into their reading repertoire!! Practice the popcorn words at home by pointing them out in the text you read, finding them around the house or getting your kiddo to write them down on a whiteboard or piece of paper. University of Brandon Bobcats Visit We had some very exciting guests come to our classroom today! 4 members of the Brandon University Bobcats Basketball team came during explore time to introduce themselves and get us excited about attending their game this Friday. The kiddos laughed, played and made new friends with them. We cannot wait to cheer them on as they take on the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack!! Last week, we read the story, "The After Christmas Tree" written by Linda Tyler. The story talks about how one family overcame the inevitable sadness as the holiday season comes to an end. Instead of being upset, they decide to hold a winter party for their friends. They went skating, had snacks and sang songs together. At the end, the friends were asked to gather sticks and pinecones. They then rolled them in peanut butter with seeds and made popcorn and berry chains. Once they were done, they "decorated" the tree outside and watched the animals come and enjoy their gifts (decorations). This served as the tree's second season of giving. When the story was finished, one of the kiddos commented what a cool idea the 'After Christmas Tree' was. We quickly decided this was something we would like to do. I questioned the kiddos about what we would need in order to accomplish this! The kiddos fired off some great questions, such as "What animals live near us?" and "What do animals do in the winter?" I introduced them to a K/W/L (what I Know, what I Want to know, and what I Learned) chart. We spent some time discussing the difference between what we know to be 100% true fact compared to what we think we know about animals and birds in Brandon! We quickly realized we didn't know very much. We want to make sure when we decorate our tree, we know what animals/birds may visit and what they need to eat so we do not cause any harm. Next we headed outside to find the perfect spot for our After Christmas Tree! We landed on a spot near the 'C' door as we can see it from the window once we decorate. We visit the tree everyday and each time, it sparks great excitement to continue learning the answers to our questions so we can have our winter party! Stay tuned to hear more about our learning!
We learned a new chunk to add to our reading strategy tookbox this week- ghostly oo's!! When two o's are together in a word, they make a spooky sound as a ghost would. Take a look around your house, neighborhood and through bedtime story books to find ghostly oo's. The kiddos were sure excited to look around our room and find some today.
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July 2020
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