Happy Monday Kinder Family!! I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weekend we had. Spring seems to be taking its time to give us some warmer weather, however it has been invigorating to watch our community grow more lively with people taking in the fresh spring air. I have a few notes and changes for the week: 1) Daily Teaching Videos: I will continue to send a daily teaching video out every morning. Seesaw limits the time to 5 minutes, so I will begin posting the videos on YouTube. I will send the YouTube link every morning via the Seesaw messaging feature. Just click the link and you will be good to go! The assignment from the video can still be uploaded to seesaw and found in the Activities section! Here is the first Youtube teaching video for you. 2) Teams Conferencing: Our teams video conferencing will continue to be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, however the times and groups have changed. Please log onto your child's account to see your new time/ group. These times and groups will commence today! Every Monday we will learn a new letter, every Wednesday we will focus on Popcorn Words and Friday's we will be doing show and tell based on the letter of the week. This week is the letter O! 3) Riverheights School Parent Survey: Please take 5 minutes and fill out the survey from the admin at Riverheights School. We would like all parents to submit their answers to the survey by Friday, May 8th. I will send the link on Seesaw by the end of the day.
Have a wonderful day and as always, please contact me with any questions, comments or concerns.
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Today is a bittersweet day as we say goodbye to Miss Sherwin. From the moment she first joined our kindergarten family, she brought a wealth of fun, creativity and compassion with phenomenal learning experiences. The kiddos and I put together a movie listing the reasons why the Brandon School Division should hire Miss Sherwin. We feel we know her best and our opinions are very important! We wish her the best of luck in her new adventure!! We will miss you Miss Sherwin. Check out our video below: For the safety and privacy of our friends, please note that this video is private. No one can see this video on YouTube unless they have the link.
Its hard to believe that we are marching right into week 5 of home learning. I cannot thank parents enough for the hard work and effort you have put into making home learning accessible for your kiddos. This is Miss Sherwin's final week with us in Kindergarten. We have been so lucky to benefit from her teaching journey will soak up every last minute of her creative and engaging lessons. This week I have two important things to share with you. Kindergarten Goals: There has been a couple of parents who have inquired about Kindergarten goals. The photo below is a simplified, student-friendly BIG kindergarten goals chart I have created that you can use to help your child keep track of these goals at home. My goal is to have every single student be able to color in all their stars by the end of the year. If you choose to print it, please keep this on your fridge or in a special spot at home. As we continue learning online, I will address these goals and give your child the opportunity to show me that they have concurred the goal and therefore color in the star. Another idea would be to implement a reward system where your kiddo can earn a special prize when their entire goal sheet is colored. I have also provided a copy of the goals, accompanied by an explanation that elaborates on the goal. You can click the buttons below the photo to download and print both copies. Reading Program: Considering we are unable to continue our Take Home Reading program, I have signed our classroom up for Raz Kids. This is an online reading program that allows your child to read appropriated leveled books, answer comprehension questions and record their audio clips for myself to hear them reading.
Here are the Login Instructions: 1) Go to www.kidsa-z.com 2) Enter or choose the teacher's username, alyssiakarate 3) Your child finds his or her username on the class chart 4) Your child enters his or her password (please see Seesaw for the password) Click the buttons below to get started. It works as a great app on any device. I cant wait to hear all my Kinder friends begin to read!! On Tuesday, teachers of Riverheights got together and paraded through our school's catchment area to show how much we miss you guys! The love was surely reciprocated with the amount of signs, noise and waves from our friends who filled the streets to fuel the parade. The slideshow below are small snippets of the wonderful school spirit our kinder friends constructed. In true Riverheights School spirit fashion, the students, teachers and community members made the city of Brandon feel a little brighter on Tuesday. We will get through this together. Thank-you everyone!
I wanted to take the opportunity to focus on setting-up an at-home learning environment for your child. Take a moment to acknowledge all the changes we have endure in the past four weeks... our parents have transformed to teachers, school is at home, we cannot play with our friends, no bells to abide by or schedules to follow, etc. As a five or six year-old, these changes can be extremely difficult to process, especially while trying to make education a priority at home. Although challenging, there are some essential things that we can do to help our kiddos understand that we can investigate the world knowing that learning is everywhere, not just at school!
1) Space: At school, your child has a designated table spot that they consistently return to when they are completing activities and assignment. The kiddos know that they must sit in that spot and do their job until the activity is complete. Just like sitting at the kitchen table during a meal, your child most likely knows that they can not leave the table until they are done eating. Having a clear and consistent spot enables children to understand that they have a job to do. This will help your child understand that even though they are at home, they need to focus on the task at hand until it is complete. This spot should provide enough room for your kiddo to complete the activity- My suggestion would be at a desk or on the kitchen table! Just make sure it is the same spot, every time. 2) Distractions: Pick a spot in your home where distractions can be limited. Distractions can be in the form of physical "stuff" as well as noises. Help your child prepare their work space before they sit down to do their job. Only allow materials they need for the activity in the area where they will be working. Toys, food and games should be put away until your kiddo has completed their job! Background noise can also be very distracting so try to control the volume of siblings, TV, radio, etc. Teams conference calls are considered "work" for your child. Please help prepare your work space for your child before the call is in progress. With so many kiddos on the call, noises and "stuff" can be distracting to your kiddo, other children and teachers. We really appreciate your effort to help optimize your kiddos learning at home by following the suggestions to the best of your ability. I have posted some pictures of positive learning environments below: We are on week 4 of home learning! It is fascinating how fast and slow time seems to go by. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the parents in our kinder crew for supporting your child and concurring home learning. It has been truly inspirational to watch our families adapt and thrived with challenging circumstances continuously brought forth. With that, I would like to make you aware of a few memos: 1) Extra support: If you would like your child to have one-on-one time with a teacher or EA, please let me know and we can set-up additional conferencing times where we can work on your child's goals. 2) Teacher parade: Tomorrow Riverheights teachers will embark on a parade around the RH catchment area. We will begin at 3:45 pm at 1st Street and Patricia Ave and follow the map below. Please feel free to look out the window or come out to the street and wave. Please make sure that you are maintaining a 6 foot distance between any other families while the parade passes by your neighborhood. Finn and I are looking forward to seeing everyone's smiling faces as we drive by! 3) Teams: We will continue to conference with small groups every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 2:00 or 2:30 pm. If you are needing assistance with setting Teams up for your child, please let Ms. Kajati know and I will do my best to support you! 3) Gym and Music resources: As you may know, your child has different teachers for both gym and music. If you would like your child to engage with music resoruces, you can find them on Teams under "Music." Mrs. Boguski has also set up a Twitter account where you can find resources for gym by follow @riverheightsphys.ed Learning packages: will be delivered by Ms. Kajati to your doorstep on Tuesday, April 14th. If your child usually walks or gets dropped off at school, you can expect the package to be delivered in between 9:00 am and 12:00 pm. If your child goes on the bus to school, you can expect the package to be delivered between 1:00 pm and 3:30 pm. I will ring the doorbell and place the package either in the mailbox or beside the front door. I would love to see your child's smiling face through the window or from an appropriate distance once I have set the package down. The package will include many different things as I have cleaned our classroom out of all student contents and supplies. The contents in the package are yours to do what you wish with, however please keep the following in a well-known place as we will continue to teach to them: 1) Seasons with our Tree booklet 2) Write and draw booklet You will also find a new alphabet printing and phonics practice booklet (white) and teen numbers booklet (blue) in the package. These are new resources I provided for those who requested more worksheets! Your child is not required to upload these booklets to Seesaw. Just a reminder that this will be the last learning package provided as we transition exclusively to online learning going forward. I will continue to provide printable resources on the "for parents" page of our blog for anyone who desires to print more worksheets off at home. Weekly Expectations: With the times rapidly changing, I wanted to reiterate the expectations for home learning and Seesaw. 1) Watch the daily video on Seesaw. Then complete the assignment and upload to your child's portfolio. 2) Journal: One journal entry per day. Please upload to Seesaw. I would like your child to begin writing a sentence about their picture on their page. Click the button below for journal topics if your child is struggling to find something to write and draw about! 3) ABC poem book: Please continue to a page from the ABC poem book per day. Please upload this to Seesaw and have your child read it to me! I have been really enjoying their videos and reading. They have come so far since the beginning of the year!! Just a reminder that there is no school this Friday, April 17th due to a Professional Development day for staff. There will be no video conferencing this Friday. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions, comments or concerns. Stay well, Ms. Kajati A throwback picture to PJ day! This picture always makes me smile. I hope it makes you do too!
Yesterday we had our very first video conference!! Although there were some glitches, it was nice to connect with some of our friends and try something new. Our next video conference will be the same time (2:00 or 2:30 pm) on Wednesday afternoon. We will try to continue to do this weekly every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please note there will be no conference this Friday as there is no school due to the holiday. I will do a "weekly round-up" on here once a week to limit the messages and resources I am sending out as I acknowledge this is an overwhelming time for families with multiple children and different schedules. To relieve some anxiety, I wanted to touch base in terms of home learning expectations: 1) Schedule: Your home learning schedule is completely up to you. If you would like a sample of what a day could look like, please see the "for parents" page on our blog. Thank-you to everyone for doing the best that you can with our new reality! I would like your child to engage with academic material for 1 hr a day. This does not need to be all at once but rather can be chunked into 15 or 30 min increments throughout the day. The kindergarten curriculum is largely play-based therefore they should be spending most of their day, playing!! 2) Daily video: Miss Sherwin or Ms. Kajati will upload a daily video with an activity or small assignment on Seesaw. Please complete this assignment and upload it to Seesaw the same day. 3) ABC Poem and Number Show and Tell Booklets: Please continue to upload completed pages to Seesaw. One page out of each booklet per day. These booklets were designed to last until April 9th. Please stay tuned for the next instructions on worksheets as we transition from work packages to complete online learning. 4) Video conferences: We will continue to do video conferencing on Microsoft Teams every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 2:00 pm or 2:30 pm, depending on which group your child is in. Please let me know if you need any assistance with set-up. For group calling, please wait until a teacher calls the group. Do not call the teacher as it will not allow for the group video call to continue. It is important to have conversations with your child about digital citizenship while using Seesaw and the Teams app. Some important tips to mention are: - Please do not call someone more than 2 times a day - Only call people during school hours (9:00am-12:00 pm and 1:00-3:30pm) - Refrain from being too silly as it is on the internet and others can see you Your child does have the ability to call their friends on the teams app and I strongly encourage this if arrangements have been made between parents via chat feature the Microsoft Teams app. I am excited to continue this online learning journey together. We are so lucky to live in a day in age where technology is easily accessible where we can continue to connect and learn with one another! As always, if you need any support or have questions, comments of concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. With love, Ms. Kajati Hello Kindergarten Parents ,
I will be preparing packages for your children for the 10 days that school is closed in March and April. Those packages will be ready for pick up on Friday. If your child is home this week, here are some things you can with them. It is important to have a balance in their day of these activities: 1. Reading books and poems at their level- (Rivet - is an app) Your child has the reading strategy checklist in their zippy and I have attached helping your child read prompt information) 2. Stories- read to them lots and have a book talk after you read the book. ( I have attached a Book Talk sheet of ideas) 3. Movement/Energy Break activities- Go Noodle is a website with free sign up and has yoga, music and movement activities as well as rest and mindful activities for rest and downtime. 4. Math- they can sort, count, make patterns and represent numbers. They can play card, board and math games. 5. Free Play and Exploration 6. Outdoor Play Activities and Exercise 7. Snack- 2 times a day 8. Creative Time- art, painting, playdough etc. I will let you know when you can pick up the packages on Friday. I know this is a unsure time for everyone. I hope you all stay well. Take care, Ms. Kajati Websites and Apps: - https://savedyouaspot.com/2020/03/12/20-screen-free-things-to-do-with-your-kids-indoors-when-school-is-closed/ - https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html - https://www.khanacademy.org/math - Practice and lessons for specific grade levels - https://illuminations.nctm.org/ - Games, lessons and brainteasers - https://www.gregtangmath.com/games - The online games are a good for students to use at home. - https://gregtangmath.com/spring - Greg Tang has some math challenges that can be easily copied and sent home. They come with parent notes. - www.openmiddle.com – The site contains problems at different grade levels. - https://nzmaths.co.nz – The site contains a plethora of learning experiences. The site has list of math picture books. Picture books can be sent home with students to read and have them connect with doing a mathematics activity. - https://nzmaths.co.nz/picture-books-number-content - https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/135609/list-of-education-companies-offering-free-subscriptions/ This week we have welcomed Miss Sherwin to our classroom! She is a second-year education student teacher from Brandon University and will be taking over the teaching duties until May 1st. We are so lucky to have Miss Sherwin in our classroom and we welcome her with open arms. We cant wait to learn everything that she has to offer! Please note that next week is "I love to read week!" This week is dedicated to all the fun we have with literacy. Tonight there was an "igloo take home reading" sheet put in the kiddos black reading folders. For every book the kiddos read, have them write the title on the regular sheet and color in a cube on the igloo. Once all the igloo is colored in, we will submit them to the literacy crew at RH and the kids will be entered into a draw for a free DQ blizzard.
If you have any questions or concerns, please never hesitate to reach out to me. - Ms. Kajati |
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July 2020
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