Yesterday, our room was vibrating with excitement when Mrs. Currie knocked on our classroom door and brought me flowers! She told us that they were from my partner, Matt. We quickly opened the package up and took a peak at them. They were beautiful carnations, but there was one problem... They were white. I shared with the kids that I HATED white flowers. The kiddos were so sweet and quick to let me know that I should be grateful that I was gifted the flowers, no matter the color. They also shared some ideas on how to fix the problem! One of the kiddos suggested that we paint the flowers. We picked the flowers up and examined the petals. I explained that the petals are sort of like the lungs of the flowers. If we painted them, we would suffocate the flower and it would begin to wilt. Great suggestion but back to the drawing board. Another kiddo suggested that we put food coloring in the water to see if the flower would drink the water and in return, cause the petals to turn the color of the water! Bingo! We decided to conduct an experiment, using the scientific method: 1) We predicted that the petals of the flower would change colors, if we put food coloring in the water. 2) We conducted the experiment 3) We are observing the flowers in the water over the next few days and recording our findings in our "flower journals." We discussed how long ago, scientists sometimes made ideas up and never conducted experiments. They would publishing their "findings" and people would believe the ideas were true, even when they were not. Together, we decided we wanted to be great scientist. So, we got busy working in our journals and only recording down exactly what we see. To our surprise, this morning when we got to school, the kiddos noticed that the experiment was beginning to work! Some of the flower petals were beginning to turn the color of the water they were placed in. We got busy writing in our journals once again, while carefully observing the pattern on the petals. We will see what tomorrow brings to our curious scientists!!
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Friday was a crazy, fun day in Kindergarten! We celebrated 100th Day in the AM and Valentines in the PM. The kiddos were surprised to find our classroom taken over by penguins when they entered the room on Friday morning. There were 10s strips of "ice" where the penguins belonged left at the front of the room. We got counting by 10s (the grade 8 big cheating way of counting) to see how many penguins were really around our classroom. We counted 100 spots and began our adventure to find them all! The kiddos looked high and low and found every single one and returned them to their icy spots. We then counted the penguins by ones, just to make sure! The kiddos have been working so hard in Kindergarten to grow their brains, everyday! We discussed all the new things we know now, that we didn't on the first day of K. We conversed about how most kids thought they were rap stars at the beginning of the year and put big letters in the middle of their name. Now every single kid knows to only put big letters at the beginning of their name (because they are super important!) and little letters for the rest. This is one of the many things that I am so proud of these little people for! To celebrate we decorated "100 Days Smarter" crowns for the kiddos to flaunt how big their brains are getting!! Next up, we had 100 day show and tell. It was so much fun to see what 100 looked like in different collections. Some looked like there were not enough and others looked like there were way too many! It was a blast listening to the kiddos converse about their thoughts and ideas about the groups of 100. Thank-you everyone for putting in the time and effort it took to create valentines, count out 100 item and bring treats for our valentines party. The smiles on the kiddos faces throughout the entire day was priceless. Sharing and celebrating with friends is one of the purest ways to create specials bonds with our friends as it seems to channel kindness. Thank-you again parents for your hard work! We couldnt have had such a great day without you :)
The Kindergartens have been working hard on number representing at school. Today we represented the number 6 in many different way! Each time we gather together to represent, the kiddos get faster and faster. Its been a lot of fun to watch them make connections and work together to figure out how to group numbers or see them in different parts (ex: 6- 5 and 1, 4 and 2, 3 and 3, ect) This whole group activity serves as a visual piece and is very important in order to represent independently. Following this activity, we go our separate ways and practice writing the number and represent it two different ways on our own!
The kinders have had a hankering for reading lately so I figured it was time to start take home reading! They have been using strategies that good readers do all around the classroom, such as: 1) look at the pictures to figure out the words 2) look for chunks (er, oo, ee, ch, sh, ow) 3) sounds out the letters you know. Say it slowly and then faster and faster to make it sound right! 4) look for popcorn words 5) point to each word as your read them 6) tell your mouth to tell your brain, "I CAN DO IT!" Today I introduced the kiddos to their take home reading folders. This will be in their backpack EVERY NIGHT! They will read the book to you, copy the title onto the reading log page and then bring it back to school. At school, we will stamp the date, return the book and get a new one. Please read with your child every night and return the folder into their back pack every day. Once they read 10 books, they will receive a prize and move to the next level of reading! It is your child's responsibility to write the title. Please encourage this independent writing practice!! Reading is a tricky skill to acquire, especially at a young age. Some kids may have an interest in reading and some may not! Take home reading should be a positive experience. To start out, you can read a page and have them read it back to you while pointing to each word as they are read. Please encourage your kiddo to use the reading strategies stated above. You can also help them out by using the jolly phonic letter sound strategies that are stapled to the back of the folder. Each time we learn a new letter and sound, we also learn the action that goes with it! This is very helpful in making connections and solidifying learning letter sounds. Happy reading!! If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. The Youth Revolution Group is volunteering at the Samaritan House and is doing a food drive this week (Feb 3 – Feb 7) for donations of Lunch Snacks to help support Brandon’s local food bank. Examples of lunch snacks are apple sauce, goldfish crackers, fruit cups, granola bars, etc. or anything that is non-perishable. They are kindly asking for any donations you are able to make at this time. Thank you for helping our community! February 26 is Day of Pink. This is a day where we encourage everyone to wear a pink shirt as it symbolizes a stand against bullying. The idea of Pink Shirt Day originated in Nova Scotia, Canada when a boy was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. Travis Price and David Sheppard, caught wind of the situation and bought 50 pink shirts the following day and distributed them around the school to stand up for the boy. The tradition has carried on and is a powerful day to remind us to be kind! Check out the link below to see a snippet of the history. In your child's backpack tonight, I have sent home a form if you wish to purchase a t-shirt for you or your child. Please send the payment and form back by Friday if you wish to participate! 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! 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!! |
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July 2020
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