All About Penguins!

This week we learned all about penguins. The children loved this mini-unit.

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday we learned about penguins and read our poem.

On Tuesday we had centres and learned about penguin life cycles.

On Wednesday we learned about penguin chicks and saw a picture of a leopard seal.

On Thursday we had centres and learned about chicks.

On Friday we had centres and Dante had his show and tell.

Penguin KWL:

The children seemed to already know a lot about penguins so we listed what they knew and what they wanted to learn. 

I will post the learned chart next week. 

Penguin Poem:

We read the following poem and discussed rhyming and number words. 

Six Little Penguins

Six little penguins off an iceberg did dive,

One bumped his beak, then there were five.

Five little penguins swam the ocean floor,

One saw a whale, then there were four.

Four little penguins spun around, whee-ee!

One spun off, then there were three!

Three little penguins, with nothing to do,

One went fishing, then there were two.

Two little penguins, having lots of fun,

One fell of, then there was one.

One little penguin, when the day was done,

Went home to sleep, then there were none.

Penguin Lap Book:

We created a lap book to show everything that we learned about penguins. They turned out really neat and the children loved having a book to take home after.

The front cover of the lap book.

The inside of the lap book.

The book included:

Life Cycle of Penguin

I found this activity at Lapbook lessons.

Penguin Species Cards

They were so excited to learn about all of the different penguins. In class we focussed on the Emperor Penguin but they liked being able to see all of the different types. A favourite of most of the children was the Macaroni Penguin. Take the cards out and look at the height of the penguins and where they are from. An activity to complete at home would be organizing them from tallest to smallest. 

These cards can be found at Seaworld website in the k-3 Teacher Guide. 

Penguin Information Book

I found the information book at Homeschool Share. The book includes fill in the blanks for appearance, food, habitat, reproduction and predators. 

Parts of a Penguin

We completed the parts of penguin nomenclature during class time. I then enlarged one the picture of the penguin for them to colour and put the labels in a separate pocket for them to practice labelling. I found the nomenclatures at Montessori Print Shop. 

 Penguin Facts

I asked the children to write down two of their favourite penguin facts to add to the book.

Please discuss and explore these books at home. They are great for practicing writing, speaking, labelling and much more. 

Special Guest:

We had a special appearance from one of our students this week. She brought in her guitar and sang some songs. She was adorable and did a fantastic job! We hope that she keeps learning and practicing. 

I love the pink guitar!

Share the Magic:

Last week "Share the Magic" came to our school. They read to the children and then gave each child 2 age appropriate books. The children were so excited!!

Here is a link to learn more about the program:
http://canlearnsociety.ca/family-literacy/share-the-magic/

Multicultural Show and Tell:

This week Michael, Milan and Dante presented their Multicultural Show and Tells. They did a wonderful job! We even got tasty donuts from Milan. 

The past two weeks were brought to you by: The letters A, S, T, I and J

Finally we learned about the letters A, S, T, I and J. We practiced writing the uppercase letters and discovered words that start with that sound. These are tough letters because we are now introducing the curves and there are no straight lines. When you have a moment practice writing A, S, T, I and J as well as what words start with "aaa" (for "ant"), "sss" (for "sat"), "tuh" (for "tub"), "i" (for "ink") and "juh" (for "jug"). Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

Don't Forget:

**Our "Winter Celebration" will be on December 16 at 7:00pm. Contact the school for more details. **

Remember that examples of past presentations can be found on the table when you drop off or pick up your child.

Please send a small healthy snack for your child every day. Also, if you know that your child will not eat the lunch provided please send a lunch as well. 

On cold days please make sure to send hats and mittens. Also, on days where there is snow or it is slushy please send boots and snow pants. Thank you!

Feel free to contact me anytime with any questions or concerns. I can be reached at the school, by email or just drop in (I am usually around before school). 

Mat Man and "Magic C"

Our favourite part of the day

On Monday it was Remembrance Day and there was no school. 

On Tuesday we did calendar and letter Q.

On Wednesday we made Mat Man and had centres.

On Thursday we did calendar and learned the letter G. 

On Friday we did centres and the "magic C" letters. 

Mat Man
We learned about body awareness by building and drawing Mat Man. First we drew a picture of ourselves so that we could see the difference. Next, we sung a song and created Mat Man. 

Finally we drew Mat Man on our own. Here are some before and after pictures.

If you want to see the presentation and song here is the link:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYiGf_0elw8

50 Days of School:
Thursday was our 50th day of school! The children were very excited. Every day we add a straw to our pocket chart and once we reach ten we make it into a group and move it over a column. On Thursday they created 5 groups and we talked about how we need 5 more to get to 100.

After that the students filled in half of the hundreds chart and they found out that we are half way to 100. They noticed the patterns with the numbers as well. For example: all of the numbers in the tens column end in 0. On the 100th day we will have a party and explore the number 100. It is a very fun day in Kindergarten that they are looking forward to.

Multicultural Show and Tell:

This week Aria and Mahdi presented their Multicultural Show and Tells. We enjoyed learning about their families and culture. They did a wonderful job!

This week was brought to you by: The letters Q and G

Finally we learned about the letters Q and G. We practiced writing the uppercase letters and discovered words that start with that sound. These are tough letters because we are now introducing the curves and there are no straight lines. When you have a moment practice writing Q and G as well as what words start with "kwah" (for "queen") and "guh" (for "gum"). Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

"Magic C"
Our last 4 letters have been "Magic C" letters. Letters C, O, Q and G all start as a C and magically transform into other letters. This is a helpful trick to use when learning how to print these letters. 

Don't Forget:

Remember that examples of past presentations can be found on the table when you drop off or pick up your child.

Please send a small healthy snack for your child every day. Also, if you know that your child will not eat the lunch provided please send a lunch as well. 

On cold days please make sure to send hats and mittens. Also, on days where there is snow or it is slushy please send boots and snow pants. Thank you!

Feel free to contact me anytime with any questions or concerns. I can be reached at the school, by email or just drop in (I am usually around before school). 

Story Time

Our favourite part of the day

On Monday we played in drama centre and had calendar.

On Tuesday Rafael came to read us stories and we learned the number 9.

On Wednesday we had Ibsa's show and tell and we played in the snow. 

On Thursday Mahdi was the special helper and we went outside.

On Friday Anya had her show and tell and we had centres.

More Fairy Tales

We continued learning about Fairy Tales this week. 

Jack and the Beanstalk
We watched a video for this story. I couldn't find my book so we watched a video. It was more of a modern version and the students really liked it. 
Here is the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVJmwRSUPLQ

After the video we discussed the characters, setting, problem and solution. Next we played a game where we tiptoed like Jack and stomped like the Giant. Then we changed it, they tiptoed when I said Jack and froze when I said Giant. This was a lot of fun and requested throughout the week.

Sequencing
We did sequencing activities for The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. We discussed how every story has a beginning, middle and end. This also became a centre activity for the week. 

Fractured Fairy Tales
We continued our discussion on how there are different versions of Fairy Tales and how some of these can be silly. I read the original "Cinderella" story that they were familiar with and we talked about it. Then I read "Cinder Prince" and whenever I read something that was similar to "Cinderella" the students would quietly raise their hand and we would talk about the similarities and the differences. They really enjoyed this. We also read Fractured Fairy Tales for "The Three Little Pigs" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". 

Centres
We had different centres to go with our Fairy Tales. 

Bear sorting into sizes. After a few of the children made patterns.

Bean colouring. They had to colour the correct number of beans. 

Magnetic play with Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Flannel board fun with different Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes.

Puzzles!

Drama Centre

 The Big Bad Wolf puppet

 The Three Little Pigs finger puppets

Remembrance Day
On Thursday we talked about Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies. I read the story "A Poppy is to Remember" by: Heather Patterson. This helped the children to understand that we remember those who fought for us and may have gotten hurt. 

We made poppies to display in our classroom. It was a simple craft and looked great when done. 

Numbers 8-10

We continued our numbers unit in math. This week we were able to reach 10! By the 10 they were reminding me how we show numbers and what I forgot. I always enjoy seeing their growth. Next week we are going to start doing different activities and centres that focus on the quantities of the numbers. 

At home please practice counting and showing the numbers 1-10.

Multicultural Show and Tell:

This week Ibsa and Anya presented their Multicultural Show and Tells. They did a fantastic job! Anya even brought in delicious crepes. 

This week was brought to you by: The letters C and O

Finally we learned about the letters C and O. We practiced writing the uppercase letters and discovered words that start with that sound. These are tough letters because we are now introducing the curves and there are no straight lines. When you have a moment practice writing C and O as well as what words start with "kuh" (for "cup") and "aw" (for "octopus"). Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

Don't Forget:

Remember that examples of past presentations can be found on the table when you drop off or pick up your child.

Please send a small healthy snack for your child every day. Also, if you know that your child will not eat the lunch provided please send a lunch as well. 

On cold days please make sure to send hats and mittens. Also, on days where there is snow or it is slushy please send boots and snow pants. Thank you!

Feel free to contact me anytime with any questions or concerns. I can be reached at the school, by email or just drop in (I am usually around before school). 

Once Upon A Time...

Our favourite part of the day

On Monday we played in the snow and did the letter X.

On Tuesday we read The Three Little Pigs and learned the number 5.

On Wednesday we went to the park and rolled down the hill. We also read Little Red Riding Hood

On Thursday we wore costumes and decorated cupcakes.

On Friday we did calendar and went to the park.

Missing Letter

The morning message was different this week. I wrote it with some letters missing and they had to think hard to figure out what the word could be and how to fix it.

Once Upon A Time...

We started learning about Fairy Tales this week.

KWL What do we already know about Fairy Tales. I love doing the what do you know part of the unit because at the end you can see everything that they have learned and how much they have grown.

I would tell the story to the children either using the flannel board or reading a book. After we would review the story and talk about the different parts: character, setting, problem, solution, important words/phrases and what we learned. 

Three Little Pigs

We also read another version of this story and talked about how there are different versions of all of these stories. 

Little Red Riding Hood

We also discussed strangers. We should not talk to strangers and we should not answer the door. 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

This time we learned about connections. How are we like baby bear? Here is the list that we came up with.

Halloween!

We had a party on Thursday to celebrate Halloween. We started with a costume parade around the school. Superheroes, Fairies and Cartoon Characters seemed to be the popular choice :)

After we had different centres. We had a craft center where they made skeletons.

We had a center for decorating cupcakes. They had different toppings to create jack-o-lantern cupcakes. Some were very creative and they were all delicious!

 We also had various games and puzzles in the carpet area for the children to do. 

Numbers 4-7

We continued our numbers unit in math. This week we were able to do numbers 4-7. For every number we look at the different ways to represent that number as well as the quantity of each number. Have a look at what we have done for each number so far.

After each lesson the children play a quick game where they have to find objects for the number we have learned about. For example: 7 dinosaurs or 7 gears. At first they really struggled with this concept but they are doing much better. This is something that you can do with them at home as well to review numbers.

Multicultural Show and Tell:

We had one presentation this week. We learned all about Holly's family. She did a wonderful job!

This week was brought to you by: The letters X, Y and Z

Finally we learned about the letters X, Y and Z. We practiced writing the uppercase letters and discovered words that start with that sound. When you have a moment practice writing X, Y and Z as well as what words start with "ckss" (for "x-ray") "yuh" (for "yellow") and "zzz" (for "zebra"). For "X" you can also do words that have an x in them so that your child can hear the sound. For example: box, fox and excited. Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

Don't Forget:

Remember that examples of past presentations can be found on the table when you drop off or pick up your child.

Please send a small healthy snack for your child every day. Also, if you know that your child will not eat the lunch provided please send a lunch as well. 

On cold days please make sure to send hats and mittens. Also, on days where there is snow or it is slushy please send boots and snow pants. Thank you!

Feel free to contact me anytime with any questions or concerns. I can be reached at the school, by email or just drop in (I am usually around before school).