We Are Learning!

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday we wrote the poem in Handwriting Without Tears and learned about Old Joe Crow.

On Tuesday we measured with cubes and labeled the parts of a duck.

On Wednesday we labeled the duck life cycle and learned about Leaping Eve.

On Thursday we measured toys and went to the park.

On Friday we drew a bee and had snack.

Ducks!
We labeled parts of a duck:

We discussed the duck life cycle and labeled a picture:

The children learned that ducks have waterproof feathers and so the water and rain just falls off of them without making them wet. Next week we are going to discuss how to take care of ducks because we will be getting duck eggs after Easter.

Measurement:
We continued learning about length (long and short). The children started to learn about estimation/prediction because they had to predict how long the object would be in cubes and then write down the exact measurement after. The children are doing well with using cubes for measurement so next week we will practice measuring with different types of units (popsicle sticks, paper clips, hands, feet, etc).

Measuring Our Toys:

Spring/Easter:

We have started making crafts for Spring and Easter. They really brighten up the room. 

Brain Gym:
Last week I attended a workshop about Brain Gym and Dance. I left with many good ideas. I incorporated this into  our day. The children enjoy the exercises. Here is a look at the routine/activities:
1: Tactile: touch all body parts in various ways (tap from our heads down to our toes).
2: Breathing: take in deep breaths and breath out in different ways (ie: let all the air out while hissing like a kettle). 
3: Core-Distal: stretch away from center and back in (ie: create a starfish and a ball)
4: Head-Tail: move the head and the tail and arch forwards and backwards (ie: cat and cow)
5: Upper-Lower: move the upper body while stabilizing with lower body and vice versa
6: Body-Side: Move the right side while stabilizing the left and vice versa (ie: puppet string attached to your knee and hand)
7: Cross-Lateral: move or connect opposite arm and leg 
8: Vestibular: swing, tip, rock and roll

Animated Literacy:

This week we learned three new characters.  Two of these characters have easy phonemes but the graphemes are tough because there are many ways to write them. We learned about Leaping Eve who dreams of leaping over tall trees and buildings. Her sound is the long e and it can be written "ee", "ea", "ie", "e-e" and "-y". Next we learned about Old Joe Crow who likes to row his boat. His sound is the long o and it can be written "oa", "-o", "o-e", and "ow". Finally we learned about Winkie Walrus who likes to waddle to the wishing well and eat wiggly worms.

Please go over the handouts that have been sent home with your child to review the sounds and letters. They can colour the picture and then circle the special sound within the song at the bottom. Remember that Animated Literacy focuses on the sound (phonics) and the writing (graphemes) so for Chauncy Chipmunk we focus on the "ch" as seen in the words chin and itch.

We also drew a picture and wrote a sentence to go with our animated literacy program. This week we drew a bee. A couple examples are shown below. 

Handwriting Without Tears

This week we wrote a poem and practiced writing sentences. We only have numbers 1-10 left and will be practicing what we have learned for the remainder of the year. When you have a moment practice writing the alphabet or simple words with your child. Please watch for size and spacing. 

Don't Forget:

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). 

Duck, Duck, Fun!

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday we played four corners and talked about ducks.

On Tuesday we measured worms and the kids.

On Wednesday we learned the parts of a duck and played seven up. 

On Thursday we had a letter writing centre and reviewed parts of a duck.

On Friday we do not have school.

Ducks!
We started a new unit on ducks this week. I asked the children what they already knew about ducks and they came up with quite a list.

After that we created a list of things that we wanted to learn about ducks.

As the unit continues I hope to answer all of their questions and more. To start off the unit we learned the parts of a duck. We played various games with the vocabulary words to help us remember.

tail, head, webbed feet, wing, eye, neck, breast and bill

We will be getting ducklings at the end of April. The children are very excited about this! It should be a fun adventure.

Measurement:
We continued to learn about length (long and short). We focussed on ordering items from shortest to longest. The children found this to be a difficult concept so we did many activities with this. We did ordering with worms, our names and ourselves. I told the children that I wanted to see a slanted line when we were all done not mountains or zigzags. By the end of the week they started to understand this. We will do some more activities with this next week as well.

Here are the completed worms. 

April Fools!

I read the book "April Foolishness" by Teresa Bateman on Monday to explain to the children what April Fool's day was. Then on Tuesday the children were in a tricking mood all morning and so was I. The calendar read April 1, 2012 and I wrote a note, our math facts and special helper's name backwards. It was a fun filled morning.

 

Animated Literacy:

This week we learned two new characters.  We learned about Chauncy Chipmunk who likes to chop chocolate chips and cheese into chowder and Ichabod Ichthyosaurus who is itchy from inchworms. After learning these new sounds we practiced reading some words.

Please go over the handouts that have been sent home with your child to review the sounds and letters. They can colour the picture and then circle the special sound within the song at the bottom. Remember that Animated Literacy focuses on the sound (phonics) and the writing (graphemes) so for Chauncy Chipmunk we focus on the "ch" as seen in the words chin and itch.

Handwriting Without Tears

This week we wrote a paragraph that had different punctuation and turned h's into b's creating new words (for example: hug turned into bug). When you have a moment practice writing the alphabet or simple words with your child. Please watch for size and spacing. 

Don't Forget:

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).