Pumpkin: Fruit or Vegetable?

This week we started a brand new unit on pumpkins. The children were very excited!

Our favourite part of the day
On Monday we played inside and went outside. 
On Tuesday we learned about pumpkins and went outside. 
On Wednesday we had centres and went outside. 
On Thursday we went to the park and we measured our pumpkin. 
On Friday we saw if a pumpkin could float and Ms. Manruka had show and tell. 

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

We started our unit on pumpkins by learning about the life cycle. The pumpkin's life cycle begins as a seed. The seed then grows into a sprout. The sprout grows into a vine. Flowers grow on the vine and soon a green pumpkin grows there as well. The green pumpkin grows and turns orange over time. Then we get the seed from the orange pumpkin and start all over again. 

Parts of the Pumpkin

We started to learn about the parts of the pumpkin as well. We talk about the outside of the pumpkin and then cut it in half and discussed all of the parts. 

After we compared and contrasted a pumpkin with an apple. We talked about what was the same and what was different.

I was impressed by how much they knew and many got it without any hints.

Seeds!

We took the seeds from the pumpkin, after discussing the parts, and cleaned them up. We put them on a tray, added some oil and salt and then baked them for about an hour until they were golden brown. We told the children that these seeds were ok to eat and everyone tried it. Many children loved them and had third helpings. It was a very tasty treat.

YUMMY!

 Pumpkin Investigating

Just like last week with the apples, we investigated a pumpkin. We talked about colour, height, weight and length. 

Sink and Float

We talked about sinking and floating and did an experiment. The children were excited to see that some fruits and vegetables sink while others float. Have a look at our chart:

They were thrilled to discover that pumpkins....FLOAT!!

Fruits and Vegetables

While looking at the parts of a pumpkin and apple we discovered that they were the same with a stem, leaves and seeds. This brought up the topic of what makes it a fruit or a vegetable. They learned that it is a fruit if: 1) it has seeds 2) it grows on a tree, vine, bush or cane. They found this very interesting. 

After our sink and float activity we washed all of the fruit and vegetables and cut them up to see if they had seeds. We talked about whether they were fruits or vegetables. They were surprised to discover that bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers are all fruit. They already knew that celery, carrots and potatoes were vegetables but we discussed that it was because they grew in the ground and did not have seeds. 

They got to taste the different fruits and vegetables. Some children discovered that they liked some that they didn't like before. 

Multicultural Show and Tell

We started our Multicultural Show and Tell's this week! The teachers were the presenters. It was very cool to see where they all came from. 

Former Yugoslavia

Saskatchewan

Sri Lanka

This week was brought to you by: The letters M and N

Finally we learned about the letters M and N. We practiced writing the uppercase letters and discovered words that start with that sound. When you have a moment practice writing M and N as well as what words start with "mmm" (for "mom") or "nnn" (for "net"). Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

Just Because...
Last week two of our students were doing some fine motor practice and without assistance made patterns. We were so impressed!

Don't Forget:

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

If you want to volunteer for our upcoming field trip please let one of the teachers know.

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). 

More Apples

We continued with the apple theme this week. Here is what we have been up to:

Our favourite part of the day
On Monday we learned about apples and read a book.
On Tuesday we had calendar and centres. 
On Wednesday we had calendar and went outside.
On Thursday we had the Terry Fox run and we had hot chocolate.
On Friday Mrs. MacDonald was at professional development learning about new things for our class.

Parts of the Apple
We continued to talk about the parts of the apple and the students coloured and labeled their own apples. I was very impressed with their colouring and labelling; many coloured carefully and inside of the lines.

Apple Investigating
We investigated apples this week. We talked about colour, weight, height and how many seeds. We even discovered that when cut in half horizontally the seed make a star/flower/butterfly (depending on who you are) shape. The children were very excited about this! We used these apples to make some prints.

What did we learn?
Last Monday we thought about all of the things that we knew about apples. On Thursday we added to the list with all of the things that we learned. All of the new things are in green. Ask your child about apples this weekend :)

Morning Message
Everyday I write a message to the students. The purpose of this message is to reinforce concepts that we have been learning in class. This is when we do our poems, practice letters, math concepts and even reading! The children love answering questions, interacting with the whiteboard and showing me what they know. Here is a glimpse at what we did this week:

 Terry Fox Run
This week we learned all about Terry Fox and who he was. On Thursday we went for walk to the park and ran some laps in support of Terry Fox and to raise money for cancer research ("to help the sick children"). The children had so much fun with the walk and they were very interested in learning about Terry Fox.

This week was brought to you by: The letters B and R

Finally we learned about the letters B and R. We practiced writing the uppercase letters and discovered words that start with that sound. When you have a moment practice writing B and R as well as what words start with "buh" (for "bed") or "rrr" (for "rabbit"). 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.

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). 

Apples, Apples

Another week has gone by and apples was our theme. Here is what we have been up to:

Our favourite part of the day
On Monday we played and learned letters.
On Tuesday we had centres and went outside.
On Wednesday Dante was the special helper and we had snack.
On Thursday we went to the park and learned about parts of the apple.
On Friday we went outside and we made apple sauce.

Apples, Apples
This week we read a poem called "Apples, Apples". On Monday I read the poem and gave them picture clues to help with the words. As we read the poem through a second time I underlined the words and we talked about it.

On Tuesday I only had apples underlined and then we went on a word hunt to find other key words, I highlighted these. Then we read the poem.

By Thursday they were able to spot all of the key words and almost read it on their own. On Friday I did not help them at all and most were able to read the whole thing as a class. We are going to continue the poem next week and work on some sight words.

More Apple Things:
On Monday we thought about all of the things that we knew about apples. We came up with quite a list! Next week we are going to try to add to this list with things that we have learned.

We discussed the parts of an apple by playing a labelling game and showing the actual inside of an apple. On Friday many could name all of the parts.

We made some apple crafts to decorate our room and work on our fine motor skills.








On Friday we made apple sauce!! It was so much fun :)

This week was brought to you by: The letters D and P

Finally we learned about the letters D and P. We practiced writing the uppercase letters and discovered words that start with that sound. When you have a moment practice writing D and P as well as what words start with "duh" (for "dog") or "puh" (for "pig"). 

Centre Time!
We really got into centres this week. Each centre will be added to progressively but here is a look into a few of the choices that we had.

 The above are the math centres that we had for shapes, counting and sorting.

 Listening centre

The alphabet centre was a big hit! They had to sort the objects into the different letter categories. Some of the children who already knew their letters and sounds started working on reading and matching pictures to cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.

The best thing about centres is that it allows time for the children to make choices and enhance their learning at their own pace while giving the teachers time to work with the children at their own level. Soon the students will have a good understanding of how the centres work and what is expected and then more work can be done and more things can be added. This is a fun part of our day.

Don't Forget:

We will be doing the Terry Fox run on Sept. 27. I will be talking to the children about this early next week.

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

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). 

Patterns and All About Me

Well we finished our first full week of Kindergarten and we were busy.

Our favourite part of the day
On Monday we played and learned patterns.
On Tuesday Lexi was the special helper and we did calendar.
On Wednesday we went outside and did calendar.
On Thursday we went outside and had calendar.
On Friday we did the calendar and we sorted things.

**Once everyone has had a chance to be special helper I am sure the love for calendar will dwindle a bit :)

Patterns, patterns and more patterns!
The students are doing very well at continuing a pattern once started and figuring out when a pattern is being made. We made patterns with colours, shapes and even sounds! I was so impressed when the students were able to figure out my patterns and continue them on the board.

What do you think? Tricky?

All About Me

We talked all about us and completed this poster. We learned about our favourite things, what we want to be when we grow up and about our families.

If you give a...
We have been reading books by Laura Numeroff. The children are beginning to pick up on the idea of a circle story. This type of story begins and ends in the same place. For example: The mouse has a cookie, then needs milk and a bunch of events occur, then he has milk and finally has a cookie again. The children really enjoy these stories. See if they can tell you about any that we have read or check out your local library to find more books.
We have read:
If you give a pig a party
If you give a mouse a cookie
If you give a pig a pancake
If you give a moose a muffin
If you give a cat a cupcake
If you give a dog a donut

Just a few of the books that we have read

This week was brought to you by: The letters F and E

Finally we learned about the letters F and E. We practiced writing the uppercase letters and discovered words that start with that sound. When you have a moment practice writing F and E as well as what words start with "ffff" (for "fish") or "eh" (for "elephant"). We focussed on the "eh" sound instead of the "ee" sound because that can sometimes be confusing when we move into reading. 

I will put up some fun ideas of how to practice this at home on my next post.

Don't Forget:

We will be doing the Terry Fox run on Sept. 27. I will be talking to the children about this in the coming weeks.
Also we have sent home a note regarding the multicultural show and tell that is beginning in October. Examples of past presentations can be found on the table when you drop off or pick up your child. 

This Week in Kindergarten

Well we made it through our first week and we had so much fun! 

Here is a peek into what we did this week.

Every day we have a special helper. The special helper assists me with the morning calendar by:

- telling me how to spell his/her name

- adding the day to our calendar

- telling us what day it is today, was yesterday and will be tomorrow

- tell us what the weather is today

- adds a straw to our days in school pocket chart (When we reach 100 we have a party!) 

- counts the children: the boys then the girls and we find the total

This routine is added to throughout the year as we learn more and progress. For example: patterns, reading the room and helping with the morning message. 

At the end of the day the students say what their favourite part of the day was. The special helper chooses two of these and we make a sentence. Here is what was said this week:

On Monday there was no school.

On Tuesday it was Kevin's birthday and we made people.

On Wednesday we had centres and made words.

On Thursday we went to the park and we played outside.

On Friday we did calendar and had show and tell.

This week our focus in math has been learning patterns. Today the students completed patterns on the whiteboard. Later, each student was given an assortment of manipulatives that they had to sort into groups. They sorted them in two different ways and then began to create different types of patterns. I took pictures of some of their creations. They were all so proud!

At home you can practice sorting a variety of objects and if possible try making patterns. We will continue this next week. We are having a blast in Kindergarten! Have a wonderful weekend :)

First Day of School

Our year has officially started! We are ready for a fun school year. On our first day we met our new teacher and learned about the rules and routines of the classroom.

 We created self portraits using various craft materials. Cutting and gluing skills were practiced. They turned out very well.