Teeth and Measurement

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday we wrote the letter "h" had the vet centre and we learned the "Magic" dance.

On Tuesday the librarian came and we weighed ourselves. 

On Wednesday we learned about Crazy Camel and about our teeth. 

On Thursday we learned about the tooth fairy and had centres.

On Friday we played the shark game and learned about Lizzy Lamb.

Measurement:
We continued playing with different capacities at the sand table. We also started learning about weight (heavy and light). Everyone was weighed and then we compared weights and sorted from heaviest to lightest. The children really enjoyed this activity.

Later in the week we did a cut and paste activity sorting objects that were light or heavy. I got the worksheet from kindergarten kindergarten.

We will continue looking into weight and review capacity next week.

Teeth:

We started our unit on teeth this week. The unit started with lessons on the parts of the tooth.

The enamel is the outer layer of our tooth. It protects our teeth and is what makes our teeth white. The crown is the top part of the tooth that we see. It looks like the crown of a king or queen. The dentin is yellow and it supports the enamel. It is softer and yellow and lets us know when something is wrong with our tooth. The pulp is pink and soft. It contains blood and nerves. The nerves tell our brain when our tooth hurts. The roots are inside of our gums and they hold our teeth in place. The gums are the pink part in our mouths that hold our teeth. 

I showed the children the nomenclature and later we labeled a tooth. 

The children learned that they have baby teeth and that they will be losing these when their adult or "grown up" teeth start to come in and make the root loose. They thought it was interesting that we don't have more teeth after that so when an adult loses a tooth they have to get a false one. 

After parts of the tooth I taught the children about the different teeth that we have what their purpose is. Incisors are to cut our food (for biting). Canines are for tearing or biting tough things like meat. The premolars are for chewing and grinding food. The molars are bigger than the premolars and are also for chewing and grinding food.

We did a creative writing/drawing assignment about what the tooth fairy does with all of our teeth. The children had some interesting theories from making necklaces to potion making to organizing them on a shelf. We are starting to do more independent writing. Some of the children are ready for this and try to sound out the words and write while others struggle and write words or letters they know. We will be doing more writing in the next term and hopefully they will all become comfortable with inventive spelling and independent writing. 

I got the nomenclature cards from Montessori Print Shop and I got the handouts from Stephanie Trapp.

Happy Smile:

We have been learning a new poem "Happy Smile". Before we read it for the first time I had the children find words that they knew or tell me about strategies that we could use. They are starting to remember sight words and remember decoding strategies. I am excited to see what they know in June. 

We started preparing for St. Patrick's Day. The children made these rainbow chains with pots of gold this week. It is great practice for fine motor skills (cutting, gluing and colouring).

Animated Literacy:

This week we learned two new characters.  We learned about Griselda Green who giggles and glides with ghosts, Crazy Camel who catches and eats candies, cakes and cookies, and Lizzy Lamb who lays down on lemon leaves. The children reviewed the few ways to write the "cuh" sound: "c", "ck" and "k". After learning these new sounds we practiced reading some words. I almost tricked them with words containing "c", "k" and "ck".

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 Arnie Aardvark we focus on the "ar" as seen in the words hard, arm and art.

This week was brought to you by: The letters h, b, f,q and x

This week we practiced writing more lowercase letters. When you have a moment practice writing "h", "b", "f", q" and "x" as well as what words start with "huh" (for "hat"), "buh" (for "bat"), "fff" (for "fan"), "kwah" (for "queen) and "ks" (for "box"). Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

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). 

Community Helpers

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday we had the vet centre and we learned the "Magic" dance.

On Tuesday we learned what holds more and we read.

On Wednesday we learned about Farley Fox and wrote the letter "r".

On Thursday we went to the park and made a book.

On Friday we learned how to write the letter "m" and we danced to the song "Friday".

Measurement:
We started our measurement unit this week. We will learn about capacity (how much a container can hold), length (how long something is) and weight (how heavy something is). We began with capacity. I showed the children a slideshow called "Will an Elephant Fit in a Bathtub?" Then we thought about what are things that will hold more water than our water bottle. They were quite creative: buckets, bathtubs and lakes were the most popular.

I got this idea from Kindergarten...Kindergarten. This blog has so many great ideas for math in Kindergarten.

Community Helpers:

The children already had a good idea of community helpers so my main objective of this unit was to learn our phone numbers and have a fire escape plan to help keep up safe. The children enjoyed this unit, especially th pretend play that came with it. 

Here is a list of centres that we had:

Cover the Cavities (adding and subtracting)

Trash or Treasure? (reading real and nonsense words)

Police Car Patterns (extending patterns)

Vet/Doctor Dramatic Play

Animated Literacy:

This week we learned two new characters.  We learned about Kimmy Kangaroo who likes to blow kisses and fly kites, Baby Barnaby who likes to play the banjo and bow. The children learned that there are a few ways to write the "kuh" sound: "c", "ck" and "k". After learning these new sounds we practiced reading some words. I almost tricked them with words containing "c", "k" and "ck".

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 Arnie Aardvark we focus on the "ar" as seen in the words hard, arm and art.

This week was brought to you by: The letter p, r, n and m

This week we practiced writing more lowercase letters. When you have a moment practice writing "p", "r", "n" and "m" as well as what words start with "puh" (for "pet"), "rrr" (for "rut"), "nnn" (for "not"), and "mmm" (for "met") . Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

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). 

100 Days of Kindergarten!

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday we had no school. 

On Tuesday we learned how to wash our hands and practiced our shapes. 

On Wednesday we had a party and played games.

On Thursday we had an ice breaking centre and did a 100 chart worksheet.

On Friday we danced and we read the story "Olympig".

Handwashing:
This week we learned about the different steps to handwashing. To help them practice I put germs (oil with pepper) on their hands and they had to wash them off. In order to get all of the germs off they had to wash their hands very well.

The germs!

 Washing the germs away.

100 Days of Kindergarten!
On Wednesday it was the 100th Day of Kindergarten and we had fun counting and celebrating.

100 Days Smarter:
I created a sign for the children to stand underneath for a photo opportunity to celebrate the day. The pictures turned out great and it is a wonderful keepsake.

The "100 Days Smarter!" Sign.

Counting by 2's, 5's and 10's:
The children cheered as we placed the last number in the hundreds chart. After counting by 1's we had to try counting by 2's, 5's and 10's. They seemed to have a good grasp of 10's but the 2's were a bit tricky. We will continue to review this for the rest of the year.

 The 2's are in red.

 The 5's are in blue.

The 10's are in purple.

T-Shirts!
For a present to remember the day we made t-shirts. The children placed 100 finger prints on the front and then wrote "100 Days of School" on the back. They loved the shirts and it helped reinforce counting to 100 and even counting by 10's.

 Fingerprints on the front in rows of 10.

Writing the words on the back.

The finished product.

100 Day Glasses:
One of the centres was creating 100 Day Glasses. They were so cute when they were complete and the kids loved making them. I got the template from Tip Junkie.

100 Day Projects!
I asked the children to each bring in 100 items. It could be 100 things or you could turn it into a project. Some of the projects were quite creative.

 100 Stars

 100 Fruit Loops

 100 Marshmallows

 100 Legos

 100 Marshmallows, Fruit Loops, Goldfish, Beans and Paper Clips

 100 Stickers

 100 Spoons

 100 Yu-Gi-Oh Cards

 100 Popsicle Sticks

 100 Beads (sets of 25)

 100 Beads

 100 Shells

100 Legos

100 Cup Tower:
The children's favourite activity of the day was stacking 100 cups. It required teamwork and a lot of thinking. Some almost succeeded. Even when it fell over they thought it was fun and never gave up. This may have to be added to my centre rotation.

Animated Literacy:

This week we only had time for one new character.  We learned about Jenny Jaguar who likes to juggle jars while jogging. The children discovered that the letters J and G both say the sound "juh" (jar and giraffe). After learning this new sound we practiced reading some words. I almost tricked them with words containing "ar".

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 Arnie Aardvark we focus on the "ar" as seen in the words hard, arm and art.

We also drew a star this week and wrote a sentence, as part of the program.

This week was brought to you by: The letter j

This week we practiced writing another lowercase letter. When you have a moment practice writing j as well as what words start with "juh" (for "jet"). Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

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). 

Winter Fun!

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday we learned about Hippy Hippo and practice the letter k. 

On Tuesday we painted our hands and danced.

On Wednesday we created hearts and did the matching games.

On Thursday we had our Mini Olympics and drank hot chocolate. 

On Friday it was Valentine's Day and we decorated cookies.

Power of 10:
We talked about the different ways to make 10 and used the ten frame to help us. Here is the list that the class came up with:

Mini Olympics:
On Thursday we had our very own Mini Olympics. We made torches and walked to the park.

Once there we completed different stations.

#1: Bead and Spoon Race

#2: Ring Toss

#3: Bobsledding (3 man sled)

#4: Speed Skating

#5: Ball Toss

#6 Hockey

After completing the stations each of the children received a medal!

**To make these we made made circle out of playdough and painted it gold with sparkles then let it dry. After we made the circles with markers and added the ribbon. They looked fantastic. **

Then we walked back to school and had hot chocolate. It was such a fun day!

Valentine's Day:
We made handprint pictures and pendants for our parents.

I forgot to take a photo of the handprint pictures but here is where I got the idea.

We started out the day handed out valentines to our friends. After recess we played bingo. You can find the cards here.

Then we decorated cookies.

Animated Literacy:

This week we learned about H and Ar in Animated Literacy. The new characters were Hippy the Hippo who likes to play the harmonica and have hootanannys and Arnie the Aardvark who likes art. 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 focusses on the sound (phonics) and the writing (graphemes) so for Arnie Aardvark we focus on the "ar" as seen in the words hard, arm and art. 

This week was brought to you by: The letters k and y

This week we practiced writing more lowercase letters. When you have a moment practice writing k and y as well as what words start with "kuh" (for "kit") and "yuh" (for "yak"). Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

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).