We Love Skyping!

We have been having so much fun Skyping with our friends just down the road at Bridgeview Elementary and across the country in Toronto, Ontario.  As part of our community unit, we have been comparing our neighbourhoods.  The students were excited about all the snow that our friends at St. Martin de Porres School have in their playground and that they have a church by their school (they are a Catholic School).  We are looking forward to more Skyping sessions with fellow Kindergarten students and experts from around the world!

Klara likes to Skype because it is fun!

Ravija likes to Skype because he liked seeing the church.

Jakob likes to Skype because he gets to ask questions.

Samuel likes to Skype because he can Skype.

Reading and Writing in Kindergarten

We are loving learning how to read and write!

Enjoy the video below of some evidence of our print rich classroom and the hard work we have been doing to learn how to read and write!

App Recommendations

A few parents have been asking for a list of good apps that they can use at home with their children. 

Reading and Writing

At this stage for the majority of the students, we are focusing on identifying letters of the alphabet and their sounds, identifying beginning and ending sounds of words, identifying the number of syllables in words, and rhyming words.  Here are some good early learning apps that we use and that I will be introducing the children to soon.

Smarty Pants School

Endless ABC

Syllable Awareness - Animal

Word Wall HD 

 

Math

During this term in math for the majority of the students we are focussing on the numbers 1 to 10. I know your children can count way past ten, but it's not just about counting.  We are lerning counting forwards and backwards, identifying number arrangements from 1-5 (like dots on dice), matching numbers to their quantity (here is the number 7, find me a picture with 7 dots), representing and describing numbers using pictures or objects, and comparing quatities from 1-10 (more or less).  Here are some apps that we have been using and will be introducing to help practice thse skills.

Bugs and Buttons

Friends of Ten

Adding Apples

Animals Counting Writing Game

 

If you do not have an iPad, iPhone, or tablet, there are many websites that can also be used to practice these skills.  Two that come to mind are Starfall and Cookie

As always, please limit the screen time your children are experiencing... Just because it is "educational" does not mean it does not have some of the same negative effects.  Play WITH your child, screen time should end 1/2 hour before bedtime, and have fun!

Zumba!

Thanks to the PAC we were able to participate in Zumba for the second week of school after the holidays.

It was so much fun dancing to the music and performing for everyone on Friday. Division 14 loves to dance! Our instructor Nathalie was wonderful with the Kindies.

 
Here is a video of us dancing to "Zumbala"

Winter Grandfriends Visit

Snow could not keep us away from our grandfriends!  

During our last visit we had a nice brisk walk and arrived to the dining room filled with pool noodles, chairs and a net.  We came prepared to do an art activity, so we were surprised and curious to see what the staff had planned for us.

Chair volleyball!  

We had so much fun playing chair volleyball with our grandfriends.  There was so much laughing and cheering.

After the grandfriends tiring us out we got working on our art projects, winter trees.

Thanks to Jakob's Grandma and Tino's mom for helping supervise this visit.  Unfortunately our February visit seems like it is going to have to be postponed.  The flu outbreak has hit our grandfriends hard and the staff are limiting visitors at this time.  We hope that we will be able to visit again in March!

Happy New Year! Numeracy Centres

Happy New Year!

It took a bit for everyone to get back in to the routines of school.  I'm sure bedtime for a lot of you was difficult as it was in my house with my own kids!

Every year it seems like the kids come back from Christmas holidays more mature and ready for heavy learning.  With the social emotional front end loading that we did in the first term, kids are now showing that they are capable of higher expectations.

Thus, we are now beginning literacy and numeracy centres.  Literacy and numeracy centres are a way to teach language arts and math skills in small groups.  This allows for me to work with groups and see how they are doing and what sort of support they need.  This also allows for the kids to present their learning in their own way and at their own pace.

This week we started with some numeracy centres. Here are some photos of us having fun while we learn about some number sense skills. The kids did great. I was very proud of the patience and kindness that was shown during numeracy centres this week.  Term two for Div. 14 is moving along quite nicely!

Christmas

Happy New Year to all the families of Division 14! I was meaning to post all of these exciting photos BEFORE Christmas, but as soon as the holidays started I was hit with a really bad cold. I am finally fealing better! So I am sorry that this post didn't happen during the Christmassy time, but I guess it's better late than never. Enjoy as you de-Christmasify your home!

At the beginning of December Santa, Mrs. Clause, and one of the elves surprised our school by visiting us during Deck the Halls.

After much hard work the kids did such a good job at the Christmas concert.

Thank you to the moms who helped sew and put together all the bear costumes.

They all looked so cute!

As well, once again, thank you to Mrs. Hibbert who taught all the classes the songs for this concert.  It was a lot of preparation and we all appreciate your hard work!

Here is a selection of songs from our concert in case you would like to re-live it or were not able to attend.

listen to ‘Doing the Teddy Bear Dance’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Christmas at the North Pole’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Oh What a Merry Christmas Day’ on Audioboo

On the last day of school we were able to enjoy a pancake breakfast put on by the PAC and the Lions Club.  What a wonderful day it was, especially since we were able to wear our pajamas.

I hope you are having a nice holiday.  Thanks to all of you for your special Christmas gifts, cards, and well wishes. 

It is always a nice time of year for reflection.  I can't believe we are half way through Kindergarten.  Our kindies will be in Grade One before we know it!  On that thought I leave you with this poem I found.  This is truly how I feel about our relationship and being a Kindergarten teacher.  See you on the first day of school, January 7th!