Light Table

Light table is one of the most exciting workstations. 

I generally use an old overhead projector because it's quite easy for me to store.

 

The children can play and create designs that they can project onto the ceiling.

 

Playing in the trees

The trees are a special area that we have on our school grounds.

 

Last week the kids had a lot of fun collecting leaves for a big pile and then jumping in it.

 

 

They also collected some "crystals."

 

 

 

Bears

I was so excited this morning to see our first extended make believe play episode.

The boys took on roles and played for about 15 minutes.

 

They were bears - some were baby bears and some parents.  The parents showed the babies how to catch fish in the stream. (They did it just like we saw in our fish life cycle video) They had a cave and spent a lot of time rolling around in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you don't teach small children you may not understand my excitement over this happening. Mature play takes time to develop and this is a difficult skill for some children to master when they often don't have extended time to play with others.

 

Children who have developed mature play have a easier time in school and life.  While I can't exactly teach children how to play, I do set up an environment where mature play can take place.  

 

I can't wait to see if the bear play continues. 

Trip to the river

We have been learning about the fish life cycle so we took a walk to the river. 

The kids were very excited to see the dead fish.

 

 

 

 

After looking at the fish and the spawning channel we went and played in the forest.

This was the highlight of the day.

We will definitely going back there to play.

Kindergarten News - Oct. 10

Kindergarten News- Oct. 10

        Important Dates:

Oct. 14 – Thanksgiving

Oct. 23 – Early Dismissal

12:15 - 4

Oct. 24 – Picture Retake day – must be prepaid

Oct. 25 – ProD No school

Oct. 30 – Corn Maze

Oct. 31 – Costume Parade

Nov. 7 - Remembrance Day Assembly 10:45am

Nov. 12 – No School

Nov. 22 – Teddy Bear Picnic

Dec. 10 - Christmas Concert

Thank you for all the volunteers for the Corn Maze.  Everyone is welcome to come on this trip. 

Halloween is coming quickly with great excitement.  On Thursday Oct. 31 all the primary classes have a costume parade.  If your child would like to dress up, please send their costume in a bag.  They will be given time to change after lunch in the classroom.  They must be able to put their costume on by themselves.  If the costume is too complicated, send a hat, mask, cape etc. that they can manage on their own.  No make-up or weapons.  You are welcome to come and join us and take pictures.

You are not expected to send treats to school with your child on Halloween.  If you would like to send candy to school with your child please send just ONE nut free treat for them to have at lunch.

School pictures have been sent home today.  If you and your child’s other parent are not together please share the order form.  There is a red code at the top of the order so you can order online.  If there will be two orders for your child, please send me the information so I can send the orders to the right parent.

Students have been very busy with our music teacher Mrs. Heisler practicing for our Remembrance Day assembly and the Kindergarten/Grade 1 Christmas concert.  The Remembrance Day assembly will be on Nov. 7 after recess at 10:45.  You are welcome to join us.

On October 23 we have an early dismissal day.  I have planned an open house for that afternoon.  It’s a time to come and visit the class and see some of the work that your child has been doing.  I will be here from 12:15 – 4pm.

 

We will be having a Teddy Bear picnic on November 22.  It’s lots of fun and involves a parade with all kindergarten students and their teddy bears pulled in wagons.  The wagons are an at-home project.  Generally wagons can be made with a shoe box.  Please decorate them with your child using paint, crayons, stickers etc.  You can be fancy and add wheels if you want but be sure to include a rope to pull the wagon.

If you like some of the photos on the blog you can right click them and save them to your computer. 

Take home days are Thursday.  That’s the day that I generally send home any notices.  The plastic folder is to protect papers from being ruined. Please remember to always send back the folder.

Mrs. Wiebe

Developing Relationships During Outside Play

 

I am starting to see the children playing together in meaningful ways.  They are starting to explore, take risks and develop story play.

 

 

These two were having a discussion about what could possibly be in this puddle.  Other children would come over and investigate with them for a while.  This is why it's so important for your child to have boots.

We have several spinning equipment pieces in the playground and they are always quite popular.  They have to work together to get it going fast. 

You may not be able to see it but this is a dirt bike stadium and they are all dirt bikes.
This kind of imagination in play is vital to being able to develop into mature play.

Developing Literacy Skills

We play.

We play a lot.

If your child talks about their day it probably is about play.

 

My goal is for the children to learn as they play.

I have introduced felt stories and story boxes in the last few weeks.  The students have often seen these before but they don't generally get to play with the parts themselves.

 

 

These kids are playing with two felt stories - Big Green Monster & Mr. Turkey.
They were working through the stories, taking turns and working collaboratively.

These kids are playing with a story box - Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
The book is in their laps and they are working together to get the character pieces up in order.

If you ask your child about these stories you will probably be surprised with their understanding. 

Mr. Turkey

 

This is our newest felt story.

 

I use the felt stories during carpet time and then the children can play with them during Workstation or Exploration time.

 

This one is to the tune of Mary Wore a Red Dress.

 

Turkey wore a ____ feather, _____ feather, _____ feather.

Turkey wore a ______ feather all day long.

 

Ask your child to sing it to you.

 

 

 

Writing

 

I have talked about and encouraged the students to write from the first day of school.  I did a sample page to help generate some ideas and told them that we can all be authors.  Some kids have written many books while others haven't finished one yet. 

 

Last week we had our first dedicated writing lesson and I was impressed with the stamina all the kids displayed. During the lesson I read them a story (The Wrong Book by Nicolas Bland) and we talked a bit about it. I then sent them off to write - you can see them writing in a past post.  The lesson lasted about 7 minutes (you have to work quickly with 5 year olds) and then they wrote for about 20 minutes.

 

I was amazed!!!!  20 minutes is an enormous amount of time for a class just beginning to write.  Some kids never get to 20 mins.  We then stopped writing to share what we have done.  Sharing for most students is the best/worst part of writing.  More than anything they want to share their own work; more than anything they don't want to quietly sit while others share their work. 

 

This is a sample from the class of a book that was started during our writing workshop and completed during choice time.  This child has written many books so far this year.  A few children in the class have received gift books from him.  To say he loves to right would be an understatement. 

 

The one thing that you will probably notice is that you have no idea what he is writing about.  That's okay.  He knows and he's building strategies that he will use for further writing. 

 

When your child brings a book home, please take the time to let them read it to you.  You will be able to hear their learning in the description of the story.

 

 

 

Front cover.  After I took this picture he quickly ran off and added his name.

This page made me very happy - HE USED LETTERS!!!!  It will be weeks before I teach anything about letters/words in a book.  Children learn very well when another child shows them how to do something.  I'm hoping that this catches on and I have a few kids to model this skill to the class.

On this page he ran water over the paper to create a hole in the middle of it. 
I'm not sure why but I appreciate the creative thinking.

Bingo dabber pages can be added at choice time as they are way to messy to use at writing time.

Oct. 3 Nature Walk

I have started writing these posts with the students.  The comments under the photos are theirs.  I'm hoping that we will see more insight into their learning as the year progresses. 

Our first nature walk was successful.  We were able to make it much farther than past classes.  We may be able to make it all the way to Peach Ponds.  Although as they learn to explore a little more in depth we will walk much slower.

You are always welcome to come along.  It's generally a pleasant walk and I promise I won't sing.

 

 

 

 

This is a Monkey Tree because

 

...it has little vines.

...maybe it has monkeys in it.

...it looks like a monkey.

...monkeys climb it.

...we love monkey trees.

...it's sharp.

...it has so many branches.

 

 

We went for a nature walk and we stayed together. Thank you
Mrs. Henderson and Mr. Davies for coming with us.

We searched very hard and found some mushrooms.

We were surprised to see mushrooms.

We saw cows from the fence.

I'm standing. (Looking cute, too)

We love cows. They are cute.

This is a fuzzy picture of a spider.

Mushrooms

We love going on a nature walk.