Pencils, Pizza, and Impersonating (me!)

I have seen several students become very interested in being able to write down their own ideas. Two students on Wednesday alone came to me and asked me to teach them to write! So we did! Students learn that writing is sharing our thoughts, and they can pretend write, sound out some letters/words and pretend write the rest, or write like an adult. It is so excited to see students wanting to do this, setting the foundation for the desire to write. We will explore this more next week.

GR and HO take large sheets of paper and make books.
These sorts of activities are so important for literacy development.
Students make connections to what they know about words and
books and create what they know!

At the sand table: CA found that pinecones, part of our fall addition to the sand centre, makes a fun design or pattern when it is rolled. Right after this, KI started working with him to find other ways to use the pinecone in sand. KA and MA examined different ways to pour.

Students continued to play school this week. How fun to watch them impersonate a teacher! In addition to being very fun for me, watching them use some of my calming phrases and strategies, as well as some idiosyncracies (ie. always having a mug of coffee), I was able to observe their literacy as they read the morning message, their understanding of routines, adn their abilities to synergize (Habit 6, together is better) to create a fun classroom play with a teacher, helper, and students.

Students also explored balance and creation of a track that would be stable enough to hold trucks.      

HA made a rubbing of a leaf and is cutting it out for our bulletin board.

Wednesday of course was a highlight! Pizza, costumes, and a long weekend - we loved having a little parade and showing off our looks! Let the learning and exploring continue!

The Best Day Ever

It was Grandparent's Day today! I'm sure you knew - it was the buzz of the school this whole week. grandfriends, Grandmas and Grandpas, Opas and Omas... We were having company, and our Kindergarteners were so excited!

We played games, practices letters, counted, made patterns, did crafts, and shared lots of hugs and smiles! Our class was so happy to sing "Let Everything that God Made Say Thank You Lord" and after that sing "HipHipHip Hippopotamus" with the rest of the class!

To top it all off, we also had our milkshake and movie party-our reward for our chocolate sales.

And while that made it "The best day ever!" (ET) we also had a lot of learning the rest of the week.

KA explored putting wings on her paper creation to see what it did.

KI discovered that he could make a T with pillows in the library. Then he discovered he could make one with his body.

At our morning table centres, I have put out more provocations for literacy - giving students the opportunity to explore letters and writing and reading. CA reads our name book that we made together, GR copies the date, HO and the other Junior K girls practice letters, and other reads a message I put on the slate.

LA uses the magnetic letters to find ones that are in his name.

Interwoven through discovery, letters and numbers is social learning. I watched an SK and JK in this picture learn about eachother and play out social situations. The two lego men at the corner of the table are Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker. They are becoming friends with Bob, who is driving the truck and pulling the wagon. This kind of play helps students problem solve, figure out their world and the people around them, and of course builds their imagination!

CA and JE enjoy similar learning as they build together.  

We also started learning about fall in general and leaves in particular, and focused on writing numbers 1-5 in math.

Finally, some creations made at our new nature art centre. This is transient art. They create it, come show me and get a picture, and then we can do it again. They love it, and it is a wonderful exploration for them of what is beautiful, and different ways things can be used. 

Our highlights this were restricted to two, and it was unanimous - Grandparent's Day, and our milkshake and movie party!

Have a blessed weekend!

Show What You Know

Hello! It's been a full four days in Kindergarten. 

Some highlights...

Students have been very interested in buying and selling things this week. I have purchased, so far, a five dollar purple hippopotamus, a one dollar medication for said hippopotamus, a free cup of coffee (my students know me well!), and, best of all, a fifty thousand dollar, very large orange! When they are not selling to the teacher, they sell to eachother, deciding who is the business owner and the customer.

This morning, SA and the JK girls were bankers who supplied me with money to buy gum from KA.

In addition to being a lot of fun, this sort of activity at learning centres is very valuable. Students are using number sense and numeral writing skills, communication skills, including Habit 5 Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood (listen before you talk), and are exploring the real world scenerarios that they have watched you the parents engage in. 

Students are also bringing their literacy knowledge into it, as they explore the sounds and letters that make up the words of the items they are selling.

GR is teaching me about C - our letter of the day. He shows me what he knows as he tells me about the different words of things that we can buy that start with C.

We are continuing to explore our world in the other centres as well. Building, art, Bible, reading, writing, dramatic play, and others. It's been exciting for me to see the social learning as students make connections with new friends and participate in wondering and discovering and imagining together.

I've also enjoyed seeing their leadership skills come to light, as they become comfortable with the leadership roles they applied for and with the 7 Habits language. 

JA is the leader of watering plants. On Fridays, he fills up the can, and waters each plant the right amount to keep our classroom green and homey.

I was able to see this even more as we decided together how to show what we know about snails. I asked students how we could do this... how do we learn things and how do we teach things. How would we do this for snails? Initially, I had planned to make a books, but I posed the question to the students, and they agreed on a different idea - to make a movie where everyone had a part, and to make snail art for it (by the way, our class absolutely loves glitter!). 

They decided on the music, the things they would say and who would say it, and the art for it. They also decided that they wanted parents to see, and the Grade 1/2 class. So parents, the Super Snails movie is in your inbox, and Grade 1/2 will come to our "snail theatre" on Tuesday! Snails was a fun inquiry for us, and we're excited to show you what we know!

Next up, we start to study Fall!

Highlights as told by the students...

A Snapshot of Learning

'What a fun week! Turkeys, graphs, leading assembly, imagination play, and lots of letters and reading learning!

Math: Every day includes a counting story, a game for number recognition, and then our lesson for the day. We learned about sorting and now we are building on those skills to make graphs.

We can make a people graph! More of our class like dogs
than cats - now we know!

We also made a picture graph! The left hand column
is people who like sun better, and the right is those
who prefer snow.

Imagination Learning - Students use imagination during their learning centre choice time to expand what they know and communicate what they know about life.

HO is playing teacher - she gives SA and KA a morning message
("Don't you worry Miss K! I'm not actually opening the marker!")

We read a Veggie Tales counting book, in which Bob the Tomato's
boat sunk by the time the 10th vegetable (Goliath the Giant Pickle)
joined the crew. KA decided she would use her learning centre time
to make a boat that would hold everyone! Connecting math, problem
solving, social skills as she worked with another student, and foundational
engineering skills.

Literacy is ongoing in school. In Kindergarten, this looks different at different times of the year and with different students. Our students have constant access to the library where they can read or picture-read books, becoming familiar with familiar words, and stories, finding "popcorn words" (words that pop up everywhere!), and print concepts.

HA practices her reading in the library.

SA writes her own morning message on the practice slates during
morning table centres. "Today is Thursday, October 8, 2015."

Finally, we were very thankful this week! Students were very excited for the holiday, and even more excited when we talked about leading assembly (we started to call it "being Mr. Roeper" because Mr. R usually leads worship during Monday morning chapel). We were counting down the days, and after assembly today they asked if they could do it again! I was proud of their leadership and enthusiasm for sharing with the school. Thank you to so many parents for coming today!

In our talks about thanskgiving, students asked why all the books
had turkeys. So we talked about turkeys as a reminder to be thankful,
relating to the first thanksgiving. Students asked if they could make
one, so we cut out our hands (fine motor and cutting skills) to be the
feathers.

Have a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving!

Snails and Letters!

Hello Parents!

It's been a very snaily week in Kindergarten! We've found God's fingerprints all over these animals as we've learned about what their shell is for, where they live, what they eat, and how they move (slime!).

CA molds a snail from plasticine. You may have also seen
some snails made by pipe cleaners come home!

Apple snail adult, compared to a young "nuisance" snails. (Pet
store name, not mine!)

This week has also seen a lot of social learning, as we work on our goal to be a good friend to all our classmates, and literacy learning with new letters and books that we can all read together.

"I named the man in my house CA after you!" - LA

Retelling a familiar story

Making letters with loose parts bins!

And some other learning!

Making patterns (after she sorted colours)

"Can we make more arks for the art centre?"

Fine motor skill development

Highlights this week from the students: learning letters, learning the letter I, counting, holding the snail, making an ark, playing with new friends, going in the library centre, being a good leader, playing outside, and as one student said "I can't pick Miss K. I just liked everything!"

Have a wonderful weekend!

As an FYI, this is next week!