Weekday Round-Up

This week we started to get into the Christmas spirit!

Our field trip on Tuesday to Christmas Town was magical! We spent the morning visiting the animals and playing in the play barn. In the afternoon we saw a puppet show, had a wagon ride, enjoyed some hot chocolate in Mrs. Claus' kitchen, saw where Santa keeps the presents and finally had a chance to meet the big guy himself! If you haven't had a chance to yet, be sure to check out the album I shared using the app "Homeroom."

On Wednesday we recounted our trip using pictures and words.

On Wednesday we also started a student-created Christmas Word Wall. This will assist my friends when writing during the Christmas season. 

This week we also read a fun book called "Not A Stick." We collected up some sticks from outside and created our own "not a stick" ideas.

 Some of us still need to finish up this activity on Monday!

This week we added the following sight words to the word wall:

Play

Put

New

No

Not 

Our letter for PAT this week is C. 

 

On Monday I introduced the boys and girls to math centres. We work in a group of 3-4 and rotate our centre each day. The activities are fun and engaging. Most of the kiddies are begging to do them during free-play time too! I love it! 

I'm looking forward to another amazing week ahead! 

Weekday Round-Up

We had a very productive week! Lots of great learning took place... all while having fun! 

We have enjoyed journal writing, working with letters and sight words and drawing. 

We have been doing lots of exploring shapes. We have been learning their names and talking about number of sides and points (vertices). 

This week many of us were very interested in building and creating! These activities require lots of collaboration, creativity and problem solving. Our language skills are out to work as we practice listening to other's ideas and articulate our own! I love seeing all the creations we come up with! 

(Unfortunately the building picture are all in my iPad which is at school! I'll upload them this week here)

Our letter this week in Nn.

Our field trip is this coming Tuesday! A note was sent home on Friday with some notes to help you prepare for it.

Can't wait for the week ahead! 

Seasonal Playdough!

The kiddies LOVE Playdough! It is great for fine motor workouts, imaginative play and various literacy and numeracy acrivities! 

I was wondering if anyone could try their hand at making some seasonal Playdough (basically seasonal colours and scented) for us to use in the classroom?

Possible ideas:

- Christmas tree 

- candy cane

- gingerbread 

Pinterest has tons of ideas! If you could help out please let me know :) 

Word Wall

We have been using our classroom word wall since the first day of school. Since day one it has had all of our names on it. You can often find many friends copying their peers names down on a whiteboard, piece of paper or in their printing book! We have recently begun adding sight words to our word wall. We will add new ones each week (starting with the letter of the week).

So far we have:

See, so, she

A, at, am, all, are

To, the, they, this

I, is, it

My SK friends would benefit from home practice of these words (writing them using whiteboards or journals or making them using Playdough...  remember to keep it fun! Also flash cards and games like go fish using the words are always a hit).

Weekday Round Up!

I was happy to return back to school on Friday! I missed my kiddies dearly while I was away sick. I am excited for a week of fun ahead! 

A lot of the focus this week was on Remembrance Day. We discussed in a simple / kid friendly way what this day is all about. We read some books, learned about poppies and identified the ways in which we can be peacemakers. We created our own poppy art too. This week we will continue exploring the concept of peace and how we can make this world a better place! 

Just for fun... here is a picture of my (baby) brother! He is in the Canadian Armed Forces. Stationed in CFB Edmonton. 

Our math focus has been shapes. We have been learning about the names of the different shapes, the number of sides, the number of vertices and how to use different shapes together to make a picture.

This week we were introduced to the "at" family. We have been building various words that rhyme with at. Lots of kiddies have also been keen to journal write this week. They like to share their writing in the "share chair."

The boys and girls have been loving phonemic awareness time! This week our focus will be the letter P

Finally... it's getting cold out! We spend a lot of our day learning outside. Snowpants, boots, hats and mittens or gloves are essential.

Extra gloves and socks would be helpful to keep in our cubbies too! 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

Your junk... our treasures!

There are a few items that we could use in the classroom!

1. Your old muffin tins, baking sheets, wooden spoons or other kitchen utensils. 

2. Old magazines that you no longer need

3. Water bottle caps

4. Placemats, cork pot holders, cutting boards

5. Loose parts such as wine bottle corks, buttons and the caps of the fruit pouches (see below) 

Outdoor exploration!

Hi everyone!

I am hoping to start up a day of the week where we walk and explore some trails, parks and other pockets of our community. I would require at least two parents to join in on our explorations. I was hoping to start next week. Possibly Thursday's if that works? I am flexible with the day if I can get more volunteers on a different one. Please let me know if you're able to join us! 

Weekday Round Up

This week was a fun (and tiring) one! With Halloween being on Tuesday most of my little friends were overly excited and tired for most of the week. 

We kept things quieter and low key with lots of free play, table top centres and yoga. Hopefully we are regenerized tomorrow and ready to get back into routine!

Many of the boys and girls have shown an interest in rainbows so we have started a rainbow inquiry! 

It started with listing on a chart what we already know about rainbows. Then, for those students interested, they flipped through books and started developing questions they have about rainbows. Finally, through reading stories, watching video clips and using online kid encyclopedias we will find the answers to these questions.  The boys and girls will share their findings using pictures and or words with the class! 

I am looking forward to all the learning that will take place! 

Look! We made a rainbow out of Playdough!

The letter of the week this week is Ii

For those students ready we have started learning about the at word family too. 

Using the word "at" we make other words such as bat, cat, mat etc.

Finally, if anyone is interested in volunteering in the classroom please let me know. I could use some

Help with some cutting, organizing and eventually Christmas crafting! 

Diabetes Awareness Month

November is Diabetes Awareness month.

This is a month very close to my heart. 

As some of you know, our oldest daughter Ashleigh 6 and a half) has Type One Diabetes. 

T1D (formally known as juvenile diabetes] is an autoimmune disease. Meaning Ashleigh's own immune system got confused and attacked her own pancreas. It broke her pancreas and it does not make any insulin anymore. Insulin is essential to turn food from sugar into energy. Scientists do not know why some people get type one diabetes. In addition there is no cure for this disease yet.

Throughout the month of November I make sure to raise lots of awareness about this disease. Knowledge is power..and with this power comes a cure! We are very hopeful that our little superhero will have a cure in her lifetime.

I have attached a link to a video that I made a few months after Ashleigh was diagnosed. 

The video is almost three years old now. So her baby brother Adam is missing from it. In addition, instead of needles, Ashleigh is now on an insulin pump. However, the video does a good job telling about the disease. I'll have to make an updated one this year!

I will teach the kids this month a little bit about T1D using some Mickey Mouse books and simple language. Ashleigh will even have a chance to tell them some things too! 

Thank you for learning a little bit about type one diabetes this month! My favourite saying is... let's turn type one to NONE!

XO