Well, despite the excitement of the holidays, we did manage to get some work done these last couple of days! Journaling, singing, partnering with buddies, and music class, were all on the agenda, and yesterday, some crazy dance parties too! I would like to thank all of you for gifting me the opportunity to work with your children - this has been a fast and fabulous first term and it's because I get to work, learn and play with your kids every day. Wishing you all a restful holiday season full of love and laughter and I'll see you in 2019!
What a great day to learn more about what makes us unique! For the AM class, the students learned that not everyone in the class celebrates Christmas. Merci to Mustafa and his mom for sharing with us one of their family celebrations: Ramadan. We loved making the lanterns! The students were great at picking out aspects of the two celebrations that were similar and different. Both classes also got to meet Paralympian, John Leslie, who shared with the students what makes his leg unique. Ask your child to tell you about John's 'knee'. To see John in action, click here! The PM class participated in caroling this afternoon, where they also got to hear a little bit about Yalda, an Iranian festival. Reminder that tomorrow is our homework presentation where we'll continue to share with each other a bit more about what makes us unique! Tomorrow is also library for the PM class.
Today, both classes worked very hard on the writing portion of their gingerbread books (with help from their gr. 3 buddies). This was probably the most writing they've been asked to do at once in Kindergarten (so far), and they rose to the challenge! Both classes also enjoyed music class with Mme Edgett today, and the AM class also got to experience caroling with the rest of the school. Reminder, that Wednesday is our December homework presentation day - please also send in the presentation paper so that I can help your child, if needed!
As I'm sure you've all heard, today we made gingerbread people. We worked really hard to make the dough, roll it out, cut out our people and then we waited for them to bake. To our surprise, when we opened the oven door, the gingerbread people were gone! They ran all around our school leaving a trail of crumbs behind them! The Kindergarten students ran fast though and gave a good chase. We ended up finding them right back in our classroom! We have no idea how they got there! So incredible! Thank you to the 6 brave parent volunteers who joined us today... without you, our day would not have been the same (and I would still be cleaning!). Merci, mille fois! Check out our small gallery of photos (of the 200 photos from today!)!
Did you know that during attendance, the students practice saying a sentence in French? Lately, we've been working on "je peux" statements : je peux sauter, je peux courir, je peux marcher, je peux dessiner, je peux écrire, for example.
Today the students had lots of fun practicing snowboarding skills in the gym. We also read a new gingerbread story, but for the first time, it was a gingerbread girl and the ending was quite unexpected! Ask your child what was the same and what was different about this story! We also wrote a new entry in our journals today. There's lots of excitement for tomorrow's activity. Feel free to send in an apron for your child, if they have one! Thank you to the families that sent in food bank items today. The students and I had some great conversations about generosity, helping others and what a food bank is. Some students were sad they didn't have anything to put in the boxes today, but I assured them that they are welcome to bring items tomorrow or up until next Wednesday.
Students also worked on counting and representing numbers from 1-10 today with a big tree-decorating activity, and went for music with Mme Zdrill. The PM class also went for their book exchange at the library. Bonjour, today the students started to write in their journals. We focused on trying to properly use upper and lowercase letters, as well as spacing, and a period at the end of our sentence. Students also participated in a yoga session with an instructor in the gym today.
As indicated in the weekly communication from the office, we have 6 boxes for food bank donations at the school. I would love to encourage every family to send in a food donation or two tomorrow, and then we can go down as a class and drop them off together, as well as talk about why we want to help others. Thank you for your generosity. Reminder that tomorrow is library for the PM class. Today, students started their day with 'mot du jour' as usual, but this time, were asked to write their names using an uppercase letter at the beginning, and lowercase for the rest of their name. This is new to most students and so I encourage you to support your child with this transition on how to write their name! We also had music with Mme Zdrill today, and met with our gr. 3 buddies to add the images to their gingerbread stories. Please note, caroling times have changed slightly. Dec. 17 will be 10:05-11am and Dec. 18 will be 12:25-1:20pm. Families are invited to join us!
Today the students entered the class to find Christmas-themed mini-centers in place of our blue bin routine. Students had to visit all mini-centers (counting with clothespins, patterns with stamps, mot du jour, sequencing pictures, and more counting with buttons) before heading to the carpet to look at new books. Both classes finished off the lowercase alphabet today (w, x, y, z). The AM class also had their book exchange at the library and the PM class worked on putting together some mini-books that we'll be writing soon. Reminder, when you watch your child cut paper, ensure they have their thumb on top!
Today the Kindergarten students enjoyed P.E. outside playing movement games about skiing and snowboarding and then getting a chance to check out some skis and snowboards. Inside the classroom we continued discovering new gingerbread books, and we also worked on our lowercase 's, t, u & v'. As you practice with your child, please help them remember to start forming their letters at the top (rather than starting from the bottom). Reminder: tomorrow is library for the AM group!
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