March 4-8

Our Kindergarten class has been busy at "School" in our school centre this week.  Our little classroom has been opened and students have been LOVING the opportunity to play "Teacher" and "Assistant Teacher" and "students" all week.  They have been teaching each other carpet time, the routines, practicing numbers and letters, talking to each other and encouraging each other in their learning, and even having each other practice walking in lines through the classroom to the "imaginary library" (the carpet), "the park" (our coatroom) and "to play parachute" (around a table).  Once again- imagination is hard at work, and so many skills are being developed through our cooperative play:)

Our word of the week this week was "Problem-Solving".  We learned all about different types of problems- like "Big Problems", "Medium Problems" and "Small Problems".  We read stories, did role playing and found solutions to some problems all on our own.  You can ask your child all about the types of problems and as small problems arise at home- see if they can notice what type of problem it is- and if they can problem solve it.  For example: If our pencil needs sharpening, we can sharpen it.  If we spill, we can clean it up.  If we forget our library book- we can tell Ms. McLeod we'll bring it next time.  If we are frustrated with our zipper- we can try again or ask a friend for help.  We are learning how to be independent- and find solutions to those small problems in life!  We have done so well practicing this at school this week.

We also explored the concept of "Problem Solving" during our math times.  We began doing some math problem solving- exploring different strategies we can use to help us solve new questions.  We are also sharing our problem solving steps through math talks, and realizing that there sometimes are more than one way to solve a problem.  Asking your child questions like "If there are 4 people at the table- how many eyes are at the table?" is a good way to practice this at home-ways for students to stop, think, plan how they will solve it- and then sharing their understanding is an awesome way to boost confidence in problem-solving abilities.  We also played some subitizing dice games and completed another survey with tally marks.

Our letter of the week was "Dd" and we learned how Dd and Bb are different- although they may look similar.  We were able to identify lots of words that start and end with the letter D and practiced our letter formation and labeling skills in our Letter journals.  This week we also practiced syllables, blending sounds and rhyming.  We played a rhyming game that was lots of fun where the students needed to tell us what they would bring on a picnic- except they had to rhyme their word and the group would guess (ex: I will bring mananas (bananas) or rookies (cookies)).

We finished the last page of our Animal Fact books and are proud to be Authors of our own Non-Fiction Book! We are just finishing up our covers and then we will be able to share them with our classmates and families.  

Lastly, we have been sharing all about our Families in Social Studies.  Students have been very excited to share their family picture.  If you have not yet sent one, please do as we are going to be doing some writing and art about our families in the next weeks.  You can always email a copy and I am happy to print it out.

Here are some pictures from our last week!

You'll also have to note that "Lil Greeny- our October Pumpkin has been moved into his new house, was given lots of TLC and is FINALLY thriving under the care of our Kindergarteners- and the amazing sunlight!