First Term Reports

The Term One reports will be sent home tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, with your child.  

Parents of SK students will notice that in addition to the anecdotal comments, your children have also received ratings in the various literacy and mathematics curriculum strands.  The ratings range from 'Beginning to Extending'.  
According to the Full Day Kindergarten Curriculum Document,
"... reporting must always indicate the child's growth and achievement in relation to the learning expectations for the end of the Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten program."
(page 32)
Sometimes a child will receive a rating of 'Approaching' because we have not covered all the curriculum expectations, yet.  The anecdotal comments will, hopefully, give a clearer indication of how your child is progressing.

If you have any questions about your child's report, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Please remember to complete page 2 with your child, and return it to school in the envelope.

F is for February, Friendships and Families

Valentine's Day

We had fun on Friday exchanging Valentine cards. The children delivered their cards to their classmates' Valentine bags.  It was a good opportunity for the children to practise reading names and numbers.  
In the afternoon, most children chose to spend some time looking at their cards.  It was interesting to see and hear how some children were sorting their cards and treats.  Everyone did a great job of resisting the temptation to eat any of their treats at school.

Happy Family Day

We hope you and your family are enjoying the long weekend together!  See you tomorrow.

What's Been Going on in Room 110?

It has been a while since we last wrote a post on our blog, but a lot has been going on in Room 110:

100th Day of School

As you are probably aware, we celebrated the 100th Day of School on February 10, 2015.  We finally coloured the 100th circle on our ten frames chart, and the celebrations begun!  

Here are some of the activities that we had fun with on the 100th Day of School:
We moved and counted to 100 by ones, fives and tens.  We made 100th Day crowns.  We cut out 100 hearts.  We found and cut out out 100 words that we could read.  We sang songs about 100, and we read books about 100.  We measured how far 100 strips of paper, 100 blocks and 100 links would go down the hallway.  We also measured if we could get dressed for recess in 100 seconds, and most of us did it!  We built with collections of 100 objects like cups, blocks and straws.  

Starting our 100th Day wearing our crowns!

Stamping each letter 10 times ... How many stamps will that be?

The students completed a 100 piece puzzle.  Thanks to Brian for bringing it to school for us to complete.

Do 100 scoops of snow fit in the bin?

We counted some of our collections, too.

Many students also brought their collections of 100 to school to share with us.  It was great to see all the different collections, and we imagined all the counting that had gone on at home, too.  

Here are some of the collections:

                             

               

                                             

 

A book of 100 words

Thank you for helping us make the 100th Day of School a fun and good learning experience for us all! We hope you are enjoying playing 'Roll for 100' at home.  At school, the teachers played against the students, and the students won!

(Playing dice games together offers many opportunities to reinforce various counting and numeracy skills for your child.) 

 

Friendly Reminders...

Good morning!  Just a couple of reminders...

Today, Wednesday, January 14th, is library day for our class.  Please have your child return his/her library book to school today if he/she has not already done so.

Friday, January 16th is a PA Day.  There will be no school for students.  

Have a good day!

If Your Family Celebrates Christmas...

To all our families celebrating Christmas...
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas! We hope your day is joyful and peaceful.

 

If Your Family Celebrates Hanukkah...

Best wishes for a Happy Hanukkah!  

We hope your holidays have started well,

 and you are enjoying the celebrations 

with family and friends.

What's Been Happening in Room 110?

It has been a while since we last posted to our blog, and you've probably been wondering what has been going on in Room 110?  Here are a few highlights from the past 4 to 6 weeks:

JK In-Class Visits & SK Student-Led Conferences

It was great to meet with all the parents for the Progress Reports.  The students were all very excited in anticipation of their families visiting the classrooms.  We enjoyed watching the students showing their parents their work and showing them around the room.  Well done, everyone!

Our Class Pet

As you may of heard, we have a new addition to our class!  Leo, the betta fish, is our new class pet.

Way back in October, we let the students know that we would like to have a class pet.  Through a survey, most of the students in our class agreed that they would also like to have a pet.  

Then we posed the question:  What kind of animal would make a good class pet?  We brainstormed lots of ideas, and we researched information about some of the animals.  For example, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, horses, turtles and fish.  

As we learned about the needs of the different animals, the class came up with a list of criteria that a class pet would have to meet to be suitable for our classroom.  Here is some of the criteria:  
1.  The pet would have to be calm and quiet;
2.  The pet would like to be inside; and
3.  No one in our class is afraid of the animal.

In the end, we discovered that fish would be the most suitable pet for our class, and that's how we got Leo, our betta fish!

Math:  Patterning and Geometry

In math, we have been noticing, creating, extending and describing repeating patterns using colours, shapes, actions and positional directions.  We learned that it is a pattern when we are able to predict what comes next.  

We are also using what we learned about patterns to notice the patterns in our number system.  For example, if '10' is written as a 1 and a 0, and '20' is a 2 and a 0, then '30' must be a 3 and 0.  

Here are some photos of the patterns we made in class:

  

At home, you can help your child to recognize and describe the patterns that are all around.  Your child may find patterns in clothing, in wallpaper, in tiles and in nature.  Have your child try to identify the features of the pattern that repeat.
(From Doing Mathematics with Your Child:  Kindergarten to Grade 6, A Parent Guide)

Geometry
We have also been working on learning about 2-D shapes.  We have been learning to identify, name and describe the features of shapes such as circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, diamonds, rhombuses and triangles.  
Just like patterns, we have noticed that shapes are everywhere!  You can help your child notice the shapes in his/her environment by playing games like "I Spy...".  For example, you could say "I spy something in the kitchen that is a triangle."  Or you could focus on the features of the shape by saying, "I spy something in the kitchen that has 3 straight lines and 3 points."

(We'll be sending a 'Shape Detective' page to do at home this coming week.  Please look for it in your child's communication bag.)


Cooking in Kindergarten

One of our students wondered if we could eat the seeds that were in our pumpkins at the Pumpkin Scientist Centre.  After doing a little research, we found out we could if we roasted them first.  So, we roasted the pumpkin seeds and tasted them.  Here are the survey results to the question:  Do you like the pumpkin seeds?

Of course, we also had to bake some pumpkin pies. Students were invited to help make the pumpkin pies. After reading the recipe, we measured and added the spices and other ingredients.  We stirred and mixed everything together and put the pumpkin mix in the pie shells.  After the pumpkin pies baked, we tasted them. While many of us liked the pumpkin pie, the pumpkin seeds were more popular.

(This coming week, we'll be doing some more cooking in our class.  We plan on making some latkes, baked rather than fried, and some cupcakes.)


Sharon, Bram and Friends Concert

It was a cold day in November when we went to see Sharon, Bram and Friends perform, but inside it was warm and lively.  We had fun singing and dancing along with the performers.  Here are a couple of photos:

A big thank you to Mrs. B. and Mr. Z. for coming with us to the concert and helping us stay together as a group!