A Great Start to our Rainforest Inquiry!

It's a Jungle in Here!

We've been having so much fun learning about the animals in the rainforests of South America. Here is a peek at what we've been doing...

                                          

I was so excited to find a box of binoculars tucked away in a storage closet.  The students used them to look at the rainforest animals in our classroom.  Then they drew pictures and wrote about what they saw…

"I found a snake in a tree. It is big and blue."
A great example of how a beginner writer stretches out the word for writing.
Proper spelling is not the goal of beginner writers, rather writing the sounds that are heard. 

Our expectation here, was to have students write words and/or sentences that relate to the picture they have drawn. 

Every few days, we talk about a different animal.  So far we have studied the Sloth, the Blue Morpho Butterfly and the Anaconda snake!

Our life-sized Anaconda snake in the making.  Just need to add some paint and it's ready to go!

Blue Morpho Butterflies and grow to be 20 cm across!

Soon our bulletin board will be filled with Rainforest animals and animal facts.

Stay tuned for more about what we are learning in Room 112 in the coming weeks...

Hmmm...

Kindergarten…

I think about it a lot.  

I think about it on the way to work.  I think about it on the way home. I think about it at home.  I’m not sure why it consumes me.  Maybe it’s because teaching the youngest students in education really excites me or maybe I feel that there is always work to do.  I will never profess to be an expert in my field but I will profess a strong desire to have my students move through the 2 year FDK program, learning in an exciting and inquisitive environment.  I’m not sure when I will feel completely comfortable about my knowledge of Early Learning Education.  Maybe after 5 or 7 years of teaching this age group?…Maybe never.  

Taking the time to read through the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum might give you some insight as to why I get so excited about teaching it.  Over the next several months, it is my plan to post about the various curriculum areas in Kindergarten.  I'm not sure exactly how it will look or what I will call it.  Right now I’m thinking: “What I’m Thinking About…”, will make a good tab title.  The goal will be to present my thoughts about the various learning areas of the curriculum.  I hope you join me on my journey as I navigate through the curriculum, the exploration of Early Years Learning and the creation and maintenance of a blog.  Hang on…it might be a bumpy ride!

Stone Soup!

It has been a little while since my last post but we have still been working hard and having fun in class.  One big learning event we had, revolved around the book, "Stone Soup".  We had so much fun reading the story and then coming up with our own soup recipe.  The students really surprised me, when they decided on ingredients like onions and mushrooms!  Even if some of the vegetables weren't their favourites, the students certainly stepped up and gave them a try--even if it was a tiny, little bite.  The moral of the story "Stone Soup", is that if everyone contributes a little bit, we can make something wonderful...and wonderful it was.  The soup was delicious!  Some students ask for seconds...and thirds!

Check out how we extended our learning in the classroom. 

We added some healthy...and interesting ingredients into our cauldron in the drama centre...

Students all pitched in and brought in a vegetable of their choice (thank you for your contributions!).  We chopped the vegetables and even had a taste test.

Some of the students liked what they tried...

...and some did not!...

The stone went in...

...we stirred, smelled and then tasted the yummy concoction!

Making the soup was lots of fun.  Mrs. McGowan extended our learning in health by talking about healthy eating and making healthy choices at the grocery store.  Students even made their own pots of soup, choosing what they would like to put in their cauldrons. 

In math, we voted for our favourite vegetable and put it in a bar graph.  During writing, we listed  all of the ingredients we put in our soup.  

If you are in the school, check out the display case in the front lobby which displays our learning for the whole school to see (currently under construction...hope to have it done by Thursday).

Dots Everywhere!

We had so much fun discovering all we could about dots this week! Many students made insightful observations noting that dots came in many different sizes and colours. Some even noticed that we could make other things from just a dot on our page! We could use a dot to make a picture of an eye, a part of a rocket ship and lots of dots could be drawn on a giraffe. Our detective eyes helped us find dots in our classroom and our skilled hands made dots in inside and outside too.

Back to school newsletter

A few reminders...

Extra clothes: Children can be messy. Please make sure that there is an extra set of clothes in a zip-lock bag marked with your child's name.  It will be kept in their cubby for easy access.

Shoes: All students need a pair of indoor shoes suitable for Gym class (please no sandals or flip-flops).

Communication Envelope: We will only send home the envelope when we have mail for you.  Please don't worry if it doesn't come home every night.

Pizza Day:  Every Friday.  If you forget to send in money before Friday, don't worry, we will accept it the morning of, as well.

Remind messages: If you haven't signed up yet, you are missing out! If you are anything like me, you will need reminders--e.g. Pizza Day.  I can't tell you how many times I made lunch (worst parent job ever!!) for my kids, only to learn that they didn't need it. UGH! Check the attached September Newsletter for information on signing up.

Pick-Up: Please pick up your child at the west gate of our Kindergarten Pen.  The other two classes dismiss out of the east gate and it can be difficult to see who left out of which gate. Also, make sure your child says "goodbye" to myself or Mrs. Nwankwo. We will loose sleep over children who didn't make contact before leaving.

**Upon reviewing the Sept. newsletter, I have decided not to post it as it has information on it that I would like to keep private (the names of other teachers, "Remind" sigh-up info and my email address).

Sept. 9, 2015

Wow! What a great start to our school year!  We have a great bunch of students who are loving to interact and play with each other. Check out some of the fun activities we have been doing...