vendredi le 30 septembre 2011

C'est la fin de la semaine! It's the end of the week! I hope that your child had an enjoyable day here in Room #5 - I had a good time... so perhaps that's a positive sign? :)

I am very happy to report that there were (on average) fewer tears this morning as the JK students were dropped off and arrived from their respective bus routes. Yay! :) They made their way into the coat room quite nicely, with a great number of the children remembering to hang up their coats and to place their lunch bags and les sacs en plastique into the proper bins. They changed into their indoor shoes and made their way to today's literacy centres, which included: card-making (particularly geared towards children who miss Mom and Dad, to give them a constructive way to express their feelings), puzzle races with an egg timer, felt board story creations, and the ever-popular letter beading table - thanks to the students who made me some truly unique necklaces to wear throughout the day! :)

As the gym was occupied with a Science presentation aimed at students in Grades 1 and above, Mme Murray took the children outside for phys-ed today. I peeked out of the classroom window as I wiped down the tables and checked all of les sacs en plastique, and it seemed like the kids were having a great time!
When they returned from their outdoor adventures it was almost time for the first nutritional break, so the students formed a quiet line and washed their hands at the sink before they ate their snacks. A little over 15 minutes later, the class re-visited the great outdoors for recess. I used these few minutes to set up the materials for our Math block.

We started Math today by completing a Venn Diagram designed to show the similarities and differences between "des bonbons" et "des pommes." Since it was only yesterday that the students taste-tested and graphed their opinions on a variety of apple slices, I figured that they could remember the basic characteristics of these fruits. But how was I to know that they had ever tasted candy? :) When the children were sitting properly in the circle and paying close attention, I passed out a small (sugar-free, but don't ruin their fun! Haha!) sucker to all of them. While they ate their sucker, I asked them to think of things that were different about these candies and the apples that they tried yesterday, and to identify things that these two foods had in common. Their answers were pretty impressive! Some of the similarities they identified were: shape (les deux sont rondes), colour (il y a des pommes et des bonbons qui sont rouges, jaunes et vertes) and sweetness. Specific to des bonbons were features such as "les batons" (sticks), l'emballage en plastique (plastic wrapper covering the sucker), and the fact that les bonbons ne sont pas toujours bons pour la santé (candies are not always a healthy food choice). Specific to 'les pommes' were: the presences of les feuilles (leaves), the fact that les pommes began as les fleurs, the sound of apples (when shaken, you can sometimes hear the rattling of the seeds inside), and the fact that les pommes can grow in nature, whereas candies cannot. It was interesting to see the students' ideas about each area on the Venn Diagram. I am sure that we will revisit this type of chart in the future!

Following our Math lesson, we baked some apple crisp together as a class. The students found it interesting to see each step in the process, and everyone was involved in some step in the creation of this delightful dessert! (It was saved in the Staff Room and place into the staff room oven a little later on. Thanks to a fantastic parent who showed up just before the end of the day, the students got to taste a little of their own handiwork! As we used egg and regular all-purpose flour, I did not give the apple crisp to any students who had gluten sensitivity listed on their medical sheets). When the baking was complete, the students had some free time to play in the room before washing hands and getting ready for the second nutritional break. It was an indoor recess as at this point, it was raining quite heavily outside.

After recess and 10 minutes of silent reading time, we completed our calendar activities for the day. This is something that we have not been doing every single day (as you may have noticed from the Blog) lately. I do feel that the students benefit from the calendar activities, but I also feel that sometimes their limited attention spans should be used in more constructive ways. I am thinking about eventually making the calendar into a centre, as I have seen a number of students visiting this area of the classroom and pointing at the numbers with the pointer / adjusting the weather at various "free play" times throughout the day. :) I still need to figure out the logistics of this idea.

I am really looking forward to the beginning of an entirely new month next week! :) October marks the start of more academic work. We will be focusing on l'alphabet (les lettres A, B et C) in relation to autumn-based themes. In math, we will begin the concept of sorting, and focus on learning the numbers 1-4. I hope to have the new newsletter and calendar finished and in your child's sac en plastique early in the week, but everything has to be approved by the office before it goes home. I'll do my best to have it to you along with a volunteer schedule so that you can come share in and contribute to our learning!

Mlle Craig

jeudi le 29 septembre 2011

It was yet another interesting day here in Room #5!

This morning was a bit challenging as a number of the JK students were really missing Mommy and Daddy. It breaks my heart to see them cry, but I realize that for some this is simply what they need to do until they adapt to the new routines and get used to school life. :( I always try to engage the students in centres as they enter the classroom, and this is part of the reason that I feel it is important to learn about the childrens' likes and dislikes. I want them to love every minute of school, but at times it is difficult to come up with something that every individual student enjoys and finds intellectually stimulating. Please feel free to alert me to your child's needs and preferences in this regard. Today's literacy centres included: playdoh, letter beading, l'ordinateur, upper and lowercase letter matching puzzles, and the famous letter fishing activity. From my personal observations, it seems as if these are some of the most popular centres that the class has tried thus far. I don't want to overdo them though! If you have a minute, please ask your child which table s/he especially likes to visit upon arrival to school. This will help me in planning future activity centres. :)

Following Gym class and a story about healthy eating with Mme. Murray, the students ate their first snack and then went outside for recess. During this time, I placed materials for the apple taste test graphing activity at each table, and made sure that everything was ready to go. We talked a bit about graphs and briefly revisited the facts contained in the book "La pomme," which we read on Tuesday. The students then tasted three different types of apples (Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious), chose their favourite variety, and placed it in an appropriate location on the graph. "Rouge" greatly surpassed les autres couleurs in apple preference. We counted each category and discussed the outcome of our class graph when all students had finished. Then, we engaged in free play, cleaned up and played a game at the carpet - we sang the song that we have been learning about "les pommes" this week while passing around a real apple. When the song finished, whoever happened to be holding the apple got to share something with the class. We were all rather delighted to see a little karate demonstration from one of the students that the apple 'landed' on. :) (Don't worry - no actual karate action occurred - he just showed us a few moves that he has been learning!).

After the second nutritional break and recess, the students enjoyed 10 minutes of quiet time with un livre de leur choix au tapis. They were a little reluctant to quiet down this afternoon, and so they received only a few pompom additions to the class container. I read part of the story "C'est l'automne," but I decided to stop reading about halfway through and save the rest for tomorrow, as many of the students were an odd combination of tired and restless at this point in the day! We sang "Les couleurs des pommes" encore, and then our class monstre, Pierre, handed out les sacs en plastique to all of the students and we began the time-consuming task of organizing the coatroom in order to be ready to go home. :) The students then played until it was time to clean up (about 5 minutes prior to the final bell). During this time, I was impressed to see the creative "Inukshuks" (sp?) that some of the students decided to build and then decorate with plastic bears. Bravo! :)

Looking forward to seeing this great group again tomorrow! We are going to attempt to bake some apple crisp, because it is Friday!

A+

Mlle Craig

mercredi le 28 septembre 2011

Bonjour! Today was another exciting, "pomme"-filled day here in Kindergarten. :)

In the morning, students visited literacy centres that included: fishing for "les lettres," practice writing the word "pomme," painting, playdoh (my attempt at homemade green playdoh was a little less than perfect, but they didnt' seem to mind! :)), and letter beading. The students cleaned up very well, and we met at the carpet to briefly review the book that we read together on Monday ("La pomme") and to conduct an experiment to answer the question "Est-ce qu'une pomme flottera dans l'eau?" After passing a real apple around the circle and discussing its shape and size, most of the students decided that it would probably sink. We tried it out, and were amazed by the results!

The class then went to le gymnase avec Mme. Murray, washed their hands and ate their snacks for the first nutritional break. After playing outside, we walked down to the gym again for an assembly to celebrate Terry Fox's contributions to cancer research and awareness. The students were quite fascinated by the idea of Terry Fox, and seemed to find it hard to believe that he could run with a prosthetic leg! Following the assembly, we walked and ran around the school for a little while to get into the spirit of things.

When we came back inside, the students participated in a "Pomme Taste Test." I had pre-sliced Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples available for each of the children to sample. Their task was to identify their favourite pomme, and then to represent that pomme on a graph (you can see the picture that goes along with this entry to get a better idea of what I mean!). Apparently rouge is a popular choice!

As the children finished this activity at differing times, I allowed those who had completed their pomme to choose an activity that they wished to play until it was time to prepare for the second nutritional break.

After eating and playing outside at recess, the children returned to the classroom and seemed quite tired. We had a little over 10 minutes of quiet time, and I proceeded to read the book "C'est l'automne" to the class. I found that most of the students could relate to this text, and many of them had stories to share about when they had personally attended fall fairs, and dressed in particular costumes for Halloween. :) It was nice to hear what they had to say. When the book and sharing time were finished, we practiced the song "Les couleurs de pommes." I really think that they are getting it! :) It was great to hear them singing along!

I hope that you all have a wonderful night. I am in the midst of planning for October, and I will have a new newsletter and calendar for your child to take home in the near future.

Mlle Craig

mardi le 27 septembre 2011

Maybe it had something to do with the warm rainy weather this morning, or perhaps it was a sign of adjustment, but many students were missing Mommy and Daddy at the beginning of the day today. :( While some children were engaged in the literacy centre activities: sequencing, felt boards, playdoh, memory game and writing practice, others were not feeling it. I decided to make centre time a little shorter than usual so that we could have a group discussion at the carpet about constructive things that we can do when we feel sad at school (e.g., making a card or drawing a picture for Mommy and Daddy, hugging Monsieur Ours, etc.). With some hesitancy, the students all participated in gym with Mme. Murray and seemed to enjoy their "Free Dance" activities there.

During the second block of the day, I read "La Pomme" to the class, and we passed around a real apple to get a sense of what we were actually reading about. Many of the students were fascinated to learn that apples actually begin as flowers on a tree. :) We took a vote and did an experiment about whether or not une pomme would float when placed in water. These results were also surprising to much of the class, who expected the apple to sink because of its apparent heaviness. (We didn't really discuss buoyancy or water displacement, but they did get to see this first-hand). Following our book, tally and experiment, we sang the song that I wrote to correspond with this mini-theme, "Rouge, Jaune, Verte." See if your child can remember any of it, and see yesterday's posting if you are interesting in learning the lyrics and tune so that you can sing it together at home. :)

During math, the students explored various math bins including construction tools (e.g., straws and connectors), les biscuits (matching), counting practice with the dominoes on the side bulletin board, and matching les animaux to their appropriate homes. When finished, students played on l'ordinateur, where they investigated a new DVD entitled "Mes premières chansons," - this consists of animated versions of popular French folk tunes and a "karaoke" option, painted pictures, and selected their own toys to play with from around the room.

I am finding that one of the biggest challenges of every day here in Kindergarten tends to happen during the last block. At this point, the children are often very tired, and I have them organize their things to go home VERY EARLY... but STILL some of them frequently forget to bring home things like lunch pails and coats, etc. I have a collection of such items in the perdu et trouvé bin as well as in the coat room. If you happen to be missing any such items, you are more than welcome to visit our classroom and have a look. I am doing my best to match lost articles with their proper owners, but this is not always possible due to time constraints and bussing issues. Writing about this also reminds me of something rather unrelated, but still to do with class organization - MILK TICKETS. I am finding our school's system of milk purchasing to be very confusing, and some students have already had the negative experience of NOT receiving their milk. :S Apologies! You could help me out immensely by PLACING THE MILK TICKET IN YOUR CHILD'S MAILBAG. I find that a lot of the time, the kids don't know where their milk tickets are, and this can lead to problems. Also, if you simply place their milk ticket into the labeled container, it can become confusing for me, as there are two classes (FKE and FKF) to keep track of... sometimes milk tickets from a previous day can be confused with others. Merci!

Mlle Craig

lundi le 26 septembre 2011

Bonjour! :)

Today the students walked into the classroom to discover their faces on "le pommier" as promised. Some of the students still have not painted "une pomme" or have their picture taken, so we will try to finish those two steps at some point later in the week if they haven't seen themself on the wall yet!

Literacy centres this morning included: sequencing puzzles, "pomme"-related literacy worksheets, magnetic letters on cookie sheets for letter and word practice and playdoh with letter stampers. Many of the students finished at the tables relatively quickly and expressed an interest in drawing on "the big paper." I doled out chart paper and let them exercise their creativity! The results are quite impressive and I will hang them up in our coat room to give it a little more colour. The class cleaned up very well and everyone was ready for music with Mme. Bennett. We are learning the song "Alouette" and experimenting with different percussion instruments to keep time to the song. Fantastique!There was also a Tornado drill this morning, and I am happy to report that all of the students behaved very appropriately during this time and that they followed directions well.

During our Math block, we briefly discussed the concept of tallying information. I had the students vote on a name for our class pet fish. So far, "Goldie" is in the lead with 6 votes... interesting name for a fish that is clearly blue and red in colour! ;) We also talked about estimating, and finally counted all of the gummy bears in the guessing jar from our Open House. There were a grand total of 122 gummy bears! Congratulations to Austin and family for his very close estimate of 120. :) Your prize was left in the classroom, but it will return home. Since estimation and problem-solving are part of the curricular expectations for this year, I am going to start sending home an "estimation jar" to every student throughout the rest of the year. When it is your child's turn with the jar, please fill it with some small objects (all the same) that we can estimate and count together! :) I will send more information about this home with the October newsletter.

Since autumn is fast approaching, I have decided to subtly introduce a mini-theme of "les pommes." Today we sang a simple song that I wrote about "Les pommes" to the tune of "Three Blind Mice" - I will include the lyrics at the end of this posting - and we read a book entitled "La pomme," which we found to be full of fascinating information about how apples are formed, and many different projects that we can complete using apples. I think that the kids are quite interested in trying some of these activities, and I am probably more excited than they are!!! :D


Mlle Craig


LYRICS TO "POMME" SONG

Rouge, jaune, verte
Rouge, jaune, verte
J'aime les pommes!
J'aime les pommes!

Elles sont bonnes pour la santé
Yuppi! Yuppi! Yuppi! YAY!
Les trois couleurs que j'avais chanté(e) sont

Rouge, jaune verte!

Photo Cred: les enfants

Here are a few of the pictures that the kids took on Friday! It looks like we have some photographers in our midst...

vendredi le 23 septembre 2011

C'est vendredi! I hope that you and your family enjoy a restful weekend, as I am sure that the past few weeks have been tiring and a big adjustment for some.
Today began with literacy centres including: painting, "fishing" for letters of the alphabet with magnetic rods, a memory game, letter necklaces and bracelets, playdoh (of which we could already use some new, purchased or homemade! :)), and practice writing and drawing with markers on both chart paper and construction paper. I noticed that it took the students a little longer than usual to clean up the centre areas today, and they needed a few more reminders. Perhaps this is just symptomatic of the presence of new JKs who are still adjusting to the program. Overall, everyone still did very well, and we were ready for Mme Murray when she arrived to teach Health and Gym lessons.

During our Math block, we revisited "Regarde par la fenêtre." A great number of the students can now 'read' this text along with me, which is great! I think that we will have to start a new book of a similar format very soon. Following our weather report, we reviewed how to write the number 23 and practiced "air writing" this number. It was then added to the calendar along with "la pomme." We added a paper link to our chain, which is growing very quickly! Then, I modeled a basic graph based on eye colour, and had the students add a sticker to it in an appropriate place to represent their eye colour.

During Free-choice play time today, I observed a lot of art happening around the classroom. It seems like many kids felt like drawing, colouring, and practicing their writing by choice at that time. Again, there was a lot of dramatic play happening as well, and what I found particularly humourous was a group of girls who were playing school! :) They were pointing to the calendar and counting, and doing an excellent job at both directing and being part of their "pretend class." Fantastique!

L'ordinateur is always a popular choice during free activity time as well. I would really love to have about two more computers set up in the classroom, as technology is so important for kids to grasp in this day and age. I am going to look into possibly reserving the computer lab in the library to give the students some time to familiarize themselves with French games, etc. outside of the classroom. Perhaps they could even create a project using some simple software. If you have any great ideas for this, please let me know! I will continue to ponder!

I took a risk, today, and actually taught the kids how to use my digital camera. I reiterated the importance of "wearing the camera strap like a bracelet" to avoid dropping it, etc. and then I allowed them to take pictures of their friends at play (with their consent!). I haven't had a chance to go through these photos, but I am sure that they will be very interesting and show a bit of the world from a kid's perspective. :)

Bon-weekend!

Mlle Craig

jeudi le 22 septembre 2011

It was another great day here in Room #5!

This morning the students visited a number of literacy centres including some favourites - playdoh letter stamps, the shopping cart memory game, letter practice on the whiteboards, painting, and letter beading. I continued to assess the JKs to get a better idea of their ability to distinguish between letters and numbers. The class cleaned up very well, and I had time to reward all of les garçons et les filles with some pompoms in the jar before Gym and Health avec Mme. Murray! Féliciations, les amis!

In the Gym, a special surprise awaited the class... les canards (real, live ducks!)! The students enjoyed watching these playful critters and even got to touch them (Don't worry - they all very thoroughly washed their hands afterwards!). Thanks to Mme. Murray for arranging this unique experience. :)

Later on, we revisited our book "Regarde, par la fenetre" and we answered the question "Quel temps-fait il?" as a class. We completed our calendar and practiced "air writing" le numéro vingt deux. One student pointed to the numbers on the chart, and another moved "la pomme" over to the appropriate day. We did not get to our paper chain today, however the students did take part in a graphing exercise designed to represent the colour of their eyes (which was rather long overdue! Sorry for the delay!). The students then visited Math centres which included cube building, cookie-matching, sequencing, subitizing (matching counted pictures to actual numerical figures and realizing that they are equal to each other), and number-writing practice.

Students "read" silently at the tapis during break period, packed their belongings and got everything ready to go home, and then became engaged in free choice activities. All was well, and everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves! :) 

A+

Mlle Craig

mercredi le 21 septembre

In spite of the dreary weather, our day in Kindergarten was bright today! As it was the first full day for another group of JK students, we did a little assessment to uncover their ability to distinguish between letters and numbers.

Literacy centres featured today included fishing for "les lettres," playdoh and floam with tools and letter stamps, letter necklace beading (which has been shown to help students learn the concept of text moving from left to right), felt board story creation, painting, and a variety of differently leveled worksheets that fit in nicely with the "Moi, je m'aime" theme.

We went on a scavenger hunt/nature walk around the school, and the students were excited to discover a special surprise awaiting them in the library (delivered by none other than Chester, from the Kissing Hand). We began to explore our library, a place that we will be visiting weekly throughout the year as soon as all of the JK information has been imputted into the computer system. While at the library, we read a book about how we can use good manners when we borrow books from the library and from other people. I was very impressed with the class' ability to walk carefully and quietly in line throughout the school. They behaved very well outside and were rewarded with some pom poms for their jar. Félicitaions!

As it was raining during the second Nutritional Break, we had extra time for free play today. One of our very involved lunch helpers initiated a puppet show at the puppet theatre, and most of the students got right into the action. :) When they were given the opportunity to choose their play later in the day, many of them decided to put on similar plays of their own.

I usually begin preparing the students to go home no later than 2:20 PM. At this point, we do a thorough clean-up of the classroom, and the kids organize all of their belongings in the coat room - including their "sacs en plastique." It is great to hear some of the children singing "Ranger, ramasser c'est le temps de nettoyer!" along with me. :) So far, they seem to be adapting well to the daily routines.

Merci!

Mlle Craig

Quelques photos