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