Here are some photos of our time together from the month of October. Both morning and afternoon classes are included.
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The last week of October Miss Modien lead the students in a pumpkin investigation. She carved a pumpkin for each class, having the students vote on the shapes of the eyes, nose, and mouth. The children each suggested a name for their class's pumpkin and a name was drawn from a hat. On Monday we started our pumpkin investigation by exploring the outside of a pumpkin. Students passed around a small pumpkin and came up with words to describe the outside of a pumpkin. Students were asked to use words that describe the way the pumpkin looks, smells, and feels. On Tuesday our investigation continued and we learned all about the inside of a pumpkin. Students were able to explore the pumpkin guts, the inside of a pumpkin, and taste roasted pumpkin seeds. They were then asked to describe what they saw, felt, tasted and smelled, once again using their senses. As the children felt the inside of a pumpkin, we heard the following comments:
Wow, what a fun day! There were so many families willing to help our with our pumpkin party; I think it was the most successful one I have ever had. Thank you to everyone who sent snacks, goodies, and the parents/grandparents that were able to volunteer their time to help out in the classroom. The day began like most others - with carpet time and community circle. We then had time to play our Halloween centers, which were run by the parents and teachers:
We then participated in a Halloween Parade to see everyone's costumes, ate the treats sent by our families, and listened to Halloween songs before going home. I hope you all had a safe and fun time trick-or-treating! Morning ClassA huge thank you to our parent volunteers who made this party so great - Connor's mom, Leah; Dacie's mom, Kelli; Cameron's mom, Val; Hudson's mom, Erin; Zack's mom; Jackie; and Lexi's mom, Michelle. A special shout out to Jackie and Zack who made a Spiderman pinata for the class too! Thank you so much to all of the parents who sent snacks for this party and treat bags to go home with the kids. Their mailboxes were so full of candy, they almost didn't need to go trick-or-treating! Afternoon ClassA huge thank you to our parent volunteers for making this party so great - Grace's grandma, Nana Lynn; Ethan's mom, Michelle; and Katey's mom, Dianne. Thank you to all of the parents who sent snacks for our party. There was so much more than I thought there was going to be! I hope you enjoy the photos below. I tried to take as many photos as I could, but because there weren't as many parent volunteers as there were in the morning, I had to help the children at two centers so wasn't able to take photos the whole time. Sorry if I missed taking a photo of your little one, I know I didn't get a picture of everyone. Thanks for sending an apple to school for apple day this week! We used our apples for a math lesson - first we counted them, then we talked about the way the apples are similar and different, which lead to a whole group sorting activity. The children chose different attributes to focus our sorting on - for example, our morning class sorted by size, stem/no stem, colour. The children then practiced their fine motor skills by peeling and cutting apples with plastic knives to prepare our applesauce. It had to cook all day (a form of torture for the other teachers near our room because it smelled so good) and we got to try our apple sauce the following day. As the children ate, I recorded some of their comments: It tastes good. We also read the story "Who Took the Apples" on our promethean board, and each child completed their own version which was sent home earlier this week.
We concluded apple week with an art activity to learn the parts of an apple (skin, flesh, seeds, core, stem, and leaves). Your child's apple art will be placed in their portfolio... so you will get to see it at student led conferences next week! This post is a little late... but as I always say, better late than never! I wanted to thank Arianna's mom, Miss Roberta, and Zack's mom, Miss Jackie, for spending time with us last Thursday. Having an extra adult in the room gave us an opportunity to teach the children to play different board games. This is fantastic, because now the kids know how to play these games and can do so with their friends during center time with minimal adult help. Board games are an excellent way to reinforce numeracy or literacy skills while also giving children the opportunity to work on their social skills. Here are some photos from our games day. The kids had so much fun doing these! Taylor even asked me if it was a party :) On Tuesday we read one of my favourite books - "Setting the Turkey's Free". It's a great story for retelling (which focuses on oral language development, which is a precursor for writing and understanding stories) and connecting to art. We were busy all week creating our own turkeys, which will be going home tomorrow. We also use used grocery fliers to create our own 'Thanksgiving plate'. This activity incorporates fine motor skills (cutting and gluing), while working on sorting and classifying and developing vocabulary. Each child shared their 'plate' with the class when we were finished. For our community circle, each class member shared what they were thankful for. Here are our thoughts: Morning Class "I'm thankful for...
Afternoon Class "I'm thankful for...
Roll-A-Turkey
For this math station, children rolled a die and added the corresponding detail to their turkey body. This station helps children learn to subitize - which is recognizing number sets at a glance (meaning they can look quickly at a die and know they rolled a four without having to count the dots). You can help your child with this skill at home by playing board games with them. Dear Families,
An information letter and sign-up sheet for Student Led Conferences will be sent home on Tuesday. Our class is not using the online sign-up system the rest of the school is using as you will come for a 30 minute slot, not a 10 minute slot. I have uploaded it under the "Newsletters and Forms" tab above, if you would like to read it over the weekend (you could even print it off and send in your sign-up sheet on Tuesday if you wish). Happy Thanksgiving! Love, Ms. D. Hello Families,
Be sure to check your child's folder as we started our phonics program today! There is an information package for you to read through, letter cards for activities, and today's printing sheet for the sound "s". We will learn a new sound almost everyday and it's important to reinforce these sounds at home. At the end of the day, we had some extra packages so are worried we somehow missed a folder. If you did not receive the package please write me a note on your child's "Week at a Glance" sheet. Thanks! Ms. D. |
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