Thank you as always to our valued volunteers. As always it was wonderful to see so many of you at the Sharing Assembly. The kids did a fantastic job, thank you Ms. McGee! Congratulations again to Ethan, Malena and Anirudh! The next Sharing Assembly will recognize the character trait of honesty, on Thursday, March 31. Thanks as always to our Pizza Day helpers, well done! There is NO Pizza Day in March but there are 2 in April.
As March Break approaches we ask that if your child will be away, you send a note with the absence dates on it. This allows us to prepare the classroom (seating, supplies, etc.) as well, I pass notes on to Mrs. Shakespeare so the office is not calling with absence notifications. As you can imagine at times like this there are multiple students away from most classes and any help we can give the office is welcomed!
Your child will bring their March calendar home next week, look for and celebrate their number skills as well as notice the picture at the top - made in a TDSB computer program called "Millie's Math House" with Ms. Santiago. Well done!
With the number of our students who have had "beach" vacations and the stories they have brought back about people - juggling fire! -places and creatures they have seen - Sloths! Shells! The things they have done - Surfing! Treasure hunting! Everyone in class is fascinated so we will be studying the ocean and its' creatures for the next few weeks culminating in a BEACH DAY of our very own!
Friday, March 11 will be our own BEACH DAY in class. Your child may bring a beach towel to sit on, sun hats, sunglasses etc are welcome but NO bathing suits please. We will have at least 2 outdoor periods on that day so if you are thinking shorts and T shirt please be sure your child has EASY TO PULL ON OVER THE TOP leggings or track pants. We would never have time nor space for them to use the washroom to take off one set and put on another several times over the day! Perhaps our weather might be lovely and sunny in honour of our celebration BUT remember we are outside at
least twice even on a fun day such as this - I aim to look for beach balls to play with out there so hopefully the temperature will cooperate and they won't get frozen and pop.
We have been working on our shapes (2D) and solids (3D) unit and the kids are enjoying experimenting and building with the assorted pieces. We emphasize recognizing shapes by the number of sides and corners they have and attributes of the sides such as long, short, curved. In later grades they will use sub categories to define polygons as a separate group. We look at combinations of shapes that can make other shapes like 2 triangles can make a square, 3 diamonds can make a hexagon etc. Being able to see relationships like this as well as being able to rotate, slide, flip shapes is so important in geometry in the higher grades. Three dimensional solids are recognized in kindergarten by what they might represent or resemble such as a sphere is a ball shape, a cube is a box shape and a cylinder a can shape but we do introduce the proper names at this age. Grade ones go on to look at the faces, edges and vertices of solids as ways to categorize them and so we look at that as well to introduce the children to the terms not with the expectation that they memorize the
attributes.
We have over 30 sight words on our wall at present, that is approximately a word every 3 days! Way to learn kindergartens! Knowing these words means your child can rhyme from them to make and spell many other words! Everyone learns at their own rate and everyone has a different optimal number of repetitions before consolidating a skill so practising the Jolly Phonics sounds, doing meaningful writing activities such as notes and card to friends, grocery lists, keeping a journal at home, etc gives them opportunities to reinforce the skills and confidence comes from this. Whether it is yourself working with them, myself, or outside tutoring programs the success is in the practising as with any other skill. Remember, as the adults in their lives, myself and yourselves are powerful role models. When we show them ourselves doing reading and writing tasks, valuing reading and writing that is powerful stuff! Way to go team!
The March Scholastic Order was sent home in Friday's mailbag, due back on Tuesday. I am hoping this will allow you to get the books prior to the break. Please be sure to have your child hand in the PAPER order form even if you pay on line. The system deposits the payment in our class account but DOES NOT tell me what you ordered so I cannot put it on the actual class order! Please check also that you child's NAME is on the order form. Thanks
This week looks like:
Monday - Day 5 LIB/IT PM
Tuesday -
Wednesday - Reading Buddies, Mystery Reader AM, Day 2 LIB/IT PM
Thursday - Music PM
Friday - Mystery Reader PM
Have a great week!
Ms. I.
