Thank you as always to our valued volunteers. This week we had the pleasure of having Disa and Stuart Sr. accompany us on our trip - thank you! The kids had a fun afternoon - just the bus ride was excitement overload for some!! The performers were somewhat low key, some would have liked a little more movement and "flash" to keep their attention - think "Kiss" concert with pyrotechnics and flying guitar leaps or am I showing my age a little there... The venue was great, the seats were comfy and we thank Ms. Norton for organizing.
Mailbags with "Little Readers" will go OUT this week on Tuesday but not on Friday. We will collect them back IN on Friday but not send you a new one for over the March Break. The week following the break - March 20-24 we will NOT send books to give me a chance to re-assess the levels we are using and swap out the books for new sets. There are books available for online reading, free with your Toronto Public Library card as well as on other sites such as "Starfall", that are fun and accessible no matter where your week away from school may take you!
We continue to investigate 2D shapes, learning to recognize attributes and name shapes according to their attributes - straight sides, curved sides, vertices, short sides, long sides, parallel sides, regular and irregular, polygons...these are all words we use to identify and name shapes and their attributes. After the break we will look at 3D shapes and their attributes. Keep in mind that the math strands we introduce and use in Kindergarten remain the same through the grades with additional age appropriate information and expectations added so it never hurts to use the correct words (more technical usually) from a young age.
We add 4 new words to our morning message this week and when we looked around last week and realized that we can read (or find/identify somewhere in the room - because locating and copying is a valid strategy!) many words such as our day words, colour words, friend and family names, our message words and the sight words on our magnet board...the kids were pretty impressed with themselves! At this age reading and writing is all about confidence and trying, not so much correct spelling. As someone who taught grade one for many years, I can tell you it is much better to have children try to share what they know with "approximate" spelling than be afraid to write. With more and more practice in both the reading and writing, the spelling will come.
This week looks like:
Monday - Day 3 LIB/IT PM
Tuesday - Mailbags - last book out before the break, Reading Buddies AM, Mystery Reader PM
Wednesday - Day 5 LIB/IT AM
Thursday - Music AM
Friday - Mailbags IN but no books home, Mystery Reader AM
**A reminder that if you will be away from school beyond the March Break, please give me the dates so that Mrs. Shakespeare (in the office) is not needlessly calling students for attendance checks when they are happily and safely away! You can imagine that there will be many absences across the grades in the next few weeks and we try to keep her as updated as possible so even if a sudden travel deal takes you away, let a friend know and they can pass it on. Many thanks!
Have a great week,
Ms. I.
