News for May

Visitors:

This month pre-kindergarten children are visiting our classroom during the mornings.  These will be short visits, to give our visitors a taste of the kindergarten program.  Our daily schedule will be altered from time to time to accommodate these very young guests, and we thank you in advance for your understanding.

Science and Math:

We have loaded the incubator!  Barring power failure or other catastrophes, the first eggs should hatch on May 16^th.  Hatching usually takes place over a 48-hour period.  As the chicks hatch, we remove them from the incubator (the “delivery room”) and place them under a heat lamp (the “maternity ward”).   

We counted all the eggs by ones, twos, fives and tens.  We sorted them according to colour, shape and size (and learned in the process that 8 hens had laid the eggs that we selected for the incubator).  We made patterns with them, examined the contents (there was some speculation that they looked as different on the inside as the outside), and finally selected the best ones for the incubator.

Last week we estimated and then counted out broccoli, alfalfa and mung bean seeds before putting them in the sprouter.  The sprouts were delicious!  This week we are starting pumpkin seeds, which we saved these seeds from our jack o’lantern last fall.  At some point these seedlings will be coming home with your child, to be planted in a sunny place in the garden where you’ll remember to water them. 

During all this, we are learning about living things:   about growth in baby animals, growth in baby plants, and how all these living things change according to the seasons. 

 We are also working on making addition sentences that correspond to sets of numbers, and on making number sets that correspond to addition sentences.  We are trying to apply strategies to guess how many groups of ten are in a given number.   We still practice counting by ones, twos, tens and fives.

Literacy: 

This term most of the seniors are reading  or sounding out high-frequency words of one or two syllables, and the juniors are working on letter sounds.  We are play games such as Bang! And Bingo with our sight words, and play blackboard games involving initial, middle and final sounds.  The children write on individual blackboards and on in their journals, and the seniors are beginning to work in small groups writing sentences. 

It is normal for children at this age to experience confusion about the “left to right” word order during reading and writing.  You can reinforce this skill at home by moving a finger or popsicle stick underneath the words as you read with your child.  You can also help your child by practicing correct letter formation at home. 

The most important way to help your child progress, however, is to read on a daily basis and to talk together about the stories you read.

Social Development: 

Our social discussions and stories are largely influenced by social problems that arise in the classroom.  Recent topics have been the right of everyone to choose for themselves who they will or will not play with; where it is safe to play; the importance of never going someplace without the knowledge of one’s parent, teacher or caregiver; and the importance of respecting others’ personal space.  We are also honouring the virtue of empathy this month. 

We are also discussing different jobs people do in the community.  You can help us by sending in photos of you at work, so that we can talk about the different jobs our parents perform and how they help others.

Thank you

·         For the newspapers you have already begun to send in for the chicks’ bedding

·         For volunteering your time to help small groups of children with their reading and counting

·         For sending in special books to share with the children

·         For taking the time to complete and comment on your children’s reading logs each night

·         For your enthusiasm and support of the kindergarten program!

News for April

Coming Events:

Easter:  In previous years some classes have had small celebrations for Easter.  This year the school is making a policy of asking parents who wish to send in treats to ensure that said treats are healthy and nutritious.  

Hatching chicks:

In mid-April, we are setting chicken eggs to incubate.  Incubation takes 21 days, and I will time the incubation so that the eggs should hatch over a 24-hour period mid-week.

Classroom Learning: 

Literacy:  We do most of our writing while seated at the carpet, using individual blackboards.  Our focus continues to be correct letter formation, predicting the letters in a word, and writing high-frequency words.  Children enjoy regular “book looks” where they choose their reading material, reading aloud together as a class, and reading individually or in small groups to the teacher.  At home you can help your child by encouraging him or her to point at the words while s/he is reading aloud, and to make a game out of identifying high-frequency words in different texts.  The children who use their word cards frequently at home are able to recognize many of these words at school now, so thank you for your hard work in these regard. 

Numeracy:  We count and compare sets of objects, read and write numbers, identify “mistakes” in the calendar, identify patterns and create our own, read and discuss simple graphs, and create pictures and structures with different shapes and solids.  We also continue to talk about units of time (days, weeks, months).  You can help your children by counting aloud with them, reviewing your household calendar for important events, and discussing numbers in terms of  “more than” and “less than”. 

Springtime:  We are learning about the changing season, with seeds, birds (especially robins) and animal babies playing a starring role.  Much of our artwork, poetry, songs, science investigations and games relate to this unit.  This week we are talking about how important it is to never touch or pick up baby animals, because the parents can be scared away and not return to care for their babies.  At home you can talk about the animals you see, sign books about spring out of the library, and discuss how different animals raise their babies.

Science:

Bird Feeders: Intermediate students came to visit for the afternoon and helped the kindergartens implement their designs for bird feeders. We have discussed where we placed our feeders, and our observations of the animals that visit our feeders (not all of them have been birds), and compared our initial designs to our final plans. Our last step is to discuss how we might alter our designs if we were to redo the project.

Buoyancy: We are exploring the differences between things that sink and things that float. (The students have particularly enjoyed sorting themselves into float/sink categories.)