Ms. Ladd
Home
November 26/12
First of all, THANKS for the kleenex donations for the class. They were very much appreciated and needed as the cold and flu season visits us!
Mrs. A and I really enjoyed meeting with everyone during Parent Teacher interviews.
As the winter weather approaches, please send in extra mitts and socks as well as extra pants and long sleeve shirts. Thanks.
Thanks to all of the parent volunteers who joined us at the McLaughlin Art Gallery on Friday. It was an awesome trip and we were an awesome class there. We will be busy applying some of those same art skills during learning centres over the next few weeks.
Our class will be participating in our Holiday concert during the afternoon of Wednesday December 12th. We hope that we will see many families that afternoon if your work schedules permit. More details will be coming home soon.
This week we will be posting our Zipper Club chart and as students master their coat zippers, their names will be added to the chart. Our zipper masters will then be able to help others!
We will be starting a "discovery" centre during learning centres where the students will be creating new objects out of toilet paper/paper towel rolls, old cereal boxes (nut free please), kleenex boxes etc. Please send in any of these items for the next two weeks if you have any. Thanks.
Skills to practise at home: cutting (thumb points up), name printing, SK snap words, counting, 1:1 correspondence, buttons and zippers, boots on and off.Your efforts to assist your child become independent in their dressing skills and thus able to get out quickly for recess is much appreciated.
From now until the Christmas holidays:
Our library day is Monday. Ms. Green and Mrs. A. take the class to the library for book exchange.
Our gym days are Monday and Tuesday.
Our reading buddy day is Tuesday.
Our music days with Mrs. M are Wednesday and Thursday and Friday is our dance day with Mrs. M.
I have finally included a window into our day and what we are working on under the "What We Are Working On" tab. Thanks for your patience and support.
Deb Ladd and Kula A.
What We Are Working On
Finally! Our daily schedule is structured and predictable so that the students gain confidence and independence. Our day starts with dressing skills and finding Mr. Zippy and locating the appropriate JK or SK bucket for Mr. Zippy. Then the students find their names and enjoy the activity they find on their table. For JKs this can include: book browsing, ABC puzzles, matching pictures with initial letters/sounds, whiteboard and whiteboard markers, matching magnetic pictures and initial letters/sounds. For SKs this can include snap word activities (spin a rama, wordsearches), book browsing, reading from their independent book bags (containing sight word books and levelled books). Mrs. A and I both work with individual students at this time to assess skills or develop skills.
Next comes our Daily Data question. The students place their name card in the appropriate category to answer each day's question. Previous questions include: What did you wear today?.....mittens or gloves. What kind of apples do you like best? ....red.....green.....yellow. Do you have a brother? ....Yes No. We make predictions and then prove our predictions by counting to determine which category has more/the most/ or less/the least. This tasks integrates many math skills each day.
Following this we sing our Morning Message song and read/solve the daily message. At this task we focus on letters/sounds and snap words, punctuation, upper case and lower case letters, missing words/letters. We read and reread the message to make sure that it makes sense because that's what reading is all about: understanding the text. This is a great opportunity for many students to develop and apply turn taking skills, listening skills, concentration and focus, as well as confidence and risk taking.
Next we are writers. We have a read aloud, a quick mini lesson and then the students select a writing task from our "Today I am going to be an Author"choice board. Choices include: booklets, journals, writing folders, and I Wonder (posing questions and pictures on our Wonder Wall) near the computers. Mrs. A and I conference and encourage/assist students during this writing time. Usually 4 students are chosen to share what they did as a writer each day. We celebrate as many writers each week as we can.
We have our morning snack at this time usually.
Following this, we might have a read aloud and talk about "What is the author's message? What did the author want us to learn from this book?" or we might do letter work (names and sounds of letters) using Starfall, sound charts and our work in our duotangs. Jks play sound and letter bingo and are currently learning about (oral) rhyming words. SKs are participating in small group Guided Reading where we focus on consolidating snap words as develop an understanding of a variety of reading strategies as well as independent reading (where they read to themselves or a partner) from their independent reading bags.
We also might have music or library or gym during the morning.
Finally we play outside from 11:35-12:05 in the kindergarten yard. At 12:05 we come in to eat.
At 12:40 our afternoon starts. From 12:40 until 1:40 half of the students first play outside and then come in for math while the other half of the class start with math and then go out to play. We have just finished sorting objects. JKs have sorted by attributes such as colour, size and shape. Sks have sorted and then re-sorted the same objects by attributes such as colour, size, shape, number of legs (animals), length of legs (animals, people). We will be focusing on number recognition to 10, 1:1 correspondence for the JKs (matching objects with numbers.....4 forks for 4 friends) and tens frames. SKs will be focusing on number lines, tens frames and ten frame partners (1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7 etc) as well as a variety of dice games and more/less/counting games).
We have last snack and then go out to play during last recess.
Following recess we come in for learning centres and lots of fun. Our centres include: painting, markers, the whiteboard, computer, building (lego, loctagons, bristle blocks, tinker toys, toy hammers and screws with hard hats, sand, playdough, puzzles, feltboards, reading, writing, art, science, math games and blocks. The students choose the centres each day.
We wind up our day with starfall or a Franklin movie and then it's time to pack our Mr. Zippies in our backpacks and get ready for home.
Our days are busy, busy, busy!
Treat Schedule
Treat Team Schedule
The following is a schedule for classroom celebrations throughout the year.
To avoid excess food or too much of one thing, a schedule has been provided. Specific dates will be posted on our Class webpage as Celebrations approach.
1. Fruit
2. Veggies
3. Sweet (ie.cookies)
4. Salty (ie.chips)
5. Salty (ie.crackers)
6. Cheese
(We will provide drinks)
|
Fall (Oct 31) |
Winter |
|
Xavier Shiler Samya Omid, Aidan Nicole Lucas |
Kate Kali Jeremiah Jenny, Alexis Isobel R. Isabelle D. |
|
Friendship/Healthy Heart |
Spring Fling |
|
Faith Ella Delilah Dylan Domenic Colby |
Carter Brooke I. Brooke B. Ben Aveline Ava |
Please keep in mind to purchase items that are peanut free, tree nut free and free of sesame seeds. If you are unable to provide treats, please let us know so that other arrangements can be made.
Thank you in advance,
Deb Ladd and Kula Aidiniou