I hope you all have a wonderful Family Day and long weekend. I certainly enjoyed some time in the snow this weekend by going skiing for the first time in nearly two decades! I am aware a few families have requested to have email updates, rather than blog updates; so I will begin that this week.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAST WEEK:
WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
We have an exciting 4-day week with Valentine’s celebrations, another visit from our school Literacy Coordinator, Mrs. Buchart to talk about how to retell stories, Kindergarten Vision Screening and a visit from Wayne on Friday.
Remember to bring your Valentine’s “mailbox” bag and any Valentines cards on Tuesday. We will deliver valentine cards just before lunch or later in the afternoon. The students are welcome to wear red or pink. After eating lunch, the primary students will have an option to go out to the playground or attend the school dance from 12:15-12:45pm. We will have our class Valentine’s celebration just before lunch. Thanks to those families who signed up to bring a treat for our Valentines party!
This week’s Jolly Phonics letter is Bb (we will work on differentiating between Dd and Bb). In Printing, we will continue working on more “frog jump capital letters”: H and K. We will also continue practicing forming “8”, “9”, “10” properly. The students have been working on identifying the initial letter sound they hear. We will focus on using “inventive spelling” (sometimes we call it “kid writing”) where students try to print all the prominent sounds they hear in a word (e.g. apple = apl). In Math, we will begin counting to 100 by 5s (as the kids are quite capable by 10s :D) and have some fun with Valentine's-themed number recognition activity. In Science, we will continue being Researchers and hunt for answers to the kids inquiry questions. We will also draw penguins like real Scientists and learn about how to refine our sketches with help from our Big Buddies.
100th DAY OF KINDERGARTEN –I am needing 2-3 more parent/grandparent volunteers to be able to run the 100th Day math activities I was hoping to. The Math centres will happen between 10:30-11:50 am on the 27th. If you are able, please sign up on the Parent-Volunteer sheet (outside our classroom door) or send me a note in your child's agenda. Thanks for your help! :)
Please complete a 100 collection or poster with your child and send it to school on Monday, February 27th. The project can be as simple or complex as you like. If you happen to be stuck for ideas, Pinterest is a helpful place to look! Please have your child group the objects in groups of 10 and label 10, 20, 30, etc. before bringing the collection to school. I would suggest making a poster display or storing the objects in ziplock bags, an empty egg carton or Tupperware containers, etc.
REMINDERS/HOW PARENTS CAN HELP:
THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE:
Monday – Family Day (No School)
Tuesday – Valentine’s Day (cookie-grams, dance in gym 12:15-12:45, class Valentines party)
- P.E. with Ms. Hall
Wednesday – Library
Thursday – Kindergarten Vision Screening around 9:00am (please be on time for school or your child may miss his/her screening)
Friday - P.E. with Mrs. Brkovic
- Roots of Empathy visit with Wayne
UPCOMING EVENTS:
See you Tuesday!
-Ms. Gartrell
HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAST WEEK:
- Another visit from Baby Thomas - who now sits up, rolls over and is making lots of noise!
- Conducting hands-on experiments to experience how penguins stay warm (oily feathers, blubber, huddling)
- Printing our very best “R”s, “M”s “N”s in our HWT workbooks (and impressing the “Picky Printing Princess” -aka: Ms. Gartrell wearing a tiara ;D)
- Sustaining our quiet Read-to-Self time for 8 minutes! (That was 2 minute improvement from last week)
- “Overflowing” each Busy Bee’s bucket by writing a Valentine for him/her
- Working on an ongoing penguin art project
- Reading non-fiction penguin books and answering some of our inquiry questions
WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
We have an exciting 4-day week with Valentine’s celebrations, another visit from our school Literacy Coordinator, Mrs. Buchart to talk about how to retell stories, Kindergarten Vision Screening and a visit from Wayne on Friday.
Remember to bring your Valentine’s “mailbox” bag and any Valentines cards on Tuesday. We will deliver valentine cards just before lunch or later in the afternoon. The students are welcome to wear red or pink. After eating lunch, the primary students will have an option to go out to the playground or attend the school dance from 12:15-12:45pm. We will have our class Valentine’s celebration just before lunch. Thanks to those families who signed up to bring a treat for our Valentines party!
This week’s Jolly Phonics letter is Bb (we will work on differentiating between Dd and Bb). In Printing, we will continue working on more “frog jump capital letters”: H and K. We will also continue practicing forming “8”, “9”, “10” properly. The students have been working on identifying the initial letter sound they hear. We will focus on using “inventive spelling” (sometimes we call it “kid writing”) where students try to print all the prominent sounds they hear in a word (e.g. apple = apl). In Math, we will begin counting to 100 by 5s (as the kids are quite capable by 10s :D) and have some fun with Valentine's-themed number recognition activity. In Science, we will continue being Researchers and hunt for answers to the kids inquiry questions. We will also draw penguins like real Scientists and learn about how to refine our sketches with help from our Big Buddies.
100th DAY OF KINDERGARTEN –I am needing 2-3 more parent/grandparent volunteers to be able to run the 100th Day math activities I was hoping to. The Math centres will happen between 10:30-11:50 am on the 27th. If you are able, please sign up on the Parent-Volunteer sheet (outside our classroom door) or send me a note in your child's agenda. Thanks for your help! :)
Please complete a 100 collection or poster with your child and send it to school on Monday, February 27th. The project can be as simple or complex as you like. If you happen to be stuck for ideas, Pinterest is a helpful place to look! Please have your child group the objects in groups of 10 and label 10, 20, 30, etc. before bringing the collection to school. I would suggest making a poster display or storing the objects in ziplock bags, an empty egg carton or Tupperware containers, etc.
REMINDERS/HOW PARENTS CAN HELP:
- 2-3 more adult volunteers are needed for 100th Day Math Centers (sign-up sheet is on hallway bulletin board)
- The class is collecting the following to use in February/early March:
- children-sized shoe boxes (adult-sized boxes are bit too large)
- Cereal boxes (regular sized, “Jumbo/family size” is too large)
- Work on making a 100 collection at home. Bring the completed project back Feb. 27th (with your child’s name CLEARLY written on it).
- Students need to STAY OFF THE SNOW PILES (no playing “King of the Hill” and trying to push others off, etc.), to use sidewalks and crosswalks (NOT WALK THROUGH PARKING LOTS), and to leave ALL SNOW ON THE GROUND (no throwing snowballs) BEFORE, DURING, or AFTER SCHOOL
- Friendly reminder if your child arrives late (after 8:30am), you must sign him/her in at the office and our secretary will hand your child a popsicle stick (this stick is given to the teacher so we know the student has been accounted for in the computer attendance system).
THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE:
Monday – Family Day (No School)
Tuesday – Valentine’s Day (cookie-grams, dance in gym 12:15-12:45, class Valentines party)
- P.E. with Ms. Hall
Wednesday – Library
Thursday – Kindergarten Vision Screening around 9:00am (please be on time for school or your child may miss his/her screening)
Friday - P.E. with Mrs. Brkovic
- Roots of Empathy visit with Wayne
UPCOMING EVENTS:
- February 22nd - Pink Shirt Day (wear a pink shirt to encourage tolerance, acceptance and kindness -aka: Anti-bully day)
- February 23rd - Early Dismissal @ 12:30pm (I will be contacting those families I would like to have a Parent-Teacher interview with)
- February 24th - Pro-D Day (No school)
- February 27th - 100th Day of Kindergarten
- March 1st - Read Around the Planet with Mrs. Gorman (a special event where our class will get to teleconference with another school in Canada. We will be focusing on sharing a literacy activity)
- March 9th - House at Pooh Corner - Western Canada Theatre matinee! Specific details are still being worked out, but I wanted to give families as much notice as possible as there will be a cost for the ticket and bussing - my estimate is $12-15.
See you Tuesday!
-Ms. Gartrell