PJ and Moustache Day

The Kindergarten class raised $70 for Cancer Care! Way to go Kinders and a big thank you to our generous families!

Artist in the classroom

This week we had the pleasure of working with artist Jamie Olivero. He is a storyteller and song writer who came to our class as part of his residency at Voyageur. He wrote songs for us about colour and told us stories about animals.

Listening intently to Jamie's story about a giant pumpkin.

He builds suspense into his tales. They couldn't wait to hear what happened next.

This Week in Kindergarden

Here are a few pictures from last week. 

Small world discovery during play centres.

Writing centre with smencils!

Teaching one of our new puppets how to read the daily schedule. Imagination at work!!

Dancing to Disco Brain on GoNoodle.

Learning Through Discovery

Educators recognize the importance of setting up classroom environments that encourage discovery and curiosity, especially in the early years. An environment that lends itself to discovery provides children with the opportunity to think, ask questions and to wonder. Wonder is an amazing way to learn about the world around you and to satisfy each individual child's curiosity. While children may wonder about similar things, there will always be unique and interesting things that they wonder about.

Inspired by my professional readings, I have been gathering items for our classroom over the course of the term. This along with the new treasures I have ordered through the division and a generous gift from one of our families, we now have lots to discover!

Children can be very creative in their play! I am always amazed at the new, innovative and fun ways children look at things. Letters and numbers from a light table become glasses, a table becomes a den for kittens, or dominoes can be made into a network of curbs to drive cars through. 

The conversations I have had with students (and more importantly, that they have with each other) provide opportunities to describe, explain, or celebrate their ideas. They also have the chance to develop oral language skills with both teachers and peers.

Benefits of Discovery from A Place for Wonder, by Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough

Discovery stimulates curiosity,

students learn through inquiry and observation, 

helps students to recognize and solve problems, 

encourages exploration, interaction and discussions with peers,

allows students to gather data through their senses,

stimulates imagination and creativity,

encourages students to find or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences. 

And it's a lot of fun!

Reading Buddies

Once a cycle the Kindergartens read with their reading buddies from Mrs Mikkelson's class. The Kinders love reading with their buddies and cheer every time they see it on our daily schedule! 

Our buddies bring books to share with us. The kids find places throughout our room to cozy up and read.

They find some interesting places!

And are engaged with the stories their buddies carefully picked for them.

During reading buddies the Kinders not only build relationships with the big kids but they also learn about book handling, get excited about reading and build stamina when reading text.

They look forward to it all week.

Finger Painting with Dinosaurs

On Friday morning the Dinos got into our finger paints. We decided to take advantage of this opportunity to explore primary colours and colour mixing. 

Thank goodness the Kinders stayed much cleaner then the Dinos!

They needed not one, but TWO baths this morning! 

Exploring Through Play

Over the course of the term students have explored a variety of areas and topics during play centres. Each week new centres are introduced, each designed to allow students to learn and practice concepts through play. Some of our most popular centres are the house, store and building centres. 

One of our newest centres focuses on writing and has been a huge hit! I am thrilled to see children choosing to write letters and messages for their friends and family! 

Reading is another popular activity...

Along with our SmartBoard. Here students are creating their own snowmen.

Here students are sorting numbers 1-100.

November Highlights

Better late then never! Here are a few dates to remember for the Kinders over the next few weeks.

Taking Time to Remember

Thank you to MCpl McCallum for teaching us about the importance of Remembrance Day. He shared some pictures and metals with us and answered our questions. 

Remembrance Day

Today we learned about Remembrance Day and why it is important. We read some books and made some poppies, we also had some questions for Ms S. We will have a special guest speaker in our classroom in the morning to teach us more about Remembrance Day.

We talked about how we can show Peace in our homes and at school. These are some of the ideas we had.

We can show love and care for our things and for people.

We have to treat things nicely. We have lots of nice things.

We show kindness to our friends.

We can say nice words.

If you are in the army you take care of each other.

Share and do nice things for people.

We are thankful that people fought for our freedom.

When people don't have food you can give them some.

Be nice to friends.

To help mom and dad.

Dinosaurs Galore!

As you may have heard I have a bit of a problem with dinosaurs. This morning, while out on duty, the Dinos took my keys. One even snuck into Mr. Vosper's office and ate his bologna sandwich! I'm going to need everyone's help over the next month to teach the dinosaurs how to listen.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Ms S 

Some of the kids in our class are reading about dinosaurs so that we have lots of valuable information about our Dinos.