April Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Here is your April Newsletter:

April Newsletter

A hard copy should go home tomorrow.

Our focus is Art and Artists for your Show and Share. Recent artists or styles we've looked at in class have included Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, and printmaking with Haida style animal prints.

Regards,

Ms. Goegan

Maple Trip and Spring Flowers

It's never not busy in our class, but last week was especially momentous. We had a great trip on Tuesday to the Kortright Centre to learn all about how Maple Syrup is made.

We get introduced to Grandfather Maple

The native people used to fill troughs with sap and put hot coals in to condense it.

Students practice drilling spiles in this post.

This 3 cauldron method is how the pioneers reduced the maple sap to syrup

This modern method has the sap coming in from the trees on a pipeline.

We also said goodbye to our beloved rocketship. Ms. K's class is now enjoying it. We wrote a letter to them explaining some of the ways they might want to consider playing with it.

The letter we wrote to Ms. K's class to help them play with their new rocketship

We've been hard at work on the Acorn cards, This is a fundraiser for our school. Students have been inspired by the work of Georgia O'Keeffe to create paintings of flowers.

Here a student is explaining to me why this Georgia O'Keeffe flower painting reminds him of a dragon.

Students are learning to look up close at flowers to create visual interest in their pictures. 

We're using oil pastels and watercolours again.

Using lots of different colours helps to make it more interesting as well.

In April, we'll be focusing in on Art and exploring the artists that inspire you and our students. I'm a bit late with the newsletter as the weekend got away from me. However, I spoke with students about their show and shares today and a few were already enthusiastic about their ideas and knew what they were bringing in, so I've chosen those students to start. (Blake is Tuesday and Cy and Julia will share on Wednesday.) Please expect to see that posted later on tonight. 

Wednesday is Library Day and this weekend will include a holiday Friday and Monday.

When we see each other again on Tuesday, we'll have a special visitor: one of the parents will be in to do a special art presentation.

 Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

P.S.  We've replaced the rocketship with the biggest tent ever.

Seriously, this tent is huge. 

Students are using it to tell each other scary stories

It's also being used as a quiet space for reading and relaxing.

Starry Night

Dear Parents,

Today was the first day back from March Break and we're right back in the thick of things. Tomorrow is our field trip and a pancake lunch will be provided. Please send snacks and water for your child, and remember to dress them warmly! We'll be outside for a good part of the day.

Lately, I've been inspired by the art I've found in picture books and I've used it to fuel our art program. (In April, I hope to turn the tables on you and ask students to bring in a piece of art they are inspired by for their show and share.)

As an adult, Van Gogh's work is beautiful but coloured by my knowledge of his sad life story. I found a children's book about experiencing the world through the eyes of "Vincent" and the students were inspired by the beauty of the work.

When we talked about painting our own versions, the students came up with the idea of using oil pastels in the same way that we had for the mittens in order to show the swirls.

Here's a journal entry showing the back of Vincent's head painting, the book that inspired us, my version and the materials students needed to create their own works of art. 

Here are some of their comments about Van Gogh's Starry Night in their own words:

Serenity: He mixed all the colours.

Adelaide: I noticed he used lines and swirls.

Henry: He used squares for the houses.

Julia: Triangles for the top of houses. It makes me feel sleepy and sad. The sky looks like tears.

Noah: He used a lot of blue.

Amanda: There are swirls for the sky.

Emma: I notice orange and yellow for the moon. The moon is the only orange in the whole picture.

Annalese: I'm not really sure what I feel.

Linnaea: It makes me happy. It looks like it goes up and down.

Jackson: I can tell there's a mountain.

Henry: It makes me feel like when I go to sleep.

I feel like the results are quite successful:

We also had great luck making prints of animals based on Haida art based on this book:

More of that to come...

In the meantime, prepare yourself and try to think of a piece of art, perhaps a painting or sculpture that your child loved at the museum or art gallery, or perhaps a book whose art inspires them. I know this is a tougher topic, but I do promise to take all inspiration and run wildly with it.

Library is on Wednesday. Welcome back from the break!

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

Math-travaganza!

On Friday, the Kindergarten students had the opportunity to visit all the other Kindergarten classrooms at IRC. Each teacher prepared a math lesson based on geometry and spatial sense to present to students. Room 202's students rotated through the rooms with Ms. Moniz.

In our classroom for example, I had students sing a version of the hokey pokey where they identified shapes instead of body parts ("Put your triangle in, put your triangle out", etc."). I used my class as practice to refine the lesson over a couple of days (which also helped us reinforce their knowledge of the shapes) before the main event to ensure I had the edges smoothed out.

As teachers, I think we found it invigorating and a good opportunity to hone in on an area we all wanted to focus on with our classes. Students said they enjoyed visiting the other classrooms and had a lot to share at the end of the day.

Because it's hard to lead a dance and take pictures, I have photos of all the other classrooms:

Ms. Vandemeer read a story and students made some art.

Ms. Filan used the SmartBoard to engage students in learning about shapes

Ms. Karkavitsas used poetry to get their attention and had math based centres laid out around the room.

We're continuing to learn about shapes, of course. Here are some of the shapes we've discussed:

Square

Rectangle

Circle

Oval

Rhombus

Parallelogram

Triangle

Pentagon

Hexagon

Octagon

Trapezoid

And here are some of the things students are learning to do:

--count sides and look at angles. 

--draw them

--compare them to each other

--use shapes to create pictures or patterns. 

--find them in the world around us.

We hope to have another Math-travaganza afternoon soon and continue to learn as a team.

In housekeeping news, Ms. Moniz and I selected the parents for our field trip by random draw amongst those who requested and had police checks. Milena, Oscar, and Surayyaa get to have a parent along this time. Apologies for any disappointments! 

We had a lot of enthusiasm for volunteering on this trip, which I love. Do let me know specific days and times you're available if you'd like to come in for cooking or another special activity. We love to make things like that happen.  Also, please ensure your permission form is returned as soon as possible! (We have 6 still outstanding.)

Tomorrow is Library. Don't forget to return your book!

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan

Pancake Monday

Dear Parents,

First, a couple of memoranda:

A number of parents missed returning library books this week. I do try to blog on the day before to remind you, but it's also marked on our calendar, just in case. If you haven't returned your book for a while, please do your best for next week's Wednesday library date.

We are beginning to accumulate small bits and pieces. If you send something in, please make sure it's clearly labelled so we can be sure to return it to you. If there's something you've sent in that you would like us to return, please let us know.

I'm asked to remind JK parents about two forms that went home:
1. Your preferences in terms of start and end times for next year were requested on a feedback form.
2. There was a survey for interest in daycare for next year as well.

Field trip forms went also home today. Students are excited to go to see how maple syrup is made, especially after making pancakes this week. I'm able to take 3 parents with our class. Please let me know as soon as possible if you'd like to come along.

This week's pancake cooking was only possible with the participation of several parent volunteers. Thank you so much for your time and energy! I know we all enjoyed eating our pancakes and I tried to inject some learning into the process by having students make pancakes in the shape of their own first initial, as well as a second pancake for someone else.

Here's an example of some initial pancakes. 

We used a boxed pancake mix in a squeeze bottle to create the shapes

Early on, we discovered that while making shapes was easy, flipping them was not. 

Especially with shapes with complicated curves, it was important to ensure a certain thickness

Over time, our volunteers became experts. 

I wish I had more photos to show you, but it's hard to be in the moment and behind the lens at the same time. We also had several technical issues with breakers that meant we could only actually use one of the griddles. But it was worth it in the end, and we all enjoyed eating them together as a class. 

Thanks for reading! 

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan