Here is your June Newsletter. A hard copy will go home tomorrow, fingers crossed. As usual, feel free to let me know about any challenges with students' special days in case I've missed anyone. Our theme for Show and Share is free choice.
(Just like Halloween though, we'd encourage you to review what's appropriate for our school in terms of guns, knives, or other violent imagery.)
On June 23 (Raindate June 24th), we'll be hosting a Teddy Bear Picnic, where we'll welcome families to join us in a year end celebration. More information regarding what that will look like will be forthcoming as the date approaches, so check your mail outs and keep your eyes peeled on this site.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Learning about Bees
Last Friday, the class learned about bees from Felix's mom, whose family farm has some hives. Highlights were looking at honeycombs, examining a smoker that they use to calm the bees, trying on beekeeping clothes and learning that bees dance to communicate. Students were also happy to sample some homemade honey on fresh bread.
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| Answering questions |
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| Felix and the smoker |
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| Ijaz is wearing the hat |
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| Touching the honeycomb |
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| Bees dancing on the field |
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| Waggling in a line |
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Nothing is a waste of time, if you use it wisely.
Dear Parents,
Finding the time to sit down and write has been challenging but when I look through my photos, I have almost too much to talk about in a single post. I'll try to do it justice here.
First up, last week we had our second Math-stravaganza (as I like to call them), where students rotate through all the classes to learn about a topic from all our kindergarten teachers. Both teachers and students seem to enjoy these afternoons. This time, the topic was measurement.
Ms. Vandermeer had an interactive lesson about measuring and comparing length, where students compared different coloured lengths of yarn. First they had to look for people with the same colour and then compare whose was longest and shortest. Extensions include using the strings with a clipboard as a centre and having students find objects with that length in the classroom. This is a great open ended activity because students who are ready to use standard measures, like centimetres, can use them but students also gain contexts for the concept by using non-standard measures, like cubes or links.
Ms. Filan had students connecting times to clocks and using the whiteboard for a host of other time related activities and Ms. K had a poem and a variety of centres around the concept of time.
I decided to have students make analog clocks out of hula hoops. I bridged this by marking the hoops beforehand with tape so the divisions were easier to map out, but the cooperative aspect of this activity was where I saw the most learning happening, because they really needed to work together to make it work.
Here are some of the ways students continued to work on time in the class this week:
But here's what's going on in the background:
Today was all about being outside and lots of learning can happen outside too. Here's what happened with the pattern blocks today:
Some beginning fraction concepts are happening there amidst the dramatic play, as well as shape and colour recognition, counting, and patterning.
I'm sure you'll agree that this post is a little too long, but there's so much happening this time of year, it's almost impossible to show you everything that's happening.
Hope you're enjoying all the sunshine,
Ms. Goegan
Finding the time to sit down and write has been challenging but when I look through my photos, I have almost too much to talk about in a single post. I'll try to do it justice here.
First up, last week we had our second Math-stravaganza (as I like to call them), where students rotate through all the classes to learn about a topic from all our kindergarten teachers. Both teachers and students seem to enjoy these afternoons. This time, the topic was measurement.
Ms. Vandermeer had an interactive lesson about measuring and comparing length, where students compared different coloured lengths of yarn. First they had to look for people with the same colour and then compare whose was longest and shortest. Extensions include using the strings with a clipboard as a centre and having students find objects with that length in the classroom. This is a great open ended activity because students who are ready to use standard measures, like centimetres, can use them but students also gain contexts for the concept by using non-standard measures, like cubes or links.
Ms. Filan had students connecting times to clocks and using the whiteboard for a host of other time related activities and Ms. K had a poem and a variety of centres around the concept of time.
I decided to have students make analog clocks out of hula hoops. I bridged this by marking the hoops beforehand with tape so the divisions were easier to map out, but the cooperative aspect of this activity was where I saw the most learning happening, because they really needed to work together to make it work.
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| These sheets are from Ms. K's activities and the hoop is being used for a "What time is it Mr. Dinosaur?" game with teddy bears in the background. |
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| Making clocks at the playdough centre. |
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| These guys are wearing the hours and minutes as badges of honour. I'm not sure why tape mustachios were in order. |
But here's what's going on in the background:
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| Wheels in the sandtable |
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| Stinky potato slowly grows roots |
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| Reading with students |
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| Dance Party continued: Waltzing to Vivaldi's Spring |
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| Conga to some salsa music. |
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| Working on apostrophes with some of the higher readers |
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| Making patterns. "It's a shape store. You can buy shapes, but they're all free." |
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| Making a sandwich |
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| Two "meat" make up one "bread" |
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| What about lettuce? Some problem solving happened. |
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| Eventually they figured it out, and went sideways |
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| Now it is an ice cream sandwich |
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| And this is: "Pizza sandwich. Eat it now!" |
I'm sure you'll agree that this post is a little too long, but there's so much happening this time of year, it's almost impossible to show you everything that's happening.
Hope you're enjoying all the sunshine,
Ms. Goegan
Monday, May 11, 2015
Mother's Day Workshop
There were three main projects we completed for Mother's Day this year. Everyone completed a collaged M, and many students also made cards and coupon books.
Coupon books provided a great opportunity for writing that was organic and student generated. Some students needed us to write out the phrases for them, but others sounded out for themselves.
I hope you all had a great Mother's Day!
Sincerely,
Ms. Goegan
Earth Rangers and Environmental Awareness
Dear Parents,
Mr. Zippies did not go home tonight because the weekly reading time didn't happen today. I'm hopeful that by tomorrow or Wednesday all students will have a chance to work with me one on one, but it is a busy week. (It's always a busy week)
Today's Earth Rangers presentation was eagerly attended by the whole school. Our class especially liked Sonic, the European Barn Owl, who flew right over their heads, but they also liked Timber, the Pine Marten, who could jump really far. If you'd like to learn more about the Earth Rangers, who raise money and awareness to support endangered animals, you can go to http://www.earthrangers.com/ and explore. As well as information about the work they do, the website also features missions and games (some are kinder appropriate with some support).
In the wake of Earth Day, we've been talking about Reducing, Reusing and Recycling, but the broader concept of being "Environmentally Friendly" is one we're still trying to wrap our heads around. This is definitely an area of interest for our students and an opportunity to have conversations about what that means in your daily life as well. Next week, we'll be having a parent come in to talk about bees and I hope to build on their awareness of the environment between now and then.
Tomorrow is the next Math-travaganza afternoon, where we'll be learning about measurement and time. This is the subject of our weekly poem and I hope it will become a topic of inquiry in the next couple of weeks. I've spent more time than is probably wise turning hula hoops into clocks for my lesson, so I hope it goes as well as the last one. I've heard from some parents that students enjoyed our last afternoon focusing on shapes in all the kinder classrooms, and it certainly launched us right into some great learning.
Sincerely,
Ms. Goegan
P.S. I plan to make up for the dearth of pictures in this post by giving you a glimpse into our Mother's Day workshop now that I won't ruin any surprises. Check back later this week to see that or sign up for notifications if you haven't already.
Mr. Zippies did not go home tonight because the weekly reading time didn't happen today. I'm hopeful that by tomorrow or Wednesday all students will have a chance to work with me one on one, but it is a busy week. (It's always a busy week)
Today's Earth Rangers presentation was eagerly attended by the whole school. Our class especially liked Sonic, the European Barn Owl, who flew right over their heads, but they also liked Timber, the Pine Marten, who could jump really far. If you'd like to learn more about the Earth Rangers, who raise money and awareness to support endangered animals, you can go to http://www.earthrangers.com/ and explore. As well as information about the work they do, the website also features missions and games (some are kinder appropriate with some support).
In the wake of Earth Day, we've been talking about Reducing, Reusing and Recycling, but the broader concept of being "Environmentally Friendly" is one we're still trying to wrap our heads around. This is definitely an area of interest for our students and an opportunity to have conversations about what that means in your daily life as well. Next week, we'll be having a parent come in to talk about bees and I hope to build on their awareness of the environment between now and then.
Tomorrow is the next Math-travaganza afternoon, where we'll be learning about measurement and time. This is the subject of our weekly poem and I hope it will become a topic of inquiry in the next couple of weeks. I've spent more time than is probably wise turning hula hoops into clocks for my lesson, so I hope it goes as well as the last one. I've heard from some parents that students enjoyed our last afternoon focusing on shapes in all the kinder classrooms, and it certainly launched us right into some great learning.
Sincerely,
Ms. Goegan
P.S. I plan to make up for the dearth of pictures in this post by giving you a glimpse into our Mother's Day workshop now that I won't ruin any surprises. Check back later this week to see that or sign up for notifications if you haven't already.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
In the Moment
I've been reading folktales, myths, and legends to the students for the past while. They're not quite sure what to make of Anansi, the tricky spider, because he's often not very nice. We're on more solid footing with Greek Myths and I had a nice moment the other day when I looked up in the middle of the Story of Pandora's Box to see their rapt expressions.
They really wanted to know what was in the box! I asked the students to guess and their responses were all over the place: Someone thought unicorns, someone else thought snakes, maybe darkness? My favourite was the student who was just hungry and thought there might be snack in the box.
We have a lot of fun together and there's a lot of great little moments like this that don't always get the play they deserve. For instance, our music theme for Show and Share has been a source of great delight. Usually before we go outside to play, we sing a song, but this week, it's been dance parties.
They really wanted to know what was in the box! I asked the students to guess and their responses were all over the place: Someone thought unicorns, someone else thought snakes, maybe darkness? My favourite was the student who was just hungry and thought there might be snack in the box.
We have a lot of fun together and there's a lot of great little moments like this that don't always get the play they deserve. For instance, our music theme for Show and Share has been a source of great delight. Usually before we go outside to play, we sing a song, but this week, it's been dance parties.
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| Bjork's Oh So Quiet |
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| It picks up tempo in the middle |
There's also quieter moments where kids cuddle up and read together in combinations you'd expect and some you maybe wouldn't:
One of the joys of working with this age group is exactly this ability to be in the moment. Sometimes, as we struggle to finish journals or finish an art project in a timely way, it's easy to lose track of this less visible priority.
Speaking of schedules, we have some late breaking additions to our calendar: There's an Earth Ranger's presentation coming up that we're excited for. We'll be doing another Math afternoon (I'm calling them Math-stravaganzas) where students rotate between classes to learn about measuring time on May 12. Then, we get to see the older kids perform their concert dress rehearsal on the 21st. And we're looking forward to learning more about bees and beekeeping with Diane, Felix's mom, on the 22nd. These last couple of months really race by.
Tomorrow is Library!
Sincerely,
Ms. Goegan
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