Marching Dinosaurs

Those were some of the pictures of the past month. The students are writing in their journals of what they did on the weekend or exciting events in their lives. The one picture is of the students drawing their community they created as a group. Another picture shows the extensions the students have been building with the materials in the classroom. Some of the pictures show the students making our fraction pizzas last week.

It is March and the months seem to go by so quickly now! Soon it will be June before we know it and that means we start preparing for the Gala. The graduation projects will be out on March 8th. If you have any questions please ask.

This past month of February was great with many learning opportunities within and outside the classroom. We made pizzas last week to conclude our fractions unit. The students enjoyed creating, eating, and sharing their pizza with their classmates.
Last week the students also went to the Cosmotology department at the local High School. It was a great experience for the students and many asked "will we be coming every week?" and "when can we come back here again?". They were very patient while having their hair done and it was exciting to see the results. A special thanks to the parent volunteers for helping assist us on our journey! On our adventure we saw, a policewoman, an ambulance, construction workers, a garbage truck, and a few other community workers.


This month the students will be learning about dinosaurs. What were dinosaurs and what are the theories behind why they are not living any more? What types of dinosaurs are there? What are the people who study dinosaurs called? ......and many more questions.

We will be creating our own dinosaur eggs and the students will research what the environment was like when dinosaurs lived. They will learn various dinosaurs and their names through research.

Towards the end of March, the students will be focusing on health and safety. What does it mean to be healthy? How can we be healthy? What is safe and why is it important to be safe? The students will learn about healthy food and excercise. Each student will create their own collage of healthy foods. If you have any extra food magazines please send them with your child so we can use them in class.

Griswald and Chester will continue to visit the students homes until the end of the year. So far they have had some intersting experiences and they are loving their adventures. The pictures, photos, drawings, and writings have shown their interest and exciting experiences with the bears.

We will be starting Show-and-Share time again next week. If you have any interesting dinosaur artefacts, (pictures, puzzles or fossils) please bring them in to share with the class also.

The students are welcome to bring in their objects for sharing any time that week. Thank-you for remembering not to bring toys. We have had great objects from pictures to souvenirs from exciting family vacations and many more! The students are really looking forward to another show and share!

The list for Show and Share

AM March 5-9

Arseniy
Renee
Freya
Serena
Jorja
Alayna
Michelino
Alyssa
Asianna

PM March 5-9

Rumaysa
Georgia
Anusha
Elara
Lukas
Louis
Liam
Ethan

February

It's Groundhog day and hopefully this means we will have more nice weather to come!

This month of February we will be learning about fractions (one half, one quarter, one third, etc.) and learning about community. We will be making pizza as part of our fractions unit.

As part of the unit on our community, we have scheduled a field trip for the Kindergarten students to visit the local high school Centennial. The students will be going to the cosmetology department of the school. They will be given a tour of the area and the high school students will buddy up with a student. They will also do the students hair and paint finger nails. The girls may have braids put in their hair and have their nails painted. The boys will have their hair styled also and will have the option of getting coloured gel in their hair. These services will NOT be permanent. The high school students will NOT be cutting or dying hair, so there will be no permanent services for the Kindergarten students. The students will be walking to the high school, so please ensure your child wears appropriate clothing for the walk. If the weather is too cold or if there is too much snow, we will not be going. We can reschedule if the weather does not permit us from walking there.

The students will learn about what high school is and why it is important to have a high school in the area. They will also learn about careers and why the high school students are choosing to learn about cosmetology and the benefits for them later in life. It also provides a great opportunity for both the high school students and Kindergarten students to interact with someone of a different age group. I am very excited they have accepted our offer to host us this month!

The field trip will be scheduled for Wednesday, February 22nd. If your child does not come on Wednesday he/she is welcome to come for that Morning or Afternoon trip. We will only need 1 parent volunteer for the morning Kindergarten, and one parent volunteer for the afternoon Kindergarten class. Please e-mail me if you wish to volunteer. A week before the field trip I will send out field trip permission forms.

Please inform me if you choose not to have your child attend the field trip because the high school students and staff are quite excited to host us and they will need to plan accordingly for our visit.

For the morning Kindergarten- we will leave at 9:00 AM and return at approximately 11AM, the afternoon students will leave at 1:00 and will return at approximately 3:00 PM.

If you have any questions regarding the field trip please e-mail me or contact me at the school anytime.

Take A Friend Home

This week we will be starting something very exciting! The students will have a chance to take a furry friend home and enjoy an adventure with Griswold or Chester (morning/afternoon Kindergarten teddy bears). Chester and Griswold are teddy bears.

The students will have the opportunity to take Chester or Griswold home for the weekend and write about their experience and what Griswold and Chester did on the weekend. The students may draw a picture, take a picture and include it in the journal. There will be a take-home bag with either Griswold or Chester inside with a journal to write about what the student and teddy bear did over the weekend. Please keep Chester and Griswold safe and clean for other friends to experience.

This is a great literacy opportunity for the students to enjoy reading, writing, and enhancing their imagination as they write the experiences for the teddy bear. Since the teddy bears cannot write, the students will write for them and describe what they did over the weekend.

If printing is difficult for your child, feel free to scribe it for them in the book. If they want to draw a picture of the experience that is great also. Pictures, artefacts, and writing are great ways the students can show what they did with Griswold and Chester. The students will take home Chester or Griswold on either Thursday or Friday (the last day of their attendance that week) and will keep him until Monday. Please remember to bring the teddy bears back to school on Monday or the first day your child arrives back to school.

The list of taking the friend home is as follows:

AM Kindergarten:
Griswold
1. Asianna
2. Alayna
3. Arseniy
4. Alyssa
5. Freya
6. Jorja
7. Michelino
8. Renee
9. Serena

PM Kindergarten:
Chester
1. Anusha
2. Elara
3. Ethan
4. Georgia
5. Liam
6. Louis
7. Lukas
8. Rumaysa

Ideas for discussions with your child:
This month the students are learning about primary, secondary, and tertiary colours. To reinforce what we are learning at school, if you have time you may want to ask your child which 3 colours are the primary colours and which colours are the secondary colours.
The students are also learning about a country of their choice. They have begun to make booklets about information regarding the country they chose. Feel free to ask them about what they are learning and what they like most about the country.

If you have any questions regarding anything on this page, please feel free to e-mail or phone me at the school anytime!

January

Good Afternoon,

I hope you all are making sure you are nice and warm as the weather continues to get colder! This week will be quite a cold one!

This January we are studying geometric shapes and some geography also. The students are choosing which country they would like to research and they will be learning about that specific country they have chosen.

We are also starting the Show-and-Share this week. Last week there were many students quite eager to start sharing again, so it will be exciting for the students to bring some items in to share with their classmates again.

Here is the list for the sharing:

Jan. 16-20

AM Kindergarten
Alyana
Arseniy
Asianna
Renee
Serena

PM Kindergarten
Rumaysa
Anusha
Liam


Jan. 23-27

AM Kindergarten
Freya
Lukas
Jorja
Alyssa
Michelino

PM Kindergarten
Ethan
Louis
Elara
Georgia

Pictures from the Boat Building

So the boat building was a success! Some students decided to take their boats home and some students chose to see if their boat would sink or float. We also built boats out of tin foil and placed pennies in the boats to see if they would sink or float and how many it would take before it sunk. It was a fun experiment for the children and they may ask to try it at home with you also. We worked on creating a scenic picture of a sailboat with sand and an origami boat as an art project. Here are some photos of the students work.

New Show-and-Share

It is already the middle of November! The time has gone by so quickly!

This month we have focused on water, buoyancy, boats and the water cycle. The students have recently built their own boats based on their knowledge of sinking and floating. The students have decided to take their boats home instead of testing their boats to see whether they sink or float because they worked so hard on their boats (and they do not want the water to ruin them). I have taken pictures of their work and I will soon post some pictures on the blog.

This week we will be building boats out of tin foil and placing pennies inside to see whether they sink or float, and how many pennies it will take to sink the boats. We have done a few experiments with regards to evaporation and it is amazing to hear the students talk about this during class. Please take a moment to ask your child about evaporation and what they think happens to water when it goes into the clouds.

Home reading started this week. If you decide that 2 books is too many, please leave me a note in the bag with the book, and I will send home just one book a week. Also if you do not have time to read with your child the day I send the book home, you can send it home the next day, that is no problem. If you have any feedback on the books, please let me know, I would love to hear about it!

We will be starting another show and share opportunity this coming week. The last one was a success and the objects brought in varied from special rocks, books, souvenirs from vacations, and pictures from extracurricular activities.

Here is the list for the next show and share:
Morning Kindergarten
November 21-25- Renee, Arseniy, Alyssa, Michelino, Serena
November 28 - December 1 - Asianna, Lukas, Jorja, Alayna, Freya

Afternoon Kindergarten
November 21 - 25- Georgia, Ethan, Rumaysa, Anusha
November 28- December 1 - Louis, Liam, Elara

The end of October

Hello Parents,

We had a great time carving pumpkins this Monday! I took some pictures of the hard work the children did to create these awesome pumpkin carvings!

This month we are learning about water, buoyancy, and boats. We will eventually be building our own boats in the classroom. The children are very creative and it would be great if you have any empty containers, cardboard or anything you think could be used to build a boat, please bring it in to help our boat building!

We occasionally go outside for gym class instead of inside the classroom, so please remember to make sure your child has a winter coat, mitts and outdoor shoes or boots.

In December we will be learning about cultural traditions and celebrations and we will be talking about Christmas and Hannukhah. As part of the Alberta Curiculum the students will be learning about how and why their traditions are important in the community and how others' celebrations are important also. I would like to ask each child to write a paragraph about their Christmas traditions or another tradition if your family does not celebrate Christmas. Please bring the paragraph in by November 30th as we will begin sharing in December. If your child can write, please have them write the paragraph. If they are not printing sentences you may type or write out the paragraph for them. Your child may include pictures of past traditions or celebrations to include when sharing.

If you have any questions please e-mail me any time! Thanks,

Mrs.Fedoruk