All About Me Crafts

During the month of September when we were getting to know each other and establishing routines to work as a class, we learned things about ourselves. 

We made our names using macaroni, sticks, feathers, buttons to name a few.

And we cut out things from magazines, flyers and other reading materials to glue them because we like them!

Enjoy!

Apple Treat Poem, Ordering Apples By Size

The poem we are reading is called Apple Treat. We read the poem the first day by echoing the words we are reading on the poem. The next day, we talked about how some words rhyme, a big fancy word that describes how words sound alike.

For Math, we learned about ordering by size. Using five different apples, we talked about ordering them...

from smallest to biggest or from biggest to smallest.

The children sorted their rainbow apples...

their beautifully coloured apples...

their polka dot apples...

Some of them even had a pattern...

and others wanted to write their words...

Beautiful apples everywhere...

Enjoy!

IPAD Time

Due to the valuable contribution and support of our parents, the Kindergarten class will have four periods of what we call iPad Time. We have established rules about using the iPad and sharing it. We cannot be on YouTube and will use the designated apps on the iPad. The children were having a great time using the iPads. Thank you, our generous parents, for giving our school iPads. 

The Life Cycle of an Apple Tree, Apple Prints

One of the things that we would like to achieve in the science strand for kindergarten is to make our children be aware of their surroundings, the life cycles and the patterns in our world. 

In line with our field trip to the apple orchard, we read the book, The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree, by Gail Gibbons, where we explored the changes that the apple tree went through the different seasons. 

After discussing the changes that the apple tree went through the different seasons, we drew the pictures of the apple tree going through the changes in winter, spring, summer and fall. We talked about apple blossoms growing in the springtime, apples growing in summer, apples ripening in fall while the leaves are changing and how the tree loses its leaves (and apples as well) during winter. 

Some of the kids drew their pictures of the life cycle of the apple tree.

While others coloured the pictures of the apple tree, cut and glued them on their worksheets.

At the art centre, we made apple prints using different colours of tempra paints. See the beautiful art in our classroom!

Borrow A Book Program

Dear Parents,

On Monday, October 21, we are going to start Borrow-A-Book Program, also called Kindergarten At-Home Reading Program. Simply put, when your child brings a book home, you have a week to read the book with him/her (some of the books are levelled books and help the child read the repetitive patterns over and over again). And accomplish the needed activity (e.g., a worksheet OR a favourite picture drawn in his/her response journal). Then, log the name of the book in the Book Log. On Friday, please make sure that you return everything (the book, the activity if applicable, the response journal, the borrow-a-book instructions and borrow-a-book log). Please find the cover letter of Borrow-A-Book Program.

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Dear Parents,

Welcome to the Kindergarten At-Home Reading Program. This program is for students and parents to share reading together. It takes about 10 – 15 minutes of your time and helps your child develop skills in three major areas: print awareness, phonological awareness and oral language. These three areas most significantly impact your child's emerging literacy skills.

Each package contains a book that your; child has selected and a Borrow-A-Book Log. To begin with, students are to exchange their book every Monday for a new book to be read at home over the course of the week. Usually, the books will be simple, repetitive pattern books that will naturally invite your child to join in and read the repetitive parts. Remember to celebrate every book you read together, even if your child has just memorized the pattern. Others may choose books that you will have the pleasure to read to your child.

Your child's book will come home every Monday inside a black bag along with the Borrow-A-Book Log Sheet and a Reading Response Journal. Please keep them all together in the zip lock bag provided:

1)   Borrow-A-Book Log: Please help your child print the title of each book on the Book Log and sign it, acknowledging that you read with your child.

2)   Reading Response Journal: The directions are simple. Here are a few suggestions. Encourage your child to choose 1 particular story book she/he has read with you to draw and write about in their journal each week. Students might perhaps illustrate and write about:

·         something that happened in the book they read

·         something they particularly liked

·         something they connected with in the text (e.g. This reminds me of when I …)

·         their favourite part

Writing Response: This supports the daily writing strategies your child is acquiring on the learning continuum in the classroom and correlates to the following levels: a, (Emergent Writers), b/ c (Early Writers), d/e, (Advancing Writers)

a)     Your child draws an illustration- the parent serving as the scribe to write what is happening in your child’s    drawing.

b)     Encouraging your child to label his/her drawing by listing the dominate letter sounds (phonetic/inventive spellings) in the word he/she is trying to label (e.g., watr = water)

c)    Encouraging your child to label his/her drawing using high frequency sight vocabulary ( e.g., a car, a tree, the cat, my mom, me etc.,) 

d)    Encouraging your child to write a simple sentence using a combination of (high frequency words and phonetic spelling)

e)    Encouraging your child to make his/her writing legible for the reader via (using capitals at beginning of a sentence, leaving spaces between words, using punctuation and re-reading his/her sentences to make sure the writing looks and conveys the intended message).  

Please ensure that our Classroom Books are returned to school for exchange every Friday in your child’s large zip-lock book bag.  Our classroom books are not issued over the weekend, although your child’s book from the school library may certainly be taken home from Friday to the following Friday each week.

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”  (Emilie Buchwald)   FYI: (Tips for parents on reverse side)

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This is the bin of borrow-a-book bags. We will keep all the book bags here.

An example  of  borrow-a-book bag is shown above which contains a book log, borrow-a-book instructions/cover letter and a response journal all inside a ziploc bag with your child's name on it. Please ensure all materials are inside upon return. If you wish to keep the instructions at home, please do so and just let us know.

Some of the books may have activity pages. Doing the activity page will be good enough for these books.

There might be a need for crayons, glue stick and scissors, aside from using a pencil and an eraser. 

If the child opts to do a favourite picture in his/her response journal, that would be enough for these type of activity books.

If your book does not have an activity page, drawing and writing about the favourite picture would be recommended. It can be done solely by the child or it can be a combined effort between you and your child. You can help your child draw, colour and write the words. To put it simply, let it be a FUN activity for your child to look forward to. I had many response journals that were full of artistic pictures done with sticks, feathers, noodles, stickers and buttons! It looked like a beautiful treasure chest of priceless paintings!

We are looking forward to your child's wonderful journey of reading and writing!

Classroom Book : What Do We Like by Kindergarten Rm 3

We are going to start sharing our classroom book, What Do We Like, with all our families. Each child will be given a chance to bring the book to his/her family. It is encouraged to spend a few minutes with your child reading the book. This will be a way to honour her/his writing. Ask questions about the writing. Let her/him describe the picture. 

 

Here is the cover letter for the classroom book:

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October 21, 2014

 

Dear Wonderful Parents, Grandparents, Relatives, and Caregivers,

During the month of September, the children explored the theme of what we call “All About Me”. The writing activity focused on the things and people that the children liked and loved in their lives. We present to you our classroom book, What Do We Like, by Kindergarten, Room 3!

All of our children have different levels of writing and drawing. And we honour all kind of writings and drawings done by our children.  As a suggested activity for the classroom book, sit down with your child and other members of the family (e.g., a younger brother or sister) to go through the book. Listen to your child’s stories and ideas about the page that he made and the book itself. It is interesting to see how your child went through the process of drawing and writing his/her words.

Please take time to write your comments (or even your name) in the comment section and return as soon as you are through reading the book. This will allow everyone to have the chance (and fun) see the writing and drawing done by your child.
 

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Sincerely,

Mr. Zamora                                                                  Ms. Karras

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Some of the kids made a title page for the book as seen below:

We have some fine authors and illustrators in our class.

Happy Reading!

Graph, graph, graph

During September, when the kids were all learning their school routines, they were learning all about themselves, their likes and dislikes. We used bar graphs to tell some things about ourselves.

Graphs are a great visual way for children to look for trends among the data that we have gathered about our class (e.g., counting girls and boys, favourite animals, eye colours).

We used graphs to count how many girls and boys. To help see the trend, we used orange paper for girls and blue paper for boys. Just by looking, the children can see the trend of the genders in our class.

And the kids graphed the results individually.

 

 

Using coloured strips (orange for girls and green for boys) for the graph, What Is Our Favourite Animal In Class, the kids were able to identify the gender who likes the most of a certain animal. Emma pointed out that the girls liked the butterfly the most while Rodin pointed out that the boys liked the dolphin the most. And many were able to identify that the dolphin is the most favourite animal of our class. We talked about how the strips looked like bricks on top of each other to form towers. And taller the tower means more boys and girls voted for it. And during centre time, the conversation revolved around this topic!

 

Another activity that was done for the class profile was eye colour. The children had to colour their eye cutouts the same colour of their eyes. And they would place these cutouts under the correct column of the bar graph (e.g., brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes, grey eyes). From there, the children saw the most popular colour of their eyes. Then, we discussed the trend of the data. After much discussion, a tough question was asked "How many more boys and girls have brown eyes than those with blue eyes?" This is one tough question even for a Grade 1 or 2 but Milan answered, "11 more boys and girls!"
 

 

Then, we graphed the results as well.

 

I believe bar graphs or picto graphs are very good ways to show data collection to kindergarten students because it is (1) simple (2) visual and (3) you can use colours to give further meaning to the data trend.

 

Enjoy!

 

Ten Shiny Apples Poem, Ten Apples Up On Top

Poem: Ten Shiny Apples

At the Reading Centre, the poem was divided into word strips for the child(ren) to put in the missing number words. In order to facilitate the reading of number words, these number words were made into white flash cards. 

Ten Apples Up On Top

As part of the math centre, the children created their own dogs with ten apples up on top of their heads. The kids were asked to put the apples on their dogs head in order from 1 to 10. Some kids have demonstrated number recognition and counting forward and backwards.

Some of the senior kindergarten students even made AB patterns of their apples from 1 to 10. They made a connection with their learning of the AB pattern last week.

 

Enjoy!

Ten Shiny Apples, Apple Pattern, Ten Apples Up On Top

For our poem and song, the children learned the poem, entitled Ten Shiny Apples. We read the poem and looked at the words. We identified the number words and wrote the corresponding numbers and post them. We also identified the word 'apples' or 'apple' and made our pictures to post them.

The poem folders are going to be sent this Friday for you to read and do the activities with your child. 

We also learned our first pattern, AB. Using two different colours of crayons chosen by the children, they did their pattern of apples.

A wonderful book for this kind of theme was the Dr. Seuss classic, Ten Apples Up On Top. Using a teacher resource, the children counted the apples on top of the dog's head. The children also noticed the AB pattern of the apples I used. 

The children counted forward and backward. I also demonstrated counting by 2's. And we played a game by guessing the number(s) that I took out. The children are making their own dogs and ten apples to show their learning.

I also introduced to them this song version of Ten Apples Up On Top and they loved it:

Ten Apples Up On Top

During centre time, the kids love playing this version of the Ten Apples Up On Top. They would request me or Ms. K to play it while they are having snacks or simply want to be on the computer.

Please let us know your comments and inputs.

Fall is Here!

Dear Wonderful Parents, Grandparents and Caregivers,

As fall is coming near, Ms. Karras and I are moving into an exciting unit about Apples and Pumpkins. Over the next weeks, your child will be involved in various activities:

• creating apple patterns
• graphing apples by colour and taste
• weighing apples using a balance scale
• ordering apples and pumpkins by size
• sorting apples and pumpkins using a variety of sorting rules
• sequencing the life cycle of an apple tree and the growth of a pumpkin
• reciting apple and pumpkin poems

A poem is to be sent home at the end of next week. It is called Ten Shiny Apples. Don't forget to review the poem and complete the home-school connection activities. Keep your eyes open for other poems as we go through the school year. These will be kept in a poem folder.

Please watch out for the classroom books that the children will be making in our class. We will be circulating these books around the families. Please make sure that a book is returned to let everyone share the wonderful work that our little ones have been doing.  Feel free to share your comments at the end of these books.

Thank you so much for your support.

Sincerely,

Mr. Zamora and Ms. Karras

Supplemental Reading for the Kindergarten Program Package on Curriculum Night

By this time, you should have received the Kindergarten Program Package. To supplement the package, please find documents that we find helpful in further understanding a child's development and learning in kindergarten:

Be A Role Model - Let Your Child See You Reading

I cannot tell you how important it is for the parents to model reading to your child. Studies before had shown that boys who see their parents, especially their fathers read, become successful in their reading AND comprehension skills. My Papa was a voracious reader. I always see him read the newspaper of the day, his favourite Stephen King book (I read The Silver Bullet when I was in Grade 6 - scary and I couldn't sleep for many nights thinking that our neighborhood priest was a werewolf!) and his staple, Reader's Digest. He would leave notes on my bed earmarked to the funny anecdote in Reader's Digest, writing "Alex, I want you to read this. Let me know what you think of it." I love reading because of him. 

Play-based Learning

 The Early Years Division of the Toronto District School Board is laying down the basics and principles for Play-based Learning, a big component that we are trying to implement in our classroom. Enjoy reading about it!

Welcome to Mr. Zamora and Ms. Karras' Full Day Kindergarten at Blythwood Junior Public School

We are pleased to welcome you to our Kindergarten Classroom. Teaching Kindergarten is fun and hard work at the same time. As teachers, we need to make sure that we are able to manage the classroom in a way that the students will learn to make good choices for themselves while giving them the full Kindergarten Experience.

Classroom Management is an aspect that you cannot ignore in a Kindergarten classroom. Without it, handling different kids of different ages, backgrounds and abilities would be difficult. Strategies have to come in place to handle the classroom. There are many strategies being suggested by experts and resources. You have to choose strategies that you feel comfortable with.

A kindergarten class needs to provide children with various opportunities of learning at the same time to a certain number of children. Centres are made to give children these opportunities.

Let's talk about classroom management. Here are the strategies that we have implemented in our classroom.

Green, Yellow, Red Faces

Each child comes in at the start of the day and locates his/her name printed on a clothes pin to be placed on the green face. This reminds them that they are starting the day with good behaviour. Just like the lights of a traffic light, the colours indicate the behaviour of the child:
 

•  green - good behaviour
• yellow - behaviour that is given a warning and must proceed with caution. It would be possible for the child to go back to green if he/she does an act of kindness (e.g., helping someone) and fills someone's bucket (we read the story, How Full Is Your Bucket? and follow the big idea of the book - If you do something good, you are filling someone's bucket and if you hurt someone's feelings, you are depleting the good things in his/her bucket.)
• red - behaviour that has been really considered to be inappropriate and parents have to be told about the behaviour (e.g., pushing someone in line, pouring paint on the table intentionally) 

Sticker Chart

The child gets a sticker if the child remains on green. For kids at this age to recognize their success, they need something concrete and tangible to aim for as a prize. For 20 stickers, a child gets a prize (e.g., a dinosaur eraser with a dinosaur pencil). As the school year passes, a child will have to earn more stickers to win a prize. Next level is 30 stickers.

 Schedule Day Chart, Classroom Jobs

For the children to keep track of the activities of the day, each activity, represented by a laminated strip with the activity name, is placed in the correct period indicated by the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc.  on the chart. Every time we finish an activity, a child takes the name of the activity down. This is for them to keep track of the day.

Classroom jobs are given to a child everyday. It gives them a sense of responsibility and importance to handle a certain task. The jobs are:

• Centre supervisors (2) - inspect the centres when we clean up. They decide whether a centre has to be closed or not depending on how clean the centre is.
• Toy Managers (2) - pick up the toys if they see it on the ground or the floor on the classroom.
• Equipment Managers (2) - getting the small bins for pencils, crayons and markers during work time and putting them away
• Librarian - handles the books around the classroom and library centre
• Mail Person - gives the mails/correspondences of the day to the children before going home
• Weather Forecaster - predicts/forecasts the weather of the day and graphs it
• Teacher Helper - helps the teacher in various tasks (e.g.,  doing calendar, counting, accompanying me to do errands like photocopying and giving the copies to Ms. K.)
• Cubby Checker - checks the cubbies to make sure that no clothes, bags or items are on the floor (very significant job especially during winter time when we have big winter coats and boots!)
• Line Leader - leads the line and calls the children by name to line up. He chooses people who are listening and acting well on the carpet.

At the start of the day, a child, usually the teacher helper, assists in the calendar. Also, children are encouraged to share his/her news of the day (e.g., Filip saw a rattle snake at the cottage! or Emma has a baby sister!). Weather is also forecast and graphed for the day. Then, either a read-aloud or a mini-lesson is done during carpet time.

When Ms. K and I will work with a certain number of kids accomplishing the needed tasks for assessment of their learning, children are given centre time. Centre time allows the child to choose an activity which is play-based and geared towards learning in the different strands (e.g., Math, Science).

Choice Board

Children need to be given a choice about the activity that they want to do for their learning. Thus, a choice board is found in our classroom where a child can choose the centre that he/she wishes to get into. This is to keep track of the number of children at the centre and who is in a given centre . We can monitor who is responsible for the centre if it needs to be cleaned up. A centre is closed up as decided by the centre supervisors to show everyone that all our actions have consequences.

Centres

Let's look at some of the centres in our classroom and see the learning that is occuring within each one:

Drama/Puppet Centre

When I play at the Drama/Puppet  Centre, I am learning:

• To use my imagination and role play
• To work cooperatively with peers
• To explore elements of drama
• To retell stories or familiar events
• To communicate my ideas with others
• To take turns and use kind words
• To write lists, letters, and notes
• To be a nurturer and care for others
• To use puppets and props to enhance my play and learning
• To tidy up materials when I am finished

Reading/Library Centre

When I play at the Reading/Library Centre, I am learning 

• To look at pictures and make meaning
• To love reading fiction and non-fiction
• To identify the types of books I like
• To know about authors and illustrators
• How to point to words and turn pages
• How to sort books into genres
• To use prior knowledge to make connections and ask questions about what I am reading
• To find letters and sight words
• To explore rhyming and opposites

House/Kitchen Centre

When I play at the House/Kitchen Centre, I am learning:

• To use my imagination and role play about the people in my community
• To work cooperatively with peers in taking turns at role playing
• To explore elements of drama/role playing
• To retell stories or familiar events at home
• To communicate my ideas with others
• To take turns and use kind words
• To write lists, letters, and notes
• To use props to enhance my play and learning
• To tidy up materials when I am finished
• To help others in tidying up

Sand Centre

When I play at the Sand Centre, I am learning:

• To use my imagination in creating different things (e.g., castles, towers) in the sand
• To select and use different tools in creating different things
• To create a plan and follow it through 
• To create designs with peers
• To communicate my discoveries about sand
• To use problem solving skills effectively
• To explore how tools help me in my creation
• To share materials and tools with others
• To experiment with different ideas in my head
• To develop my fine motor skills
• To discover the properties of sand

Water Centre

When I play at the Water Centre, I am learning:

• To use my imagination in creating different scenarios (e.g., Sea World, sea creatures) in the water
• To select and use different tools in creating my different scenarios
• To communicate my discoveries about water
• To use problem solving skills effectively
• To share materials and tools with others at the water table
• To experiment with different ideas in my head about water (e.g., test tubes)
• To develop my fine motor skills
• To discover the properties of water

Writing Centre

When I am at the Writing Centre, I am learning:

• To select and use different materials
• To experiment with different forms of writing
• To label illustrations and write stories or letters
• To communicate to others through writing
• To use problem solving skills effectively
• To practice pincer grasp while printing
• To learn how to use writing tools like word walls, and dictionaries
• To make labels for things I construct or make
• To share my feeling and ideas in a journal
• To be creative with a variety of materials
• To make signs for other activities I engage in at different centres

Art/Paint Centre

When I am at the  Art/Paint Centre, I am learning:

• To use my imagination in creating various art expression
• To learn the different elements of art in my art expression (e.g., line, form, shape)
• To explore elements of drama/role playing
• To retell stories or familiar events at home
• To communicate my ideas with others
• To take turns and use kind words
• To write lists, letters, and notes
• To use props to enhance my play and learning
• To tidy up materials when I am finished
• To help others in tidying up

Math Centre

When I am at the Math Centre, I am learning:

• To sequence and compare objects
• To work cooperatively with peers
• To create patterns and build designs
• To communicate my ideas with others
• To take turns and use kind words
• To measure in different ways
• To name shapes and their attributes
• To make observations and show findings
• To count and recognize numbers
• To investigate new ideas and pectize old ones using a variety of manipulatives
• To organize materials use math words

Science Centre

When I am at the Science Centre, I am learning:

• To wonder and inquire about the world
• To describe patterns and cycles of the natural world and show my understanding
• To make observations about things I see
• To investigate how things work
• To explore and share a variety of tools and materials to carry out explorations
• To pose questions and make predictions
• To use problem solving skills effectively
• To investigate properties of materials
• To sort, classify, and share my findings
• How I can care for the environment

Not really considered as a centre, but children learn a lot when they go for their snack. 

Snacking Time

When I go for my snack, I am learning:

• To self-regulate when I am hungry
• About hygiene when I wash my hands
• About table manners and how to be polite
• How I can help the environment by bringing reusable containers and water bottles
• To be independent
• About healthy foods for my body
• To make healthy choices
• To discuss my likes and dislikes with others
• To develop fine motor skills when I open and close containers
• To clean up after myself when I am done 

The kindergarten classroom will add more centres as seen fit for the children's exploration and learning.

Please let us know if you have inputs about the centres. And parents are always welcome to share their talents and knowledge so we can create a centre based on your sharing.

We are looking forward to a great year 2014 - 2015.