Winter is Here!

Dear wonderful parents,

Welcome back, parents! Ms. Karras and I hope you had a restful and quiet two weeks off during the holidays.

As we move into the exciting second term of the Kindergarten Journey, we will focus on winter themes ( e.g., mitten, snow, snowman) as our children learn about math, language, science and technology. Over the next several weeks, we will focus on several activities to accomplish some of the activities:

• sorting mittens
• creating mitten patterns and ordering mittens by size (from largest to smallest or vice-versa)
• counting buttons on snowman
• using manipulatives to solve basic addition and subtraction problems
• measuring the length of a mitten, using various materials (e.g., paper clips)
• identifying and discussing the seasons and their characteristics
• graphing activities (e.g., how many wore gloves versus mittens to school today) and achieve critical thinking about the data collected
• reciting winter poems and songs
• writing our stories to become books to share
• recognizing and talking about winter words

Our dramatic centre will focus on a special book by Jan Brett, The Mitten, where the students will use a collection of paper puppets and masks to act out the story and in the extended activity, create their own stories. They will use the puppet centre to re-tell the stories in their own way. Author studies in the future of other books will allow the children to re-tell the story (language centre) and re-enact the sequence of the stories and characters, among many possible activities to stir the creativity and learning of our little ones. 

We will start with the poem folders and continue the borrow-a-book program. Borrow-a-book bags are given every Monday and returned every Friday. The poem folders are given during the weekend and returned on Mondays. Please ensure that the materials are returned so we can have continuity of support at home and at school.

Looking forward to another term with you.

Sincerely,

Ms. Karras and Mr. Zamora