Friday, 3 April 2015

Inquiry updates!

We have growth in our Fairy Gardens!! Each garden has seen new growth this week and we are continuing to take care of them and monitor each day. We are so excited!



What does a seed need to grow?

Our students decided to find out what they needed to grow a seed. Here are some experimental pictures! We decided we wanted the following items: a box, a flashlight, leaves, marbles, soil, sun and water. 

And here is what we created:

Planting our seeds.

Will a seed grow in a dark box with a flashlight?





Friday, 27 March 2015

Welcome Back!

Welcome back from the march break everyone!


Room 104 has been hustling and bustling since Monday. 

This week we are working on our numbers up to 20 and for some all the way to 50. We are counting, drawing and writing in our lessons, games, activity centres and learning centres. 

We are also starting to look at seeds. This week we predicted what these mysterious seeds could be.




Connected to our theme of nature we began a project in the class: Fairy Gardens. We gathered some ideas from a Tinkerbell movie. We made a plan by drawing and labelling our own gardens. Then we worked together as a team to landscape the gardens and create things like bridges, pathways, the fairies themselves and even trees and huts.

The Plan...

The Beginning Stages...








The Finished Product...





 Yesterday we had another Mystery Reader! Ms. Yang forgot to take pictures for the last 2 but we would like to think Ms. Li and Heather from daycare for coming. We would also like to think Ms. Asadullah for coming in yesterday. Thanks for sharing Aydin's favourite book!






 Stay tuned!


Thursday, 12 March 2015

Room 104 Happenings

As we wrap up before the March Break holiday, we continue to explore the world of shapes. 

We have been building different structures and testing shapes. Below are pictures of us testing whether shapes can roll, slide and/or stack. 



Testing all the sides of our shape to see if it rolls or slides.


Can we stack a sphere on top of this structure?

Hmm... can a cone stack?

We are also working on writing good sentences and expanding our writing. This week we introduced Ali the Alligator. Our students are to think of a story or something they can do with Ali. We remember three things when we are writing sentences. 

To write a good sentence, we...
-Use a capital at the beginning of the sentence.
-Put spaces between words.
-Put a period at the end of the sentence.

Ms. Campbell introduces Ali the Alligator.


Sunday, 8 March 2015

Spring Newsletter and Updates

Last week's word of the week was: have.
Can I have another apple?
I have a toy for you.


This week we will focus on the word: because.
I like to play at the blocks because building things is fun.
I put on my jacket because I was cold.





Farm 
In the spring the FDK classes are planning a trip to a farm. The cost will be approximately $15. More details will follow!
Math
After the break, we will be starting addition and subtraction. Some tips for home: encourage students to count on from the bigger number (5 and 2 more is 7), sing songs (i.e., 5 Little Monkeys), play cards or dice games.
Environment
We will be talking about how to take care of our Earth and environment. Earth day is on April 22nd.
Literacy
We will be focusing on rhyming and re-telling. When reading at home, here are some important tips:
Ask students to name the characters.
Talk about what happened in the story (first, second, last).
What was the problem of the story?
How did the characters feel? What did they say?
Weather Reminders
As the weather changes, please remember to bring appropriate clothing. We will be going outside daily in snow, rain and mud! Remember to have a change of clothes in case it gets dirty!
 
Important Dates
March Break – March 16 until March 20
Jungle Jazz Musical – April 2 @ 2:00 pm
No School – April 3 and April 6
Prologue Magic Show (Students Only) – April 10

Friday, 27 February 2015

3D Shapes

We build something with blocks. We build a castle and we build a rocketship. 

We are sorting 2D shapes and 3D shapes.

We are making a picture with circles, rectangles, triangles (2D shapes). 


We made a police station. There is a police officer, a birthday girl and 2 moms. Tigger is a bad guy. 


Maria and Jeremiah were building a tall tower together.







We are using the straw and pipe cleaners to build 3D shapes and 2D shapes. 

Sunday, 22 February 2015

Word of the Week

This week our word is: said.
"Zohair said he wants to play at the block centre."

We continued to work on he and she last week.



Reading and Writing
At school we have been working on reading books with patterns. Pattern books have words that repeat. We learned to look at the picture and the first letter to help us read words we don't know. We are learning that a sentence starts with a CAPITAL letter and ends with a period (.) or exclamation mark (!) or question mark (?). Most of our seniors are learning to write using spaces between words as well.

The giraffe is tall.
 
 
The tree is tall.
The snowman is tall.

 




Shape Shapes Shapes

Shapes are fun!
Kindergarteners already have lots of experience with shapes. Shapes are everywhere! The last 2 weeks we have been exploring some 2Dimensional shapes. 2D shapes are FLAT. We have learned about how many sides and corners shapes have and that we can use smaller shapes to make big ones. Our kindies have also explored different pictures and designs they can make with pattern blocks. Here are some of our explorations. 
 
 
Challenge: Can you fill a triangle with other shapes? What shapes did you use? They were not allowed to leave any white spaces or go over the lines.
 
 

Challenge 2: How many different ways can you fill a hexagon? Seniors and Juniors worked together on this one.

Students from different groups showed the class their own way of making a hexagon.
 
At one of our stations we played on the light table. Using squares and triangles we explored different ways of building things.


More next week when we introduce 3Dimensional (3D) shapes.