Bonjour chers parents,

In the next week to come we will be getting ready to host all you to our end of the year Learning Celebration.  We will be singing a few songs and present a story based on a Eric Carl book called "The very hungry caterpillar".  The celebration will be held on June 22rd.  A message will be sent soon to give you more information.

We are also very excited to go to our first field trip to Safety City.  Please make sure that your child's bike helmet is well adjusted before you send it to school.  I will be sending a picture next week that will show you the safe way to adjust your child's helmet.  Thank you for the parents who will be our volunteer that day.

Starting next week, we will be going outside during recess with the big kids.  We will also start visiting the Grade one class to help them with the transition.

Living things

This last month,  our focus revolved around the living things that are visiting our classroom.  Our caterpillars formed their chrysalis (no, it’s not at cocoon) and have come out as beautiful butterflies!  We had a lot of questions about the chrysalis vs a cocoon and noticed ways in which they are they same and different.   We will let out butterflies free on Monday in the courtyard being very careful not to hurt them as they spread their wings for the first time outside.   We will take the opportunity to observe them further as a scientist do.  This will support out thinking through the scientific process, gathering data, and discovering more questions to investigate.  In our science logbooks, we did several observational drawings and put to use our skill as writers to write sentences.   We were also able to see math in our study of the caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterflies – we counted the wings, legs, antennae, etc. We learned what is an insect and it’s different body parts.  We noticed patterns and symmetry – leading to a design and art project to represent this learning.

Overall, we are building a strong conceptualization of living things, life cycles, comparing and noticing change, stages, similarities and differences.  This is deeply connected to curriculum as well as an interest in animals and insects.  The children, in their free play time, are often representing animals in different habitats which invites  amazing questions and discussion which springboards our inquiry and thinking.

Our butterflies are coming out of their chrysalis and drying their wings.


In the next week, we will be going outside more frequently to observe and appreciate nature.  We will be inspired by nature to create beautiful art.  Keep in tune!

Have a wonderful week!

Bonjour Chers Parents,


Here is what research tells us about play and early literacy development:

-Play develops children's oral language, comprehension and storytelling abilities.
-Pretend play provides practice in early literacy processes.
-Word play develops phonological awareness.
-Play helps build background knowledge.
-Play makes reading and writing fun.

(adapted from Neuman and Roskos 2007.)

All the reasons to let your child play and have unstructured play more frequently.

Easter

Although it’s recognized that not every student celebrates Easter, this holiday provides some unique learning opportunities for our students. In the week leading up to the holiday, the letter of the week happened to be the letter “P”. This was a great coincidence for us and our students because many easter related words either begin with or contain the letter. For example: 

Basket —> pannier

Rabbit —> lapin

Spring—> printemps

Rain —> pluie

Easter —> Pâques

In madame's Britanny's class, students were also presented with a mini design challenge as they made a special basket for our surprise egg hunt on Thursday. The basket started off as some 2D shapes on a piece of paper and when it was all said and done, we had a 3D basket ready for use! The children had not been told there was going to be a hunt, so when the basket began taking shape, they started to have some ideas as to what they would be for. 

As the students hunted for eggs, they really had to practice patients and self-control as they were very excited to fill their baskets. The egg decorating activity prior to our hunt didn’t go quite as planned however… for some reason, the food colouring didn’t create the marble ripples we were hoping for! Oh well, better luck next time. 

Spring

Yes, it is here!  And we have so many wonderful learning experiences coming up.  We will be starting to talk about the signs of spring this week and go on a nature walk around the school. If you happen to have pussy willows in your yard, we would love collecting them for an art project coming up in the next little while.
Here is a song that they will learn in the next month to come:

2:34

Chanson : Le printemps

Mini ABC 

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ABONNE-TOI À MINI ABC : http://bit.ly/2d0uEH0 Louis et Josée chantent la chanson du printemps. Quelles sont ces belles ...

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Class book

Our student-teacher broke her hand last week and came back to school with a cast.  The children had many questions for her and of course loved to share there injuries or "owees" to the rest of the class.  This is one of the conversation's that they LOVE sharing with their peers.   I thought we could create a class book where they could draw the body part that they injured  in the past and share it with the class in form of a book.  One of the best thing about this activity is that they have the permission to use two band-aid to put on their drawing. It was a big hit!  Even the children without “owees” created a page.

Gym

In the last week, the children have been doing yoga in the gym.  It is a program that is hosted by a yoga instructor and that is held for two weeks.  The children seem to enjoy it!

Math

We will be doing some exploration with shapes till the end of the school year.  The children will be involve in many activities that will help them focus on geometric attributes such as:

-comparing shapes
-sorting shapes
-patterning
-representing shapes

Have a great week!

March 2017

Bonjour chers Parents,

It was wonderful meeting you all again during the student-led conference.  Your child was able to share many important aspects of his/her learning with you. They were so proud of their accomplishments and being able to celebrate it with you.  Hopefully, through the Student-Led Conferences you where able to pinpoint strengths and areas for continued growth.  The next reporting period will be at the end of June.  

Spring

Yes, it is here!  And we have so many wonderful learning experiences coming up.  We will be starting to talk about the signs of spring this week and go on nature walks around the school.  We love going outside to learn about nature and make discovering that can inspire some fun projects.

Some exciting things have taken place since the end of February. We have had a special visitor come to talk to our students as well as an artist demonstrate painting techniques and work with the children on improving their skills. All of this has taken place in the middle our our "Je suis unique" unit as students learn about how they are different from everyone else.

When constable Ron stepped in the classroom, the children's eyes widened and their mouths turned up in the widest grins...

"I learned about what police officers do and how they help people."

The students were very engaged in learning more about the duties of police officers. The constable was sure to tell students that he doesn't like to use the words "bad guy" to describe those who break the law. He told them that people sometimes make poor choices but that they are not "bad guys" or bad people. This is also something we like to reinforce with the children. No student is "bad" but sometimes we can make poor choices. When we have discussed strategies, students are encouraged to think of ways to make better choices as they learn how to solve their problems independently.



This month, we were also very lucky to have an artist named Michelle Austen join us in Kindergarten. Many of you would have seen her work with Chinook Park students visible throughout the school if you had a chance to do a gallery walk during student-led conferences.

"We learned new ways to paint using water colours".

"I paint using warm colours and cool colours". 

Children also expressed themselves through art in creating a unique spring piece using water colour paints. Although the colours and technique were similar for each child, each work of art turned out very differently. We have been learning that "je suis unique" and the poppy painting truly demonstrates this is a beautifully artistic way. 

Crafts and theatre combined

As a class, we discussed what makes us unique. We talked about our families, our friends as well as what interests us inside and outside the classroom. Many children were excited to share about their favourite centres and the theatre centre was one that made the list. The photo above is a prime example of students using their imagination and creativity to work together and make sense of the world around them. At first glance, it appears the children are simply putting on a puppet show. Prior to this moment, students were at the craft centre making little costumes for the animals who were the characters, putting their fine-motor skills to task. "Serious play" might sound like an oxymoron but that's exactly what this centre became! The students were very quiet and focused as they made their costumes and created a storyline for the animals. All the materials were provided for this to happen, but all the ideas came from the students which allowed the learning to be much more authentic. Everyday, students add their unique perspectives and ideas to their play and it happens so naturally.

Thank you for reading our blog.

Corine Mazerolle-Heppell
Britanny Larochelle

Bonjour Chers Parents,

February has been a very busy, productive month.  Here is a glimps of what we have been doing in the last four weeks.


While talking about winter activities, the children where showing a lot of interest in ice fishing.  I thought we could do a small science project about ice and salt.  We used ice, salt, water and  strings.  I ask the chidren to put their string on the ice, add salt and see what would happen.  They observed that the ice was sticking to the string.  I have to say that a simple experiment like this one brought some very interesting questions.  Try it at home.

Je peche de la glace.

      

After completing the experiment, we did a painting using a printing technique.  They needed to trace and cut a circle (this represented the hole in the ice).  We made three horizontal lines from light blue to dark on a plastic placemate (this represented the water).  And asked them to place their circle on the painting so that the paint would print on the cardboard.  The last step was to trace and cut fish and clue it on their work.  Here is the final results:




On are way back from the Family weekend, we started are week by celebrating the 100 days of school!  We had our Grade two buddies visiting us and engage in various activities involving counting to 100.

I play a dice game.

I trace my hand and count in bounce of 5.

I can build with 100 blocks.

My tower is tall.

To celebrate the 100th day of school in Mme Brittany’s class, students were encouraged to bring items from home which would equal to one hundred. Currently, the children are working on their creations. This group of students really love to build structures during centre time and this interest is evident in their level of engagement in making something of their choice with their items. Some students are working by themselves and others are working with a partner. It will be very interesting to see the end result! 

During French week, students were very interested to learn more about the Francophone countries we represented. In Mme Corine’s class, students represented the flag of France and in Mme Brittany’s class, students created a flag of Morocco using (purposefully) limited materials. They were very resourceful in making the flag as part of a team effort! 

This month, we have learned the letters “f” and “b”. In the next few weeks, we will learn “j”, “é”, and “ou”.  We are continuing working with rhymes through songs and our French vocabulary.  We are also beginning to connect the sounds of syllables(decoding) so we can begin reading small words.

Thank you for reading!

The children creating music.

Playing in a cooerating relay with skies.

A visit from Bonhomme Carnaval.

A performance from a French Folk group.

Bonjour chers Parents,


Here is a glance of our learning in the past few weeks:

Arts/Math  

We had a discussion about shapes, and how we can find them everywhere in our environment.  In small groups the children became detectives of shapes and were asked to notice and find objects in class that had a shape in the form of a circle.  Following our discussion and activity, I introduce them to a famous Russian abstract artist named ” Kadinsky”.   We looked at a few of his painting and learned that abstract  art portrays what an artist feels and thinks, rather than what he or she sees. An abstract artist uses colours and shapes to express his or her emotions and ideas.  While we were looking at the art we noticed the many circles on the painting above.  The children thought it would be a great idea to  create a drawing inspired by Kadinsky’s art.  We will send you pictures of their work on the next blog.

They also created a beautiful winter scenery with watercolors and salt.

Language Art

It is that time of the year when we expect the children to begin speaking French in full sentences.  They have been practicing answering simple questions.  The vocabulary is around colors and winter clothing. Here are a few examples of sentences that you may practice with your child:

 You ask your child "C’est un manteau rouge?" Your child answers for exemple " Oui, c’est un manteau rouge. Non, c’est un manteau jaune."

C’est vert?  Non, c’est jaune.

Il y a trois livres?  Non, il y a 2 livres.

Qu’est-ce que tu manges?  Je mange une pomme.  Je mange une banane.  Je mange une orange.  Je mange du fromage.  Je mange un craquelin.

Qui a un chapeau rouge?  J’ai un chapeau rouge.

Qui a des mitaines bleus?  J’ai des mitaines bleus.

C'est un carre?  C'est un cercle/rectangle/triangle/coeur.

Social Stories

As mentioned in a previous blog post, kindergarten is fortunate to have support from many outside sources. Melissa is our speech pathologist and she shared a story with our classes about following the group plan. Through this social story, discussion and follow up activity, the children learned the importance of teamwork and following directions. Now, when the words “group plan” are mentioned, the students are much more aware that their actions help or hurt the flow of activity in the classroom. This is an area to continue building on throughout the year. 

Fun in the outdoors

Last week, the two Kindergarten classes enjoyed an hour outside creating snowmen and a fort in the courtyard.  Unfortunately, the snow wasn't sticky enough to make balls for our snowmen.  But, have a look at a few of their  creation.  They all found ways to create the own snowman.

Here are a few things we did during center time:

I create a habitat for animals with corks.

More magnetic structures.

I build with magnetic blocks.

I build a structure with my peers and think about the group plan.

I learn my letters.

January 3 - January 13

Chers parents,

"Je suis l'Etoile de la semaine!" "C'est mon anniversaire!"

Welcome 2017! We are well into winter and the children are back at school and ready to learn and have fun with their friends. It's amazing to see all the changes that take place over the two weeks that we break for the holidays. In that short time, the children mature in a noticeable way!

Winter is an obvious theme to discover and explore this time of year. In Mme Brittany and Mme Corine's classes, the children have been learning lots of new winter clothing vocabulary:

Je mets des bottes (I put on boots)
Je mets mon manteau (I put on my coat)
Je mets un foulard (scarf)
Je mets un chapeau/tuque (hat/tuque)
Je mets mitaines/des gants (mittens, gloves)
Je mets un pantalon de neige (snow pants)

"I'm practicing fine motor skills"

To reinforce the new vocabulary, we have been playing games through which the children have to remember and repeat. This will continue to be something we work on while we add more winter themed vocabulary to the mix. This next week, we will talk about winter activities and learn vocabulary surrounding sports and leisure (ex. Je fais du ski, je fais un bonhomme de neige etc.).

"I'm exploring hot and cold" 

We have also continued to practice patterns by decorating an item of winter clothing or an accessory the children traced and cut. This combined math and art activity will be followed by a special snowman creation both indoors and outdoors in the coming week.

Songs are such a great way to learn languages and children in our kindergarten classes are especially excited when they get to sing something new. In the coming weeks, we will be learning "La vache a l'ecole" sung by Carmen Campagne. We all love to drink hot chocolat in the winter. But where does it come from? This song helps us discover the answer to that question in a silly way :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdNsQVBPkSE

I am making a snowman with a aerial perspective.

I am making making patterns.

 
I am writing my name in lower case.

Learning letters              

Dear Parents,

Research tells us that your child’s knowledge of letters (recognition) at the end of kindergarten is the single best predictor of first-year reading achievement. “a child who can recognize most letters with confidence will have an easier time learning about letter sounds and word spellings than a child who still has to work at remembering what is what” (Adams 43).  In other words, can your child recognize and name most of the letters of the alphabet?

There are many fun ways for you to ensure that letter recognition becomes automatic for your child:

.Teach your child to recognize and name the letters in his or her name. Having your child print his or her name and name the letters as they are printed helps to reinforce letter names.

-Have your child point to and name the letters in words they see frequently(e.g, signs, stop, go, washroom, labels).  Ask: “What is the first letter in “stop”?

-Have your child make some alphabet letters out of clay or other materiel.

-Play “fish” with alphabet letter cards.

-Make an “A” page. Have your child cut out many words from a magazine and paste them on a page to be displayed on the fridge.

-Read Alphabet Books together.

-Make alphabet cookies.

Learning the letters of the alphabet is important, and there are so many fun ways to ensure that this happens.  Make use of both intentional and spontaneous opportunities at home, in the car, on a walk.  Literacy opportunities are everywhere.  I teach it everyday, but research say that children who have those opportunities at home have a higher rate of success.

And “YES” you can do this all in English if you do not know French. Most sounds in English are the same in French except A/E/H/I/U.

Thank you for reading our blog!