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