Calendar Not working

Thanks Jen for letting me know.  It worked great from school and not so well from home this afternoon.  I will keep trying over the next few days.  The only date for the calendar for May was library (next Thursday) which will also be our last day to take out books.  

Renovating the House Centre again!

Earlier this spring it was a post office and now we will magically turn it into a grocery store.  Connecting with our unit on farms students will get to experience environmental print (the print that surrounds them in their everyday lives, like the name of the favourite granola bar), write grocery lists, signs (for sale items, open/closed, etc.) and play and learn about money (names of coins).  However, we do need your help for this centre.  Please send in any clean, empty containers (e.g. boxes, produce containers, plastic juice jugs etc.)  for our grocery store to help us stock the shelves.  Thanks!

Calendar

Here is our new calendar.  I have created a separate page for the calendar which you can find at the top of the blog with a new tab with the same name.  As I mentioned before I am new at this and still working out the bugs. It took me about 20 minutes just to resize the calendar (Ah!!! technology).  Hopefully everyone will find this helpful. 

A new literacy centre

This week one of  our centres involves building words in various ways and reading the word.  The focus has been on number words.  Next I will add colour words to the selection.

Clouds

A follow-up, extension activity to a read-aloud, Spilt Milk, included creating our own clouds.  Using our keen eyesight and imagination we saw a world of wonder in our "clouds".

Updating some posts...

The important thing about blogs is that you hit the publish button when you are done a post!  I did not and the next two posts are quite late but will give you  some insight to what we have done this past month. 


Coming soon...
I am also experimenting with the google calendar app.  It will allow me to embed a calendar with significant dates for our classroom.  There may be some technical glitches as I get use to the app and figure out how best to use it.

Field trip tomorrow

I kept hoping if I waited the weather forecast would change and say sunshine tomorrow, but alas it has not.   When dressing your child rubber boots and a raincoat is a safer and easier option than umbrellas (nothing extra to carry and less eyes being poked). Please pack your child's regular snack.  Volunteers, see you tomorrow!!!

School Based May Newsletter

Birds

We have been working on many different activities.  Our theme based circle activity has included reading a book by Joanne Oppenheim and Barbara Reid. 

We have been listing the names of some of the birds from the book with a focus on the first sound in the bird's name and the distinguishing visual features of the bird.

We played a matching game using bird pictures. 

This week we are making our favourite birds.  Looking at the pictures of birds to discover their colours. 



Authentic Writing Opportunity

I received this note in the notetotes the other day and couldn't resist sharing.  It was such a great opportunity for authentic writing.  Other ideas to get your kinder kid writing would be adding things to the grocery list, making a to-do list, thank-you cards. Thanks Zack and family for allowing me to share.

Writing Centre

While cruising kindergarten blogs I discovered a great activity that has been added to our writing centre.  It is also an activity that can be done easily at home.  We have been looking through old magazines and cutting out pictures that catch our eye.  Next, we write a sentence to describe or tell about the picture.  Some students are even creating their own "stories" about the picture.  It is an activity that can tell you so much about your child's literacy development.   Some children are writing word wall words and using "stretchy the word snake" (ask your child about stretching out words).  Other children are writing random letters, and in doing so are demonstrating that they know that letters represent the meaning and the message and that we write left to right.  Oh, the little things kids do can show us so much!!