¡Bienvenidos a Kinder!
Welcome to our AM and PM Kindergarten Blog
Here are a couple of the songs that the Kinders will be performing at their celebration on June 22. Please practice these at home if possible! :)
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May has been an VERY busy month! The Kindergarten students were so lucky to get a special visit from a few constables of the Calgary Police Service. Out on the field, they listened to the constables talk about different forms of safety (crossing the street, for example). And the students got to sit on their motorbikes, press all sorts of buttons, and make LOTS of noise! In gym, the Kinders have been enthusiastic in practicing and improving their rope jumping skills - all for Jump Rope for Heart! We have been talking about the benefits of jumping rope (and any form of exercise), and learned all about what it does for our heart and our bodies. Some students learned the beginning skill of jumping rope, and others advanced their skills by learning different tricks. They all celebrated their success and were proud to show off what they learned to their peers! IRIS is the CBE online student learning profiles. The Kindergarteners had their first experience creating their profile with their grade 3 buddy classes. They had to think of 2 goals they wanted to work on moving forward, as well as their favorite part of Kindergarten. Since the beginning of Spring, we have been discussing elements of nature and the changes that we see outside. Earlier this week, we talked about planting, and what plants need in order to survive. The Kindergarteners chose what they wanted to plant, and each got to plant their own vegetable/fruit. The options were carrots, cucumbers, turnips, watermelon, tomatoes and broccoli. We are SO excited to see these grow! In this last month we are focusing on building up their mental math capacity through recognizing and comparing numbers, problem solving, printing numbers, basic addition, as well as explaining their thinking using key Spanish vocabulary.
Hola Kinder families! We have had a busy start to May; already the second last month of the school year! We have continued our inquiry lesson about bugs from the previous month. First, we brainstormed an extensive list of bugs that students would see during the spring. Then, we explored what they already knew about a few of them - we focused on mariposas (butterflies), abejas (bees), hormigas (ants) and arañas (spiders). Many of them already knew some very interesting fun facts about these bugs! After that, we took a closer look at those specific bugs and discovered the different parts of a bug, and some of the features that make these bugs unique. Some of them have 2 body parts versus 3. Some of them have 2 eyes, 5 eyes, or even 8 eyes! Some of them had 6 legs, while others had 8. These observations quickly captivated the students' attention and interest. We decided to build these bugs out of materials that we already had in the classroom. With the students' help, we collected various materials and got to work! With the use of LOTS of liquid and hot glue, their creative pieces came to life! Here are a few snapshots of their creations. (Painting their bugs will be taking place later this week!) To go along with our bug theme, the students had an art class through Young Rembrandts who came to our school last week. Through these guided step-by-step drawings, the artist also taught us many interesting facts about either bees or butterflies. Lastly, I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers' Day over the weekend. And we hope you enjoyed the special cards that your littles ones made for you in Kindergarten!
Since we got back from Spring Break, we have been quite busy in the classroom in our conversations around spring. We’ve completed some reading responses around “Signs of Spring” – the students had brilliant ideas about what they would see outside once it starts looking like the season (hopefully more of this snow will melt soon!). One Kindergartener even had the witty idea of calling it “SPRINTER!” (Spring + Winter). To go along with weather, we have incorporated an art project on the Chinook Arch (aka “Snow Eater”). Through looking at real pictures of this phenomenon, the students were able to use appropriate colors for the arch, and many of them even mixed colors together to create a more realistic representation. We discovered where all the warm air comes from, and we learned to tell the story of the Chinook Arch using our bodies and big gestures. Along with changes in the weather, we have been talking a lot about bugs. With this introduction, students have been examining them closely through books and manipulatives. They have also been learning some of them in Spanish of course. We will be continuing to learn about bugs and their development throughout the Spring season. The kindergarten students continue to build on their literacy skills through discovering “kid spelling”. Along with continuing to learn letter-sound associations, students are encouraged to streeeeetch out their words, and write down any letters that they hear. This can be applied at any time, whether it is during our Author Centre, drawing centre, Letter of the Week, and reading responses. Lastly, the students have been practicing talking about themselves in Spanish, using vocabulary that they have been exposed to since the beginning of the school year. They are continuing to learn to answer questions in more complete sentences, with teacher modeling and repetition. The first two weeks of March have been busy ones, and the Kindergarten students continue to partake in a variety of activities within the classroom. The students continue to build upon their literacy skills as they continue to work on their letter of the week. The students have enjoyed brainstorming and looking for words that start with a given letter on different days. Furthermore, the students are being encouraged to start labelling their own drawings (see picture) within their letter journals, which is helping them all to further build upon their awareness of sound and letters. The Kindergarten students received a visit from our School Nurse Jessica this week where they got to take part in a session all about washing hands. The student's met "bugsby" the germ and learned that he can hide in the most unexpected of places. They then all got "magic germs" placed on their hands and had to go to the washroom and try and wash ALL of the germs off. The students loved having the nurse here, and learning about their health and the importance of washing their hands. Finally over the last two days the Kindergarten students have been excited as they have learned about Irish culture and all about St. Patricks Day. The students took part in a directed drawing that was given in Spanish and created their own Leprechauns to celebrate the occasion. They then tried their best to describe their Leprechauns features in the target language of Spanish. They are looking forward to St. Patricks day and hoping they can catch the "sneaky" Leprechaun. The students will be completing a reading response where they will have to design a leprechaun trap using recyclable materials they would find at home or in the classroom. The Kindergarten students are constantly working on their oral Spanish language development. Through books, music and games we have been encouraging the students over the course of the last month to use more and more of their acquired language. The students enjoying showcasing their language skills and truly feel a sense of pride when they are able to imbed specific vocabulary into their conversations with their teachers and peers. In math we continue to expose the Kinders to a weekly math problem that is presented to them in Spanish. With the support of their teacher they are beginning to understand how to pull our the important information from a world problem that will support them in finding a solution. Our world problems have been focused around numeracy and regrouping one number in multiple ways. For example: how many mays can we use two numbers to make 10. Furthermore, we have also focused our world problems on patterns, and asking the kindergartens to see by "how many" a given pattern is changing or growing in each increment. February was a fast a busy month and the Kindergarten students continued to create unique learning opportunities within the classroom. Over the course of the month the students explored and examined the qualities of a kind person. Through a variety of activities the Kindergarten students demonstrated and explained ways in which we can be kind to one another. One of these activities was building kindness superheroes during center time. Using plasticine - the Kinders would build a superhero and then have to explain what it's specific "kindness superpower" was. From there they would reflect on their creating within their visual journals. The students also participated in "Friendship Fruit Salad" and learned what it means to give compliments to people. The students greatly enjoyed this activity and can now be heard complimenting each other around the classroom. A few pieces of student voice from this activity was the following: " I like how you always help clean up toys- even if you were not playing with them" "I like how you always hold the door for us at the end of the school day" "I like how you ask me to play with you during center time" The kindergarten students continue to build upon their literacy skills and have been working very hard at their letter and sound recognition skills. Through activities like "letter of the week", letter hunts, literacy games and printing activities, the students are working on having a strong understanding of the letters of the alphabet. This is a skill that is important to early literacy development and something that you will hear the kindergartens talking about for the remainder of the kindergarten year. See some pictures below of ways in which we have been exploring letters and their sounds.
January has been a busy month for the Kindergarten students as they have gotten used to being back into their routines and learning cycles. We enjoy seeing their progress each and every day and it is amazing to see the growth and understanding of their learning across a variety of different learning topics. We have been busy preparing for our upcoming storytelling evening and the students are looking forward to presenting their original pieces to their families. Throughout this story telling process the Kindergarten students have learned that all stories are like a roller coaster. The story begins and after establishing the characters and setting the roller coaster runs into a "bump" (a problem); it is from here that the students must create a solution to the problem in order to wrap up the story. Furthermore, after listening to a story being read aloud the Kindergarten students are working on identifying the characters, setting and problem within a given text. All this work around storytelling has been extremely engaging for our students and has most certainly contributed to their overall literacy development. We plan to continue this work as the year progresses and continue to find and create stories throughout our work. With winter all around us, the Kindergarten students have been exploring with science. They have been looking closely at the different elements of winter. As a class we went on a winter walk around the neighborhood to find evidence that winter was all around us. Students noted the following on our walk: "The tree's are bare - they have no leaves" "The grass is brown" "There are tracks in the snow" "There is ice on the sidewalk" "There are some animals in the trees and sky" With this evidence we continued our conversation about winter in the classroom, by bringing three different size containers full of snow. Students then predicted which container of snow would take the longest amount of time to melt. After completing this experiment, students observed that snow is made of water - and this conversation is now leading us into the inquiry question of what are the ingredients of a blizzard. In math, the students have been busy working through a weekly open ended math task. These word problems are presented in Spanish and the students work with their teacher to decipher the important vocabulary with the help of images before working on the problem. Within these problems we have been focusing both on numeracy skills and patterning skills. As teachers we plan to continue this work as the year progresses, as we have seen great growth in the kindergarten students problem solving skills.
Over the past couple of weeks, students were introduced to an open-ended math task in order to develop their understanding in mathematics. They were provided with visuals to help them understand the question, to find a solution to the problem, and even an extension to the question for those students who needed an extra challenge. With the wide range of abilities in our Kindergarten classrooms, we will be continuously incorporating further math tasks into their learning to progress their mathematical reasoning, problem solving and their understanding of numeracy and place value. We have also been working on identifying emotions. We read the storybook “In My Heart: A Book About Feelings”, brainstormed a variety of emotions, then the students created artwork through drawing their own “Emotions’ Snapshot” through which they drew what different emotions look like. They were also provided with a “Bull’s Eye Rubric” as a self-assessment tool to enable them to complete their best work. In the upcoming weeks, we will continue to work with this topic, and how emotions can affect us and those around us. Finally, the Kindergarten students have been learning about families! They have been learning different family members names in Spanish as they work through a variety of activities. Furthermore, the students have been looking at how all families look different and that each family unit in itself is unique and special! Students will be working on a family chandelier as a class, as they talk about special traditions that are important to their families. This is a nice transition as in the coming weeks of December we will be looking at traditions and holidays around the world. With the Christmas concert coming, we are beginning to practice the songs that the students will be performing. See below for the song that each class has chosen. Feel free to practice with them at home! We collaborated with the Music teacher Doña Maria; she will be teaching the students Spanish songs for the concert; and since we are a bilingual program, they will also be learning an English Christmas/Winter song. Sra. Jordan AM ClassSra. Jordan PM ClassSrta. Lynda AM ClassDuring the week of Remembrance Day, students began to develop their understanding of the meaning of this day through videos and discussion. They were able to connect this to the real world by recognizing why many of us wear poppies. The students then drew their interpretation of Remembrance Day in their visual journals – many of these included pictures of a standing soldier in a field of poppies. To extend this topic, we discussed the meaning of peace, and what peace means to them. For their “Yo en noviembre” (Me in November) activity, the students shared aloud what their definition of peace is, then were able to draw what their idea looks like. Below are a few quotes from this task:
“La paz es laying down and watching stars connect.” “La paz es me sitting on the mountains at night time.” “La paz es me and my sister doing standing yoga.” “La paz es diving in the water looking for sea shells for my collection.” “La paz es the sunshine on my face.” “La paz es my toes in the ocean.” “La paz es celebrating watching fireworks.” Over the past few weeks, students have experienced a few different holidays. Around Halloween, we introduced them to el Día de los Muertos – the Day of the Dead – through reading story books, having discussions, and even making pan de muerto, a sweet bread that the students molded into the shape of bones, before baking them and taking them home. We hope you enjoyed them! Students explored different elements of the holidays and some of the traditional customs that take place for día de los muertos. Furthermore, we looked at comparisons between halloween, day of the dead and Remembrance Day and students had to identify similarities and differences between the three events. |
TeachersAM - Srta. Lynda Elhage and Sra. Jordan Irwin Archives
January 2018
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