Pre-K in January

Wow! Every day we marvel at how much the students have grown and learned.

The number one activity is building, it is one thing they all enjoy.

Fine Motor Activities include crafts, drawing, colouring, sand play, sorting with pinchers and folding the Kindergarten rulers.

Dramatic play is enjoyed every day too. It can be in costumes, in the house, with animals, play dough and with blocks.

Play and Exploration allows for language and math literacy all day long. Puzzles are all about shape and space, clocks and calendars are about time, blocks can represent numbers and count on a ruler. You can read with a CD in a locker, with friends and with parents on Family Literacy Day.

We played for a long time with the globe.

We talked about how much blue water there is, the raised bump mountains and the places you could travel in the world. When their finger landed on water they chose to be in a plane or ship, when they landed on a continent or island we named it and named the country. Peru and Kazakhstan were funny words. When we landed in Quebec or France, they liked me greeting them with, Bonjour, je m'appelle  Madame Dyck. 

Kindergarten in January

January was marked with lots of celebrations of learning.
There are signs of emerging literacy everywhere. We have the most wonderfully supportive environment in Kindergarten, after a student successfully prints beautifully, identifies a new letter, sound or word or counts the highest they ever have, the students spontaneously clap and cheer!
Jax sorted all the pictures according to the beginning sounds and Gage read his first book to his classmates!

We love math and enjoy adding with fingers, rulers and buttons. We were very excited to write our very first math quiz! A few quickly realized that using a ruler (number line) was their favorite way to find how many altogether. They discovered it is difficult to concentrate when we are all sitting at the big table together. The second day, they chose seats far apart a got right to work! 

We combined math, reading and writing when we made new play-dough for the classroom.

In Motion, asked teachers and students to get political. 

We learned how important playing outdoors is for children. We wrote a message and made a desk ornament for the members of SUMA to remind them that their decisions can help us have outdoor play spaces. Playing outdoors helps us be happy, healthy and strong.

*Did you know that playing outside develops better eyesight?

Using computers is new to our regular routine. Logging on and finding the sites for Mathletics or Starfall is a huge accomplishment. Both sites offer wonderful literacy activities as does abcya. 

All students from K to Grade 4 gather for READING BUDDIES once during the six day cycle. Teachers share stories and sometimes songs then students buddy up and read to each other.