Pre-K in March

Sorting is a very important skill in the early years of learning. In order to read, write and count you must be able to notice what is similar and what is different. Sorting also lets the students explain their reasoning or rules for sorting and this is vital to comprehension in all subject areas.

How are these buttons the same? How are they different?

Above Picture: What rule did you use to sort these buttons?

Answer: These are blue, and gold and brown and white and little brown / black and these are the pretty ones!

Using buttons, eyes, mouth shapes and shamrocks students can be creative in sorting to make their character just the way they like.

Lyra had a rare recess with the big kids and enjoyed swinging with her sisters.

"I am up and you are down!" "Now you are up and I am down!"

The playground is a wonderful place to explore words like:

up/down, on/off, under/over, high/low, fast/slow and beside.

These concepts help children understand directions and communicate ideas.

This is our new class picture with all 17 of us!

We have so much fun with all our friends at Pre-K.

It's a good thing we do so much small group play, as you can see it is very tricky to have all the students looking at the same place at the same time!

Drop the dice and count the dots, it sounds simple but it develops two very important skills. 

1. Point and count up to 6 accurately.

2. Subitize numbers 1-6, means to name a number of objects (dots) at a glance. 

 Puzzles develop an understanding of shape, space, colour and concepts. The picture above shows pictures of the students with the letters of their names. They can use the picture and the letters for clues to put them together.

 This puzzle reinforces naming numbers from 1 - 9.

 The challenge for these geo shapes is to copy someone else's geo shape picture. It is very hard not to get distracted and build your own picture.

 Photos above and below show the students practicing stamina as they worked for about 10 minutes on the letter and word puzzles.

Tongs, crafts, small toys, dramatic play, sand play and reading with a friend increases conversation skills, fine motor skills, creativity, co-operation, concepts and vocabulary like colours, sizes, animal names (lion verses tiger) (horse verses foal). 

 St. Patrick's Day fun included sorting crackers according to shape. We sorted the shamrock and heart shaped crackers and put all the ones that didn't fit the rule in the top circle. Then we counted the shamrocks and hearts and talked about the most, the least and the same.

This hair-do took co-operation and sustained stamina to complete.

Mrs. Dyck tried a new recipe for finger paint. It was a little thick to smear smoothly but we did get to mix the primary colours of red, yellow and blue into orange, purple and green.

Note: Mrs. Dyck should make another batch because it was fun.

We started the STAR STUDENT project!

Easter fun included the students hiding and finding eggs in the classroom. We will keep the eggs out for a while because that was really fun!

They cut grass for the nests to put the dyed egg into.

Happy Easter!

We hope everyone has a great holiday visiting, playing, reading, and counting a few treats.

At least that what Mrs. Willford and I plan to do.

Kindergarten in March

It is hard to believe we have been in Kindergarten for 60 days. So much learning has taken place. 

Listening to a audio story together.

These pictures are examples of how students mix and match with their classmates according to their interests during CENTER TIME.

Dramatic play

Taking time out of dramatic play (notice the hat) for some pattern making.

More dramatic play.

More patterns.

Sorting that turned into building.

The students really enjoyed our St. Patrick's Day project where they got to write a story about a Leprechaun mischief. 

 Sorting according to one attribute like shape, colour and size is not too difficult and they proudly showed off the work. Can you see which sorting rule they used?

Next we will try sorting according to rules like, all the ones with a square face, all the ones with a curved edge or all the ones with 6 faces.

We are developing representing with pictures, letters and words. 

This is his favourite center activity.

These four were deeply involved in dramatic play where dog had turned into a monster and the girls and the pony with the magic jewel were building a hiding place with the chain links.

  The grade nine and ten students have created mini lessons about the first nations people and culture. The first lesson was about Pow Wows and the students are learning a dance. The next lesson was travel and how canoe, dog sleds and horses were used to travel to find food and make trades.

 

Our Easter activities included colouring and cutting baskets for the coloured egg, hunting for eggs hidden in the playground from the Hall Board and eating wonderful cookies that Atlee brought for us.

 Reading Buddies is always fun for us.