Learning Our Letters and Sounds

Over the last two weeks, we have started our letter study! From now, until December, the students will be introduced to 5 letters every two weeks. Last week, we focused on the letters S, M, F, B and A. The letters are strategically introduced from easiest to produce (sound-wise) to most difficult. Throughout the two week period, we do a variety of activities. 

We start the day by identifying letter cards, both uppercase and lowercase. We sing a song to help us remember the letters and their sounds. We also do actions while we sing. For instance, we rub our tummies when we say the /m/ sound. We think of something that tastes really delicious! We have lots of actions to show you. Ask us to sing you the letter song! It starts off like this: "The "S" says /s/..."

Some days, a handful of friends come up to the easel and write their name in the correct spot on the T-chart, depending if they have the particular letter in their name or not. Ms. Petersen pulls popsicle sticks with our names on them to see whose turn it is. We know that if we do not get a turn today, we will get one soon.

We also get to see what is inside of Ms. Petersen's special bag. First we check to see what letters we will be using for our sort. Then Ms. Petersen picks another popsicle stick to see whose turn it will be. That person picks an item out of the bag. They show it to their friends, and we decide as a class which pile it belongs to, according to its beginning sound. We are getting really good at listening to the beginning sounds!

 Ff - frog, fish, fence, fairy book

Aa - alphabet book, anchor, apple, action figure

In the coming weeks, we will be practicing printing these letters with the proper formation!

Earning Pompoms and Terry Fox

Phew! It was a full and busy week for us! Thank you to all of the families who were able to make it to our Meet the Teacher BBQ. I know the kids were very excited to show you around our classroom. We really appreciate everyone taking the time to come and see what makes Kindergarten special!

Since the beginning of the school year, you may have heard your child talking about our coveted pompoms. Each day, we try our best to earn pompoms by following the classroom expectations and working really hard in the classroom! We earn pompoms by raising our hand to speak when we are on the carpet or when we clean up right away when choice time is finished. We also earn pompoms for helping our friends and being good listeners. There are so many ways that we can earn pompoms!

 

The morning class (orange pompoms) have earned a special surprise and the afternoon class (brown pompoms) are SOOO close to earning theirs.

We work as a team to fill up our pompom jar. When all of the pompoms have been placed in the jar, we get to see what's waiting for us in our special Mystery Motivator bag! This means we have earned a special surprise as a class. Then, Ms. Petersen empties out the jar and we start over. Each time there will be a new surprise!

Sometimes, if we are having a hard time following the expectations, Ms. Petersen might ask us to take a break. We usually take our break here.

This is a quiet space away from many distractions.

When we have had some time to think about our actions, Ms. Petersen will come and talk to us. We think of ways that we can follow the expectations together. We can also use the break area if we are feeling sad or mad. These are feelings that all people have at some point and the break area is the perfect place to calm down. When we are feeling better, we continue on with our day in Kindergarten!

This week, we also learned that we would be taking part in the Terry Fox run! We had so much fun following our "spirit days" of red/white clothing and wearing our hats! As a class, we have raised over $250.00 already! Way to go! Thank you to all our of families and friends for their support. We know that we are helping lots of people get better by raising and donating money. Just a reminder that all Terry Fox pledges should be returned to school by Tuesday, September 23. 

Unfortunately, the morning class was not able to participate in the run because Mr. Busceti announced that there were sights of lightening outside. We could not run outside because it was not safe. We were a little bit disappointed, however, weather permitting, we will do the Terry Fox run this Tuesday instead with Mrs. Bangart's kindergarten class. We are looking forward to it!

Lucky for us, the weather cleared up in the afternoon. First we went to the Terry Fox assembly. It was our first time at an assembly. We learned that this is when all of the students at Bernie Wolfe School get together in the gym to listen to special speakers and presenters. We watched a movie about Terry Fox and sang a chant led by the Grade 2s and 7s.

Afterwards, we got to go outside and race around the track! We had so much fun racing others around the track and showing everyone how fast we could run! It is a pretty long track for us Kindergartners. If we needed to take a break from running, we sat with Ms. Petersen in the middle of the field. It was so much fun! When we got back to our classroom, we definitely needed to take a big gulp of water! It certainly was a great way to end our week.

First Week in Kindergarten

Wow! We have had an exciting week in our new Kindergarten classroom! This week we have been focusing really hard on learning new routines and following classroom expectations. We have learned that the word "expectation" means the things that we need to do to follow the rules and be safe. Everyday, we practice our expectations (that the students created) for carpet time.

Today we posed for some pictures, showing how well we can follow all of these expectations! Ms. Petersen is going to add the pictures to our chart to help us remember.

We are also becoming experts at our entry routines! Each day, we come into the Kindergarten room and hang up our backpacks in our cubbies. After that, we change our shoes and get our green or blue mail folder. We place the mail folder in the green bucket then go to the carpet to wait for Ms. Petersen.

To start our day, Ms. Petersen takes attendance. This is so we know who is here at school and who is at home. Ms. Petersen says "Good morning/afternoon, _________" and we say "Good morning/afternoon Ms. Petersen". 

After attendance, we start our meeting. The first thing we do is check our schedule. 

 

The schedule lets us know what we are going to do for the day! It also helps us to know when our favourite activities (such as gym, music, snack time or choice time) are going to happen. When an activity is finished, Ms. Petersen takes off the card.

After that, we look at our calendar. We are learning that it is the month of September. Then we all count together to figure out what date (number) it is. We are trying really, really hard to raise our hand with a quiet mouth when we think we know the answer. The calendar also shows us when important days are coming up, such as Picture Day or Meet the Teacher BBQ!

Then it is time to trace our name two times. We try really hard to stay on the black lines. We do our best and it is okay if we make a mistake. When we are finished, we put it in the blue bucket and get started on our stations. The stations help us develop our small hand muscles to help us print better!

One station we practice is the sticker station. We take off the circle stickers very carefully and try to place them directly on dotted paper.

In our classroom, we have a red timer that shows us how much time is left for an activity. When the red is all done, we wait to hear Ms. Petersen's instructions.

When the time is up, we clean up our stations, push in our chairs and sit in our special spots on the carpet. To end our meeting, we usually sing a song. We are learning so many new songs! We love singing about pirates, fishing, twinkling stars, moose and bubblegum! We can't wait to see what fun things we will do in Kindergarten next week!

Welcome new Kindergarten families!

I am so excited to meet you and for us to start learning and exploring together. This is a just a reminder that if your interview took place Wednesday, Sept 3rd, you will come to school with half the class on Friday, Sept 5th. If your interview took place Thursday, Sept 4th, you will come to school with half the class on Monday, Sept 8th. All students will join together to create their full class on Tuesday, Sept 9th.

If you haven't already done so, please bring all school supplies and school supply money ($25) to school on the first day. I will meet students outside the Kindergarten doors at 8:40 or 12:35. They will be waiting anxiously to tell you all about their first day at 11:35 or 3:30.

I can't wait to see what the year has in store for us!

Love,
Ms. Petersen