Children's Museum Field Trip!

We are very excited to go on our field trip to the Children’s Museum on Wednesday, June 17^th! If you have not done so already, please send in the permission slip and $6.25 as soon as possible.

All 3 Kindergarten classes will go on the school bus together. All students need to arrive at 8:40am and will be dismissed at 3:30pm. Drop off and pick up will be in the same spot as normal. If you cannot get your child to school or have them picked up at the appropriate times, please let me know and I will see if I can find alternate arrangements.

Students should wear shoes (not sandals) and comfortable clothing to move around all day. Please pack one snack and a lunch for your child. We will be eating indoors and it is a peanut-free facility.

We are still looking for parent volunteers to join us on the field trip! If you can volunteer, please e-mail me at kpetersen@retsd.mb.ca. Thanks!

Recess

We have started to go outside for recess! For the last week or so, we have been learning the expectations for how to play safely, respectfully and responsibly during recess time. We have our recess matrix which is displayed by our cubbies to remind us of the expectations. Each classroom has the same recess matrix because the whole school follows the same expectations!

 

Some things we need to remember are:
- Rocks stay on the ground
- When Ms. Petersen says, or we hear the bell, it’s time to line up right away
- If someone asks if they can play with us, we say YES
- We keep our hands, feet and bodies to ourselves

 

Right now, we go outside for recess on our own. This means that we can go on the play structure every time! We are practicing by ourselves now, but soon we will go outside for recess at the same time as the other students. When this happens, we will need to share the play structure with other students. We will use the play structure on the same day as the Grade 1s and 2s. On the days when the older students use the play structure, we can play in the field or on the hard top.

Ms. Petersen also introduced the recess bucket to us and showed us all of the things inside of it. We can use the equipment in here when we go outside, but we must take REALLY good care of the items. If the equipment gets lost or broken, we won’t have any more toys to play with! Our equipment is labeled with the letter A, so that it will be easily identifiable when we are playing with other students outside.

 

In the recess bucket, there is:
- Large ball for basketball or bouncing
- Medium ball for bouncing or 4-square
- Small ball to bounce or throw against the wall
- Chalk to draw on the cement
- Scoop set to play catch with a partner
- Soccer ball to play soccer

We sign the equipment out that we would like to use for the recess and we are responsible for keeping track of it and returning it to the bucket. So far, we have been doing an excellent job of taking care of the equipment!

 

We are loving recess so far! Sometimes we only get to have recess OR choice time because we are working hard on our jobs in the classroom to prepare for Grade 1. We are doing a great job of understanding this. When we are in Grade 1, we know that we will get 3 recesses (one in the morning, one after lunch and one in the afternoon). We are so excited!

 

Ask me what I like to do during recess!

Paper

Since Spring Break, we have started learning about Paper. First, we made predictions on how we thought paper was made. A lot of us guessed that paper comes from trees! When asked “From which part of the tree?”, many of us guessed the bark or leaves. Some of us even mentioned using machines to make paper.

 

 ("I think it was made out of bark")

 

After we made our predictions, we watched this short video that explains how paper is made. 

 

Here are the steps that we came up with:

1)  A tractor cuts down a tree and brings it to the factory

2) It is placed on a machine and the bark is removed

3) It is cut into teeny, tiny pieces known as wood chips

4) They mix the wood chips with water to make a "soup"

5) It is flattened out and the water is squeezed out

6) They let the paper dry and cut it into the desired size

In the video, we also learned that new paper can be made from old paper. We learned it is REALLY important to recycle old paper in our recycling bin because we don’t want to cut down so many new trees. We remembered that trees give us air and we NEED air to live! If there were no more trees, we wouldn’t be able to survive!

 

Ask your child to explain to you how paper is made!

 

Then Ms. Petersen told us that we would be trying origami! We weren’t too sure what origami was, but Ms. Petersen told us we would be folding our paper lots of times to make a new shape without using our scissors to cut! 

 

But first, we needed to figure out the best type of paper to use for origami. We had 4 different paper products to test out: wax paper, paper towel, cardboard and drawing paper. In small groups, we discussed the characteristics of each paper product then presented them to the class. Afterward we made our predictions using tally marks. We noticed that the drawing paper could fold the most number of times and the folds stayed nice.

 

Here are the videos that we watched to create our origami animals. Both classes created the puppy dog face. The morning class created the jumping frog and the afternoon class created the bunny rabbit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the origami folds were a little bit tricky, and we had to try our best. At the beginning, lots of us said that we couldn’t do it, but we got the hang of it soon! We learned it’s important to watch the videos a few times before attempting to start and that it’s REALLY important to use our listening ears.

There are tons of videos on youtube and you can also try searching the local library for origami books if you are interested in creating more at home!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Hello families,

Since there are so many families to see during Parent/Teachers Conferences that I have opened up additional time slots.

If you are able to come between

Wednesday 3:00 - 4:00 pm OR
Thursday 3:00 - 4:00 pm

Please let me know via e-mail (kpetersen@retsd.mb.ca) so I can accomodate families who require later times.

Thanks in advance!

Independent Reading

In our classroom, we have been learning how to read new books all by ourselves! These are books that we have not seen before and that we need to use our detective skills on.

When trying a new book, we always follow these steps:

1) Look for star words
2) Look at the pictures to give us a clue
3) Look at the first letter of the new word
4) Point under each word when reading

 

Students are at many different points in their reading journey. Here is a sample of some of the books we have been reading together in class.

In this level of text, students are able to recognize the star words “Dad” and “is”. They use the picture as a clue to help them finish the sentence. Many students also recognize that the new word starts with “C”, therefore “cooking” makes sense.

Some students will read this page as “Dad is baking”. The student read the star words, it sounds correct and it matches the picture. These students are still learning how to look at the first letter and make a connection.

Students who can read this type of text independently will receive a “2” for reading on their report card!

 

This level of text contains more star words in random order. This really challenges the students to read each word slowly so that they can read each word correctly.

Students who can read this type of text independently will receive a “3” for reading on their report card!

The level of text allows the students to try reading unfamiliar words by using a variety of strategies. Students look for chunks in words (ing, ch, etc.), think about what makes sense and sound out simple words.  

Students who can read this type of text independently will receive a “4” for reading on their report card!

If you would like to try some books at home, you can visit http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/sight_words.html#ABCorder. This website provides printable booklets that are similar to the leveled texts we read at school and have read over the weekend in our poem books. I can also send some leveled texts home with your child as well.

The most important thing is that your child is having fun reading! If the text is too challenging, that is okay – they will get there! Starting with easy, predictable text will help your child build self-confidence and an enjoyment of reading. Students feel really successful when they can read books all by themselves! I often remind them that when they came to Kindergarten, some of them didn’t know any letters or letter sounds and now they know them all and are reading independently!

We also discuss why it is important to practice reading SO much. We know that it is so we can become better readers! We talk about how reading is SO important. We read street and store signs, magazines, fliers, books, and instructions among many other things. It is important to establish a purpose for reading!

I am so proud of the students reading abilities and all of their hard work!

Keeping Our Teeth Healthy

Lately, we have been learning how and why it is important to take care of our teeth! After reading many books and watching some short videos, we came up with ways to keep our teeth healthy.

We need to:

- Brush our teeth two times a day

- Floss our teeth once a day

- Visit the dentist

- Eat lots of healthy foods

- Do not eat too many treats

- Drink milk or water

- Wear a mouth guard when playing sports

- Replace our toothbrush often

- Do not chew on hard items such as markers, toys, etc.

Last week, we did another fun experiment together! Ms. Petersen had four hard-boiled eggs. These hard-boiled eggs represented our teeth! We put each egg in a different kind of liquid.

Here were some of our predictions:

Water	- The egg might break - Might turn brown
Milk	- Might break into two pieces - Egg might disappear
Vinegar	- The bubbles will explode - There will be no more bubbles
Pop	- Egg might turn different shades of brown and black

After we waited two sleeps, we took the eggs out of the liquids. We are getting so good at observing and noticing all kinds of different things during our experiments!

Here were some of our observations:

Water	- There was a little bit of brown on the egg but mostly white - Pretty strong - It was shiny
Milk	- Very strong - White in colour - Did not break - It was shiny
Vinegar	- The bubbles stayed on the egg - The shell disappeared and the egg was soft - White in colour
Pop	- Turned brown - We couldn’t brush off the brown with a toothbrush

 

Then we had to choose 2 of the experiments to draw on our recording sheet. Notice how we used our best listening ears to hear the sound of the words! Then we had to describe to Ms. Petersen what would happen to our own teeth if we drank that particular kind of liquid. Since we have started doing experiments in our classroom, we are starting to apply our new-found knowledge to our world around us.

Ask me what will happen to my teeth if I drink one of the above liquids!

Needs and Wants

Over the last two  weeks, we have been learning about things that we NEED to survive. At first, we thought we needed many things to live. These things included:

• A car
• Bones
• Blood
• A computer
• Food
• A house
• TV
• Clothes
• Brain
• Water
• Milk
• Among other things

Then we watched a video that explained that there are 5 (basic) things that we NEED in order to survive. We need:

1. Air
2. Healthy food
3. Shelter (a place to live)
4. Water
5. Clothes

     

     We had many discussions about other things that students thought we needed. The biggest thing was a car. Many students thought that we NEEDED a car to live. We brainstormed some ways we could get to school if we didn`t have a car. We thought that we could walk, take a bus, take a taxi, ask a friend to drive us, take a plane or train. It was very hard for some of us to imagine our life without a car!

 

We also thought a lot about the things that we want. This book explained that both adults and kids have to make tough decisions sometimes to buy only things that they need. In the book, Dad really wanted to buy root beer, but decided to leave it at the store and get healthy food instead. Sometimes we are lucky and we are able to get the things that we want, but only after all of our needs have been met. We watched this video to help us understand that we shouldn`t ask for so many things that we WANT but don`t need.

We also sorted the following pictures into two categories: Wants and Needs.

Ask your child to tell you the 5 things we NEED to survive and a few things that they want!

GoNoodle Website

Today, we would like to show you our new favourite website! Back in December, our classroom along with the rest of the classrooms in our school, received projectors that connect to our teachers' computer. Ms. Petersen shows us a variety of things on our projector screen, such as instructions for an activity, pictures and new songs. We LOVE to visit the website www.gonoodle.com.

When Ms. Petersen first showed us the website, we had to choose a “guy” to be our mascot. The AM students picked Chris Shabob and the PM students picked Tiny O’Flexem. Every time we complete an activity, we watch our guy grow! When we complete 10 activities, our guy transforms! This is our favourite part!

 Chris Shabob

 Tiny O'Flexem

 Tiny O'Flexem after he transformed!

The main purpose of www.gonoodle.com is to provide the students with a short period of exercise to increase their ability to focus on a new task. We usually complete a dance video after our meeting time on the carpet is finished because we have been sitting for so long. Sometimes, if we are doing many activities that require a long time to focus, we break up these periods by doing an activity as well. And sometimes we earn an extra activity by working really hard in class!

The dance videos also help students with coordination and copying skills. They must watch the performers on the video and try their very best to complete the same move. We noticed that some moves take a lot more coordination than others! Sometimes we get the hand movements right, but have to work on making our legs move at the same time! Some videos are tricky but the more we practice, the better we become!

We also use www.gonoodle.com as a way to incorporate math in our classroom. Each time we complete an activity, the “thermometer” changes. We know that if we complete one activity, the number goes up by one. We also like to use our subtraction skills to figure out how many more videos we need to complete before our guy transforms! When he does transform, we use our detective eyes to see what characteristics have changed since the last time.

Enjoy our videos of us working on a dance video!

AM Class

 

PM Class