Baking Day

We had to change our baking day to tomorrow, Thursday December 18th. It turns out there were just too many classes trying to bake on Friday.

We will bake our cookies tomorrow and eat them on Friday.

Ms. Hammond

Snow Day

Last week when we had all that snowfall. The children and I headed outside first thing. We went to RV Burges park where we could find perfect snow. That means snow that no one else has stepped in. We found a great little spot and had so much fun.

One of the best parts was when a snow-plow began to clear a parking lot next to the fence. He waved at all the children and pushed the snow pile right up on the face. The children were laughing and cheering for the snow-plow. 

A wonderful winter wonderland day!

Ms. Hammond

Sorting Trays

At the math studio, we have a collection of beads and stones that the children use for early math skills. One of the activities they love to explore is the sorting tray. One person puts a selection of beads in the middle of the tray and then the other person has to sort all the beads into organized groups of colours. It's a great math game to play in groups.

You may notice, we put all clear beads to challenge the children to sort by size and shape instead of just colour.

Ms. Hammond

Marble Run

A new activity we have in the classroom is the marble run. This activity is amazing for building problem-solving strategies and co-operative play amongst children. They have to work together to design a ramp-race for their marbles.

They have to really consider balance, height and correct pathways for the marbles. Quickly, children learn to test, revise and re-test their marble runs.

At first, we helped the children build their marble runs. Now...only a few days later, they are creating complex marble runs without any help from their teachers. They help each other instead!

Ms. Hammond

Shapes inside Shapes

We challenged the students to discover different ways to "build" shapes using other shapes. We showed them how two trapezoids fit together to build a hexagon. Here are some photos of the shapes they were able to build.

The Tree Stump

On one of our community walks, we came across a tree that had been cut down. What was really interesting was all the bark that was on the ground. We brought some of the bark back to the classroom.

When the children observed the bark closely, they noticed that there were many tiny holes in the bark. For the past two weeks, we have been recording our theories about why the tree was cut down and why it had so many holes inside the bark.

Today on our classroom walk, we revisited the stump and found that a lot of the sticks and bark were gone. We came back with a part of the tree that had been cut off and had rings inside. (photo to follow soon)

The Window

We have a new centre in the classroom we call The Window. It has clipboards, paper and books about nature. We encourage the children to look out the window and record what they observe. Many have been drawing the bare trees outside. When it snowed, they were drawing the falling snow.

Ms. Hammond

Sudbury Trip

Prepare...I'm finally updating the blog with many posts in the next few days. I thought I'd start with some images from my trip up to Sudbury where I worked with fellow educators on Environmental Inquiry in Kindergarten. This was with Stan Kozak from Learning for a Sustainable Future, who I was introduced to when working with Natural
Curiosity out of the OISE Lab School.

It was a winter wonderland!

Ms. Hammond

Family Friday

Just a reminder that we are having our first Family Friday on November 7th. You can walk in with us at entry time. If you have to drop off other children just head to the main office later and they will send you up to the classroom.

We hope to see you Friday!

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Snyder

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you to all the families who made it out to the Curriculum Night. If you weren't able to make it, we have the hand-out for you and it will be in next weeks Thursday Folder. Any questions you left us, we will find time to speak with you next week.

Thank you to the families who donated a Kleenex Box for the classroom. It's greatly appreciated. 

Enjoy the long weekend! We will see you on Tuesday.

I will try and update the blog with photographs of the Farm I told the students I would be visiting this weekend. (To pick some real pumpkins!)

Ms. Hammond

Curriculum Night

Reminder, that our Curriculum Night is Thursday, October 9th, from 6:00 - 7:00pm.

Please enter through the main office doors and make your way to our classroom.

We will be talking about many important parts of the Full Day Kindergarten Program (reading, math, borrow-a-book, Family Friday, etc.)

We hope everyone can make it.

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Snyder

Community Walk

We had a wonderful walk around our community on Monday. Again, the children were very interested in the colours of the changing leaves. We were very lucky and managed to see 2 fire trucks and 1 police officer (he even turned on the lights and siren for the boys and girls).

Here are a few photographs of our Monday adventure.

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Snyder

 

Chicka Boom

One of our favourite alphabet books is the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. This week we read the story together a couple of times.

Chicka Boom Song

The children created their own coconut trees with alphabet letters at the art studio. 

They also worked together to make our ABC wall. We cut out and put their names up. They were very excited to point our their names and find the names of friends. Later on, words will be added and we will call it our Word Wall. 

We introduced our Alphabet Books at the writing centre. Many of the students wanted to write down words they found in the books.

Nature Walk

Friday was a beautiful day to be outside. The children had a lot of fun exploring and asking questions about the local trees in the park. We came back inside with twigs and leaves we found on the ground. Everyone was very careful not to pick leaves off of the trees.

We took many photographs on our walk...here are just a few.

Trees

This week we have been observing the new trees that were planted just outside our classroom windows. Today the children went outside and sketched what they saw. They asked a lot of questions about the trees...

"Why is the tree bending?"
"Why is the leaf brown there?"
"How come it's so small?"

They also shared their observations and made predictions...

"I think the leaf will turn red."
"I think it's a baby leaf and a baby tree."
"The leaves are going to fall down soon."

We also talked about what they understood about trees.

Before we went outside, we read a story about how to be safe and caring outside with the plants, flowers and trees in our community.

"Why Should I Protect Nature" By: Jen Green

Tomorrow we hope to take a walk over to the local park and compare our new little trees to the MUCH bigger trees.

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Snyder

My favourite tree. Do you have a favourite tree?

School Website

The Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy website is up and running!

Please check it out...

School Website


Ms. Hammond and Ms. Snyder

Pictures of Learning

Our first full week of Kindergarten is almost over. We thought it would be nice to put up some photographs of the amazing work the children have been doing this week. We have enjoyed seeing how well everyone is working and playing together!


Ms. Hammond and Ms. Snyder

Reading and writing at the Discovery Centre.

A playdough turtle sculpture.

Writing...writing...writing...at the Drama Centre.

A rock turtle.

Experimenting with art materials.

Seeds from a milkweed pod.

Construction with small blocks.

Using imagination and story telling skills.

Sorting colours at the light table.

Creating a city around a train track.

Creating pictures with math shapes.

Exploring how water moves.

A beautiful calm lake!