Welcome

Dear Families,

Welcome to our classroom blog for the 2016/2017 school year.

This is where I will put up bi-weekly snap-shots of learning, important dates, reminders, student stories and more.

Ms. Hammond

A student in our class demonstrates how literacy works through play at all learning areas. After listening to the story 'Professor Noah's Spaceship' the student worked with friends to re-create the story at Small Blocks. They then retold the story in their own words.

Valley Walk

On our trip to the valley today we had so much fun exploring!

We walked along the river and found many flowers growing that we tried to identify with our classroom Flower Book.

Some of the flowers or plants we still have to identify with the help of our Ontario Plant books. Do you recognize any of them?

We explored the riverbank by the sand, watching twigs and leaves float along the water.

We ended with some relaxing time in Dandelion Field. 

We called it that because it was like a golden sea of dandelions.

What a wonderful Monday to be outside in Nature.

Ms. Hammond

The Kindergarten Program, 2016 (Interim Release)

Dear Families,

The Ministry of Education has just launched an initial look into the final version of the Kindergarten Program. We have been working with a draft version for a number of years now.

You can read some of the information about the new program by clicking on the link below from the Ministry of Education's website.

The Kindergarten Program, (2016 - Interim Release)

They have also displayed what the new report cards might look like starting next school year (2016/2017) for Kindergarten students across the province of Ontario. (Click the link and open the PDF file)

Growing Success - The Kindergarten Addendum

I'm very excited about all this new information as it begins to roll out. I will try and answer any questions you might have about it in the coming months.

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms. Hammond

Art Experiment

At the Art Studio this month, I put out a bin of books all about Art. These books are all about colour, famous artists and some are about art projects and experiments for kids. Some students have begun to ask to do some of the experiments. We read the list of items that they need for the experiment and then the steps. I let them take ownership of their own experiment. We document it through photographs and afterwards, the students share their observations and their theories about what happened.

Here is one example of an Art Experiment from last week.

"All the colours mixed together and they turned the water green!"

Snapshots of Learning: March 21st - March 24th

"We're making a treasure map!" A.H. and A

"It's a guy and when I open it up, it's the same inside." S.A.

"We're making a forest and all the homes for the animals to live." R

Recording our observations in our Inquiry books of the growing apple seeds.

Drawing our Self-Portraits using permanent markers and mirriors.

McDonalds

The students in our classroom are always given a chance to decide what the Drama centre should be, month to month. Some times if they love it so much, we keep it going for 2 months and that was what happened with our castle. Now that the castle is finished they had to brainstorm new ideas.

The students were given big pieces of blank paper and asked to use drawings and words to show what they wanted the Drama centre to be. Then they shared their plan with the whole class. We talked about the different ideas. Then we voted as a whole class and this time...McDonalds Restaurant won!

We used the classroom computer to help us look up images of what the sign needed to look like. Students worked together to make the sign.

We went through the class cupboards and we found hamburgers and sandwiches. But we didn't have anything for French Fries. "I know! We can use yellow paper, we just need to cut it up." A student exclaimed and next thing, we had an assembly line for French Fries.

After school one day I went to the local McDonalds and asked if we could have some empty containers for our Drama centre. They gave me some Happy Meal boxes, cups and french fries containers. 

Now we had our materials, we needed to come up with the menu!

We also needed table space and an OPEN / CLOSED sign and a Parking Lot.

But wait...if there is a Parking Lot then we'll need cars. 

And we did all of this in just 4 days by working together!

Ms. Hammond

Hello from Kingston Ontario

Dear Families,


Happy Friday! I have had an amazing time in Kingston working with other Educators at an amazing Outdoor Education Centre called Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area .


Here are some photographs I thought I'd share. The best part might have been feeding a Chickadee right from my hand!


Love,
Ms. Hammond

Feb 22-26: A week in review through pictures

Hello Families!

There have been many new and exciting things going on in Room 208. The children have been exploring 3D shapes both inside and outside of the classroom, they learned to take pictures on our classroom iPad, we have continued talking about our feelings and what we can do to help each other, and children have also begun to revisit our pine cone seed and explore our newly found apple seeds.

Hope you had a lovely week and don't forget to check out the pictures below!


Ms. Hammond & Ms. Abdulla