February 22-25

I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend, as well as Family Day! We have a shortened week, but it's long on fun!

WINTER FUN DAY, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25--9a.m.
Please read the letter that was sent home in the agenda today (Tuesday). It explains that there will be NO AFTERNOON CLASS on Friday, as we are reversing our day in order to take part in the school-wide 'Fun Day'! The children will be participating in cross-graded groups and enjoying all sorts of outdoor activities. We participated last year and the children had tons of fun! Please drop your child at 8:55a.m. and pick him up at 11:25am. Arrangements have been made with CHCCC, so please see Suzanne for more details re: your pick-up time from child care. Bus students will have signed and returned alternate bus time pick-up/drop-off forms. Please call me if you need further information. Thanks for your flexibility!

DINOSAUR DEN

The Kindergarten class has gone back in time...all the way to the time of the dinosaurs! For the next few weeks we will be exploring all things dinosuar.
This week we will continue to read a variety of fiction and non-fiction and focus on differentiating between the two. The children are really starting to grasp that non-fiction has FACTS! Our 'shared reading' will be the big book, "Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs" by Byron Barton. In small groups we will read the little book "Dinosaur Story". The little book will be coming home for you to read with your child. Over the next 2 weeks our 'shared writing' will focus on dinosaur facts. I will model the writing process, encourage the children to 'share my pen' and then add our writing to the writing centre to serve as a model for the children.
Our math activities will focus on dinosaur sorting (using small dinosaurs), patterning (using stamps), and measuring dinosaur bones using non-standard tools (unifix cubes). We will also be estimating, counting and creating dinosaurs using shapes. And, we'll be counting by 2's, 5's and 10's, so please reinforce at home with lots of counting!
Our artistic endeavours over the next few weeks include a dinosaur mask, painting clay dinosuar magnets, sponge painting dinosaurs, as well as colouring and adding texture to various dinosaur outlines.
Our budding scientists continue to enthusiastically observe, measure and draw conclusions about our fast-growing Paperwhite. We had 3 blooms on Thursday! Children will also have the opportunity to turn their knowledge about paleontology into practise as they uncover fossilized dinosaur bones!
We'll be singing and moving to "The Dinosaur Song", "Dinosuars Big, Dinosaurs Small", and "Dinosuars, Dinosaurs". See if you can get your child to sing one of their favourites at the end of the week!

AROUND THE ROOM

The listening centre is now filled with dinosaur books on tape and the library is full of dinosaur fiction and non-fiction. We have several dinosaur books at the 'big book' stand. Our dramatic play centre has been turned into a paleontology research base, complete with helmets, goggles, 'fossil finders', brushes and shovels, posters, fact cards and books. The sand centre is filled with dinosaurs, fossils, eggs, rocks, feathers and plants for our young paleontologists to uncover, observe and describe.The paint centre has 3 large, colourful dinosuar cut-outs for children to model their paintings on, if they choose. There is always lots of time for children to explore, play together and discover new things.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS
This is the last call for February's book order. I will be placing the order at the end of the week! Thanks.

Thanks for checking in and have a wonderful week!
Ms. Cox