Welcome to another (chilly!) week....
TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION
Over the next few weeks we will be investigating the nature of travel and transportation. We began today by looking at pictures of different modes of transportation and thinking about what we saw. The children concluded that all the pictures shown were vehicles! We then filled in a chart that was labelled 'air', 'water' and 'land'. The students took turns thinking of a way of travelling and deciding which category their example belonged in. Well done!
Our read aloud today was a book all about vehicles with wheels. The purpose was to see if the children could think deeply about what it might be like if wheels had never been invented...they decided it would be very hard to do a lot of things! We are beginning to talk more explicitly about the 'main idea', or 'author's message' during out read alouds.
Please encourage your child to talk about the main idea during your at home read alouds. Some questions to ask:
1. What do you think the author is trying to tell us?
2. What is the message in this book?
3. What do you think is the main idea of this book?
This is not always easy, or obvious to young learners. Identifying the author's message becomes easier as children gain experience and exposure to critical thinking. However, it is important that they begin developing this important skill.
In Math, we will be creating patterns (AB, ABC, or AAB) by choosing from different transportation stamps, we will be sorting and classifying vehicles, continuing to work on printing our numbers 1-10 (there are a few students who are still reversing some numbers. Please have your child print their numbers for you at home, and have them practise any that are reversed). I am also assessing oral counting this month. The expectation is K students will count to 30 by the end of the year. Please continue counting at home! Children often struggle with numbers 13-19, but once they memorize those, and begin to see the pattern, they are off to the races! We have a few friends who are counting to 100! Keep it up!
We are also experimenting with volume. We have a bucket full of beans, a big scoop, a little scoop and several different sized containers. Today we estimated how may big scoops to fill the big container. It took 6 and the kids guessed 7! Wow! We did the same with the little scoop---this proved confusing at first, as many thought it would take 'fewer' scoops...maybe because it was a 'smaller' scoop...not sure. As we counted, we realized it would be a lot more! They continued to adjust their estimates (smart bunch!) ...all the way to 70!
We will also be exploring different word families (-ar and -ain). Watch for the 'buses' coming home and encourage your child to spin the wheel and read the words for you. Encourage them to tell you the beginning sound, ending sound and then have them put it together. See if they can come up with some other rhymes, as well! The students came up with great lists of rhyming words today (at this stage, the focus is on hearing the rhyme, NOT the actual word...made up words are fine for this exercise!).
Their fine motor/art activity this week is a choice of vehicle with their picture inserted as the driver/pilot/captain. The children are being encouraged to think about what they might see on their journey and then to add these details to their work. I have seen a big improvement in the whole class's scissor work! The children are much more patient when detail work is involved. What perseverance!
Over the week, children will be encouraged to add a sentence to their artwork describing where they are going in their vehicles!
In science, we are investigating how wheels make things easier to move (tomorrow we will compare how many trips it takes to move blocks by hand, versus by a huge dump truck!). We are also learning to identify, describe and sort objects that are dull and shiny.
In music this week we will be creating music to use as sound effects for some of our vehicles...we will be exploring volume, speed and beat. It will be fun....and LOUD!
TRIP TO THE MUSEUM
A big thank you to Markus's Mommy and Sabari's Mommy for joining us on our trip to the Museum of Nature! The children really enjoyed the experience. Our tour guide was fantastic and provided many hands on activities for the kids. They got to compare real fossils to model fossils, dig for fossils and try to put a fossil puzzle together! They particularly loved wearing their 'paleontologist' packs loaded with clipboards, pencils and magnifying glasses. What experts! Some other highlights included the movie (with real mist!), the life-sized dino-diorama, and, of course, the fossilized dinosaur 'poop'!
(If you have not sent in the $10 fee for the trip, please kindly do so. Thanks!)
The children had a great day on Friday with their guest teacher, Mrs. Hannah. Well done! Mrs. Hannah will be back again this Friday and I know the children will make her feel welcome.
Thank you for checking in this week and please feel free to post a comment. I know I've had a few parents ask about posting, and from what I see, you follow the prompts and then you should be in (let me know if it's not working for you!).
Warmly,
Ms. Cox
TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION
Over the next few weeks we will be investigating the nature of travel and transportation. We began today by looking at pictures of different modes of transportation and thinking about what we saw. The children concluded that all the pictures shown were vehicles! We then filled in a chart that was labelled 'air', 'water' and 'land'. The students took turns thinking of a way of travelling and deciding which category their example belonged in. Well done!
Our read aloud today was a book all about vehicles with wheels. The purpose was to see if the children could think deeply about what it might be like if wheels had never been invented...they decided it would be very hard to do a lot of things! We are beginning to talk more explicitly about the 'main idea', or 'author's message' during out read alouds.
Please encourage your child to talk about the main idea during your at home read alouds. Some questions to ask:
1. What do you think the author is trying to tell us?
2. What is the message in this book?
3. What do you think is the main idea of this book?
This is not always easy, or obvious to young learners. Identifying the author's message becomes easier as children gain experience and exposure to critical thinking. However, it is important that they begin developing this important skill.
In Math, we will be creating patterns (AB, ABC, or AAB) by choosing from different transportation stamps, we will be sorting and classifying vehicles, continuing to work on printing our numbers 1-10 (there are a few students who are still reversing some numbers. Please have your child print their numbers for you at home, and have them practise any that are reversed). I am also assessing oral counting this month. The expectation is K students will count to 30 by the end of the year. Please continue counting at home! Children often struggle with numbers 13-19, but once they memorize those, and begin to see the pattern, they are off to the races! We have a few friends who are counting to 100! Keep it up!
We are also experimenting with volume. We have a bucket full of beans, a big scoop, a little scoop and several different sized containers. Today we estimated how may big scoops to fill the big container. It took 6 and the kids guessed 7! Wow! We did the same with the little scoop---this proved confusing at first, as many thought it would take 'fewer' scoops...maybe because it was a 'smaller' scoop...not sure. As we counted, we realized it would be a lot more! They continued to adjust their estimates (smart bunch!) ...all the way to 70!
We will also be exploring different word families (-ar and -ain). Watch for the 'buses' coming home and encourage your child to spin the wheel and read the words for you. Encourage them to tell you the beginning sound, ending sound and then have them put it together. See if they can come up with some other rhymes, as well! The students came up with great lists of rhyming words today (at this stage, the focus is on hearing the rhyme, NOT the actual word...made up words are fine for this exercise!).
Their fine motor/art activity this week is a choice of vehicle with their picture inserted as the driver/pilot/captain. The children are being encouraged to think about what they might see on their journey and then to add these details to their work. I have seen a big improvement in the whole class's scissor work! The children are much more patient when detail work is involved. What perseverance!
Over the week, children will be encouraged to add a sentence to their artwork describing where they are going in their vehicles!
In science, we are investigating how wheels make things easier to move (tomorrow we will compare how many trips it takes to move blocks by hand, versus by a huge dump truck!). We are also learning to identify, describe and sort objects that are dull and shiny.
In music this week we will be creating music to use as sound effects for some of our vehicles...we will be exploring volume, speed and beat. It will be fun....and LOUD!
TRIP TO THE MUSEUM
A big thank you to Markus's Mommy and Sabari's Mommy for joining us on our trip to the Museum of Nature! The children really enjoyed the experience. Our tour guide was fantastic and provided many hands on activities for the kids. They got to compare real fossils to model fossils, dig for fossils and try to put a fossil puzzle together! They particularly loved wearing their 'paleontologist' packs loaded with clipboards, pencils and magnifying glasses. What experts! Some other highlights included the movie (with real mist!), the life-sized dino-diorama, and, of course, the fossilized dinosaur 'poop'!
(If you have not sent in the $10 fee for the trip, please kindly do so. Thanks!)
The children had a great day on Friday with their guest teacher, Mrs. Hannah. Well done! Mrs. Hannah will be back again this Friday and I know the children will make her feel welcome.
Thank you for checking in this week and please feel free to post a comment. I know I've had a few parents ask about posting, and from what I see, you follow the prompts and then you should be in (let me know if it's not working for you!).
Warmly,
Ms. Cox
