As a class we made an animal alphabet book.  Each child contributed one or two pages to our book that they wrote and illustrated.  This was a great way to end off the year incorporating all we've learned about our letters, and what we have begun learning about writing sentences.  Everyone did a great job and the book is now published and a part of our classroom library. 

At the end of every school year, our school has a play day.  On this day students k-3 are split into groups and move around to different stations that have different activities.  With the threat of rain we had to stay indoors this year but it was still a bunch of fun.  Our Circus theme had ten stations: Dinobouncer, parachute, face painting, super dog circuit challenge, target shooting, juggling, bean bag toss, tight rope walking, circus art and musical chairs.  It was a great way to end our week.

After an incident last year with some students wanting to splatter paint in the classroom, I decided this year I would teach the kindergartens how to splatter paint properly... outside!!  Even though the wind was pretty strong and threatened to take our paper away the kids had a blast being able to make as big of a mess as they wanted!

Since we were learning about animals (more specifically reptiles) one of the students brought his pet geckos to share with the class.  We got to pet them and hold them and feel what a reptiles scales actually feel like.  It was funny to watch them try to get to the highest place possible.  Even on our heads!

At the end of May we were joined by 25 caterpillars.  Each student got their own caterpillar to take care of and help through the stages of its life cycle.  We watched as they built their chrysallis and hatched into butterflies.  Soon they will be ready to release out into the world!

After we completed our talk on plants, we made flowers to show what we had learned.  We needed soil (cookie crumbs), a seed, roots (string), stem, leaves and a flower.  Each student got to pick the materials they wanted to use to create their own flower.  The pictures turned out great!

To help us learn a little more about living things, we planted sunflower seeds to watch them grow.  Most of our seeds we planted in pots but we planted 4 in a special way so we could see the roots and everything as they grew.  First we put a kleenix inside the cup right up against the side.  Then we put soil in the middle.  Lastly we put the seed inbetween the kleenix and the cup.  We got to see the roots as soon as they began poking out of the seed and the stem before it reached the top of the soil.  It was very cool to see!

Earth Day was an exciting day in the kindergarten classroom.  We learned different ways of taking care of the planet and we also learned a new way of recycling: making our own paper.  The day before we ripped up a bunch of old used paper.  Then on the day we put that paper in a blender with water and blended it into mush.  Then we took our strainers and drained the water and squished the paper nice and flat.  Once they were dry we drew pictures on them and took them home. 

To help celebrate Easter we made Easter baskets, suncatcher crosses and decorated Easter eggs.  We also learned that Jesus died on the cross to save us and then he rose from the dead and went to heaven.   

On St. Patrick's day we had a visit from some tricky little guys.  They hid gold coins around our classroom and played many tricks.  We found shoes all over the classroom, things were upside down and they left tell-tale foot prints all over the place!

Once we had finished learning about each colour individually we began talking about all the colours together, in rainbows!  We created a huge rainbow as a class where each student found colours in magazines and glued them onto a large rainbow.  We also made our own rainbow crayons out of pieces and then coloured a picture with them.  And lastly we had a bubble day where we blew bubbles and looked at all the different colours that we could see inside them!

As part of our colour days we learned about primary colours and how to mix them to make new colours.  We mixed paint, play-doh and coloured water to make these colours.  

We opened a new centre for playtime in our classroom: magnets!  To give everyone an idea of what the centre would be like we had an exploration time.  The students had a blast figuring out what things the magnets stuck to and what just didn't work!

Our hundreth day of kindergarten was a lot of fun.  We counted to a hundred by counting the hundred balloons in our room then had a few minutes to play with them.  We enjoyed our 100 cake with 100 gumballs and made a cheerio necklace with 100 cheerios.  We all had a lot of fun!

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To wrap up our unit on numbers 1-5 we had a math activity day.  We did a lot of counting, matching and dominos.  The students worked in groups to complete different tasks and activities. 

To help get ready for Valentine's Day as well as improve our fine motor skills.  We made hearts out of ripped construction paper.  Each piece of torn paper was about 1 inch by 1 inch and the students had to rip them themselves and glue them on (without using too much glue!)

We have been very since Christmas.  After the holidays we started learning about all things winter.  One of the most exciting things was snowflakes.  We learned how snowflakes are made and what they look like.  We looked for snowflakes in the snow and made our own snowflakes out of salt water. 

For our service project this year we adopted a family for Christmas.  We collected money with the grade 1 and grade 2 classes and bought food and presents for a family in need.  We raised so much money and all the students were so excited that it will definitely be something to try again!

For the Advent and Christmas season we made many different crafts.  We made angels for the angel that came to see Mary.  We made stockings for St. Nicholas.  Then we made Christmas trees and decorated Christmas cookies.  On the last day of school before the holidays we had an activity day.  We came to school in our pyjamas and brought along stuffed animals and our favorite blankets.   We coloured pictures, read stories and decorated a gingerbread house.  After recess we snacked on all our yummy snacks and watched a movie before leaving for our holidays.  We even had a special visit from Santa!  It was a great way to spend the morning, especially after a long night at our conert the night before!

It has been a while since my last update and we have done so much!  Before Christmas season began we were learning about farm animals.  We talked about the different animals that live on farms and why we need them.  We also talked about the type of animals like mammals (cows, pigs, horses, sheep) and birds (chickens, turkeys).  We learned how the life cycles between mammals and birds are different and how mammals have fur and hair and birds have feathers.  To finish this discussion we had an activity day.  We had four stations: cows, pigs, chickens and horses.  At the cow station the students got to "milk" a pretend cow and at the chicken station they completed a matching puzzle about brown and white eggs.  At the pig centre they learned that pigs come in many different colours and coloured their own pig and at the horse station they got to take a close look at horse shoes.  The students really enjoyed going around to all the different centres and learning even more about common animals in our province!

As another activity for our unit on Healthy living, we made vegetable soup as a class.  Everyone brought a vegetable to add to the soup.  We cut them up, added them to the water then let it cook.  We all got to enjoy the soup once it was ready!

We spent a good part of November learning about how to stay healthy,  A large part of this was learning what types of foods were good for us and which are not quite so good for us.  We talked about the four food groups and the healthy foods that we can find in each.  We went on a hunt in the classroom to see if we could find healthy foods.  To end this unit we each made a healthy meal that had one food from each group. 

Our Halloween day was filled with many activities. First thing in the morning we paraded around the school to show everyone our costumes.   The students were then split into 3 groups and all had a turn to do 3 Halloween activities: carving pumpkins, making candied apples and Halloween story time.  After it was time for our Halloween cookies and snack time.  After recess we made Smarties graphs.  (This helped introduce our next unit in math which is numbers).  And we even had enough time to play for a bit before discussing how to be safe when trick-or-treating.  Happy Halloween!!

To finish up our unit on fire safety we took a trip to a nearby fire station.  The students were very excited to see the inside of a fire truck and to share what they have learned with the fire fighters.  We heard what the fire alarm sounded like inside the fire station and got to see the jaws of life.  It was a lot of fun and the students didn't mind the chilly walk to get there!

We have spent a lot of time learning about the real reason we celebrate Thanksgiving.  After some thinking we discovered so many things that we are thankful for.  Everyone in the class coloured a fruit or vegetable to add to our cornucopia with one thing that they were thankful for written on it.  We also made a class video to share with everyone checking into our blog!  

We are continuing our exploration of patterns and we are figuring out that patterns are everywhere!  We have found out so far that we can make patterns with any type of object, colours, sounds and actions.  We made many different patterns doing different actions where we all were able to join in and be a part of the pattern.  

Last week we started talking about fall and all the changes that happen in this exciting season.  We have discovered that leaves have begun to change colour and fall off the trees.  We went on a leaf hunt to find different types of leaves and look at their different shapes and colours.  After we made a picture using the leaves and fall colours. 

In math we are learning about patterns.  We've been practicing making different patterns with many different things, such as sea shells, rocks, paper clips, pencils, crayons and small toys.  We have become very good at deciding what is a pattern and what is not a pattern. 

As a class we have adopted a tree in our school yard.  We took a picture with the tree and we are going to watch it and see how it changes throughout the year.  This is what it looked like at the beginning of the school year.  We will take another picture this week to see how much different it looks!

As part of our religion program we learn how each of us is special and different.  To help us learn about this we read a story called "On My Beach There Are Many Pebbles" by Leo Lionni.  In this story we learn about all the different kind of pebbles are found on the narrator's beach.  There are people pebbles, animal pebbles, number pebbles and letter pebbles.  We discovered that even though they were all pebbles each one was unique and different.  We then went outside and chose our own pebble to put in our collection.  The students even got to decide what type of pebble they found! 

I would like to welcome everyone to our classroom blog.  Our class will be documenting all the exciting things we do this year.  I hope you all enjoy getting a peak into our classroom activities.  I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback as well!  We just finished our first week of school and all 16 students are settling in well.  This week we spent some time getting to know each other and getting used to the daily procedures in kindergarten.  We're all looking forward to the rest of the year!!

I can't believe the year has come to a close already.  We had a great last day chatting about our summer plans and what we enjoyed the most about kindergarten.  We decided to enjoy our 30 degree day and have an extra long recess.  Then we cleaned out our tables and said our good-byes.  It was a great year with a great group of students.  I will miss all of you!!

For our year end party we took a walk to a nearby park.  There the kids got to spend the morning playing on the play structure, blowing bubbles, drawing with sidewalk chalk, flying airplanes and kites and playing soccer.  At snack time we laid out blankets and ate our snack all together.  We had time to play a little more after.  Luckily the weather was perfect and we were able to have a lot of fun.  A great way to end the year.  

Today we had our play day where each activity had a western twist to it.  We were lucky enough to be blessed with great weather and got to enjoy the morning outside.  We had a dino bouncer in the shape of a cow, the cowboy shuffle (learning a line dance), horseshoe toss, making wanted posters (sidewalk chalk), the showdown (knocking cans off pylons with water guns), painted cowboy (face painting), pony express (relay race using stick horses), and ropin' rodeo (lassoing rocking horses).  It was a fun day and all kids from K-3 got the chance to enjoy it!

This week we started learning about butterflies and how they change from birth to adult.  We also learned that a butterfly's wings are mirror images of each other.  What is on one side will be on the other side.  To show this we made our own butterflies.  To make sure that each side was the same we painted one wing then we folded the paper in half and squished it down to make the other side match.  

One of our student's mother is a paramedic and yesterday she brought her ambulance and some supplies to show the class.  We checked our oxygen levels, blood pressure and heartrate.  We also got to go inside the ambulance, see the lights and of course hear the siren.  The students learned about the different tools a paramedic uses and what to do in an emergency.  They had lots of fun and learned many new things.

For our last few weeks of school we are learning about insects.  We have learned that some insects have wings and some do not, but all insects have three body parts, six legs and antenae.  We went out in groups, each armed with a bug catcher.  First we put in some leaves and sticks so our bigs would have something to eat.  Then we started our hunt.  I'm thinking someone must have tipped the bugs off though because there wasn't much out!  We did manage to catch some ladybugs though. 

As an addition to our science unit on living things we took a trip to the Science Centre.  While we were there the students were able to tour around looking at all the exhibits such as the bubble centre, the hot air balloon, the weather stations, and the hockey exhibit.  We also took part in a workshop where the students were able to see and touch actual animals.  They met a ferret named Nico, a tree frog named Bubba and a gecko named Gizmo.  It was a very fun day and the kids just didn't want to leave.  

To help us learn about fish, we got a new addition to our classroom: Bluebell.   Bluebell is a Betta fish and she is blue and red.  So far we have learned that fish need to breath through gills, that they have scales on their skin and that they lay eggs.  We also learned the difference between fish and the mammals that live in the water.  

This past week we have been talking about mammals.  We learned about many different mammals from farm animals to animals of the African Safari.  One important lesson we learned is how each animal is very unique, just like we are.  We talked about tigers, giraffes, leopards and zebras and how their spots/stripes are unique to each animal.  We compared this to our fingerprints.  Every person in the world has a unique set of finger prints just like each tiger has a unique pattern to its stripes.  We took our fingerprints and looked at them through magnifying glasses (just to be sure) and then we looked at pictures of animals and saw how their patterns were different.  This was the activity to open our discovery centre where the students get to look at these (other items will be introduced as time goes on) for as long as they want.  

For Mother's Day we made cards and a photo frame.  In the cards the students wrote a special message for their moms and drew a picture of something they loved doing with their moms.  The photo frames were made out of popsicle sticks and painted by the students.  After they were dry the students decorated them with flowers.  All the kids had a lot of fun and put in their best effort to make the gifts special for their moms!

Now that we have finished with the plant part of living things we have now moved on to learning about animals.  So far we have learned that just like plants, animals have life cycles too! We have learned that there are many different kinds of animals (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish and insects).  And we have also learned that some babies are born live, some hatch from eggs, some look like their moms and dads and some look completely different.  The first animal we looked very closely at was the frog.  This amphibian hatches out of an egg and looks very different from its parents.  We watched some movies and learned about the frog's life cycle.  We now know that frogs are born tadpoles and slowly grow legs and lose their tails to become frogs!

I hope everyone had a good Easter break and is ready to get back to school.  Before we left for our Easter holidays we did a couple Easter activities.  We learned a lot about why we celebrate Easter and what Jesus did for us.  However, we also participated in an Easter egg hunt and we decorated eggs.  Each student made their own egg by drawing with white crayon an Easter picture and choosing the colour they wanted to dye their egg.  Then they watched as the white crayon made their pictures come alive.  

These are just some pictures to show how our bean seeds are doing.  Everyone's seed has begun to grow however, some are a little farther along than others.  

We are continuing to explore the world of plants and have been learning so much in the process.  We have learned that roots suck up water and nutrients from the ground for the plant to drink and that they help hold the plant down so it doesn't blow away on a windy day.  We learned that stems hold the leaves and flowers up and that they carry water from the roots to the leaves and flowers.  We did a little experiment so that we could see how stems actually work.  We put white flowers into coloured water and have been watching the white flowers turn blue and pink!

In our current math unit we are learning about 3D objects.  As an acitivity to show the students that you can use different materials to build the things you see, the children made objects in our classroom out of different types of blocks.  We had tables and chairs, and some bowls and cribs (from our house centre). 

Our final unit in science is living and non-living things.  We have learned what characteristics make an object living or non-living and now we have planted seeds to help us learn further.  We are learning how plants grow and what plants can do for people.  The students had a lot of fun playing in the dirt and are very excited for their seeds to start growing!!  

We have finally got our light table up and running and the students have really enjoyed playing around and testing things out.  They love to make patterns in the mirrors with the coloured bingo chips.  They also started making their own colours by placing them on top of one another to see what new colours they could make.  

During our two weeks learning about colours we did many activities to learn more about colours.  On our orange day we learned that orange is made by yellow and red.  We watched the yellow water and red water mix to make orange water and then we mixed yellow and red paint and painted orange pictures.  On brown day we made more pictures.  This time finger painting with chocolate pudding!  The kids really enjoyed how gooey the pudding felt and had fun creating their masterpieces!  

For the first two weeks of March we are learning about colours.  We have learned about primary colours and that all the colours in the world can be made by using only red, blue and yellow.  We started our first secondary colour today by mixing red and blue.  We first learned that red and blue make purple by watching red and blue water mix in a clear container.  After that we took red play dough and blue play dough and mixed them together.  After a lot of hard work squishing the two colours together we got to make something with our purple play dough!

Today was our 100th day of kindergarten.  We have been waiting for this day and the students were so excited that it was finally here.  Some even thought that this was it time for grade 1 now!  We did many things that involved 100.  In phys. ed. we did 100 warm-up activities.  Then we read a story about the 100 days of kindergarten and told our own mini-stories about if I could have anything in the world I would want 100...  then we ate our 100 shaped rice krispie cake.  After recess we started our first activity of counting out 100 Cheerios to make a "candy" necklace.  We did not quite get to all our activities today so we will have to continue tomorrow and make it our 101st day of kindergarten celebration.  

On Valentine's Day we learned a little bit about St. Valentine and why we celebrate his day.  The students made a stained glass heart, out of tissue and wax paper.  and they handed out Valentines to their classmates.  It was a fun day and students got to practice their reading skills along the way.  At the end of the day students were able to decorate a Valentine cupcake and look through their valentine boxes (made a few days earlier).  

As part of the kindergarten phys. ed. curriculum the students need to learn about relationships.  Basically this means that they need to learn how to move with objects (balls, ropes, bean bags, etc.) and with other people.  This has been our main focus in phys. ed. since we've been back from Christmas.  We are doing a series called Bean Bag Fun.  Each student gets a bean bag, I play a song and they follow along with the song.  We have done two songs so far.  The first Bean Bag Kickline works on the skill of controlling an object with your feet.  The second song Bean Bag Carousel works on hand-eye coordination through tossing the bean bag in the air at different heights.   

I introduced workshops earlier in the school year, however, they have changed slightly since then.  Workshops are where the students are able to work at their own individual level and acquire stronger skills.  I have 6 workshops and students do one workshop 3 times a week.  They spend 15 minutes doing an activity then the next day they switch to a new one.  I have a math workshop where they work on skills we are covering in our math lessons and 3 language arts workshops where they work on many different skills based on their current level.  There is one fine motor workshop that helps build our fine motor muscles and a computer workshop where the students work on either math or language arts skills.  The students are really enjoying the workshops and I can see so much improvement in everyone just in the past month.  

Hello everyone.  I know it has been a while and I apologize.  I have been blocked from my picture site that I use at the school and I have been trying to sort it out.  We have been very busy in the new year.  We are moving very quickly trying to learn all our letters and numbers.  We've learned S, A, T, I, P, N, C, K, E, H, R, M, D, G, and O so far this year.  We should know the name of the letters and their sounds.  I have been sending home the cards with these letters and their actions so you can work on them at home.  Try to mix them up a little bit so your child doesn't just memorize the order.  

The new theme we are beginning to look at is identity.  This theme is going to carry on for the rest of the year in many different ways.  Right now we are talking about how we are the same and how we are different.  We are going to be working on self-portraits so we can really see how everyone is a unique child of God.  

So on our last day of school we had a fun activity day.  Before recess we decorated a gingerbread house and sugar cookies.  Everyone had so much fun adding candy to the gingerbread house that there was not a spot of gingerbread to be seen.  They also had fun using the different colours of icing to decorate their cookies and they especially loved the sprinkles!  After recess we enjoyed playing Bingo.  No one was fortunate enough to win any prizes in our class though.  At the end of the day the students got to take home their stockings that ended up being stuffed full of treats.  I hope that everyone is well rested and excited to come back to school.  See everyone on Wednesday!

The kindergartens were lucky enough to get another session with the grade 6's and their obstacle course.  There were a few differences to the courses but most activities were similar.  Just like the first time all the students really enjoyed it and it gave them a good workout!  

As some of you may know, they have been painting all the classrooms in our school.  It is now time for the kindergarten room.  This means we need to move.  I have been informed that I need to have the classroom prepared for painting by Monday morning.  I know this is last minute but if anyone has time tomorrow morning or afternoon or Friday afternoon to come in and help out it would be very much appreciated.  Just let me know ahead of time if you'll be coming on Friday.  Thanks!

Sunday began the first week of advent.  This week is the week of hope.  To start off the week we made our own advent wreaths so we could keep them "lit" all the time.  We also started learning about the real meaning of Christmas.  

In addition to our advent and preparation for Christmas activities we have been talking about keeping our bodies healthy.  Right now we are looking at healthy foods.  We are talking about the four food groups and what each one does for us.  

Last Thursday the kindergartens got to participate in a fun physical education activity.  The grade 6 intern, Mr. Kauf, created an obstacle course for the kindergarten class to go through with the help of the grade 6 class.  The kindergartens had a lot of fun trying out the different activities and got quite a workout (they were wiped by the end!)  We are hoping to get another gym time like this before Mr. Kauf is done in December.  

It has been a little while since the last update so I'll start where I left off.  We did a few activities to learn a little bit about Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies.  One of these activities was making a poppy to display on our bulletin board.  Each student was given a poppy with four petals.  For each petal they needed to choose some sort of red material to cover it with.  We had red glitter, red sand, rose petals, red foam, red tissue paper, red ribbon and many other red things.  Each student chose four and decorated their poppies.  (Check your child's name for their poppy).

On Friday we had our Halloween activity day.  Before recess the students were split into four groups to participate in four activities.  The first was colouring Halloween pictures.  After that students moved onto bobbing for apples, then was the story corner and last was the feely boxes where students got to feel a bunch of gross monster parts (guts, brains, eye balls, fingers and teeth)!  After recess we had a chance to watch The Magic School Bus in the Haunted House and eat the many delicious treats.  With everyone in costumes it was a fun morning!

On Thursday we made candied apples in class.  (Finally after the hour it took for the caramel to cook!)  The students had a lot of fun dipping the apples and then decorating them with sprinkles.  I hope they tasted as good as they looked!

On Friday the students will be allowed to dress in their Halloween costumes at school.  Please make sure that their costumes are easy to move around in.  They will be going outside for recess and doing a bunch of activities in the classroom.  Also if their are any accessories such as swords, guns, or any other weapon they are not permitted in the school.  If something is brought by accident, it will remain in their backpacks.  Thanks!

As another Halloween activity we carved two jack-o-lanterns in class yesterday.  All the students got to help clean out the pumkpin.  Some loved it, some were not quite as impressed with the idea!  After that the students watched as Evan A.'s mom and I carved the pumpkins.  They are now used as decorations for our classroom.  Stay tuned for the rest of the weeks activities!

We had our first Halloween activity this week, making white glue ghosts.  The students used white glue to outline and fill in the shape of a ghost.  They then decorated them with beads and foam shapes.  Once they are all dried (it takes about three days) we will use them to decorate our classroom!  Tomorrow we will be making another craft and don't forget the family dance tomorrow night!  Hope to see you all there.  

On Tuesday we had a very special visit from former Roughrider Matt Dominguez.  Matt came into our school to tell us his personal experience with diversity, our education week's theme.  He shared some life stories and gave the students advice.  After the assembly he signed autographs for everyone in the school!

This week is education week.  To celebrate we are having special activities throughtout the week.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) is green and white day in honor of a special quest.  Parents if you would like to see who our guest is please feel free to join assembly in the morning (you would probably know better who he is than most of the students!)  Library day this week will be on Thursday Oct. 21.  Please make sure you send the library books back to school by that day.  I will also be sending out the next book order on Tuesday.  The due date will be Monday Oct. 25.  Thanks!

As many of you know Halloween is a very exciting time for children.  We will be doing many activities in the next couple weeks around the Halloween theme.  Any parents that are able to come in and help out in the next two weeks will be very appreciated.  Since it usually works out that we have tons of treats on the last day of school before Halloween, I have decided to do something a little different.  If you were planning on sending a treat for the last day please send a note stating what type of treat you will be sending so I can make a plan.  Thanks!!

Last friday we had our welcome liturgy for the kindergarten students.  It was great to see so many parents come out and I hope that you all enjoyed it.  If any parents would like the picture of their child receiving their shirt let me know and I can get it for you.  Thanks!

Parents,

Just a reminder we have library tomorrow so please pack your child's book so they can get a new one.  Also remember that the kindergarten liturgy is tomorrow.  Hope to see you all there!  Also about the family pictures.  If you need yours back sometime soon let me know and I'll send it home.  If you could just replace it with one that can remain at the school for a while.  If you have yet to send the picture it would be great if you could send one.  We are creating a family corner in the classroom and it would be nice for all the students to be involved.  Thanks!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful thanksgiving.  Last week we started preparing the students for thanksgiving.  On Monday we made a cornucopia for out bulletin board.  Each student was able to colour some fruits and vegetables to go into the cornucopia.  I had asked each student what they were thankful for and wrote it on the fruit.  (See your child's name for theirs).  Tuesday we started a turkey craft but because I was home sick on Wednesday we were not able to finish it.  On Thursday we had our thanksgiving litergy and we also made a short video about what we were thankful for as a class.  Thursday was also the day we had our pie in the face assembly.  We did not raise quite enough money for Mr. K to shave his head, however, since we were so close he decided to puff it up into an afro! 

Parents,

Just a few reminders and notes for the week.  Outside of the classroom is a calendar for the month of October.  If you are interested in helping out in the classroom feel free to sign up when you pick your child up after school.  If you are not able to make it in to sign up but have a day you would like to come in let me know and I can sign your name.  There are some days where I will not need help but I would let you know.  

Tomorrow is Day 3 so we have library book exchange.  I you haven't already packed your child's book please do so they can get a new one!  

Thanks,

Ms.Townley

Last Thursday we had our Terry Fox Walk.   The whole school went for an hour walk to raise awareness for the Terry Fox Foundation.   Luckily the weather co-operated and we were able to have a nice walk.  So far we have raised $2000 as a school.  Donations are still welcome as we are still raising money for our pie in the face contest and head shaving for Mr. Kristoff!

Last week we started learning about patterns and the letter A.  We had another day of workshops where the children made pattern trains, practiced sorting, printed s's and a's, and made s and a objects with play-doh.  At this time your child should know the letter and the sound of S, A, T, and I.  However, extra practice at home is always a bonus.  Point out these letters to your child on signs or cereal boxes and see if they can give you the letter name and sound.  Also see if they can point out any patterns at home or around the city.  Extra practice never hurts!

Ever year our school does a fundraiser and walk for Terry Fox.  Our walk this year will be on Sept. 30 at 10:45.  (Any parents who would like to come and help will be welcome!)  Our fundraiser this year has two parts.  First the students are able to nominate teachers to get pied by donating money.  The three teachers with the most money will get a pie in the face next Monday.  The second part is if we as a school raise $3500 Mr. K will shave his head.  Even though the walk is on Thursday donations can come in until Friday.  The totals will be added up over the weekend and our winning teachers will be announced at assembly Monday morning.  Any amount of money is welcome and appreciated it goes to a great cause, the Terry Fox foundation.  Hope to see some of you this week!

This week we have been getting to know each others families.  We have been looking at how families differ from one another.  Most students have brought pictures of their families and all students drew pictures of things that their families do together.  We decorated an area of our classroom with all these pictures.  The students and even the other teachers love coming in and seeing all the families!  

  This week I introduced my workshop centres to the class.  The workshops are a variety of activities at different centres that allow the students to explore key concepts we are learning in class.  I have 5 workshops right now and last week there were two on sorting, one printing s's and two on building objects that start with the letter 's' out of play-doh and blocks.  The students get about 5-10 minutes at each workshop before moving on to the next.  

This week we also learned about the letter 'a'.  The students are really enjoying Jolly Phonics and beg me every day to learn a new letter song!  Next week we will be learning about the letter 't' and moving into patterns in math. 

Hi parents,

Just wanted to send out a reminder for this week.  There is no school for students on the 23rd and 24th.  Also on the calendar I sent home I had written in to bring tools that mom or dad use at work for show and share.  However, I'm going to switch this to the next week.  It's ok if you bring it early I'll just leave it in your child's backpack.  I also wanted to mention for Wednesday if you could send a family picture to school with your child.  It would be nice if it was in a frame so we can place them on the counter but it is not necessary.  I want to have a little piece of home in the classroom!  Thanks for your co-operation. 

Ms. Townley

P,S. I have had a lot of parents ask about helping out in the classroom.  I was wondering if there was one or two parents that would be willing to put together a schedule (for Oct.-June) so that we have parents come in as often as they want.  I am working on getting some things together for the parents helpers and will talk to those interested this week.  Just send a note in your child's mailbag or comment on here. Thanks!!

Today was our green and white day at school.  It's so great to be a part of a community that is so supportive.  The students in the school looked great in all theirgear!  Here's a class picture for all to enjoy.  Paint the whole world green!!

This week we have started our math unit (sorting and patterning) and we are working on finding things that are the same in some way,  We also started learning some letters using Jolly Phonics,  Today we started with the letter 's'.  We read a story about a boy walking his dog and running into a snake that says "sssssssss".  We also sang a song about snakes and the sound they make.  Our next letter will be 'a'.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Jolly Phonics it is a program that works very well for teaching students the letters and the sounds the letters make.  Each sound has an action to go with it to help the students remember.  They also have stories and songs for each letter. 

Tomorrow is the school's opening mass at our school parish.  If it is nice out we will be walking, if not we'll be taking the bus.  Any parents that would like to come to the mass are welcome.  I could use a little help before, during and after mass.  I am one of the choir leaders so it would be helpful to have some extra hands.  Thanks, hope to see some of you there!

Last week we were spending time getting to know each other since we are all new to the school.  The students worked on a little project to help me and anyone looking in the classroom get to know the kindergarteners a little better.  Each student was given a letter (their first initial) divided into 4 parts.  One with stripes, one with circles, one with stars and one blank.  If the child was a boy he coloured his stripes blue and green.  If the child was a girl she coloured hers pink and purple.  The circles tell how old the child is.  If they are 4 they coloured the circles green, if they are 5 they coloured them black.  Now the stars tell about the students birth order.  If they were an only child the stars were coloured yellow, orange forthe oldest, pink for middle and red for youngest.  Although some of the reds look like pink!  The blank section they got to colour their favorite colour.  This was a fun activity and its nice to look at a piece of paper and learn so much about each student.  It also helps brighten up the room!

I would like to welcome all my new students, families and visitors to my kindergarten classroom. We had our first day of school and the children seemed to be very excited to start kindergarten. Today we read a story called "The Kissing Hand" by Audry Penn. In this story Chester Raccoon is very nervous about starting his first day at school. So to help ease his mind his mother shares with him the secret of the kissing hand so that he will always feel her love. After reading the story the children made a card for their parents. We had a very full and exciting day but we were able to squeeze in time to check out some of the new toys! I look forward to seeing all the children again on Tuesday!