Weekly News November 16th
Monday we had no school in observance of Remembrance Day.
Tuesday morning we started the day with Ms. Wood for fine arts. She has started working with all the classes on songs for the winter concert. You will likely begin hearing some of them as they begin to stick in the students heads! We did a shared work time with Ms. Mousseau's class to finish up our letter Dd pages. We added feet and beaks from orange paper, a googly eye, and a feather to the ducks. They looked so cute! We got them all packed up into the envelopes ready for mailing. In the afternoon we took our books back to the library and picked new ones. Miss Julie read us a story about a bear using its imagination to stay busy during a rainy day. After school we had our open house. Thanks to those who were able to make it to visit this week. I'm always happy to have you come check things out, and I'm always willing to book a time to chat about your child's learning. There are still a few families that have not logged into their child's FreshGrade portfolio. It is very important that you are able to access this portfolio as it is where you will find information about learning activities what I'm looking for, and how your child is doing. Please let me know if you need me to re-send the invitation so that you can see your child's progress.
On Wednesday Mrs. Ashworth was the guest teacher in morning as I had an unexpected appointment. She said that everyone had a great morning! They worked very diligently on their "Book of Black" and most people got it completely finished and added to their other colour books in the book boxes. It is so good to see everyone managing the routines so well - and it really makes a difference when we've got a guest teacher. In the afternoon we used the ornamental gourds to talk about attributes (texture, shape, colour) and then we played a game to try and figure out my sorting rule. We ran out of time at the end of the day so I appreciate everyone who talked about it at home for homework!
Thursday morning we started some story telling outside. Two years ago I worked on an inquiry project called Nature Narratives where we used natural settings and items to inspire and facilitate story telling. We will be using a similar 5 point structure to tell a complete story. We will also use our hand (with our 5 fingers) to anchor the important points. We started with the concept that every story has a somebody (the thumb) - a character that the story is about; and every "somebody" has something they want (the pointer finger). We went outside under the trees and found an item (stick, leaf, flower, rock, etc) to be our somebody, and then students had to tell who was their somebody and what did they want. It was a great beginning to the process of storytelling. Just before lunchtime we had the monthly assembly. Mrs. Calverley reminded the whole school about having a growth mindset. We learned that it's important to exercise our brain so it can grow! She showed us a video about Mojo (https://vimeo.com/153962759) which opened up the conversation about growing our brains. After lunch and BFF's the school councillor, Mrs. Gay, came and read us a story called How Big is My Problem? It started us on a discussion of matching our reactions to the size of the problem. Small problems can be solved just by us by using our words. Medium sized problems might need some help from a friend or an adult to solve, and a big problem is one that needs lots of people to work together to solve.
Friday morning started with Fine Arts. Ms. Wood introduced a new song that she is hoping the 3 youngest classes will sing in the concert. After choices and snack Ms. Mousseau's class joined us for another instalment of the story-telling frame. Students did well at recalling the Somebody and Wanted and then we introduced the element of a problem. We had lots of giggles because it's called the But (this is kindergarten so we all had a good laugh!). We went back down to the trees with Ms. Mousseau's class and took the next step in our story telling - Somebody - Wanted - But. There were lots of stories that got modelled on the example Ms. Mousseau told but some very original ideas came out too. After lunch many students opted to help Ms. Mousseau make new play dough. It's much nicer when it's brand new! We had a great dance party after clean up and then we watched (and read our book at the same time!) the video of The Wonkey Donkey. It's so funny! It makes us laugh every time!
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm looking forward to starting the story workshops next week! We will be doing them every Tuesday and Friday - it's going to be epic!
NEXT WEEK - November 19th - 25th
Monday - Photo retakes
- Walk day
Tuesday - Library Day - please help your child remember their book
- Performance
- PAC meeting - 6:45 in the library
Wednesday - possible walk day
- 2 hour early dismissal!!! Pick up at 12:13.
Thursday - walk day - please be sure students are appropriately dressed for the weather
- lockdown drill - we will be discussing this ahead of time and preparing ourselves for it
(please feel free to connect with me if you would like more information about this)
Friday - possible walk day
- hot lunch - chilli (this menu was switched and the hamburger hot lunch date is now Dec 7)
Tuesday morning we started the day with Ms. Wood for fine arts. She has started working with all the classes on songs for the winter concert. You will likely begin hearing some of them as they begin to stick in the students heads! We did a shared work time with Ms. Mousseau's class to finish up our letter Dd pages. We added feet and beaks from orange paper, a googly eye, and a feather to the ducks. They looked so cute! We got them all packed up into the envelopes ready for mailing. In the afternoon we took our books back to the library and picked new ones. Miss Julie read us a story about a bear using its imagination to stay busy during a rainy day. After school we had our open house. Thanks to those who were able to make it to visit this week. I'm always happy to have you come check things out, and I'm always willing to book a time to chat about your child's learning. There are still a few families that have not logged into their child's FreshGrade portfolio. It is very important that you are able to access this portfolio as it is where you will find information about learning activities what I'm looking for, and how your child is doing. Please let me know if you need me to re-send the invitation so that you can see your child's progress.
On Wednesday Mrs. Ashworth was the guest teacher in morning as I had an unexpected appointment. She said that everyone had a great morning! They worked very diligently on their "Book of Black" and most people got it completely finished and added to their other colour books in the book boxes. It is so good to see everyone managing the routines so well - and it really makes a difference when we've got a guest teacher. In the afternoon we used the ornamental gourds to talk about attributes (texture, shape, colour) and then we played a game to try and figure out my sorting rule. We ran out of time at the end of the day so I appreciate everyone who talked about it at home for homework!
Thursday morning we started some story telling outside. Two years ago I worked on an inquiry project called Nature Narratives where we used natural settings and items to inspire and facilitate story telling. We will be using a similar 5 point structure to tell a complete story. We will also use our hand (with our 5 fingers) to anchor the important points. We started with the concept that every story has a somebody (the thumb) - a character that the story is about; and every "somebody" has something they want (the pointer finger). We went outside under the trees and found an item (stick, leaf, flower, rock, etc) to be our somebody, and then students had to tell who was their somebody and what did they want. It was a great beginning to the process of storytelling. Just before lunchtime we had the monthly assembly. Mrs. Calverley reminded the whole school about having a growth mindset. We learned that it's important to exercise our brain so it can grow! She showed us a video about Mojo (https://vimeo.com/153962759) which opened up the conversation about growing our brains. After lunch and BFF's the school councillor, Mrs. Gay, came and read us a story called How Big is My Problem? It started us on a discussion of matching our reactions to the size of the problem. Small problems can be solved just by us by using our words. Medium sized problems might need some help from a friend or an adult to solve, and a big problem is one that needs lots of people to work together to solve.
Friday morning started with Fine Arts. Ms. Wood introduced a new song that she is hoping the 3 youngest classes will sing in the concert. After choices and snack Ms. Mousseau's class joined us for another instalment of the story-telling frame. Students did well at recalling the Somebody and Wanted and then we introduced the element of a problem. We had lots of giggles because it's called the But (this is kindergarten so we all had a good laugh!). We went back down to the trees with Ms. Mousseau's class and took the next step in our story telling - Somebody - Wanted - But. There were lots of stories that got modelled on the example Ms. Mousseau told but some very original ideas came out too. After lunch many students opted to help Ms. Mousseau make new play dough. It's much nicer when it's brand new! We had a great dance party after clean up and then we watched (and read our book at the same time!) the video of The Wonkey Donkey. It's so funny! It makes us laugh every time!
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm looking forward to starting the story workshops next week! We will be doing them every Tuesday and Friday - it's going to be epic!
NEXT WEEK - November 19th - 25th
Monday - Photo retakes
- Walk day
Tuesday - Library Day - please help your child remember their book
- Performance
- PAC meeting - 6:45 in the library
Wednesday - possible walk day
- 2 hour early dismissal!!! Pick up at 12:13.
Thursday - walk day - please be sure students are appropriately dressed for the weather
- lockdown drill - we will be discussing this ahead of time and preparing ourselves for it
(please feel free to connect with me if you would like more information about this)
Friday - possible walk day
- hot lunch - chilli (this menu was switched and the hamburger hot lunch date is now Dec 7)