November 2019 Kindergarten News

A group of children were making surf boards for stones and shells at the seashore

The children have loved this beautiful fall weather and because of awesome parent support are enjoying many mornings at the seashore and in the forest.
Kitchen Science Family Project I have sent home the science kit with the first family. Each family will have the kit for one week. If you would like to do a classroom demonstration pick one of the experiments and your child may do it on Friday (the day the kit is returned).  Please indicate on the sheet in the kit so that another family does not do the same experiment. A newsletter will come home on Monday with the details.
Math  We have completed our playful inquiry on patterns and the children have created many simple and complex patterns using a wide variety of loose parts.  I have added pattern play to one of our Math Work Stations and a pattern challenge to our math journals. The e-portfolios have all been updated with pattern photos.
We had a good discussion about counting this week after our counting jar math work and the children have asked for larger quantities. Most of the children have been selecting jars of 12, 15, 17 and 19 so I have added a few more jars with larger numbers.
Working with the Big Idea Numbers represent quantities that can be decomposed into smaller parts, the children have been composing and decomposing numbers  i.e.: 3 and 2 make 5. 
Exploring this concept, the children have learned some new math games including Mystery Number, Shake and Spill, Dice Wars, Domino Counting and Roll & Build using our new unifix cubes. These games were all introduced during small group play and have been now been added to the math station bins for partner play which the children are rotating through.
I have begun to add short videos of your child counting (1 a day) to the portfolios.
Literacy The children have added more books to their independent reading boxes including some non-fiction books. Some of the children now have about five books and our reading stamina is growing. they have been practicing 3 ways to read a book; re-tell the story, read the pictures or read the words. I have added The Pigeon series by Mo Willems and some non-fiction beginner books.
We have just received $200. from the school to purchase classroom books and will order some non-fiction books as well as math stories and a few favourite authors including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Duck On A Bike and Counting Crocodiles.
I have added more activities to our daily Literacy Work Stations and have been introducing them to the children in small groups. A few of our games have been matching stones with letters on them to a letter grid, letter construction, matching objects to letter cards using beginning sounds and Roll a Letter. 
The children have begun individual writing conferences with me to reflect on their writing and stories created through pictures. I will begin sending home student reflections and posting a writing sample this week (1 or 2 a day) to their portfolios.

Clay I have added clay to the art area and children have begun to use the skills introduced by artist Ann Marie in October; making balls and then patting them into pancakes for leaf imprints. Once dry, they can paint their leaf prints. I am using air drying clay which is a little harder to work with than regular clay.
Water Colour The children have been continuing to add to their skills with water colour painting. This month I introduced floating the paint on wet water colour paper and watching the colours flow into one another. 

Collage Using small bits of loose parts the children have been cutting, gluing and designing art on cardboard leaves. I had some small rolls of washi tape and scrapbook paper which has been used creatively by the children.  It has been such fun to observe them talking, discussing and working on these mini art projects.

Story Play Mrs.King, Mrs Pickerell and I have applied for a grant to support growth in Story Play and purchase some shared resources including retelling story baskets. Story play is a playful process where the children enrich their oral language, imagination, social skills, planning and making decisions and builds classroom community.
The children have been enjoying Story Play with their Big Buddies each Friday afternoon this fall, followed by a directed draw in their poetry / song books. We are also doing Story Play at least one morning a week sometimes two, as a transition from the outdoors to indoors.
They have acquired amazing stamina for story play and often choose it during  exploration or quiet play.
Science The children have been really interested in the forest and who lives there so we have begun to read and talk about forest animals, including how the change in seasons affect all living things. I have also connected their interest in forest animals to the spirit animals (bear, raven, wolf, salmon) working with the children to identify their strengths and what we can learn from them.