December 4th Newsletter

Good morning families,
We have had a very busy week with Miss Minty completing her units of study and preparing to transition to teaching 50% next week. She will continue teaching in the morning, including our offsite learning, and I will resume the afternoon lessons. The children have done very well with the math study on patterns and the study on Being Mindful which has also included many conversations and activities using our five senses.

Our classroom is beginning to look christmassy with coloured lights, our nature pennant (made with red beets, green rosemary, spinach and yellow flowers) as well as the children's festive art. 
On Thursday we spoke with the children and decided to spend time decorating the classroom as well as working on our family Christmas gifts. In the outdoor classroom we will continue with our nature pennants and explore some ways to offer Christmas treats to the animals that we share the forest with. I purchased oranges, apples, birdseed and peanut butter and will be dehydrating the fruit this week with the children using our oven. 

 

Each year I like to involve the children in choosing a new Christmas book to add to the class collection. I do this by reading three or four beautiful stories from the library or borrowed from a colleague. Then the children discuss and make a collaborative decision on which one I will  purchase. The book will be a gift for next year's kindergarten students, chosen by your children :) If you have a family favourite  Christmas read aloud you would like to share with the class just send it in and I will return it the same day after reading with the class.

I usually do Christmas baking with the children each December,  but the rules have changed this year, and so instead they will be making a special family art gift, together with decorating their gift bag, making a handprint ornament and family Christmas card. We will do our best to send them home the beginning of our last week.
I have also set up a Christmas craft table where the children are starting to enjoy creating Christmas treasures for home.
We added a fourth strand to our Literacy Flow this week, word work. The children are now flowing through read to self, read with a friend, work on writing (in their journal) and word work. I wanted to introduce the fourth strand while Miss Minty was still with us to ensure that support was available as needed. However the children were independent and needed few reminders!! We are so proud of their work habits. We will continue with Daily Four as well as Writing Workshop. During writing workshop i am continuing with mini lessons, guided practice and student writing on loose paper.
In January I will be changing the Show and Tell to Rhyming Show and Tell just for one month, then we will resume our regular show and tell program. Please choose one item and write rhyming clues on the cover of the bag I send home. The rhyming words will be the clues. For example if you put a frog in the bag then you might write log, bog, dog as your three glues.
Mrs. Thompson has generously organized a method for staff to share the children's Christmas performance with our class family which means that it can be longer than one minute. The children will be filmed on Thursday and as soon as the video is finished I will it share with you :) they have been practicing the song and it is already a joy to listen to.
Please remember to return your child's green poetry/song book on Monday so that we can add the new song sheet and practice them during Read To Self.
Thank you,
Mrs. McCaw, Ms. Hilland and Ms. Minty 🎄