Opportunities to work with a variety of materials and media will support the children as they deepen their understandings and translate their ideas from 2D to 3D. I have been collecting wire, clay, stones and cardboard for this upcoming exploration. This will be integrated with art as the children explore creating sculptures with wire, clay, plastercine and other collage materials. Stone Darts In the forest and seashore I will continue to provide opportunities to develop mathematical and literacy skills. As you know Valentine Day is coming up soon. I have sent home a class list of student names for the children to make their cards. I have planned a celebration with the children on  Wednesday Feb 10th. We are calling it a Teddy Bear Picnic  the last school day before Valentine Day. The children can wear their PJ's and bring a stuffy. I will have treats (berry juice boxes and a bear paw treat). Please remember not to send in treats this year with the valentines and if using envelopes...

As a Reggio Inspired educator I appreciate our beautiful  BC Kindergarten curriculum which is at the same time emergent. This provides a base for design and implementation of a developmentally appropriate program which challenges and supports all of my students. The program I offer my students and families is emergent and includes a lot of exploration while being highly structured. Every time I have travelled to Reggio Emilia to study I have returned to my practice excited and eager to transform the space and flow to better meet the interests and needs of my students.  My last visit inspired me to move towards playful literacy and continue to deepen my understanding of pedagogical documentation by connecting with other teachers and sharing what I have been documenting. While this takes more time, the collaboration from my critical colleagues is valuable and worth the time. I ensure that my documentation remains current by being intentional about collection of photos, videos and intervi...

Dear Families, We have been discussing our families with a focus on learning similarities and differences. The children have been very interested in meaningful experiences that many of them share like birthdays or naming days and what they look like in  different cultures. We have read many books including A Family, A Family, A Family by Sara O'Leary, as well as structured conversations like turn and talk and Think Pair Share. We will continue with the children completing Family math graphs and family sketches. If you have not yet sent in a family photo please send one in to add to our family wall. Our rhyming activities have been very successful and many of the children are able to both identify and produce a rhyme. Some of our games have been Rhyming I Have Who Has, Rhyming show and Tell and noticing rhyme in read alouds. We also have a Rhyming Go Fish and Rhyming Object Sort as two of our literacy play activities. In math, we have increased the quantities in the counting jars us...

I have refreshed our winter math shelves as the children will be exploring larger numbers and creating complex patterns like mandelas using loose parts. They will also play with number combinations to ten or more using the SumBlox wooden numbers and other loose parts like our counting sticks.                                 To build number sense with subitizing and numeral recognition I have introduced new games like Race to Twenty, Roll and Cover, Bump, Add One More and a variety of card games using dot numbers and numerals. We are also playing a hide and seek number game with our mini pocket chart which has been very popular with the children.. I have increased the quantities in our counting collections as many of the children have begun skip counting and are ready for larger numbers. The range will be from 10 to 100 to meet the comfort levels of all the children. I have decided to integrate art with math through 3D pieces using coloured pasta and glue. On Thursday we began to experi...

On Monday the children returned to school from winter break. While we usually go offsite on Mondays we had a new student beginning and I wanted him to enjoy his first day in our classroom, getting comfortable with school and us.  I could tell that he was most excited about the Atelier as he kept walking over and watching the children set up their art activities. We have been developing the classroom Atelier all year and I have designed it uniquely for this group of children.  Our Atelier currently it takes up about 20% of our space. The children have already had plenty of opportunities to explore different materials and techniques and we always seem to have two tables taken over with art as well as our paint easel during morning and afternoon exploration times. Art is fully integrated into my program and the children may choose art to express their ideas and learning in different curricular areas like math, science, social students and language arts - included Story Play. Gradually dur...