Play-do volunteers

One of the favourite centres this year is the play-do centre.  Your child has maybe told you a little bit about the centre.  Has your child mentioned the pumpkin pie play-do?  That has been a favourite during the month of October. 

The play-do centre is an important piece in your child's development.  Your child is building small muscles in her hand, communicating with friends, sharing play-do tools, using his creativity, and collaborating at this centre. 

As it is a very popular centre we go through a tremendous amount of play-do!  I am looking for volunteers to help make the classroom play-do.  The recipe is simple (flour, salt and water) and takes very little time to make.  If you are able to make a batch once a month please let me know.  Thank you!

Trick or Treat house

The boys and girls have decided to close the fruit and vegetable market.  They have decided that they would like to turn the drama centre into a 'Trick or Treat house'.  We have been reading books to give us some ideas for what we might need.  Yesterday the children came up with this list:
  • candy
  • decorations
  • costumes
  • lanterns
  • scary pumpkins
  • scarecrows
  • pumpkins
  • trick or treat bags
  • super big pumpkin
  • halloween words
  • spiderman costume
  • princess costume
  • vampire costume
They have already begun making various items to put into the trick or treat house.  Today there is a surprise waiting for them in the house!  If you have anything to donate for our trick or treat house, please send it in!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Tomorrow is our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  Children should arrive at school at the regular time.  The bus will be leaving Rose Seaton at 10:00 AM.  Volunteers are asked to arrive at school at 9:45.  Please come to the classroom to assist with bus line-up.

Parents are reminded to check weather conditions and dress your child accordingly.  As it has been very wet the farm will probably be very muddy.  Rain or snow boots are highly recommended.

The children will be eating lunch on the farm.  We will not be participating in pizza day.  Please keep lunch simple.  Thank you!

The Very Strange Day at Rose Seaton

Mrs. Goodwin visited us yesterday.  We explored more about books and stories.  She brought in a magical book, pop-up books, little books, big books, and even a book that her daughter wrote.  We enjoyed our time with Mrs. Goodwin.  She helped us to write a book about a day at Rose Seaton.  Please click on the link below to read our new book!

http://issuu.com/goodwik/docs/the_very_strange_day_at_rose_seaton

Self-Regulation

Self-Regulation is a key to success in school.  It is the best predictor for academic success.  The work we do every day in Kindergarten (e.g., playing, role-playing, sharing) is key in developing your child's self-regulation.

One important piece of self-regulation is learning the different 'zones'.  The children have been learning the following four zones: blue, green, yellow and red.  They have been learning how to identify different emotions connected to these zones. 

The children are learning that no zone is a 'bad' zone.  All the zones are normal states for children and adults.  The green zone is the optimal zone for learning.  We are learning how to identify what zone we are in.

We will learn how to get ourselves back to green when we are in yellow or nearing red. 

Talk to your child about the different zones.  Help your child by naming emotions.  Look into a mirror with your child and make different faces for different emotions.  Ask your child to name your feelings.  Help your child by talking about good strategies when feeling sad, angry, or frustrated.

Need more information?  Please talk to Mrs. Thomas.

Star of the Day

During the months of September and October we had a different star of the day each school day.  Each child had an opportunity to be the star of the day.  The star helped with attendance and other small jobs throughout the day.  The children interview the star of the day to learn more about each friend.  We learned how to spell each name and then posted the names on the word wall.  This book is all about the star of the day.  We hope you enjoy it!
Please click on the following link to read our first book:
http://issuu.com/sjthomas23/docs/star_book

The Market

The children discovered fruit and vegetables in the sensory table.  They enjoyed naming the fruit and vegetables and talking about favourites.  They started sorting the fruit and veggies by kind.  Next, the children decided that they wanted to change the house centre into a market.  What would it look like?  What would we need? 
The children made a plan.  Mrs. Thomas recorded their thoughts onto chart paper.
-We looked at photos and videos of the market in Ridgeway
-We packed up the items in the house centre that we didn't need
-We labelled the boxes so that they wouldn't get lost in the school
-We turned the house furniture around
-We carried over the baskets of fruit and veggies


The children soon realized that they needed things like paper money; coins; wallets and purses.  They also realized that they didn't have pumpkins or cookies like they saw in the market photos.  They set to work making all the additional items they would need.  The children used paper to create coins, bills, and pumpkins.
While the children were creating the paper bills and the coins for the market they ran into some difficulty.  Sophie realized that she couldn't remember how to make a number 5 and she wanted to get it just right.  We looked around the classroom for a resource that could help us.  We found a number book.  Sophie took the book to the writing centre and carefully copied the number 5 from the book.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Kinder friends and family.  I hope you are enjoying a lovely long weekend with your family.