Volunteers needed!

I am looking for a few volunteers who could spare a couple of hours at school or at home. I am looking for help in cutting out word lists. If you are available to help please send me a note. The cutting could be completed at the school or at your own home. Thank you!

The -an Family

This week we have begun to learn word families. Our first family is the -an family. We will be reading a poem in conjunction with each word family. This week's poem is:
The Muffin Man
Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man?
Do you know the muffin man
Who lives on Candy Road.

After reading the poem several times we circled any words with -an in them and then we made a ladder of -an words. We finished by making a folded accordian fan.

Leprechaun Kisses!

When the Kinders returned to school after the March break they discovered that a special visitor had been in our room. They found tiny, green footprints in the classroom. The prints led to a pot of gold, chocolate coins. Our special visitor left this poem to read:
Just a bit of Ireland
That I'm sending you today
To bring you luck and happiness
On this fine St. Patrick's Day
It's a wee and tiny present
Full of good luck and good wishes
Seems the little folk of Ireland
Have sent you some
Leprechaun Kisses.

Magic Building

The Kinders used magnets to build magic structures!

Will it stick?

The Kinders went on a noodle. That's what we call going for a little walk around the room to have a short think and to see what we can find. Everyone brought one object back to the circle. We used a big magnet to find out will it stick?

How to Catch a Paperclip!

The Kinders faced a challenge: how can you rescue a paperclip out of a glass of water without putting your fingers in the glass? We used a magnet! We had lots of fun 'rescuing' the paperclip!

Kipper!

We've enjoyed reading about Kipper and his adventures this week. Each day we've read a different story and today we voted on which story we would watch on DVD.

The votes are in:

Kipper's Monster: 7
Kipper and Roly: 3
Honk!: 2
Kipper's Beach Ball: 0

Critical Thinking...

Today we read Kipper's Beach Ball by Mick Inkpen. In the story, Kipper finds a beach ball in his cereal box. His friend, Tiger finds other toys in his cereal box. The Kinders made connections to happy meal toys and cereal box toys. I asked the question "Why do you think companies put in free toys?"

Some of our ideas:

Noah W.: "They want to make sure kids have toys."
Hailey M.: "They want to make kids happy."
Sawyer: "If kids didn't have toys they would be bored."
Kudzai: "So the kids will be happy and enjoy their food."

Mick Inkpen!

This week the Kinders will be exploring the books of Mick Inkpen through teacher read alouds. Mick Inkpen is one of the top-selling picture book artists and writers in the world. His books are some of my favourite read alouds and Kindergarten children delight in his adventures! During the week we will be enjoying a different Inkpen book each day and we will be using these to explore the strategy, Making Connections. I will ask the children to make connections to their own lives and experiences and also, to make connections between the different Inkpen books. We will end the week with a viewing of their favourite Inkpen story on DVD. What will the Kinders vote on as their favourite Mick Inkpen book? Don't forget to check back here on Friday!
Visit Kipper's website to meet his friends and play a few games:
http://www.hitentertainment.com/kipper/index2.html

Mat Man

Meet Mat Man, our newest friend! Mat Man is a delightful way for Kinders to learn about body parts. When young children are learning to draw themselves; family members and friends they will often miss some of the details. As a whole group we sing a song about Mat Man and everyone puts Mat Man together.

Budding Scientists...

What did we find out? We placed several carnations into different glasses of water and we added 3 different colours of food colouring into the water. We observed the carnations for a week. We discovered that when the flowers drink the water the petals will change colour. We used magnifying glasses to look at the petals up close.

Tap, Tap, Tap

The Kinders are learning a new song, "Tap, Tap, Tap". We use our Big Lines to tap in rhythm to the music while learning new positional language. Soon we will be making letters with our Big Lines.

Handwriting without Tears

Handwriting Without Tears is a simple, developmentally based curriculum for writing readiness and printing. The multi-sensory lessons teach to all learning styles - visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic. The unique materials help to address letter formation, reversals, legibility and sentence spacing. The goal of the program is to make handwriting available for all children as an automatic and natural skill.

Website of interest:

www.hwtears.com

Jolly Sounds: Group 6

We are beginning Group 6 this week in our Jolly Phonics program. The actions and sounds are:
y Pretend to be eating a yogurt and say y, y, y.
x Pretend to take an x-ray of someone with an x-ray gun and say ks, ks, ks.
ch Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch.
sh Place index finger over lips and say shshsh.
th th Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th,
and further for the th sound (this and thumb).