What creature travels on one foot?

This week we will be observing snails in a small vivarium set up in the classroom. We will be learning about their body parts and how to care for a snail. We will be reading Sophie's Snail by Dick King-Smith and we will be labelling a snail diagram. Do you have snails in your backyard? Encourage your child to look for snails, especially after a rainfall. Your child is welcome to bring a snail or a snail shell to school.

Number Stories

For the past several months the boys and girls have been investigating different number stories through games, songs and math toys. We have been writing and reading number stories together. We are still working on the story of 9 and will be starting the story of 10 soon. Your child can practise these stories on a web game entitled, Save the whale! This is a fun game in which your child needs to complete number bonds to set a whale free. Check it out with your child at: http://www.ictgames.com/save_the_whale_v4.html

Let's go Fishing!

We ended our Pond week with a tasty snack. We used ranch dressing (dyed blue) for water; goldfish crackers for fish and pretzels for a fishing pole. Each child made and ate their own pond. Yum!

Journals

This is the moment that we've been working towards all year long. It is Tuesday morning, after a long weekend and we all have news to share. The Kinders come into the classroom and sit down at their desks. Everyone opens their journals and begins to write. Only a quiet whisper of 'sounding out' can be heard as little pencils write down ideas. The Kinders use the word wall for spelling sight words and they sound out other words. What an exciting moment to witness!
A few samples from today:
*I had fun at my prte!
*I plad with los ov frens and I soo firwrck and so colrfl.
*I like firwrs.
*I like doin the dishis.
*Jack and me see a bear.

A Frog's Life Cycle

This week we are going to begin our study of frogs with a lovely book about ponds. On Tuesday we will read In the Small, Small Pond together and then we will jump right in to our frog investigation. We will learn about the life cycle of a frog; what they eat and the other creatures that share their habitat. We will be making a diagram; a frog puppet; a pond booklet and a pond snack! Stay tuned for the results of our investigation.

The Night Sky

This week we have been reading The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle. We enjoyed reading it each day and looking for new things that we hadn't noticed in the previous reading. On Thursday we looked closely at the firework page. We noticed all the colours and different stroke marks that Eric Carle used when creating the page. We decided to try it ourselves! We used black construction paper and vibrant chalks. We created a night sky every bit as beautiful!

This is what the firefly saw.....

The firefly saw many lights and flew toward them.

But they were not other fireflies.

They were fireworks sparkling and glittering and shimmering in the night.

-Eric Carle

Journals

On Wednesday we began our day by writing in our journals. We use the word wall and sounding out to write a sentence. All attempts at spelling are accepted in Kindergarten, there are no wrong answers!
Here is a small selection of our work:
*On my brthday I mit go too Florda or I m go too the bech.
*I an lookee forwr to go to my dad to paai popTropica.
*I so a Bee.
*Play socr with Noah and be on the sam tem.
*Im go to sogr.

I'm a little firefly

to the tune of I'm a little teapot
I'm a little firefly
Look at me!
I'm as happy as I can be.
See my light flicker and shine so bright
Now watch me fly into the night!

Fireflies!

This week we are busy learning all about fireflies. We started the week by reading The very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle. The Kinders were thrilled by the surprise of the twinkling fireflies on the last page of the book. Today we sang a firefly song together; labelled a firefly diagram and learned about how a firefly lights up. Is a boy or girl firefly brighter? Ask your child, he knows! We are creating fireflies this week with glow-in-the-dark paint for a bedtime surprise.

Dig, dig, dig!

The Kinders have been busy today planting. Each Kinder could choose to plant a pumpkin seed or a pole bean seed. We discussed what would grow from the seed and the benefits of having one of these plants in our garden. How long will they take to sprout? Keep checking back and we'll update you!

Spring Lambs!

On Wednesday, May 5th we went to St. Johns Outdoor centre. We saw many interesting things: forget-me-nots; periwinkles; a babbling brook; Ewes; lambs; a Ram and a pioneer schoolhouse and school bell. What a wonderful morning!