Winter Fun!

Winter has arrived.  The children LOVE to play out in the snow.  Please consider sending an extra pair of mittens and socks.  Our hallways get quite wet....
Rosy cheeks, warms hands and feet make for more fun when exploring and playing in the snow.

     

Happy Birthday Jesus!

The children celebrated Christmas today with a birthday party for Jesus.
We heard stories about the Nativity, opened a gift from God and played games in the gym.
We gobbled up delicious pancakes, fruit and juice.  Our birthday cake was beautiful and YUMMY!
Each child went home with a party bag and heart filled with anticipation and joy for Christmas Day!

        
                                                                       

IPAD Friday's

Recently the school has been set up for wireless internet.  As a result, on Friday afternoons, the Kindergarten children have the option to play and learn through the tool of the IPAD within the Kindergarten classroom.  They are quite excited to pursue this new learning opportunity.  The children are learning with Apps that focus on early reading and mathematic skill development. They demonstrate strong computer skills and the photos below show the high level of engagement in a 21st century learning opportunity.

   

The Pom-Pom Table

The children arrived today to see that the sand table had been transformed to a sensory table filled with POM-POMS.  With great excitement the news spread quickly and soon there were MANY children gathered around the table.

The children decided that we should make a few rules.  We will be recording these for our future reference on our next school day.

The children sorted pom-poms, used the tweezers to pick up pom-poms, strengthening their fine motor muscles and skills. They pretended they were making popcorn and the exploration continues. Here are a few photos capturing the fun and exploration.

    

Any pom-pom donations would be greatly appreciated!

Changes Around Us

The children have been learning to notice, and discuss the changes that are occurring around us. Through investigations that emerged from the children's interests, to planned experiences and learning opportunities that the children have just embraced we continue on our kindergarten learning journey.

Here are a few areas of focus from our classroom during the month of October.

                                    

I can discuss things that are happening outside.
I can ask questions too!

I can sort and name a sorting rule.

We created another new class book!

                   

This month I have sent home a learning story for each of the children in our Kindergarten classroom. These stories give you insight to the kinds of experiences that happen in our learning environment on a daily basis.  The children are very amazing and a joy to watch play, learn and grow.

We Are Authors!

The children are quite proud of their first class book.  After talking about how we are changing and growing we read the book The Best Part of Me: Children talk about their bodies in pictures and words by Wendy Ewald  The children loved the idea of creating their own book.  We worked as a team to take pictures of our favourite body parts.  We wrote some amazing things about our bodies and the amazing way that God made them.  Our book is a true celebration of each of us!
I have included a few pages for you to preview.  Please pop in our classroom to check it out!

  

                                

         

Awesome Autumn

Our filed trip to Ojibway Nature Centre was full of adventure!

The children experienced the splendor of fall.  

We had the opportunity to look, hear, talk and learn about nature with Mary, our naturalist. 

We will return to centre in Winter and Spring to see how the park changes with the seasons.

Please see a few photos from our trip posted below. 

After returning to our classroom we had another adventure… 

Please ask your child about the bird who visited our classroom. 

     We went on a scavenger hunt while on our hike.                           

       

   We saw deer.

           

         We saw many amazing treasures from nature.

 

We saw neat things while visiting inside the Ojibway Centre.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we approach Thanksgiving , the children reflected on our many gifts from God.

We sang a Thank-you song, heard a story and talked about what we are grateful for.

Each child composed a picture to represent our thankful hearts.

Some ideas included:      

Thank-you Lord for stuffed animals.

Thank-you Lord for nature.

Thank-you Lord for friends.

Thank-you Lord for the sandbox.

Thank-you Lord for TV.

Thank-you Lord for brothers, sisters, moms and dads.

Thank-you Lord for love.

Each treasured ideas was hung on our “Thank-You Tree.”

Wishes for a Very Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Our Beginning

The children have made enormous growth over the month of September.  Although they come home saying they are only playing; evidence of learning, growth and development abound throughout our classroom.

During the month of September our Learning Goal was: We are learning to be members of our classroom and the St. Gabriel School Community.

The children have made new friends through learning activities in Kindergarten.  We are learning the names of our classmates, finding ways to communicate and negotiate differences in opinions and share our ideas.  Together we are exploring safe play at school, in the classroom, gymnasium, and at recess   One of our big areas of growth is in our ability to be independent. The children are quickly learning how to unpack their backpacks, put on their own coats for recess, negotiate opening their own snacks and lunches and change their shoes for indoor activities as well as recess.  It is quite wonderful to watch how the Senior Kindergarten students have mentored the new children and how all the children encourage each other on this important journey.  The classroom has been a buzz of activity where we are exploring its possibilities and discovering new experiences for learning.

Thank-you to all of you for the markers, crayons, scissors and other classroom supplies you have sent.

As we enter into the month of October our focus will be on changes... How our outdoor environment is changing, how we are changing as we grow and an investigation into how letters and number are used to assist us to express ourselves in order to communicate. As the children explore these topics we will be sorting, comparing and contrasting through our explorations.

The photos below provides wonderful examples of the children playing, learning and growing together within the Kindergarten program during the month of October.

We can make friends.  

We can pray together.

We can share.

We can learn together.

We can follow our class rules.

We can be independent.