Friday Update!

Hi everyone!

We hope you're having a great evening :) We had such a great week in room 110 and we can't wait to share it with you :) We had quite the exciting week with our Terry Fox run and our first Tribes assembly! We also introduced 2 new learning centres and began our Literacy lessons and bins :) 

Tinker Table

After we introduced the listening centre, we opened up our last permanent centre which is the tinker table! The idea behind the tinker table is for students to explore different types of tools and electronics. To start off, we have some wood with pre-drilled holes, screws and screw drivers, an old hard drive, and an old circuit board. We went through everything very thoroughly and made sure that safety came first. Students know that they need to use tweezers to pick up certain things and to wear safety glasses when handling certain equipment. We want to make sure that you feel comfortable with your child using these materials, so please don't fret as Mrs. Tortola and I keep a very close eye on students at this centre, and all screws and screwdrivers are quite dull. It's been a huge hit so far! This centre is awesome for fine motor skills (the skills necessary for adequately holding a pencil, using scissors, etc.). We are so excited for this centre and we hope it stays this popular!

Our friends here are enjoying themselves as they pretend to be electricians and carpenters ;)

Learning Centre Fun

I was so happy to see that the listening centre was still being used by the end of the week! I'm excited to start adding some Fall and Halloween books for the students to listen to. Sand continues to be a big hit with our JK students :) And of course, all of our technology centres are always being used! That pizza sure looked yummy, girls!

Literacy Centre Fun

Here are some more shots of students during literacy activities :) I love that David and Vienna used the stamps to spell out their name in the play-doh, and Daryl and Aaron took turns spelling out their names on the iPad! Kevin and Izze take turns putting the letters of the alphabet in order, Lara practices printing her name, and Alex and Owen are listening to a book :) 

Character Education

At least once a week, we will having a character education lesson which focuses on important life skills such as listening, respect, using your manners, accepting others, etc. Mrs. Tortola and I have decided that we are really going to focus on our listening skills in room 110. Today, we played a game called "You Said, I Said". We all sat in a circle and one at a time, we had to share what our favourite food was. However, before we could share what ours was, we had to restate what the person next to us chose as their favourite food. For example, Miss Pliura says, "My favourite food is chocolate". Mrs. Tortola then has to say, "She said her favourite food was chocolate. My favourite food is pizza". Then, the person next to Mrs. Tortola would have to restate what she chose, and so on and so forth. This was a really interesting activity to watch, as some students could remember what the person next to them said and some could not. Every so often, we would stop and choose a random student who had already had a turn and ask someone else in the circle NOT sitting next to them what they said. We will continue to play games like these to work on our listening skills :)

Here are a couple of updates you should be aware of :)

• Our milk program will begin on Monday, September 29th, so if you have purchased tickets, you may begin to put 1 in your child's lunch bag as of then
• The calendar for October will be handed out early to mid next week
• Our home reading program will begin the first week of October (Oct. 6th - 10th)
• Trip forms for our trip to Fortinos will be going home on Monday, September 29th - we will need approximately 2 to 3 volunteers :)
• If someone else is picking up your child, you need to write a note. Please don't mention it to me in passing, for I will definitely forget!

Thanks for checking in on the blog- have a fun, safe weekend and we'll see ya on Monday! :)

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

Our First Tribes Assembly!!

Good evening!

I thought I would share with you some details and pictures about our first Tribes Assembly :) I was a bit nervous since this was our first time breaking off and going to different classrooms, but for the most part it went smoothly! After 2nd nutrition break, the Kindergarten team took students to their designated room and they began their activities. The grade 7 and 8 students ran 4 different games for students in that sub house. It can be challenging creating a game that works for both JK and Grade 6 students, but they did a great job! Then we all went to the gym to recognize our award winners and talk about next month's character trait which is Independent Work. 3 more students will be chosen in October who demonstrate excellence in this trait :) 

A big congratulations goes out to Owen, Hailey, and Juliette for winning this month's award for Organization :) Owen is a great help in the classroom and takes great pride in tidying up and making sure our classroom is neat and organized for our next play block. Hailey is demonstrating some great emergent organization skills by tidying up after herself and staying on task. Juliette also does a great job of tidying up after herself and her friends- Congratulations you 3!!

Can we talk about how amazing Izze's shirt is!? She came up to the SMARTboard during our daily poem and I was gobsmacked! So cool :) She was even spotted out on our playground by our VP Mrs. Sweeting who took her into the staff room to show all the teachers. We love the enthusiasm and school spirit! A lot of students came dressed in their Tribes color to show school spirit, so thanks!! I really need to buy some red clothes!

Have a wonderful evening everyone. A post will be up tomorrow evening about our exciting week :)

~ Miss Pliura

Terry Fox Run!

Hi all!

Today at Gatestone was our Terry Fox Run! The whole school went outside during 5th period to run around the field. It was the perfect day for it!! So beautiful outside :) We started out by walking around the field and then we ran around it a couple of times. Students were so excited to go on the big kids field! We were outside for approximately 30 minutes. We sure hope the students had fun! Here are some pictures!

A class photo after the run :)

A couple of pictures I was able to snag! I love Lara's face in the bottom picture ;) heh

We didn't discuss who Terry Fox was- Mrs. Tortola and I decided it may not be appropriate for our students. However, they do know that the run was for a good cause :) Just to clarify, we didn't send home a note about donations (in case you were confused!), but we thank those who did donate!!

Have a wonderful evening!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

Literacy Fun :)

Hi families!

On Monday, we started our new and exciting Literacy Activities! These are fun activities that students are engaged in every morning after our literacy lesson to reinforce important reading skills. This month, we are focusing on name recognition, letter recognition, and letter-sound correspondence. 

Today's lesson was on initial sounds. Our JK students had the chance to choose which letter their name started with, and therefore which sound their name started with. As we learned in the Letter Factory, every letter makes a sound! We will continue to do this for the rest of the week :)

We have created some activity bins and have also infused literacy into some of our regular learning centres.

During literacy activities, students can choose a literacy game on the iPad, SMARTboard, or computer. Marko and Izze were on abcya.com putting the letters of the alphabet in order :) They can also use the letter stamps at play-doh- so much fun! As you can tell, they sure had fun stamping in their names! One of our bins includes cookie sheets and magnetic letters. Nathan was spelling his name- awesome job!

Every day, Mrs. Tortola reads the students a book after 1st recess- the perfect way to settle down after some running about outside :) Today's book was "Why Should I Listen?" by Claire Llewellyn. We're really focusing on our listening skills in room 110. Mrs. Tortola and I often like to say random things when we're talking like "Purple Monkey" and then ask students what animal we said- it really checks if they're listening! Good listening means sitting still, criss-cross-applesauce, looking eyes, and no talking :)

We were SO excited to open the listening centre today! My hard work of reading into my computer over the summer really paid off ;) These girls were pros at finding the right track number on the CD to the matching book- they sure must have been listening when we introduced it! 

Just a reminder that our "Snuggle Up & Read" Home Reading Program will be beginning soon! We're aiming for the first week of October. Today we sent home some yellow forms about DRA levels- please make sure you read through them as they are very important. As I like to say, this isn't just Kindergarten..... it's Kindergarten- they're the most important years of your child's education because you're setting the stage for their academic career. In order for students to take school seriously, we need to treat it seriously by modelling it's importance.

More to come on Literacy fun!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

Tribes Assembly Update

Gatestone is a Tribes TLC (Tribes Learning Community) School. Tribes is a program used at Gatestone that aims to create a positive school and classroom environment to improve behaviour and learning. To learn more about Tribes, you can visit their website at http://tribes.com/about/

Last year, Gatestone created a Tribes Committee, and the committee created Houses within the school (think Harry Potter!). The goal of creating Houses was to bring students from all different grades together to participate in community-building exercises. Within the school, there are 6 Houses and each House has 4 subgroups. Once a month, the whole school participates in some afternoon fun by meeting with their House and participating in games. It's a great way to bring students and staff together to become more of a "community".

Every month we have a Tribes focus. After our House activity, the school has an assembly to celebrate students who have demonstrated excellence in our monthly character trait. The character trait we are focusing on for September is Organization. We've been working hard in room 110 to learn how to be organized. Organization is a skill that needs to be taught, and we think our students are all doing a great job at staying organized. 3 students will be chosen every month and will receive a certificate at the assembly (students are just asked to stand up for recognition and a picture is taken with all the winners after the assembly). We will let you know if your child has been chosen for that character trait in case you want to come to the assembly :)

Each student has been assigned to a House. The Tribes Committee has tried their best to put siblings in the same house. As of now, each student is in the following house.

Victoria

Alma, Carter, Malik, Mohit, Ashlyn

Dundurn

Kevin, Gurshan

Alexander

Hailey, Imran, Alex, Andrew, Giulia, Lilly H., Victoria

Griffin

Lara

Wentworth

Nathan, David, Aaron, Vienna, Nevaeha, Milorad, Marko, Izze, Ethan, Alyssa

McMaster

Lily W., Courtney, Daryl, Juliette, Owen

We always recommend that students try to wear clothing that matches their House color. Our students will also receive a name tag-necklace that has their name, House, and Homeroom # in case they get lost (They won't! The older students will help them go where they need to).

Our first Tribes assembly is Thursday, September 25th from 2:30 - 3 pm. We hope that makes sense!

Best,

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

A Fun Week!!

Good evening, families!

We hope you're having a great night and are looking forward to a 3 day weekend :) (still 2 for us!). We've got lots of fun pictures and exciting things to share with you from this week. Although it was a short week (that seemed to fly by!), it was still very busy in room 110 :)

Weekly Happenings

In our last post, we mentioned the new learning centres we were opening this week. It's great to have more learning centres open so that students have more centres to choose from and each centre is a little less crowded. 

We opened our Paint centre on Wednesday and it was a huge hit! Who doesn't love to paint!? Mrs. Tortola and I went through very explicitly how to set up and clean up the Paint centre so we can keep it looking neat. I have to say, this group of students is pretty amazing at tidying up after themselves! We've been super impressed. Cleaning up after yourself is one of our rules! Here are some friends enjoying themselves at Paint :) We're just starting off with some water colours as it's easy to clean up. Soon we'll be using different kinds of paint and tools to make some really neat art projects! Nice paintings, boys and girls!

Puppets, Puzzles, and Science were also opened this week! We have some really neat puppets to play with and a brand new puppet theatre! We discussed how we can make our own plays or reenact a story we already know :) The Science centre was a lot of fun, too! We can see from the pictures below that the students were exploring different kinds of rocks and shells and were trying out the magnets! The boys and girls decided to make their own "Letter Factory" using the hollow blocks- so creative! Read more about the Letter Factory near the end of this post :)

Ahh yes, technology. Students were SO excited to finally use the computer, iPad, and SMARTboard. On the computer and SMARTboard, students can choose a game from abcya.com to play with, and on the iPad, they have certain apps they can choose from. Mrs. Tortola have chosen educational games for students to play with (so they aren't playing Flappy Bird at school ;)). We are slowly introducing 2 new apps everyday and showing students how they work. They have shown a great deal of patience! Great job!

Here are some more pictures from this week :)

Courtney was sorting the farm animals based on colour- fantastic initiative, Courtney! The boys sure seem to enjoy the lego- I don't blame them!

We also introduced the Water centre today- so much fun!

After 2nd nutrition break, we do 5 minutes of independent reading. I love seeing them all read!!

Literacy Update

• We've been watching Leapfrog's The Letter Factory to help us learn our letters and sounds. We will continue to use these characters as they really seem to click with the children. You can watch the whole video here :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzH4QjsTmwc
• Literacy Bins will begin next week! Stay tuned to the blog next week to see what these are :)
• SK DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) testing is finished. Parents will be receiving their child's DRA score shortly. JK parents will also receive an information package regarding this when Home Reading begins.

Other Updates

• We are planning a walking trip to Fortinos in October.... more to come on that later!
• Parents who volunteered to come in and talk about their hobby or occupation will be receiving some papers in their child's important bag next week
• Please remember to bring in Special Events money and Pizza Money ASAP. Late orders on Pizza will not be accepted. Thanks for bringing in cheques and exact change!

Have an amazing weekend and we will see you Monday!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

Monday Update!

Hi everyone!

We hope you had a great weekend! We're excited to be back for another fun week in Kindergarten :) It's so nice to hear that you are enjoying the blog, so thank you for sharing that with us!!

Here are a couple updates you should be aware of:

The Terry Fox Run

Please read the note below regarding the Terry Fox Run :)

The Terry Fox Run is fast approaching. On Wednesday September 24th, Gatestone School will be participating in the run. The Kindergartens will also be showing their support by participating in our own walk/run on the same day. We will be heading out to the back playground and will walk/run the perimeter of the field (how many times will be up to the kids – we plan to set a goal this week).

Thank you for your support!

~ The Kindergarten Team

VIP Starting

Next week we will be starting VIP- Very Important Person, of course! Please read the note below to inform you of VIP. Your child's VIP week will be listed on the monthly calendar. 

Click Here to View

Weather

Cold weather is approaching (unfortunately!) so please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather. Also, we're noticing students having difficulties putting on their sweaters or jackets when they're inside out- if you could practise this at home, that would be great!

I believe that's all for now! Please keep checking the blog for more updates! I hope this scratchy throat of mine doesn't mean I'm getting sick- uh oh! Time will tell!

Have a great night!

~ Miss Pliura

I just had to include this picture! :) PS: Rhyming is an incredibly powerful reading strategy- does your child know how to rhyme?

Our First Week Together!

Hello everyone!

We've finished our first week together in Room 110! It was a week full of emotions and lots of transitioning, but we managed to get through it together :) This week was all about getting used to routines, classroom expectations, and learning how to behave in the classroom.

Here is what our days have looked like over the past week:

• Students complete their 5 jobs and find a table or carpet activity to play at until announcements and O'Canada
• Students continue to play until we tidy up and meet at the carpet for our Morning Routine. Our morning routine includes: attendance, good morning song, monthly poem, and reviewing our classroom rules
• Afterwards, we've been going through each learning centre and reviewing how to take care of the materials and how to tidy up
• We began watching "The Letter Factory" to begin to learn the sounds of the alphabet. Next it's time for our first Nutrition Break!
• After students come in from outside, we go off to learning centres for one period and then students either go to the library or to the gym. Lunch time!
• Students reenter from outside where we take attendance again and find a quiet spot in the room to read independently for 5 minutes
• Afterwards, students come back to the carpet and then go off to learning centres once again
• We meet on the carpet to reflect on the day and talk about things we did well and things we can do better next time
• Students get packed up and ready for home!

The next two weeks will be very similar to the schedule above, except we will be having different Literacy lessons, starting VIP, and learning about new learning centres! To download a copy of our Weekly Schedule, please click on the link below.

Weekly Schedule

IMPORTANT: Students have Library 4 times a week. However, they will not be doing book exchange every day. Mrs. Barber and Mrs. Moore will be doing Music, Drama, and Character Education with them as well. They have a lot planned for our little ones and we are super excited :)

This week, the following learning centres were open:

Sand, Creative, Play-Doh, Dramatic Play, Blocks, Building, Book Nook, and the Work Bench

Next week, we will slowly begin introducing the following learning centres:

SMARTboard, iPads, Computer, Listening Centre, Science, Puppets, Puzzles, Paint, Water, and Tinker Table

There will be so many new learning centres for students to explore- we can't wait to introduce them!

Here are some pictures from our week together! :)

We were super impressed with Marko's cutting skills on the toilet paper roll! "I made a slinky!". Great job, Marko! Dramatic Play continues to be a big hit with the boys and girls- so many fun things to do :) (I think I've had more cake and orange juice this week than in my entire life! heh :) )

The Creative centre has been a lot of fun- students are using all sorts of craft materials to make everything from pictures, cards, flags, to musical instruments! Owen wrapped up his musical instrument to take home- he made a shaker using toilet paper rolls and beans. Cool!

The boys (and girls!) have really enjoyed using the toys we keep in our large storage unit. We have everything from gears, lego, lincoln logs, and k'nex! Blocks has been a lot of fun as well- students have been creating towers and experimenting with the different types of blocks.

Andrew looks really comfy reading his book at Book Nook! We're happy to see students choosing to read during learning centres. A fine choice, young man! Daryl and Owen built an amazing tower using our new hollow blocks. We're excited to start using these to explore Mathematics and Science concepts such as height, angles, and gravity!

We caught Hailey cleaning up her spilt sand during learning centres- way to go, Hailey! Following our classroom rules like a pro! Izze made an awesome tower using our wooden blocks- looks like a small town :)

Play-Doh has been a very popular learning centre. We're practising keeping the colours separated- mixing them last week turned the Play-Doh grey and wasn't as fun to use! Bright colours are way more exciting. We still need to work on this! Victoria and Lily were exploring the stickers and small decorations available at Creative. Woohoo!

Overall, a fantastic week for our JKs and SKs, and it's only going to get better! Here are a couple of updates to be aware of:

• Library exchange date has changed- this means the days will have changed on our monthly calendar- we will keep you posted
• There is a new page available on our blog called Important Documents- please look through this to find things from calendars to class lists :)
• We are still waiting on 21 family pictures for our family tree- please bring them in ASAP!
• If your child is VIP in September, expect to be receiving information in your child's important bag next week
• We started Reading Buddies today! Students were paired up with a 5th grader from Mr. McCormack's class. We will be having Reading Buddies once a week for 25 minutes (half a period) 
• Documentation for students will allergies will be in our classrooms before Sept 19th
• September 19th is a PA Day- no school!
• Our classroom is being used for before and after care

Have an amazing weekend and we will see you again on Monday. Take care!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola 

Open House and Q&A!

Hello families!

Thank you so much for coming in tonight for Open House :) It's so nice to see how excited our students get when they get to show off their classroom to their families. It means so much to them :)

As I'm sure you're aware, we're still working on getting some stuff up on the walls like student work, paintings, pictures, etc. We will get there! We have to work on routines and expectations before we can get to the good stuff :) Walking down the hall in a straight line with 30 little ones is pretty challenging! They're doing a great job though :) Also, we're still waiting on some furniture and supplies like our art easel before we can get everything up and running.

A lot of you had some great questions tonight, and we noticed many of you had the same questions, so we thought we would address them here so that everyone is in the know :)

How many students are in the class? 

30.

How many Kindergarten classrooms does Gatestone have?

4 - 3 classes of 30 and 1 class of 14. Class sizes are not decided by the Kindergarten team.

Is the class composed of JKs and SKs?

Yes! There are 15 JKs and 15 SKs.

Do you teach the JKs and SKs the same thing?

Yes and no. We do a lot of things together like our lessons and circle time. However, during Guided Reading/Small Group Instruction (which hasn't begun yet), we will pull small groups of students at similar ability levels and do a mini-lesson to teach specific skills.

What does my child have to know by the end of the year? How can I help at home?

Stay tuned to the blog as we will keep you posted on what we're learning in the classroom. If you want, you can take a gander through the Kindergarten curriculum  (http://edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/kindergarten_english_june3.pdf) to read what we teach in Kindergarten. At home, read to or with your child every night, practise letters and sounds, counting, etc. (see http://edu.gov.on.ca/kindergarten/ for more information).

Will the JKs have you as a teacher next year?

We aren't sure yet. That is a decision made by Administration.

When will your Home Reading program begin?

We are aiming for early October. We have to do multiple assessments on each child before we can begin. Parents of children in SK will receive their child's reading score as soon as we finish assessments. JKs don't receive reading assessments until the new year, however, you will be informed  of reading scores and what they mean when home reading begins.

We hope that was of help to you and answered some of the questions you may have had. Check back  tomorrow to see what we were getting up to this week in Room 110.

Have a great night!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

September Calendar!

Hi families!

Here is a copy of the September calendar in case you lose your paper copy. Information regarding VIP will be going home shortly if your child is VIP in September!!

* Note: Library books will be taken out on September 16th only if the System is up and running

Happy Tuesday Eve!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

Our First Day!

Hi families!

We had an awesome first day in Room 110 :) Aside from a few tears, students were happy and excited to be in a new classroom with new friends, teachers, and toys :)

Last night before I left, they were installing cubbies in the hallway to make room for all of our new friends in Kindergarten, and when I got there this morning, they were all set up and ready for use. We have 53 in total, which means our class will be able to use around 18 of them. We are planning on using these cubbies starting Tuesday and they will be for our SK friends. JKs will continue to use the hooks in the classroom. We are very fortunate to receive these- they will help out so much!

We started off the day by doing our Morning Jobs (Give me 5!). Our SKs are very familiar with them and our JKs are learning. The 5 jobs students have to do in the morning are:

1) Hang up your backpack and lunch
2) Put your important bag in the basket
3) Vote on the question of the day
4) Sign your name
5) Find your name on the SMARTboard

Here are our names printed from today!

After students finished their jobs, they found a table or carpet activity to play at. We listened to the announcements, sang along to O'Canada, and got back to playing. We then came to the carpet to take attendance (it feels like it goes on forever with 30 kids!). We reviewed our bathroom routine which is:

1) Don't ask or tell; just go!

2) Turn on the light and shut the door

3) Flush the toilet and (if necessary) put the seat down

4) Wash your hands with soap and water

5) Dry your hands and leave the door open

We will be practising this until we get it down pat- don't forget to wash your hands!!

Afterwards, we sat in a circle where we showed them how to put things in their important bag (we are still waiting on a few!). We showed them that it doesn't make sense to put your lunch bag in sideways so you can't close the zipper; start with your important bag, lay it flat along the back of your bag and put your lunch in after the same way. Practising this at home would be great! We want students to be as independent as possible, and if they can't figure out why their backpack isn't closing, they can become frustrated.

We then talked about some rules we have in our classroom such as no running, raising your hand to ask a question or a say a comment, and to keep our hands to ourselves. We will be going over more classroom expectations next week :) Then we showed the JKs where the office was so they knew where to bring the attendance if they are asked to, and the SKs listened to Mrs. Tortola read them a story. The rain started pouring down, and snack time was here! Students are asked to raise their hand if they need help opening something and to stay in their seat until the bell rings, when they can then throw out their garbage. Note: Some things spill really easily- just to keep in the back of your mind :) Also, some students can't finish a juice box during their snack time, so if you put their name on it, we will set it aside until lunch. It was an indoor recess and we watched Franklin's Gloomy day (perfect for the occasion!). 

It was time for Learning Centres! Students had many Centres to choose from such as Sand, Dramatic Play, Blocks, Books, etc. Next week we will be going through each of these centres to talk about expectations, tidy up, etc. Students then went to the Library with Mrs. Moore and 50 minutes later came back for Lunch! Outdoor recess it was!

It was beautiful outside, so we decided to stay out a little bit longer; we grabbed some books, magnifying glasses, shovels, etc. and explored our new grass pen and did some relaxing while looking through books. Afterwards, we went inside, got a drink, and went back to Learning Centres :) It was finally home time! We handed out important bags, and students got ready to go home.

We had a super fun day and we really hope our students enjoyed themselves :) Starting next week, we will be learning our morning routine (songs, poems, etc.), starting Literacy lessons and Literacy bins, and many other things we have included in our daily schedule :) We have so much planned and we can't wait to begin it all (after all the paperwork is done- holy moly there's a lot!).

Here are a few reminders:

• Please write your last name or child's name in notes- we lose track of which important bag they came from and are still learning your names :)
• Please send in your materials for colours so we can collage them together ASAP and put them up
• Please send in a family photo to add to our Family Tree- we need 28 more!

Thank you so much for an excellent start to the school year :) Have a safe and happy weekend!!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

"Play is the highest form of research". - Albert Einstein

Update! September 2nd, 2014

Hello families!

We had such a fun time with all of you today during our JK visits! The kids really seemed to enjoy the scavenger hunt, playing at centres, and making new friends :) We'd like to thank all of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to be with your child on this very special day in their lives.

We hope that everyone is clear on the staggered entry and when their child is supposed to attend school. It's so confusing that we can barely keep track! But starting Friday September 5th, all children will attend school each and every day. If you have any questions, please call the school and ask to speak with one of us outside of teaching hours.

By now, you have all received your package of forms that need to be filled out and returned ASAP. We know there is a lot, but the sooner the better :) Also, please bring in the supplies (craft supplies, courier bag, etc.) as soon as you get the chance. Thank you!

We are still waiting on confirmation of when our pizza days will be, so please expect a monthly calendar to go home at the beginning of next week. This calendar will outline gym days, library days, pizza days, special events, etc.

Thank you for your support!

Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

Our Classroom Transformation

Hello everyone!

Welcome to Kindergarten in Room 110! We are so excited to meet all of you and begin an amazing year together :) We have been working hard over the summer to prepare for a brand new classroom and create fun-filled activities to start the year off with a bang :)

As you know, this is Gatestone's first year having Full-Day Kindergarten (FDK). There are many new changes that come with the new program and we are excited to share those with you! The first and most noticeable change you will see is the classroom environment. We have aimed to create a classroom that is, in our opinion, visually similar to one's home. In order to ease the transition of being at home all day and now coming to school 5 days a week, we wanted the classroom to feel like a second home for students, full of warm and neutral colours, greenery, and natural materials. Not only will this help with the transition, but it will also help students remain calm, self-regulated, and focused. We tried to stay away from bright, primary colours and store-bought posters. Posters bought at Scholar's Choice or the Dollar Store really don't mean anything to children, especially at this age. However, if students look and see their creations on the wall to demonstrate the same things a poster would, it becomes much more meaningful.

We'd like to share with you some pictures of the transition that took place over the summer. Many hours went into creating our new classroom so we hope you like it!

Inspiration

The use of natural materials was a must. We loved the idea of using things we could find in nature. We also loved the idea of using brown kraft paper instead of bright-coloured fadeless paper. The black really pops! The picture frames with student work is also a fantastic idea :) Dollarama here we come!

                           

We loved the idea of having a wooden vase so of course we had to make one of our own! Miss Pliura also saw this decoration on the right at Roots- the whole store was an inspiration, really! 

 Loved this idea for a writing centre. We purchased mini clipboards instead.

How neat is this?! Jars with craft supplies in them is a beautiful way to showcase different colours.

Before

Mrs. Nighswander had a lovely classroom that was functional for her students. We loved the flow of her classroom and the sectioned off areas for different types of play. We wanted to keep this functionality while changing up the colour scheme.

                   

We are so fortunate to have a SMARTboard iRover in our class. We can move it to wherever we want!

During

We stripped the classroom bare, cleaned it from top to bottom, and began to set it up using new furniture and plenty of new classroom materials. We had a vision in our mind of what we wanted the classroom to look like; neutral tones, lots of greenery, and a minimalistic feel.

We had to decide which furniture to keep and which was still useable. We were also getting some brand new furniture as well, such as a library shelf, work bench, and a storage unit. 

                      

There was bulletin board glued onto the wall and peeled all the paint of with it. We didn't have any green paint left, so a light coloured brown was used instead (that's just the primer!)

                       

  

We aren't too sure how we were denied a new kitchen set, seeing as how the doors to the fridge would barely shut, so Miss Pliura took it home and sanded it down, used a wooden stain, and fixed the hinges (with plenty of help!). You can see on the left all the scuff marks it had. The picture on the right is what it looked like after sanding. You'll see the difference it made soon!

 

We wanted the cork board and the chalk boards to match. Our original plan was to cover it all with kraft paper, like in the inspiration picture above. However, we couldn't keep it from creasing and it just didn't meet our expectations (see picture below) :P We found bulletin board contact paper that matched the original cork board perfectly, so we decided to use that on the chalk board to make it all match. We used white bins to fill up the cubbies you see on the right and used a black border to frame the bulletin boards.

After

We loved the idea of having some home decor as soon as you walk in the door. The tree trunk vase turned out great! Scrapbook pages filled with pictures will soon fill the holder on the left.

Can we just talk about how amazing this kitchen set turned out!? It's beautifully sanded and appealing to the eye. We received some adorable pots and pans that resemble real life cooking tools - We think Dramatic Play will be a big hit!

How great is this workbench? (with a real-life mini vise!) Students can use blocks, tools, and other classroom materials to make anything their little hearts desire :) Blueprints for blocks, anyone?

As you can see, we're still working on putting up our alphabet, but soon these bulletin boards will be filled with words, child's names, etc. In the middle of our bulletin boards we have our animal character Reading Strategies which we will learn about throughout the year. We are also super lucky to have a SMARTboard, which is where all of our Literacy and Math lessons take place. The kids also have the chance to play on it during Learning Centres :) Did you notice the curtains? Not only do they look nice, but they also prevent little hands from touching things on the shelves during our important lessons.

We got these adorable little chairs from IKEA; they are perfect for a comfy Book Nook where kids can sit down and read/browse through some books. We also received an iPod stereo where we will connect our iPod and students can listen to audio MP3s to certain books (the ones with the red stickers!) Lots of cozy stuffed animals and pillows to make them feel at home :)

This is the beginning of our Science centre. We started off with just some small, natural materials along with some mirrors and magnifying glasses!

Who doesn't love sand! The sand table will be lots of fun :) In our long IKEA shelf, we have stored Playdoh and our train set. In our storage unit, we have plenty of fun manipulatives for students to use.

And last but not least, our Creative centre. Here, students can make beautiful pictures, write a letter, or build a crazy creation using all of our craft supplies (thanks, parents!). We are still waiting on our Art easel, and when that arrives, students will be able to paint here :)

We hope you enjoyed this LONG post about our classroom transformation. We are so very proud of our classroom and can't wait to begin using it to learn, explore, and play.

Have a great night!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola :)