Friday Update!

Good evening, everyone! 

Happy October! We can't believe how fast September flew by. Crazy! With the hustle and bustle of back to school antics slowly calming down, we're starting to settle a bit more into routine and feeling more comfortable with our new friends, teachers, and classroom. 

Literacy Update

We finally finished our assessments for the month of September which included letter recognition, letter/sound correspondence, and DRA for the SKs, and letter recognition and letter/sound correspondence for the JKs. Parents of JKs should have received a letter informing them on their child's results. Remember that knowing our letters and sounds are the starting point of learning how to read. So keep practicing! The more times they see them and hear them, the better.

Our newest literacy centre is as simple as some sand in a baking pan :) Students use their finger to practice printing their letters. They were writing their names, their friends names, and popcorn words around the room! We had a fun literacy lesson Thursday morning where we had to decide if what we heard was a letter, a sound one of the letters makes, or a word. Sometimes when I ask what letter it is that I'm pointing to, students will say the sound instead. Realistically, knowing the sounds of letters is more important than knowing the letter name itself- if we know the sound a letter makes, we can easily push them together to make words. However, knowing the letter name is still crucial- keep practicing!

Learning through Play

During learning centres, the students had made a restaurant with the blocks- how fun! We encouraged students to bring food from dramatic play over and pretend to have a drive-thru. This was so much fun to watch and the perfect way to get some literacy and numeracy in there (without them even realizing it!) ;) Students took turns being the customer and the cashier, and the cashier had to write down the orders and a receipt. I think some of them were trying to rip me off... $78 for a pizza?! Better be good! ;) There are so many more opportunities with this restaurant idea that we want to explore further- so we will have to wait and see if the students try it again :) During our reflection time, we brainstormed more things we could create with the blocks, like a house, a castle, or even an amusement park!

Learning Centre Fun

We had all these neat loose parts that were brought in at the beginning of the year and we were a bit stumped as to what to use them for. After some research online, we found the cutest idea ever- empty picture frames to make our own art work! The students had a lot of fun making their pictures- Marko even made the face of his! hehe :)

PJ Day!

To show our school spirit, our friends came dressed in their PJs and brought their "stuffies" (I'm still used to calling them stuffed animals!) and we were so comfy cozy all day. During the last block, we joined Mrs. Nighswander's class and watched a movie together. We had a great day and we look forward to more spirit days.

Updates

• We hope that Mrs. Tortola feels better soon! Sending well wishes her way :) Note: She is going on Maternity leave on Halloween and is having a baby girl :)
• Our "Snuggle Up and Read" program will start on Monday!
• Please bring in your $5.00 for our Fortino's trip as soon as you can so we can confirm numbers :)
• If anyone can spare a package of Lysol wipes, that would be great! Lunches with 30 kids can get messy!

Thanks for your support, and have an awesome weekend!

~ Miss Pliura