Sept 30th Update

Hi families!

Recently we've learned about our 5 classroom rules. We are practicing remembering them and to always follow them in the classroom :)

1) Hands and feet to ourselves

2) Be a good friend

3) Use your manners

4) Use your listening ears

5) Clean up after yourself

These are our rules on top of all of our Covid rules! Ask your child if they remember any of them!

Today we played a whole class listening game. I would give the children two animal sounds, such as "oink.... moo". Then I would ask students which sound they heard first and which sound they heard last. Then I would add a third sound! For example, meow, woof, baaa :P Then I would ask "Which sound did you hear in the middle? Which sound did you hear first? Last?". This is good practice for when it comes to spelling words and we have to be able to hear all the sounds in it! We definitely need to practise this more!

Then we did an individual listening activity- the kids did so well at it! Here's a short video clip:

They are getting really good at these listening worksheets, which combine listening and following directions. Now we have to transition into listening in "real life", as sometimes they act like I'm speaking another language, lol. We will get there!

Another thing we are REALLY working on is our classroom rule #3- Using our manners. Our friends have been requiring a lot of reminders to say please and thank you. We've had some grabbing out of my hands, some "Huhs?" and lots of no responses when I help them with something. If you could chat with your little one at home about it, it would be greatly appreciated! We are practising it every single day!

I've placed a copy of our October calendar in your child's backpack. I sanitizied my hands beforehand :) I figure this is easier to just pop on your fridge than to look online. I know it's pretty bare. I'm hoping we can still get dressed up for Halloween and celebrate with our "Party in a Bag", but of course we are still waiting on direction from the school. Once I know, you'll know!

We've been playing with some new toys this week and even got to do some painting! The kids had a lot of fun :)

Sept 25th Update

We finished our fall silhouette finger painting! We glued on pre-cut branches, owls, and squirrels- they turned out great! We are going to hang them up in our classroom for a bit, and then I will send them home :)

Today we did a whole class art activity, and it was also a listening game! I gave students step-by-step instructions on what to do. We made scarecrows! We learned a bit about them since some students weren't sure what they were. If you're out and about for a walk in the neighbourhood, look to see if you can spot one somewhere! With a little bit of help, we managed to make our scarecrows, almost completely independently! Listening is an important, pre-reading and writing skill. If we want to be able to write the word cat, for example, we have to be able to listen and hear each sound in it. The skills needed for that are:

1) say the word 

2) listen to each sound in the word

3) connect each sound to a letter

4) write that letter down

Listening is such an important skill, and so is following directions! It will make the year run a lot smoother once they've mastered it!

I am waiting on permission forms for 3 families. If you haven't sent them to me yet, please do so ASAP. We would love to go on some walks! We are learning about our classroom rules. We have learned 3 out of 5. Maybe over dinner, ask your child what they are! (hands and feet to ourselves, be a good friend, use your manners).

Happy weekend everyone!

Sept 23rd Update

Today we explored fall colors with finger paint! We listened to the story "Leaves: An Autumn Pop Up Book" to learn about leaves and how they change color. We each got to get messy with some finger paint, and tomorrow, we will use it to make a fall silhouette!

I think the kids were a little scared to get messy... it was cute, lol. They were so excited to paint, so we will continue to do lots of painting! They have also really enjoyed making bracelets for themselves and their family members, so apologies for the numerous bracelets coming home! We have lots of beads and pipe cleaners so we're going through them!

Sept 22nd Update

Hi families!

I completely forgot to make a September calendar, and it's a bit too late now, haha, so I will make one for October :) There won't be anything crazy on it, but gym and PA days and other random things :)

I emailed everyone the permission forms to fill out. If you can't edit the PDF, you can print it out, fill it out, and send a picture of them to me :) Let me know if you need help! Please try to get to this as soon as possible.

Today we did a listening activity! I showed students the picture we were going to be coloring (without the coloring) and we went through to make sure they all knew the parts I would be mentioning. They needed to following my instructions and color the parts the color I told them. Their results are in their backpack! We will continue to practise our listening skills and following directions :)

The directions were: Color the fish tank blue. Color the head of the fish orange and its body red. Color the circle in the fish food green and the rest of it brown.

Last week we explored some dot painting with qtips! I told them to pick colors that resemble actual animals, and we have a pile of purple and blue cats and dogs, lol. It's all good! It was just for fun :)

Here are some pictures I've taken recently!