Literacy Update: Sticky Vowels & Letter Reversals!

Hi everyone!

Here's an update for you on what we've been doing during literacy :)

Vowels & CVC Words

For the month of October, we are going to continue to work on letter/sound correspondence and begin to start "pushing" these sounds together to make words. We have finished watching The Talking Word Factory which taught us about the vowels! (I promise I don't just show videos!) In the video, the vowels are known as "sticky letters" because they stick letters together to make words- every word needs one! Click the video to watch the song :)

We will be starting with CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words; sounding them out to read them, as well as sounding them out to spell them. They are the easiest words to begin with. The video made words like bat, cat, and hat and used Bammy (the machine) to bam them together- I think this concept really helped some students to understand that a word is just letters pushed together. And although it sounds like 1 sound, it's actually 3 sounds pushed together :)

After we learned about the vowels/"sticky letters", we went off to our literacy centres to try making some of our own words. Here is an awesome video I filmed of some of our friends making their own CVC words by "bamming" them together. This would be a great activity to practice at home!!

Nathan was making some CVC words on his own and wanted to make the word hat. You'll notice that when he was looking for the letter that made the /a/ sound that David handed him the letter a. I love how Nathan knew right off the bat that the letter t made the /t/ sound. And then he "bammed" them together to make a word- great job boys!

Learning about vowels is incredibly important, for every word needs one and every syllable needs one. We will continue to practice making words using the "sticky letters" in class :)

Letter Reversals

On Thursday, we learned 2 new songs that helped us remember the difference between a 'b' and a 'd'. They look so similar so this is a fun way to remember how they are printed :) I can't think of what tune the song goes to, but hopefully your child will be able to sing it to you :)

During literacy centres, I wanted students to practice printing their 'b's and 'd's in the sand. They did a great job! Continue to practice printing at home with pencil and paper, or in something more fun like flour, shaving cream, or on a foggy mirror :)

I also wanted to include this video I took of Alyssa. She did a great job trying to spell her mom's name!! :)

Thanks for checking in! Happy reading!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

A Photo Story: Our Pizza Shop!

Hi everyone :)

As we mentioned previously, some students were showing an interest in creating a restaurant during learning centre time. We were so excited to see it come to fruition and we wanted to share an example with you :)

On Tuesday during learning centres, Lilly came up to me and asked me if I would help her plan out her restaurant (I love when students ask for help!!). We sat down together at the creative table and discussed what kind of restaurant she wanted to build. She decided that she wanted to make a pizza shop. So we grabbed some construction paper and started planning the inside and outside of the shop. We talked about how we needed room in the shop for an oven as well as tables and chairs for customers to sit.

Once our plan was done, she made a sign for her restaurant, and this is when other students wanted to help out. Lily saw what she was doing and started making some menus for the restaurant! "There are different kids of pizza"! Next, we headed over to the blocks centre and hung up our plan. Some more of our friends joined our "construction team" and helped us begin the framework for our shop. We had to make sure that there was a door for people to get in and out and room in the shop for an oven. From here, students were using the toy nail guns, screw drivers, levels, etc. to build the shop, and with lots of hard work, we had our very own pizza shop :)

We were so glad we were able to capture this learning taking place. Great job boys and girls! We look forward to seeing more construction take place in room 110 :)

Have a great night!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

Raz-Kids!

Hi everyone,

We are happy to announce that our class now has a subscription to Raz-Kids! Raz-Kids is a website that gives you access to hundreds of eBooks using the school's subscription! Students can read, listen to, and even self-record reading these books. Raz-Kids is accessible online on a computer, tablet, or phone. There is also an iPad app for it :)

http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login 

We are very fortunate to have this subscription as it allows us to have access to even more books at home and at school. By now, all parents should have received an information letter with their child's login information attached. All you have to do is log on and start reading!

Note: Raz Books can be counted as books in your child's Home Reading Log. Please put (RAZ) next to it so we know.

If you need help with the website or have any questions, please let one of us know so we can help :)

Thanks!

Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

PS: Scholastic Orders are due on Wednesday, October 15th :)

Guest Speaker Fun! :)

Good evening, everyone!

We hope everyone had a great day at school and is getting ready to snuggle up and do some reading :) On a super quick note, we had out first lockdown procedure this morning. We described it to students as a very serious game of hide and seek. We learned that sometimes we might not be able to leave the classroom for our safety and that we need to crouch down in a corner together. For the most part, students did a good job and understood that it was a very serious matter that should not be taken lightly. We will be having our second fire drill tomorrow as well :)

I wanted to share this with you because I think it's super exciting :) At the beginning of the year, we asked parents if they would like to/had to opportunity to come in and chat about their occupation or hobby. We were thrilled with the response! While I was chatting with my team, I learned that Mrs. Schmidt's class had some really neat occupations/hobbies as well, so we decided to combine our classes together to hear from everyone- double the fun! I thought I'd share with you some of the fun guest speakers we will be having throughout the school year :)

• Pet Groomer
• Soldier
• Nurse
• Physiotherapist
• Social Worker
• Personal Training & Working Out
• Crafting
• Avon
• Retail Manager
• Digital Marketing
• Book Editor
• Architect 
• Personal Support Worker
• Mail Carrier

I think it's going to be a great opportunity to hear from all of these speakers. I know the students will really enjoy it, and maybe we'll even see some of these occupations and hobbies come to life in our learning centres :) Oh! I should also mention that as a Kindergarten team, we just purchased some new dress up clothes using the money we raised last year with our fundraising. We will be sharing these clothes throughout all 4 classrooms :) 

Thank you for your continued support in helping us fundraise. We love being able to buy new and fun things for the students to use.

Have an awesome evening!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

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

October Calendar :)

Here is our Calendar for October! Looks like a fun month to me! :)

• Library exchange is now on day 5. Please put your child's library book in their important bag and not their backpacks. We don't go through their backpacks and we might miss it
• We have no info on Picture Day yet, so stay tuned :)
• Everyone got a Scholastic Order - great books at great prices - let's keep reading! 

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola

Buster the Bus Safety Assembly

Hi families :)

Today we were in for a real treat because we had Buster the Bus visit us! Buster taught us how to be safe on the bus if we are going to or from school as well as on field trips! Buster taught us the following bus safety tips:

• Always arrive to the bus stop 5 minutes early!
• Wait for the bus on the sidewalk and never step in front or behind the bus
• If you see something under the bus, don't go grab it yourself- make sure you tell the bus driver :)
• We walk on and off the bus one at a time
• Sit on the bus with your legs in front of you with your backpack on your lap
• Don't eat or drink on the bus and never stick your hands out the window!

Our class did a really great job sitting quietly and listening to the presentation :) 

Always stay safe in and around the school bus!

~ Miss Pliura & Mrs. Tortola