Last week before Winter Break

Hi Dear Mom and Dad:

We had a fun filled last week before the holidays! Ask me to tell you about doing some math to decorate my gingerbread man. Thank you so much to all parents who helped us make our decorating day such a success by brining in materials that were needed. We read stories about the gingerbread man. Ask me to tell you all the different versions we read. Some of our gingerbread men even ran away!

We had a great time carolling in they gym with the rest of the school. Ask me to tell you about reindeer dust and the special gift I brought home for you.

We hope everyone has a memorable and safe holiday!!

We ended off the year with a panama party!! It was so much fun.

See everyone in the new year on Tuesday January 3 2017!

Love,
Kindergarten

Mon December 5 - Fri December 9

Dear Mom and Dad

Only one more week left and then it will be winter break!

AM Pajama Day - Thursday Dec 15
PM Pajama Day - Friday Dec 16

What a lovely Christmas Kindergarten Concert we had! We worked really hard learning all of the words and actions. Thank you Mrs. McBride for being such an amazing music teacher! It was a lot of fun. This week, we attended some of the dress rehearsals of the other grades. We really enjoyed listening to them sing.

We had our second baby visits this week with Roots of Empathy. We have been learning about crying and how to recognize what the baby is needing. Through this program, I continue to learn about what it means to help take care of others and how my actions affect others. Ask me to tell you what I noticed that was different about our Roots of Empathy Baby then from our last baby visit.

We participated in the "Fill a Sock" campaign. We learned that there are many people in Calgary who need our help in many different ways during the holidays. Thank you to everyone who donated socks and or brought in a donation to purchase items for this campaign. Every student in the school was able to fill a sock. We worked in partners and added things such as soap, toothpaste, floss, candy cane, toothbrush, kleenex and lip balm. We learned that the holidays is about giving and not all about getting.

This week Team Wonder has been learning all about snowflakes. Ask me to tell you how a snowflake is formed and what the magic number is for snowflakes. We learned that every snowflake forms from a hexagon shape. Did you know that snowflakes are unique just like us? We also did a very special experiment to make our own snowflakes. It is going to be a lovely surprise and gift for you when I take it home next week. Ask me to tell you about all the new centers that we have.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Love,
Kindergarten

Housekeeping:

We will be caroling next week. Students are welcome to bring holiday hats on the following days for caroling (optional)!

Monday and Wednesday - AM kindergarten
Tuesday and Thursday - PM kindergarten

Thank you to everyone who has offered to bring in materials for our gingerbread math decorating. If we could have all items brought in by Tuesday please. Then we can see what we may need to buy if there are missing items. :)

Cranston's 2nd Annual Family Christmas Movie Night is happening Thursday, December 15th . Tickets are not available at the door and had to be pre-ordered (Forms were sent home this week). Come and see if the Grinch manages to steal Christmas!!

Nov 28 - Dec 1

Dear Mom and Dad:

• Highlights of the week:
• Fire Drill AM
• Being in the Red Zone
• Learning about numbers 1-5
• Practicing for our concert – please see housekeeping notes below.

Another short week but lots of things happening in kindergarten! This week we talked about the tools we could use in the red zone. Ask me to tell you what these are. We learned that if we are in the red zone, we could use these tools that will get us into the yellow zone, and then to the green zone. The tools we talked about were: Stop, Breath, Think.

AM kindergarten practiced a fire drill. We did great! Ask me to tell you what happens during a fire drill and what my job is.

We have been working on numbers 1-5. In kindergarten, it is important that I have a strong foundation of numbers 1-10 because this will help me build on other skills throughout my learning career. I am working on being able to subitize (recognize a number of objects at a glance without counting), recognizing numbers and being able to count how many objects using my finger and counting each one individually. You can do this with me at home or anywhere outside of school. During dinner, ask me to use my finger and count how many forks, ask me to draw numbers in the air. Show me some fingers and then quickly take it away and see if I can tell you how many fingers you had up.

Here is a great resource! 

ABC YA!

After clicking on the link, scroll down to NUMBERS and you will see tons of games. Some of our favorites are:

• First to Five
• Counting Fish
• Number Bingo
• Numerical Order

Independence is a huge part of kindergarten. As the weather is getting colder and I am wearing winter boots, snow pants, winter coats, gloves, toques, scarves mittens etc. Please help me work on my independence by having me put on all these items by myself. This will really help when I have to do this at school several times in the day. It will also help me with my fine motor skills! 

Love,

Kindergarten

Housekeeping:

Christmas Concert On Monday Dec 5:

We will be singing 4 songs. The concert will last about 15 minutes. There is no dress code and christmas hats are optional. 

Dress Rehearsal:

The dress rehearsal will happen during regular school hours, you do not need to prepare anything for this. If you would like to come watch, you do not need a ticket. Please see the times of the rehearsals on the left hand side of the blog.

Evening Concert:

On the evening of the concert, all 8 kindergarten classes will be participating. The Concert begins at 6:00pm. Please come at 5:45pm and send your child to their classroom. You can then proceed to the gym to find a seat. Please remember to bring your orange tickets and a food item, toy donation or cash donation.

We are sharing where each kindergarten diad will be standing during the concert so you will know where to sit to get the best photos! Students will be on risers.

(GYM LEFT) Team Wonder AM / Team Wonder PM  / Blue-yellow AM  / Blue-yellow PM ( GYM RIGHT)

Christmas Concert Info

Our Christmas Concerts is on:

Monday Dec 5

Evening performance (AM & PM classes altogether) @ 6:00pm

AM dress rehearsal @ 10:15am

PM dress rehearsal @ 1:00pm

November 21 - November 23 - What's in your feelings toolbox?

Dear Mom and Dad:

A short week but always lots of learning happening in kindergarten! Ask me to tell you about Roots of Empathy and learning about what feelings are.  

Parent teacher conferences

Dear Parents:

We are looking forward to meeting you on Thursday or Friday for conferences. Both teachers in your child's diad will get a chance to sit down with you and your child to share their successes. At this time, we will be going over the results from the Early Learning Evaluation assessment. Please bring your child to the interview if possible. If you have not signed up yet please sign in to the CBE account portal.

We are booked back to back for 10 minute slots. Please arrive a few minutes before your interview time to ensure that you get your full time slot. We are on a tight schedule and will not be able to accommodate for missed appointments or extend times. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to meeting with you!

- The Kindergarten Team

Help us bring some Christmas joy to our city’s homeless

 

The Fill a Sock, Fill a Need campaign provides a Christmas “stocking” of essential needs and small personal items to those in need.

 

We are asking each student to donate $5 (or more J) to help fill socks to be donated to the Drop In Centre.  If possible, we would also ask students to donate a pair of new, warm, adult sized socks.

 

We strongly encourage students to earn their donation money by doing chores around the house - shoveling snow, taking out the garbage…etc.

 

We will be collecting money from students between November 21^st and December 1^st.  We will also be collecting cash donations during Parent Teacher Interviews.

November 14 - November 18

Housekeeping:

**Parent Teacher Conferences are on Thursday and Friday all day. Please sign up for a slot by clicking here. We look forward to seeing you! Each diad will be doing their interviews together which means you will sit down with both of the diad teachers. Please bring your child to the conference if possible, we would love to share their successes.

**Team Wonder will be changing our library day from Wednesdays to Mondays.

Dear Mom and Dad:

Highlights of the Week:

- Practicing our Christmas Concert Songs with Mrs. McBride. Our Christmas Concert is on Monday December 5 @ 6:00pm at Cranston School
- Todd Parr Portraits
- Zones of Regulation
- 5 senses
- Roots of Empathy Babies

This week we have been talking about what feelings are and how this affects us. I learned that feelings live in my heart and it sends a message to my brain that tells me what I am feeling. We will be learning about the "Zones of Regulation". There are four different zones that I could be in. We learned that it is okay to be in any of the zones. We will be looking at the different "tools" we can use to help us move from one zone to the other and get back to green zone!

Ask me to tell you about the author Todd Parr. We have been reading his books and creating art inspired by his drawings. Ask me to describe his art.

Did you know we all have 5 senses? This week we explored these 5 senses using popcorn! Ask me to tell you about this science experiment and what I noticed.

We met our baby teacher this week! Ask me to tell you their name and what I observed!

PM kindergarten had our second session of Friday Clubs! Ask me to tell you what club I am in! (AM kindergarten will participate in clubs later in the year)

Question of the week: what are your 5 senses?

Love,

Kindergarten

P is for Poppy

Dear Mom and Dad:

Highlights of the week:
- Poppy Art
- The Letter P
- Roots of Empathy

Ask me to tell you why we wear poppies. This week we all made some poppy art using coffee filters. We learned that on November 11, it will be Remembrance Day. The AM class attended a beautiful assembly for Remembrance Day. We have been talking a lot about peace and what it means to be peaceful.

We looked closely at the letter P this week. Ask me to draw a P in the air and to tell you some things that start with the letter P. We learned that P is a lip puffing sound. This means that when I put my hand to my throat, there is no "buzz" or vibration when I say the p sound. Click on the link below and sing the song with me!

The Letter P Song

Kindergarten is really lucky to be starting a program called "Roots of Empathy" (ROE). This program runs for the entire year and each diad class will have a teacher baby! We will be learning from our baby and tracking its growth throughout its first year.

Results showed that Roots of Empathy children demonstrated:

• Increase in social and emotional knowledge

• Decrease in aggression

• Increase in prosocial behaviour (e.g. sharing, helping and including)

• Increase in perceptions among ROE students of the classroom as a caring environment

• Increased understanding of infants and parenting

• Lasting results

We have not met our teacher baby yet but are going to first learning about what a baby needs and how they communicate.

Question of the week: Why do we wear poppies?

Love,
Kindergarten

Practice Lockdown

AM parents:

On Thursday November 10, Cranston school will be having a Remembrance Day assembly. The assembly will end shortly after 11:00am after a moment of silence. To honor our special guests that will be at the assembly, kindergarten will be staying the entire time and will be dismissed with the rest of the school at around 11:10am instead of 11:05am. We will be dismissing through the red gym doors on the compound to avoid the heavy traffic of other students. 

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Dear Mom and Dad:

Highlights of the week:

-       Internal Lockdown practice

-       Constable Mattice in blue/yellow diad

-       Senses and sketching

We had a practice lockdown this week. Ask me to tell you what that means and what I need to do during a lockdown. The week of November 7-10, the school will do a practice lockdown but we will not know when it is.  We all did great! My teachers were very proud.

Constable Mattice visited the blue/yellow diad this week to read us a story. Ask me to tell you who she is and what she taught us. Team Wonder will be meeting Constable Mattice on Monday.

We learned how to sketch this week. Ask me to tell you what I sketched.

**don’t forget to turn back your clocks for daylight savings!

Question of the week: Where does your class go during a lockdown?

Love,

Kindergarten

Housekeeping:

On Thursday Nov. 10, we will be observing Remembrance Day with an assembly. Students who are members of Scouts Canada (i.e. Beavers/Cubs); Girl Guides Canada (i.e. Sparks/Brownies); or Cadets are invited to wear their uniforms for the day.

Cranston School is joining with the Veterans Food Bank to collect non-perishable food items, as well as cash donations to purchase  Co-op gift cards for veterans to use to purchase fresh produce and meats.  We will be collecting donations until November 15th, so please send in what you can.  If your child is in rooms 54, 55, or 82, and you are planning to attend our Remembrance Day celebration on November 10th, we ask that you bring a donation to support this cause.  Our school goal is to fill all 4 boxes that were sent for the food drive, but we will always welcome more!  If you are able to make a cash donation, even if it is only your spare change, we will have a jar in the office for students to add to.  Thank you for all of your support!!!

Math

Dear Mom and Dad:

Please follow our daily adventures on Twitter! @be_KINDergarten 

Highlights of the week:

-Pumpkin exploring for Team Wonder. We would like to thank all the parents that donated a pumpkin. 

-Pumpkin decorating in Blue/yellow team

-Earth Rangers visiting the school in the AM

-A place of wonder
- Math games and Math night

-Me Bag

We have been talking a lot about wonders and being curious about our world. We are learning "I see, I think, I wonder" and using this phrase to discover more about an object or concept. Ask me to tell you some of the artifacts that I explored. 

The AM class went to a presentation by Earth Rangers. Ask me to tell you the different animals I saw. In the team wonder diad, we explored pumpkins. We talked about "I see, I think, I wonder" and started to investigate and wonder about pumpkins. Ask me to tell you what we did with the pumpkins and what special snack I got to eat after we were finished. We then read some books to help us answer some of our wonder questions about pumpkins. In the blue/yellow diad, we decorated pumpkins using our beautiful stuff. Ask me to tell you what kinds of materials I used to decorate my pumpkin.

We have been learning many different math games and activities in kindergarten. We swapped classes and work with someone from another color team to play math games with. It was great seeing so many parents at our math night! We hope you enjoyed playing math games with your child and have a better understanding of what your child needs to know and learn in math.

Each week a student will bring home a "Me Bag". We have really enjoyed getting to know our friends by being good listeners as they share their "Me Bags". Keep an eye out because I may be next to bring it home! Ask me to tell you some of the things I have learned about some of my classmates so far.

**We did not go to the library this week because of the book fair. Book exchange will resume next week. 

Love,

Kindergarten 

Housekeeping:

On Monday October 31 for Halloween, dress up is OPTIONAL. We will be doing a  costume parade in the AM and the PM to all the classes at Cranston. We ask that you do not send any masks, weapons or have your child dressed in anything scary or violent. Thank you

Team Wonder

Blue/Yellow Diad

Fall Walk

Follow our adventures on Twitter!! 

@be_KINDergarten

**PM kindergarten attends this Friday 

Dear Mom and Dad:

Highlights of the week:

• -       Fall Walk
• -       Fire Drill and Evacuation practice for PM kindergarten
• -       Sorting our Beautiful Stuff 
• -    Raz Kids and Mathletics log in information 

A huge thank you to our amazing parent volunteers for helping us with our fall walk. We had a great time searching for signs of fall on our walk. I had a list of items I needed to find. Ask me to tell you what I saw. We used our eyes, hands and ears to look for signs. We collected lots of fall artifacts to look at as well.

PM kindergarten had a practice fire drill and evacuation on Wednesday afternoon. Ask me to tell you where we walk to when we have to leave the building.

Thank you for contributing to our beautiful stuff. We have been busy sorting through our items and putting them into different containers so that we can easily find them when we need to. We can’t wait to use these materials for different things we do in class such as science, art, math, centers, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Next week is a busy week! We have math night on Wednesday and the Halloween Howler on Thursday.

Math night is an evening where I will be showing you how to play different math games that we have been learning in class. The purpose of math night is for you to learn more about our math program and some of the expectations in kindergarten. All of these games can be played at home so that it can build my math skills. We hope that everyone has signed up and hope to see you all there on Wednesday evening.

Question of the week: What kinds of things did you see, feel or hear on our fall walk?

Love,

Kindergarten

Housekeeping:

-Tuesday is the last day to purchase tickets for the Halloween Howler.

-We are collecting all sizes of gently used, clean jackets and snow pants for Jacket Racket. Peace Ambassadors will be collecting items from classrooms. Please send items beginning on Wednesday, October 19th. 

Team Wonder

Team Blue/Green