Happy Birthday!!!

Wishing Alexa a very happy 4th birthday!

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to all of you! The children have worked so hard on your gift and I hope it is one that you will cherish and look back upon in the years to come. Have a fantastic break and I'll see everyone back at school on January 9th!

Happy Birthday

Happy, Happy Birthday to you Eden! Yahoo....You are 4!!!

Festive Cheer

Time is ticking! You can just feel the excitement growing more and more each day! 
The children have been doing their very best in preparing for our get together on Thursday. After practicing, we settle ourselves into holiday crafting.


A candy cane recieving a haircut!



Adding ornaments with marshmallows

Rudolph in the works

And lastly...



Sometimes I forget to take pictures of the kids hard at work. Here are a couple of wonderful shots of various activities; some were for fun, some were more formal, and some were of their own play.

Some colour and shape Bingo fun. The student on the left has even set his 8 Bingo chips up in a ten frame format! Clever!

Sorting bears by colour




Using a ten frame mat for M&M Colour Graphing



Christmas Snacks

During our Christmas gathering on December 22nd the following families have kindly volunteered to provide our kids with snack: The Janoska's (Cookies), The Yagminas'  (Juice & Cups), The McPhee's  (Cupcakes), The Walker's (Fruit Tray), The Anderson's (Veggies & Dip), and The Smith's (Cheese & Crackers).

Thank you so very much!

Look At This Hair!

Ahhhh....look at this hair! A fun follow up activity to the shared reading Rainbow Hair.

Using scissors is tricky for some of us. Want to practice correct scissor grip at home? Remind your child that their thumb goes in the circle and two or three fingers go in the bottom of the scissors. Thumb is up to the roof, fingers go down towards the floor, and it is our "helping hand" that moves along the paper we are cutting so that it doesn't "wiggle". Encourage your child to move his/her helping hand as much as possible and to only open their scissor hand a little to promote smoother cutting and finer attention to detail. Using just a piece of paper and letting your child "fringe" around the whole outside is very valuable and is great practice for just holding scissors properly.

Book Orders

Just a reminder that book orders are due on Thursday December 8th! Thanks to your purchases last month I was able to add three books to our classroom library! We'll enjoy reading Snowmen At Night, All About Hibernation, and the Ginderbread Girl this month. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
If you decide to purchase any books this month and wish to keep them a "secret" for gifts please let me know and I will hold them here or wrap them differently before sending home!
Thanks again!

Brightening Our Day

We have been brightening our days with the poem Rainbow Hair. It is short and sweet but packs a punch  for colour word identification, rhyming and simple sight words. Once we learned the poem we cut one up into pieces so that we could rebuild it on our own. Some students were excited to reprint the poem. Here is Hannah (and then Dylan) printing a colour word using the original poem as a frame of reference. Look at the fabulous printing. Love it!  :o)

The poem will be sent home very soon. Have your child "read" the poem to you and while doing so remind them to touch each word as they say it before moving on to the next word. The left to right motion, pointing to each word, and moving down to the next line is key for the activity. To extend the reading you could talk about how many words are in the fifth line, how many are in the first. What line has the most words? How do you know? Can you name some capital letters? Do you see the word my, I, on...?

Christmas Classroom Concert

Save the date! Please join us on Thursday December 22nd at 2:30 in room 100 for a little classroom party. We will be happy to entertain you on this date with a sing along and share some of our festive cheer. Don't think you can make it? What about sending in Grandma or Grandpa, an aunt or uncle, or even a close family friend. It would be wonderful if each child had someone here to support them during this very exciting time. There will be a craft available for you to complete with your child and snack too! Parking could become an issue as it will be a busy day so give yourself some extra time for a potential walk from the road. See you then!

Please remember that we are a scent free school

Playdough

Thank you to  Ruby's family, Ruari's family, Brayden's family, and Hannah's family for providing us with Playdough this month (and last month)! We have so much fun rolling it into snakes and balls, making cookies, or even forming it to shapes or letters. It is great for developing fine motor skills and a fun social time as the kids share their creations with each other and talk amongst themselves.

Colour Works

Mixing and stirring, watching and observing....all of the fun that comes with exploring primary colours! We

have had a blast mixing food colouring on a colour wheel, into egg cartons, and even into milk! The sense of excitement around the science table is incredible with this group of children as they do seem to enjoy those hands on activities! We also love our art! Here we are involved in learning on our own or with a partner while having fun at the same time.



A New Year's Resolution in December!

I am making a change and I think it is a good one! It is my goal to post information here from now on to keep you and your family "in the know" on a more regular basis. One of my favourite things to do is search the internet for a multitude of things ranging from: home decor ideas, crafts for kids, gardening, and current teaching ideas and/or resources. Since I enjoy it so much I thought that using the internet for my classroom connection with families seemed a pretty logical step. On this blog you may see photos of the children at work, reminders of upcoming events, as well as work samples. I hope you will enjoy this method of communication as much as I enjoy posting it. Please continue to communicate with me via your child's Note Tote as I will check it daily for any notes.