Happy Summer Friends!

Good bye my little Kinder Gems!  I have truly enjoyed my time teaching your children; they have grown so much and in more ways than one. I feel sad to see them go, but I look forward to seeing them in the yard next year as they go through the journey of Senior Kindergarten! Thank you for your support this year from providing snacks, to joining us on field trips, to being patient as I try my hand at this new way of communicating, and supporting your child with their new responsibilities connected with school. I have had a great year with your child and know that I am going to miss them horribly! What a dynamic group of kids! We are so lucky.........

Happy Summer Everyone!

My Summer Birthdays!

How can I forget my summer birthdays! Many, many birthday wishes go out to my following Kindergarten friends.

 I hope you have a wonderful birthday full of fun!

Happy 5th birthday to all of you!

Big Hugs!!!

Hannah

July 20th

Brayden

July 24th

Noah

July 30th

Ollie

August 18th

Party Time!

The end is sooooo near; time flies!  Our last classroom party is on the 27th of June! It is really just a big old snack for the kids and a free play with a twist of tidying up! Now that has party written all over it!

The following families have volunteered to provide snacks for the day:

Cheese & Crackers:    The Janoska's

Veggies & Dip:           The Smith's

Cupcakes:                    oops...family moved. Anyone interested?

Cookies:                      The Wojcik's

Juice & Cups:              The Walker's

Fruit:                            open...anyone able?

There are a few open spots; if anyone is interested please just send me a note in your child's note tote. Thank you so much. On behalf of the children and myself, we are so greatful for the wonderful treats that have been provided throughout the school year! 

Is It Warm Enough For You?

Actually too warm! Due to the heatwave, we are having to postpone our fieldtrip to Kinburn Berries until Tuesday June 26th. I know the children have been waiting patiently, so this should be interesting! Please send your new permission form back as soon as possible.

House Cleaning

I have to say....sorry for the amounts of things that I have been hoarding away in the classroom. Over the next few days I will be sending my stacks of their work home! It is amazing how quickly the year goes; I can't believe we are on the last leg!

And...

Another one joins the group!

Happy 5th Birthday Logan!



Dental Health

Just a heads up about the visitor we will be expecting in the classroom today or tomorrow.

The following is information provided by the school board:

A registered dental hygienist from Ottawa Public Health, will provide a dental screening using a tongue depressor and non-latex gloves on June 11 & 12, 2012. Only children identified as having dental needs will bring home a form. Follow-up school visits by the dental hygienist for individual children may be done. This does not replace regular dental visits with your family dentist. This is offered in accordance with the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport, Mandatory Health Programs under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. Personal Health Information is collected under the authority of the Health Protection and Promotion Act and will be used for the purpose of dental assessment, treatment and oral hygiene instruction, and for statistical purposes. Questions concerning the collection and use of this information should be directed to the Program Manager, 400-1580 Merivale Rd., Ottawa, ON, tel.: 613-580-6744 ext 23511.

As a follow up to this visit, we have invited a Public Health Nurse to deliver a child friendly lesson on dental health for June 19th and 20th. We will also be sending your child home with their own little loot bag full of goodies provided by Colgate!

Happy Birthday!

Today's the day to say

Happy Birthday

to Grayden!

Got Groceries?

Our house center is changing to a grocery store! if you happen to remember can you please help stock our shelves by sending in clean, empty containers for the children to use! We'll make shopping lists from flyers and environmental print, and we'll also use and explore coin values. Thanks for helping us to make this a successful, hands on learning opportunity!

Is That A Real Word?

We have these educational cubes at school that you can use for as many purposes as you can think of! Recently we would roll one die containing a consonant, another with a vowel, and another with other consonants and then think about the sounds associated with each of the letters. After sounding the word out we would then decide if it was a real or silly word and print it under the appropriate heading. This was a really fun way for the children to put their knowledge to work, but also a great refresher of letters and their sounds for those who are still plugging away at mastering this skill.

I've included "hav" as a real word since it does exactly sound like that phonetically and I would certainly think that it was age appropriate for the children if they used "hav" in any independent writing. Learning opportunities pop up at the most random times. This was one of those impromptu moments when we explored "greater than" and "less than".

Parachute Play

Not only do we work our minds with our Big Buddies but we also work our muscles! The weather was beautiful the last time that we got together with our Buddies,and it was calling for us to enjoy the outdoors together. No matter your age, parachute activities and games make you smile! I had a difficult time catching a photo, but the one below is of the children playing Cat and Mouse. Too fun!

Last Day For Library!

We know the school year is beginning to wind down when the Library at school closes! Last Friday was supposed to be our last visit to the Library, but we have managed to find a spot for our final book borrowing. Please have your child return his/her book by this Wednesday so that they may take out a new one. All books will need to be returned to the school by Wednesday, June 6th. If you have misplaced, lost, or damaged a book please let me know. Our Librarian will print a replacement cost page that I can send along to you. Thanks!

How Many Cubes

One of the activities that the children were working on last week was measuring the width of a farm animal. Using cubes as the measurment tool, the children measured along a drawn arrow and then counted the number of cubes that were used. Referring to a chart with numbers and pictures on it the students then printed the appropriate numeral below for the animal they had measured. What a great activity that incorporated many different skills such as: listening to instructions, counting, one-to-one correspondence, numeral recognition, and fine motor work. An activity such as this could work at home too by just using common household items like measuring a shoe with toothpicks or measuring a bed with forks!

Kindergarten's Got Talent and Our Farm Visit!

I can't believe it has been well over a week and I haven't commented about our Kindergarten Concert! Weren't they adorable! I hope you had a nice time last Wednesday evening. It is very intimidating to stand up and perform in front of such a large audience and we should be very proud of your child's accomplishments! A big pat on the back for them! Sadly, I don't have a picture of our performance to post here, but I do have some of our recent farm field trip!
I was a little worried about the weather as I was driving to school, but boy did we luck out! Not too hot or mucky, and not a single drop of rain! You really do learn something new every day; ask your child about the magnet that was taken from a cow during an operation and what they saw! Thank you to the parents that were able to join us. I really do appreciate your help!
Midway through the trip I dropped my camera (Yikes!) so I don't have photos of all the fun things that we were able to do! I hope you enjoy the ones that I do happen to have!

Oh My...Another Turns Five!

Romana is five today!

Have a fantastic birthday Romana!

Hmmm....where is it?

Tired of finding one mitten, part of your Rubbermaid containers, or losing sweaters or toques? I don't know how it happens, but every year we end up with a plethora of items without a rightful owner!

Mabel's Labels stick to EVERYTHING and don't show wear and tear! The label is incredible as it can stick to material, plastic, or glass. It won't wash off and even over time it continues to look brand new! Below is a URL address to copy and paste for the latest offer from Mabel's Labels. Unfortunately, I haven't quite figured out how to make this a direct link from here, but typing this into google will work. If you are interested in purchasing products from Mabel's Labels throughout the summer or in September please remember to include Stonecrest in the school you would like to support so that any type of fundraising money earned comes back to the school.

http://www.stonecrest.mabelslabels.com/products/fundraising%20combo

or

www.stonecrest.mabelslabels.com

Thank you, as always, for your support!

Kindergartens Got Talent

Remember that May 16th is our big night at school! Please be sure to drop your child off with me at 6:15 in the Computer Lab; we will begin to come down to the gym and hopefully start our show at 6:30.
Students can be dressed as simply as jeans and a plaid shirt if you happen to have one. Otherwise, roll with a farm theme and dress your child however you choose just as long as they are comfortable and able to move easily! As mentioned in my note home, if Grandma and Grandpa, or teenage sisters or brothers happen to be coming to the show, please remind them that we are a scent free school.
Much appreciated!

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing you all a very beautiful and happy Mother's Day.

Furry Little Visitors!

So cute right! Last Friday these cute little chicks made a visit to our room! It was such great timing because we had just spent some time learning about oviparous animals. Each week on our way to the Library we would check the eggs in the incubator for any changes. Low and behold last Wednesday there were chicks pecking out of their eggs and some were already removed and in a large contained warming zone. On Friday the chicks were well enough for a visit and we let them loose within our circle! So much fun for the children and a great segway to our Farm unit! Speaking of the Farm....don't forget to send in the field trip forms!

What's The Weather?

Aside from working on our Mother's Day gift and card, and practicing our song and dance for the concert on May 16th, we have been diligently tracking the weather on a daily basis and having discussions about appropriate clothing choices. This month has been perfect for tracking since it has had its ups and downs! Using the Weather Network as our constant base we have been graphing the temperature and then comparing it to the previous day. In addition we are using a tally graph to record how many days in the month are sunny, cloud, rainy or windy.

Let's cross our fingers that the trend will start to be some sunnier days! 

Nature Walk

We are so lucky to have a great nature trail that is in behind the school. Last week, after what felt like days of miserable weather, we took advantage of our own school yard and went for a wonderful walk with Mrs. Sonnenburg's class. It was such a great experience as we heard various birds callings, listened for spring peepers, learned about lichen and bullrushes, found the tiniest little strawberry plant with a tiny little bloom, and just enjoyed the sunshine!

We hope to further the experience by looking closely at nature and discovering the many beauties and colours within through the use of paint chips and a matching activity. We'll see what we can find!

Priceless

The final product of our artwork is stunning!

But we can't stop there! Why not have a closer look at the  beautiful lillies floating in the pond? Collaboratively the children painted large pieces of paper using varying shades of yellows, pinks, and greens. Using the painted pieces for the petals we were able to assemble a beautiful lily and adhere it to the "water" that we created from tissue paper with our Buddies!

If you are in the school at any point over the next few weeks you can't miss our Kindergarten Art Gallery in the front display case. What talent our Stonecrest Kids have! You will see work created in the likes of Georgia O'Keefe, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, and Gustav Klimt!

Don't worry about making a special trip in though....you can view or art collection May 16th when we have our Kindergarten Spring Concert!!! Mark May 16th on your calendar for an evening of entertainment provided by the Kindergarten classes of 2012! Stay tuned for more information!

Our Circle Meetings

Do you ever wonder what we are up to during our Learning Circle Times? Today I will give you a glimpse of where we are at and what we are working towards! As sooooo many of the children have a great grasp on letter identification, letter sound awareness, and the concept that letters make words it was time to stretch their understanding and begin to share the marker at the chart stand! Each day there is a message waiting for them that has many letters, or even words, missing. For the most part the sentence is predictable in its structure where we are looking for sight words such as: to, day, is, and, the etc. and then we use the room to help print words that may be posted. We work together to stretch words out if they aren't on the word wall and we listen closely for the letter that is missing whether it be the beginning, middle, or ending sound or all three. This type of activity is tricky for some but the benefit is that it is a constant review of letters and sounds for those the continue to need it. Below is an example of a partially completed writing experience. You will notice a few mistakes, but lightly above it is corrected after the students become detectives and sleuth out  the error.

You will also notice that there is a name in a border. Students identify the number of consonants and vowels and then they practice number printing as we create an addition number sentence. We show our understanding using a ten frame, a number line, or even through pictures. This is something we practice daily as a whole group and there is a lot of support!

An Artist Amongst Us

Can you believe how amazingly talented your child is!? Let me surprise you some more! This week marked the beginning of our exploration of a Famous Artist and then our attempt at mimmicking one of their incredible pieces of work. The internet has so many options and ideas that it was difficult to choose just one beautiful piece of art to imitate; I wish we had the time to explore more artists! You have to see the results of our Claude Monet Bridge Over a Pond of Lillies! So easy, incredibly effective, and definitely a keeper for the memory box!

Beginning the week of May 3rd, Kindergarten art from my class, Mrs. Sonnenburg's, Ms. Sarah's, and Mme Wilson's class will be displayed in the front lobby of the school and will remain there for our upcoming Spring Concert (more information will be coming). It is truly amazing!

Babar

Thank you for your $2.00 donation to the presentation of Babar.  The Little Red Theatre has become a bit of a tradition for Kindergarten students here at Stonecrest and every year the company never ceases to surprise me. This year they even incorporated a few students into the play. We had a great time watching, but we also learned a bit about "behind the scenes".

Your local Library will likely have a great selection of Babar books if you are looking for a great read!

Look What Hatched

After a week of Easter related activities, and a beautiful long weekend with Spring undertones, it was fitting to explore the concept of animals that hatch out of eggs upon our return to school. We brainstormed and created a chart of animals that hatch from eggs and then sorted animals into a group of oviparous or not oviparous.

To extend the children's knowledge we read Chicken's Aren't The Only Ones and completed an activity that supports the theme.

Here the students had to cut out the large egg, decide on an oviparous animal that they would like to draw by referring to our read aloud, and then paste it to the back of their egg. Once dried, the students had the animal "hatch" from the egg!

But we had to take it one step further! Students sat with me and quite independently stretched out the name of their chosen animal, listened for the sounds and printed the appropriate letter. So cool to be a part of this milestone!

Be sure to check back to this entry because I'll add a few more pictures of their accomplishments as they are completed!