The Three Little Pigs

Last week, we read the story of, "The Three Little Pigs". After reading the story, we talked about houses that are stronger and houses that are weaker. 

After reading our story, the boys and girls were given a surprise challenge... Instead of having their teachers in the classroom, there were Big Bad Wolves! Their job was to try and build a strong house that the wolves couldn't blow down. 

I can build using a variety of materials:

Students explored with da variety of materials, such as wooden and soft blocks, magnets, lego, and more, to try and build a strong house for the pigs. The Big Bad Wolves (Mrs. Chohan and Mrs. Beaton) were coming and trying to blow down all the houses that students had built. Some stayed nice and strong while some others got blown down!

 
 
 


I can make a connection:

Next, students drew pictures in their journals and explained their favourite part in the story. During their journal writing process, students were encouraged to use shapes to draw their pictures and were also encouraged to write some letter to represent their picture (ex. "P" for pig or "W" for wolf). Students are beginning to express their favorite part through drawing and speaking about their picture. 

 


  

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Art Activity:

For art this week, we used a checklist to first create our own pumpkins and then add then add details. 

 

 


When making the face of our pumpkin, we talked about the different feelings we can have, including worried, happy, upset, and sad. 

In Kindergarten, we learn to recognize our emotions and those of our peers to better learn how to manage them. Learning to recognize how we are feeling and express it verbally can be challenging in Kindergarten but is important as it helps us learn to self-regulate and treat others with greater kindness and empathy. 

Our pumpkins gave us the chance to practice:

Malik's pumpkin was feeling "surprised because everyone was stealing trick or treats". 

Aayan shared that his pumpkin was "mad because he only gets apple when the candy".

Naail's pumpkin was feeling "sad because it's not Halloween".

Here is a look at some of the things we have been doing in the classroom:

Halloween "I see" checklist (for using senses, counting, writing numerals, building vocabulary!)



Halloween Loose Parts (for patterns, counting, learning shapes and sorting!)



 

Halloween haunted house (for learning how to share, play with others and create our own stories!)

Painting gourds (for building fine motor skills, learning to write your name, picking colours that make sense, and exploring with your sense of touch!)

 

Pumpkin play (for exploring with scientific concepts such as using our sense of touch, sight and smell, using descriptive language and creating a hypothesis!)

 

 


We hope you enjoyed your Halloween! We strongly encourage that all Halloween candy stays at home and to please try to avoid sending any candy to school for snack time. We encourage students to eat healthy snack at school and can enjoy their candy at home as home treats. 

Sorting

In Kindergarten, we learn how to sort. Sorting is when we put objects into different spots based on a single attribute- or something they have that is the same. We also learn how to explain our sorting rule.

This week, students used different materials and toys around the classroom to sort by colour, shape and size. Students are also learning to explain their sorting rule by saying, "I can sort by ___.". 



First, we learned how to sort by colour.

 
 

Next, we learned how to sort by shape.

 

 

Last, we learned how to sort by size. 

 

 

Learning about different sizes, such as big, medium and small and how to sort them can be tricky. You can help your child practice this skill at home by talking about the size of objects. 

Sorting at home; there are many different ways that we can sort at home!

We can help sort by:

- putting our clothes in piles (ex. socks together, shirts together...)

- sort our clothes or toys by color

- sort by food that goes in the fridge and food that goes in the pantry.

Encourage your child to sort things like their toys by size, shapes or colors. Also, encourage your child to explain their sorting rule by asking them, "How did you sort?"

Name Art

Throughout the year, Kindergarten students learn how they are unique and special. They have learned that their faces are all different and unique and we learned that our names are unique. Our focus today, was to identify the first letter in our name and to see if the first letters are the same as our friends or different from our friends.

For art, students used their fine motor skill of tearing paper and used their ripped paper to cover the first letter of their name. We then used a pencil to trace over our names.

First, we wrote our name:

 . 

   
Next, we picked two colours and started to rip and tear:

Last, we tried gluing our paper in a pattern:

 

 

On the weekend journal

After a long weekend away from school, the students returned with lots of stories about what they did on the weekend. On Tuesday, we used MATMAN to first draw ourselves and then we used shapes to try and add details to our picture about what we did. 


First, we shared a "Minute to Mingle" with our peers where we told them what we did on the weekend. 

 


Next, we used our MATMAN checklist to draw us and then tried adding details using shapes.




Our writing: 

Jasneet shared, "I play with my little sister, I'm at home."

 

Momna shared, "I went to the swimming pool."




At home, you can practice early literacy skills by having your child draw a picture of something fun or exciting they did at home, at the park or with friends/family. First, encourage them to draw themselves using MAT MAN. Next, have them try and add some details by using their shapes. Have fun writing at home!