Where does snow come from?

Brrr! It's cold outside!

We have begun exploring the concept of winter in the classroom. 

First, we learned that scientists like to make a prediction. We know that a prediction is like making a smart guess. Student were challenged to make a prediction for where they thought snow comes from.

Next, they shared their idea with their teacher and peers through discussion and by building their snow story using loose parts.

Here are a few pictures of our scientists making predictions and building their snow story:

 

 

                       

Mohammad predicted, “Snow comes from the sky because cloud is white and the snow is white… when it got cold then the winter come and they all fall down.” 

Aayan shared, " “Snow bugs.. I saw them in the snow. Them just drop snow and ice.”

                                   

Aradia thought, “I think that snowflakes are freezing rain.. it comes from the clouds and it freezes.”

After building our story, we learned how to document our thinking by drawing pictures. Here are a few of our drawings:

 
 

Patterns

This week, a few students began independently using elastics to build patterns during center time. This led us to ask the question, "What is a pattern?". We decided that a pattern is when I see the same thing over and over and over again. 

 


Inspired by patterns, we decided to design our own mittens using lines, shapes and colours to make a repeating pattern.  Here are a few of our mittens:

 

We will continue to build on our understanding of patterns in the classroom. You can practice patterns at by looking for them in your home (maybe on your clothes or toys) and by have your child repeat a pattern back to you (such as red, blue, red, blue, red, blue). 

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Over that last few days, we have been reading and exploring with the story "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. This story has quickly become one of our favourite stories with exciting animals and rich vocabulary.

First, we practiced learning the names of the animals that we got to meet in this story in order to build our vocabulary and understanding.




Next, students were encouraged to think about and choose their favourite part. Then, we practiced using all of our words to share, "My favourite part was..." with a peer partner.

 

Finally, we used our understanding of "The Mitten" to draw and write about our favourite part.










Boys and girls are continuing to build on their understanding of the story and story telling through various centers in the classroom.






At home, you can encourage your child to share and write about their favourite part of the story that they read with you. Happy reading!

Writing in Kindergarten

Writing in Kindergarten

We are learning to writing!

Learning to write takes time and practice and looks different for every student. In kindergarten, we usually begin by writing the letters that are important to us, such as the letters in our name. Later, as we learn more letters and sounds, we begin to write the beginning sounds we hear in the words we are trying to write. Once we start to get comfortable writing beginning sounds, we can start using the beginning and end sounds or the dominant sounds we hear. Eventually, we hope to be able to put those words together and make a sentence!

After the winter break, the boys and girls were asked to think about one special thing they did when they weren’t at school. Next, we used our shapes to draw a picture and tried our best to add lots of details. After drawing, students were encouraged to label their picture and try to write a sentence. Students did an excellent job with this challenge and are continuing to build on their skills with the teacher. 

Here are a few examples of our writing:

Writing is something we want the boys and girls to love doing and we encourage them to tell their stories through writing. No matter where your child is in their writing, it is important to encourage them to keep trying their best. :)