Inferring about Spring

Inferring is a thinking skill that is demonstrated when a student makes conclusions based on content from reading, or from triggered prior knowledge.
On April 14 the kindergarten classes walked around the neighbourhood looking for signs of Spring. We were looking for recent additions to our familiar natural world – things that we hadn’t seen during the winter. We then asked the students the question – How do you know that it is spring? They gave such answers such as “I know it is spring because I saw worms on the ground. Worms aren’t on the sidewalk in winter”. “I know that it is spring because I saw forsythia, and the yellow forsythia flowers aren’t there in the winter” What is there in the winter? “ Just the snow and the bare branches.”

(These are posted in the hallway outside of our classroom -- along with many others!)

Earth Day!

During Earth Week we talked a lot about our planet and how we can keep our planet safe. We talked about garbage and recycling (and about the movie Wall e)
One of our favourite books was The Garbage Monster
Don't worry -- it wasn't scary (I always make sure that thy know that things are just pretend in this kind of book).
In it Jo hauls out the household garbage one evening, and the garbage comes alive and threatens her! But Jo plucks him apart limb from limb, and uses recycling to vanquish the beast.

Before we read the book I asked the students what we should do with things that are still useful, but we don't want/need anymore. They came up with great answers! "Give them to people who need them more than us", Give our old toys to children who don't have toys" , "Give them to Honest Earls sale!", "Make something new out of them" "Save them for our own children" (someone actually said "save them for our grandchildren" -- now that's thinking ahead!)

Lets Make Rabbits

We read the book Lets make Rabbits and then we tried our own. In the book there is a pencil rabbit and a scissors rabbit (the pencil rabbit is a drawing and the scissors rabbit is cut out of patterned paper). Here's a sample of a scissors rabbit!The students had to trace and cut out their own shapes to make the rabbits and then place and glue the shapes on a background (I helped some students trace -- they all did their own cutting). I assessed their cutting skills and their ability to make it look like a rabbit -- i.e. getting the body parts close to where they should be (for example, the eye and ears should be on the head, and the tail should be somewhere lower). Some students explained that they were making alien rabbits that weren't going to look like traditional rabbits. That was fine too!

Gotta Be Me

Gotta be Me
This is a great rap song video for kids by Secret Agent 23 Skidoo about being yourself.

Patterns

We've been learning a lot about patterns -- patterns in math and patterns in our behaviour.
This is a current school-wide focus -- one of our "Critical Pathways" this year.
These are some of the questions that we are asking:
What is a pattern?
How can we change a pattern? Why would we want to change a pattern?
How can a pattern affect our lives? (our daily habits; weather patterns; the seasons)
(answers to follow)

We have been reading books such as
Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?
Jake Baked a Cake
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

These are some patterns that we came up with (beads on pipecleaners)

Math Monday - Geometry and Spatial Sense

This was supposed to appear a few weeks ago, but somehow never posted....

Geometry and Spatial Sense

Young children need to
1. develop knowledge of geometric principles
2. Recognize and name simple shapes (circle, square, triangle, etc.) in various sizes and positions 3. Classify and sorts different shapes
4. Combine different shapes to make representations or patterns
5. Develop spatial sense
6. Use comparison words correctly (longer, shorter, same length)
7. Use words that describe the relative position of things (on, off, on top of, under, in, out, behind, below, above, between, around, through, across, up, down, near, far)
8. Group objects together that are the same in some way and give reasons for groupings (sort)

Things to do at home:
Use describing and comparing words often.
Play some sorting games (or have your child sort the laundry!)

When your child collects leaves, rocks, shells or other objects, use them to reinforce sorting skills and vocabulary. "You have sorted the rocks into 2 sets, dull and shiny. How many other ways can we classify our rock collection?" (large/small, light/dark, smooth/bumpy etc)

Neighbourhood in Progress!

Thank you for the boxes! We have painted our houses and then added some dors and windows. We can now use them in the classroom as a neighbourhood and do some imaginative play with them using cars and people. We are still adding some towers and some smaller buildings, if the students wish to make another one.We talked all about "shelters" and why we need shelters (to keep us warm and dry and to keep the wind out were some answers that the students came up with themselves). We talked about all of the places that we could live (houses, apartments, snow houses, tents, and, sadly, cars and cardboard boxes).
We will be discussing our "needs" (food, clothing, shelter, and "wants" (toys, tv, etc). We are also talking about our own neighbourhood/community!