Terry Fox Run

This morning the students learned about Terry Fox. Since the early 1980's he has been considered a Canadian Hero.

As a young man he was diagnosed with cancer and had to have his leg amputated. He decided to use his experience to raise awareness and money so that children across Canada would not have to suffer like he did. 

He set out to run across Canada and raise $1 for every Canadian. He ran for 143 days and 5,373 kilometres before he was forced to stop because of cancer in his lungs. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22.

Today we run to continue his Marathon of Hope and to help raise money to find a cure for cancer.

A couple of years ago I created a simple slide show to help teach students about Terry Fox. You can see it here.

I asked the students what they learned today and this is what they said:
He was running fast - Camilo
He was very brave - Dylan
He ran all the way to Ontario -Zakary
He ran very far away - Keira
I was running very fast - Ruth
He ran over 5000 kilometres - Kian
Terry Fox had cancer in his leg - Alessa

We also talked a lot about being a hero today. This is what we think a hero is:

Terry Fox - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

What Did You Roll?

Today we had another wonderful visitor! Her name was Mrs. Page and she works as a Numeracy Enrichment Resource Teacher in our school division.

She taught us a great new game.  The game is called What Did You Roll.

All you need is:

• dice
• game board (you can print them from this link)
• washable markers
• plastic sheet protectors

Each player rolls the die and then crosses off the picture of their roll. The first player with all of their pictures crossed off is the winner!

This game enhances skills including recognizing dot patterns (subitizing), counting and taking turns.

How do we know they are learning?

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As most of you know, our Kindergarten class is play-based. That means that we are committed to spending a lot of time each day playing!!

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The good news is that when children are playing, they are actually learning a lot. It's how their brains process new information.

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While the children are playing, it is my job to come alongside them and help to elevate the play by adding new vocabulary or challenges, without taking over. In our classroom I set out interesting materials that will invite the children to discover something new or practice a skill we have been working on. I also spend time observing what they are doing during play.

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I use a great app called Notability to collect all of my notes. I have explained to the students that I am writing a book about each of them and the book is about how smart they are. The app allows me to take photos of the students work and make notes by speaking into my iPad. This also gives confirmation to the child that they are capable learners!

Here are some examples of the types of notes I write:

This child is able to write his name independently.

This child is able to count to 13 while pointing at each block.

This child is able to create and extend a simple pattern.

Throughout the year I collect all of these notes and am able to use them to plan for future lessons and see how far we have come.  These notes also give me lots of information when it comes time to write report cards.

A Very Special Visitor

Today we had a very special visitor! Her name is Mrs. Mitchell and she is our school's Speech and Language Pathologist.

She will be spending lots of time in our room and helping students to develop their language skills.

Today she came and helped us make play dough. We used lots of words to describe how the play dough felt. We also talked about all of the ingredients and the steps we would need to take to make it.
Then we counted stirs and described the objects we were making. The students were learning and using so many new words!

Mrs. Mitchell is an awesome resource to our classroom and all of Stevenson School.

If you have any questions about your child's speech and language development please contact Mrs. Mitchell at the school.

Dot Day!

Over the last few days we have been celebrating International Dot Day.

The day was inspired by the book, The Dot, by Peter Reynolds. The story is about a little girl named Vashti who is inspired by her art teacher to make her mark in the world through art.

You can watch a video of the story here.

We have been busy making our own dots and working on 

signing our masterpieces by writing our names.

These dots were made by painting primary colours on plates and then spinning them on paper.
We were surprised to see all the beautiful colours that appeared!

Today we were inspired by Wassily Kandinsky's dots and rings. Ms. Kumar and some very helpful grade 4 and 5 students came to help us make our own paintings on pieces of trees!!

We are Special!

More creations at Discovery Time!

Today we talked a lot about how we are all special. During our morning meeting we sing a song about being special.

Sing to the tune of Frere Jacque.

We have also been learning about how our names make us special. We read a book about a little girl who learned to love her VERY long name! Then we decorated our own names. Some children with very few letters helped others who had longer names.

At the end of the day our sharing question was "What is your favourite animal?" Some of our favourites include horses, sharks, cheetah, elephant, and kitty cats.

What is your favourite animal?

Getting to Know Each Other

Day 2 of Kindergarten was awesome! 

We started the day with an assembly in the gym. 

These kiddos are starting to remember routines and already becoming more independent! We are trying to do some things ourselves like put on our shoes, open our snacks, and clean up when we make a mess.

Playing outside at recess 

Working together and learning new skills at play time

We are also getting to know each other better. Today we focused a lot on learning each other's names. We used the Smart Board and a familiar story, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" to practice matching our friends names with their pictures.

We said a chant and each child's name as we moved their photo up into the tree.

At the end of every day we gather together in a sharing circle. We pass a talking stick around and the person who is holding the stick gets to share with the group. When they are done speaking they thank the rest of the class for listening. Today we shared what our favourite food is. Some favourites were pizza, pickles, chicken McNuggets, and cupcakes.

Please leave us a comment and tell us what your favourite food is?

First Day of K

Today was a very busy day!

Our first adventures was walking in a line up the stairs and finding our classroom. When we got upstairs we went straight to Discovery Time where we built with block, coloured, created designs with pom poms and spelled our names with magnet letters.

Discovery Time happens every morning. The activities are open-ended and play-based. The 4 activities focus on literacy, numeracy, fine motor and design.

Next we read the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story and looked for our names on the Smart Board.
Then we even got to make our own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees! We learned how to use a glue stick and follow instructions.

In both the morning and afternoon we went outside for recess with the room 7 kindergarten class. The students loved running around and playing with their new friends. When it was time to go in we practiced lining up behind the 8.

We also learned about all of the different play areas in our classroom and got to spend some time exploring!

It was a great day!! Have a wonderful weekend!