Kindergarten & Grade 1 News

This has been a wonderful month in the K/1 room! De- cember has brought with it a new friend to our room. Ask us about ‘Sparkles’, our Elf on a Shelf. She visits us each day and then flies to the North Pole at night to tell Santa how we were. She sure is cute but she doesn’t talk at all. She is a very good listener though! Also, we have been doing a 12 Days of Books countdown to Christmas Holidays. Each day we unwrap a new book and then Miss Martineau reads it aloud to us. We really like this part of the day! We are still busy with Readers’ Workshop and the Grade 1s have also started Writers’ Workshop. We’re having a lot of fun with both of these. We went to the WDM on Tuesday for our Christmas field trip with the Grade 2/3s. We will tell you all about it in our next newsletter!

Happy Holidays from the K/1s!

Denille Martineau
Teacher Kindergarten/Grade 1

Kindergarten & Grade 1

November has been a fun month in the K/1 room! The Ks have been exploring patterns in math and the Grade 1s continue to work with numbers to 20. Both grades have been doing lots of creative writing! The Grade 1s are working on writing one to three sentences in their journals and the Ks are drawing pictures that tell a story by including lots of detail. The Grade 1s made homemade paper in art and the group will do some winter art in the next two weeks. My last day is November 29th. I have enjoyed so much getting to know the Ks and working again with the Grade 1s! I am going to miss the kids a lot! Thanks to the families for all of your support this year!

Kindergarten & Grade 1

The K/1 class has had an exciting month! Our medieval feast was awesome! Thank you to everyone for providing food. The students looked great all decked out as princesses and knights! The Grade 1s are writing stories based on pictures we take on nature walks. They try to listen to the sounds the letters make when writing words and are beginning to form proper sentences. The Kindergartens have been doing a variety of fine motor activities to begin the year. We have been practicing cutting with proper technique (no chicken arms, little cuts, and cutting away from ourselves). This month the Art Centre opens up during play time. We have had a giant cardboard castle in there that we have had many fun days with. I am excited to see what other creations the kids will come up with! In math the Grade 1s are focusing on representing numbers to 20 and the Ks are learning about sorting and patterns. I enjoyed seeing the families come out the tri-conferences! If these dates didn’t work for you, please contact me to set up an alternate time.

Kindergarten & Grade 1 News

We’ve had an AWESOME start to the year in the K/1 room! I am so impressed with these kids and how quickly they are picking up on class- room procedures and getting along as a group! We are starting to get into things a bit. The Grade 1s have start- ed their patterning unit in math and practicing sentence writing in Daily Language. The Ks are taking part in some math pre-testing individually with me and soon we will begin our patterning unit. During play the students built a giant castle out of cardboard, drawbridge and all! They are having a blast parading in and out of it as princesses, queens, palace guard dogs, and knights! In Grade 1 Social Studies we are learning about different kinds of families and in Virtues we are discussing the power of our words and how they can make people feel good or bad. The Kindergartens have started Animated Literacy with Mrs. McGregor. Information about this will be sent home in the next week. Watch out for a note about our Medieval Feast which will be happening in early October. It was great to see all of the families at the pancake breakfast!

Kindergarten & Grade 1 News

I can’t believe our year is already wrapping up! What a fantastic year the K/1 class has had! They have each grown so much in so many ways! I am excited for what is to come for each of them! We are finishing up the year with lots of creative writing and science experiments.

Both groups will complete their geometry unit in the next week and will undergo lots of year end assessments in reading, writing, and math. Our class party is this Friday. A note will go home about that on Wednesday. There will also be information going home about the last day of school. I hope everyone has a relaxing and fun summer! It’s been a pleasure to teach your children this year!

Kindergarten & Grade 1 News

The K/1s are leaving a busy month behind and are heading into another one! Please make sure to check your child’s calendar for upcoming events. In the past month, the Grade 1s have finished a math unit on Measurement and have started one on Numbers to 100. Right now we are working on counting to 50 in groups, instead of just by ones. The Ks have started a unit on Measurement and currently are working on ordering objects by size. The Ks completed a unit on Eric Carle and now we are really focusing in on their animal posters. The students have created their posters and we have organized the information they found in books and online. The 1s are creating some amazing final projects for their “Where in the World?” research. Each student chose how they wanted to present their information and I am impressed with the creativity I’m seeing! This Friday, our friend Trace is moving away. We will be having a class party for him. Mrs. Dietz and I will be providing the lunch. A note went home on Monday about this.

Over the next month, I want to spend as much time as we can outdoors playing and exploring nature and colour. I am hoping that we will also create some nature art. Enjoy the long weekend and the warm weather!

Kindergarten & Grade 1 News

We’ve had an exciting month! The K/1 class took a trip to the Bohrson farm. The class got to milk a cow and feed a baby calf. We also made homemade ice cream! Thanks to the Bohrson family for hosting!

We have been creating a lot of art: stamp art, still-life, Easter crafts, and finger painting! Our classroom is looking beautiful!

The Grade 1s are just begin- ning their research projects on any place in the world. I am very excited to see the final results!

The Ks have been working on asking interesting questions and then figuring out how to find answers. Some questions we’ve discussed include, “How are markers made?”, “How do they make the sky?”, and “How are turtles made?” These questions have definitely lead to some interesting discussions!

In math the Ks have been working on quickly recognizing how many dots are on a card with numbers from 1 to 8. We are also starting to work with 5 and 10-frames to build numbers. The Grade 1s are finishing their unit on addition and subtraction to 18 and will be doing a unit on measurement next.

It was great to see the families at interviews!

Kindergarten & Grade 1 News

March has been an exciting month with all the changes in weather! Lots of snow and now lots of mud! Please remember to send your child’s splash pants and rubber boots to school each day. Also, some extra socks in their backpack would be in handy just in case! The K/1 leprechaun traps are amazing! A lot of creativity went into these. We had a great time building them with our 4/5 Care Partners! The Grade 1s have been writing some excellent stories during Writer’s Workshop. The theme is to write what you know about. It has been interesting to see what they’ve come up with! The Kindergartens have been enjoying Discovery time! We come up with exciting and interesting questions and use different research tools to find answers. Next, they will research an animal and create a display of their findings. In math the Grade 1s continue to work on adding and subtracting with numbers to 20 and the Kindergartens are working on how we use numbers to solve problems. I look forward to seeing everyone at interviews!

Kindergarten & Grade 1 News

The K/1 class has had a busy start to February. We kicked off the month with Jump Rope for Heart and had a blast! We celebrated the 100th day of school on Feb. 9th. We did lots of math, art and language activities that day. Thanks for sending your child’s 100 objects! Thank you to our parent volunteers who came on our field trip. We had a great day at the Forestry Farm and mini-golfing. Another thanks to everyone for sending their potluck lunch items for Valentine’s Day! A special thanks for those who came to make pancakes! Our class dog Licorice has gone missing and it’s been quite the mystery as to who he is. There have been lots of clues and we definitely have a list of suspects. Hopefully he will return soon! The students have put up posters around the school letting others know about our missing friend. They will also be sketching possible suspects! After the break we will be going skating during the afternoon of the Kindergarten days. Please see you calendars. Have a fantastic break!

Kindergarten & Grade 1 News

Happy New Year! The K/1 class is back into the swing of things in 2012! The Kindergarten stu- dents are exploring number books in Reader’s Workshop and are learning how to write num- bers between 0 and 9. In Math, the K students are learning to understand that a number can be a symbol, a word and a picture. If you would like to do some extra work at home, practice counting forwards and back- wards from 0 to 20 and identifying numbers from 0 to 20. The Kindergarten Cafe, the lentil table and typing on the computer have been very popular during Play Time. Thank you to Chris and Adrienne Harder for donating the lentils! The Grade 1s are working on addition and subtraction up to 20. We have been practicing our doubles facts (i.e. 2 + 2, 5 + 5) and have been completing lots of addition and subtraction word problems. When reading word problems, students look for the information given and figure out what needs to be solved before trying to figure out the answer. We start- ed problem solving as an entire group and then in partners. Just last week, students started to do this process individually. Soon the Grade 1 students will begin a research project in Science. They will get to choose their own topic. More information will be sent home about this later. On February 13 the K/1 class will be going on a field trip to Saskatoon. We will be going to the Forestry Farm to explore the adaptations animals make during the winter time. I’ve heard that winter is the most exciting time to visit the Forestry Farm because the animals are very active in the cold! More information about this day will be sent home soon. Please note on your calendars that Jump Rope for Heart as been postponed until February 3. Also, the K/1 class will be having a Valentine’s Day potluck and we will need families to send food. A note will be sent home at the beginning of February. I hope this snow sticks around long enough for some snow forts and snowmen!