Week of April 20

Hello Kindergarten Families,

The weather was not the best this week, but we made the best of it. We spent a chilly morning outside before the snow came down and froze us out. The students were great sports and still had fun together. Constable Jeff was able to pop by with his dog Rosie in the morning for a quick snuggle which certainly warmed us up!

In Language Arts, we continued reviewing our letter names and sounds in depth. We played a game called Stand Up Sit Down for the letter Bb sound. Students stood up if a word started with the b sound and sat down if it ended with the b sound. This helps build phonological awareness, which is very important for reading and spelling.

We also reviewed our sight words, with a focus on the tricky words said and like. We added a new sight word, do. One of our favorite games this week was Boom Clap Grab. Students sat in front of two sight words and listened carefully. When they heard boom they patted their thighs. When they heard clap they clapped their hands. When they heard a sight word, they had to grab it as fast as they could. It was a big hit.

In Science, we have been learning about how plants grow and how living things grow and change. We talked about how plants need water, sunlight, and soil to grow. Students did an amazing job colouring their houses to place in our classroom yards. I asked them to take their time and do their very best work, and they truly did. The projects look fantastic. We added soil to our yards and planted grass seeds. We will use a grow light to help our grass grow inside the classroom. Each day, students will water their grass and watch it grow. It was a special time in Ms. McBride's Kindergarten class as her baby chickens finally hatched! We watched a hatching video and then went to visit these cute and noisy chicks to see how they were doing.

In Math, we are working on forming numbers the correct way. Students would benefit from practicing this at home. We are just starting to write numbers on a line instead of having them float in space. We are also practicing counting forward from any number, finding the number before and after, and counting backwards from 10.

It was so wonderful to see so many of you at our Celebration of Learning on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. I hope you had as much fun as I did. I was so happy to see students proudly showing their families around the school and our classroom. Thank you very much for the thoughtful books from the book fair. Your kindness is truly appreciated.

With the warm weather quickly approaching, we will be spending more and more time outside. Please apply sunscreen and bug spray before your child comes to school. Hats are also a great idea to help keep students comfortable and protected while we enjoy our time outdoors.

Have a lovely weekend,

Kel-Cie Fercho

IREC Kindergarten Teacher