Take Me Outside!

On Thursday this week, many classes at RHPS took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to the park!  This was to support "Take Me Outside Day!"   http://takemeoutside.ca/tmo-day

For the first time in our history, today’s generation of Canadian children have a shorter predicted life span than their parents' generation. Rates of obesity and diabetes are reaching epidemic proportions. Children and youth are spending more sedentary time indoors in front of screens and they are losing their connection with the outdoors and their communities.  As communities, schools, parents, teachers and young people, we can make positive changes to these statistics.

We're Flying!

Hi Everyone! This week has been so busy, the students continue to be interested in different types of Transportation.. so our exploration and investigation of this topic is still rolling!  

A few notes for next week, please remember: 
Monday, October 29 - PRIDE ASSEMBLY - Responsibility - 12:20-1:00  
Parents are welcome to join in the celebrations in our gymnasium.  To show school spirit, students can wear blue and yellow, our school colours!  Go Lions!

Wednesday, October 31 - Halloween Spirit Day 
* Please send costumes with your child in a bag to school, we'll put them on in the afternoon. 
* Any masks or weapons that are part of a costume must not come to school.
* If you would like to send food to school, please remember, no nut products.

M.O. asked this question...!

 

We have been reading fiction and non-fiction books about planes!

Our Drama Centre has changed again!  We're flying!

Pilot A.L. (male) made this steering wheel at the building centre!

Passengers on the plane - J.L.(JK) and L.S.

Why do leaves fall?

Have a great weekend!  See you on Tuesday!  Monday is a P.A. Day!

This week we have been discussing all of the changes we see outside.  During our community circle, students have talked about different things they have been doing in the fall.

We read the book Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.  In this story, a tree loses its leaves in the fall.  The tree also loses seeds that grow into new trees.  

The students have been very curious about leaves.  L.U. asked, "Why do the leaves fall from the trees (in the fall)?" 

A few responses to L.U.'s question include: 

Z.L.  "The wind starts to blow." 

A.G.  "When the tree moves." 

M.O.  "They come off of the tree."

After discussing leaves together and reading Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf  we answered that leaves fall off trees because the weather gets colder and the trees have to get ready for winter. 

Today we played Domino Parking Lot.  Students take a turn flipping over a car (the domino) and count the number of dots on it.  Then they drive it into the right parking spot! 

It is our goal to be able to play this game by recognizing the number on the dice without counting!  (See October 5 blog entry - "subitizing")

How Do Wheels Turn?

This week we had a great time painting with toy cars.  We rolled the wheels that we covered in paint all over the paper! 

 L.U. asked, "How do wheels turn?" while she was exploring and investigating with building materials.  The whole class became very interested too!  Here is how we answered this question! 

* I have added male/female or JK/SK to identify students who have the same initials.

D.M. -  "The wheel that you turn."

A.L. (female)  -  "The engine makes the cars move." 

G.F.F. - "How people drive."

M.O. - "The wheels make the wheels turn."

A.K. - "With the steering wheel."

L.S. -  "They go home and then go back to the store to buy some food."

N.W. -  "The steering wheel."

V.R.  - "Wheels, turn."

A.L. (male) - "Pressing the gas button on the feet."

E.R. (SK)- "Press the gas."

J.L. (SK) - They turn around. 

D.V. -  "The cars need to move.  The motor helps go from this side to this side."

J.L. (JK) - "They move."

E.R.(JK) -  "The wheel inside turns left and right."

M.I. -  "Somebody uses a wheel."

Z.L. -  "When the cars touch go, they start to turn."

A.M. -  "With the steering wheel.  People turn their hands with it."

L.U. -  "When the car moves."

A.G. -  "They turn."

E.Z. -  "They use one of those turn things."

S.Z. -  "When the car moves."

S.C. - "When the engine turns on and the gas is on."

J.M.X. - "Wheel."
S.S. - "They go in circles."

J.L. - "I drive the car."
E.W. - "Because somebody drives."

Z.L.

V.R.

A.L. (female)

J.M.X.

G.F.F.

Smartboard!

Our Smartboard is here!  We are so lucky that each Kindergarten class has our own classroom Smartboard!  N.W. said, "It is like a giant Ipad!"

The Smartboard is an amazing interactive tool for our early learners.  With it we do our morning message (read and identify letters and words that we know), take the attendance, listen to stories, participate in math and literacy activities, etc.  The possibilities are endless and the students are engaged!

Every morning we sing our Letter Sound song to help with phonics in our reading and writing.  The past few weeks we have been singing on our own or with a CD.  This week with our Smartboard, we have been singing along with Vanessa.  Check out this link:  Letter Sound Song  

Today, to go along with our Transportation unit, we watched a video on our Smartboard about Super Cars that drive very very fast. 

Here are a few pictures to show some of the kinds of activities we have been using it for.

Listening to Reading.
 Chicken Big  by Keith Graves.

D.V. finding words that begin with E.

S.S. finding words that begin with C.

A busy week!

We have had such a busy week!  Take a look at some of the learning that has been going on in our classroom.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

 This week students have started to use their Exploration and Investigation clipboard to show their learning or document their learning.  Documentation is essentially a way to make learning visable.  Students can draw a picture or write a sentence to show or capture what they understand or have learned.  It is also an assessment strategy Mrs. Taebpour and I use.  We take pictures and write conversations we have with the students to understand and record what they have created, written, illustrated, spoken, etc.   21st Century learning at its best!   This blog is a perfect example of how documentation works to make learning visable!

 

 After building an airplane with blocks, E.W. expressed what he had made and  what he understands about them! (left)  A.M. also made a plane and then drew a picture of her vehicle. (right)

Our Exploration and Investigation clipboards full of documentation! 

In math we are focusing on counting, composing and decomposing numbers.  On a ten frame students show numbers with coloured counters.

Some early number concepts we are focusing on include:

Cardinality - after a set of objects has been counted, the last number counted represents the number in that set.   

E.g.  ALWAYS  O O O O O -  5 circles     NOT  O O O O O - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 circles

 

Stable order - counting sequence is always consistent. 

E.g.   ALWAYS 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5,    NOT 1, 2, 4, 5, 3                                           

Subitizing - recognizing the number at a glace without having to count all the objects. 

E.g. ALWAYS looking at dice and seeing:   * *   4         NOT    1, 2, 3, 4

                                                                       * *

Showing 5 on a ten frame  and 2 + 3 = 5.

Showing 10 on a ten frame.

(my apologies, these photos would not rotate!)

After we used the ten frames, the students wanted to sort the counters!