September 8-12

Hello Families, 

It has been another busy week in Kindergarten as we have continued to settle into our new routines and learn all about what it means to be a good classmate and friend.  This week had a couple of special events- like the Terry Fox Run and Meet the Teacher night.  It was wonderfully exciting to see so many excited Kindergarteners and their families coming for a classroom tour.  The students really enjoyed showing off their new space and I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet so many new families and share a little bit about how our first weeks together have been going.  

This week we read stories and watched short video clips about Terry Fox and learned about his Marathon of Hope.  We counted up our Toonies for Terry and talked all about determination and "never giving up"- even when things are hard.  We were very excited to participate in the Terry Fox Run in our back field and many of us set our own goal about how many laps we could do.  It was a great day to be together, get some exercise and challenge ourselves to "stick with it!" to try to meet our goals.

In the classroom we have continued to learn about our classroom routines. We have been eager to see who will be "Helper of the Day", and who will get to check the weather.  We know how to participate at carpet time and have been practicing putting up our hands, having our own personal space and waiting for our turn.  The Kindergarten students are doing fantastic at these skills as we learn how to become a supportive learning community.  We read stories to encourage conversations about being a good friend and classmate.  We are learning one another's names and practicing how to ask for a turn and how to invite others to join in play or activities.  We also practiced pre-printing lines and shapes on white-boards.  Collecting and using whiteboard materials is quite a process.

This week we visited the Library for the first time and Ms. McLean talked to us all about how to take care of our Library books.  We get to keep our books for a full week and then we can exchange them on our next Library day.  

As always, we spent lots of time exploring new centres, building with materials, creating art and playing together.  We focused this week on using glue sticks and creating torn paper art.  There was also lots and lots of painting.

Coming up next week:

We will be participating in a Dance Residency "Three Left Feet".  Students will be having a showcase that families can attend.  The AM class will have a Showcase performance on Thursday September 25 at 9:00am and the PM class will have a Showcase performance on Thursday September 25 at 12:45pm.

A portrait of Terry Fox made by a Kindergarten Artist