3rd Week of January

*** technical difficulties uploading photos. Will try again tomorrow. Sorry :(

Monday:


This week we had our first Star of the Week. The kids were excited to learn about R's family and interests. Throughout the week, R will share different things with the class, from sharing a favourite story, teaching us a lesson or skill, and showing us things that they are proud of. Every student will have the opportunity to participate in this exciting opportunity to connect more with their classmates.

This week we are beginning our dive into Indigenous perspectives in education. A group of us primary teachers have collaborated and organized shared learning experiences. We will be rotating the classes to different classrooms and teachers to learn about and engage in various lessons about First Peoples', cultural traditions, indigenous ways of knowing, and environmental education.
The students had their first rotation this afternoon and learned about oral traditions with me, Coast Salish button blankets with Mrs. Kinton, and Math found in Coast Salish art with Mrs. Prades. We will continue the rotations on Friday afternoon.


Tuesday:

Today the kids learned a new class game where one student is the detective and has to figure out which student is leading the other students. The students have to concentrate carefully to keep up with the motions. We finished our weaving project. Check it out!


Wednesday:

Mrs. Kinvig enjoyed her time with the students. They practiced printing, went to gym, read stories, played games, and went to music.

Thursday:

Today we had a visit from Mrs. Bentley who read the students Moose's Loose Tooth and did a Bear Yoga sequence while I worked with students individually on reading readiness assessments.
Each year Kindergarten teachers administer an assessment called the ELPATS to measure students phonological and phonemic awareness. We are continuing to use Sharing Circles to check in with how students are feeling during different parts of the day.

Friday:

This morning we had a short assembly and sat in a circular pattern. Mr. Dekerf lead the singing of O'Canada and a collaborative noise activity where the students worked together to recreate the sounds of a rainstorm.
Our star of the week taught us about sign language and we learned some different signs, including cat, owl, more, and Mrs. M taught us the sign for waiting.
In today's rotations the students learned about the Seasons with Mrs. Caminiti, heard Tann's Moon story with Mrs. Ising, and created a beading project with Mrs. Hudson.

We are looking forward to participating in assemblies and workshops next week with Cultural Presenters from the district.


Books this week:

Moose's Loose Tooth by Jaqueline A. Clarke 
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
West Coast ABCs by Jocey Asnong


Songs this week:

Upside Down by Jack Johnson
Surfer Mama by Kira Wiley

Weaving

Monday:

On Monday, we had a short lesson on weaving. I showed the students a "Chumbé" from Peru, which is a traditional woven that a Lamista Quechua (the local indigenous group) woman weaved by hand. I also demonstrated how the wool of an alpaca had to be hand-spun in order to make the thread and then dyed using local plants. 

We then talked about how weaving was also a tradition with the Coast Salish people that lived on these lands. We looked at different photographs of different artifacts from baskets, to blankets, and ceremonial robes. 

Then we looked at different ways to dye fabric, I chose to use beets and turmeric as two of the colours (as they were available in my fridge) and for the third dye, I had the students collect items from our local wooded area that they thought could tint the water. We took the fabric strips with the students New Years' Resolutions on them and soaked them in the colour of the kids choice. 

In the end, all of the colours turned out great! The kids called their colour creation "Earth Colour". Stay-tuned to next weeks blog to see the final product. 

Tuesday:

I spent the day at the District Head Office with Mrs. Crnkovich, attending a workshop. It was a wonderful day of learning for me. The kids had a great day with Mrs. Barber. She taught the kids a new math game, read a snowman story, completed their poetry books and prepared a cute melted snowman craft for the students to complete.

Wednesday:

Today we were very lucky to take part in a curling workshop with Claudette. The kids learned the proper technique to sweep the ice in a fun relay, how to throw the stone, and how to score. They cheered their classmates on calling out, "Hurry! Hard!"

We played a fun game where the students received a card with the picture of a animal on it. The students had to keep the animals secret, but go around asking questions to their classmates to try and figure out who had their match. Once they found their match, the kids created a pose to represent their coast Salish animal. 

Now that our fabric pieces were dry, we started to weave them onto the loom. The kids can now appreciate the time, patience, and concentration that is required to weave. 

Thursday:

We continued our Winter themed story workshop. I am impressed with the problem solving skills that the kids have developed. I observed several tables working together to figure out a fair way to share materials. Many table groups managed to work collaboratively on one story, building off of each others' ideas. Way to go!

We have started a Kindness Ninja project, where we are going to some up with random acts of kindness to perform secretly around the school. The kids seem to really like the Ninja theme so it has trickled into our math stations as well. The first math game we learned is called Ninja Chop. The students took 10 pompoms, they then had to chop the pompoms apart making two piles. They then had to say how many were in each group. Example: 6 and 4 make 10. OR 2 and 8 make 10. 

 We had a surprise visit in the afternoon from Ms. Durber! The kids were very excited.

Friday:

We read a couple ninja stories and practiced moving "stealthily" around the room. We then decided on the details of our first mission. The students decided to make our new Principal feel welcome with a note or a card. We recruited Ms. M to be our Ninja Spy and find a time when Mr. Dekerf was out of the office so that we could deliver the anonymous welcome cards in secret. I have never seen a group of Kindergarten students move so quickly and quietly. They even crawled across the office floor going almost completely unnoticed by passers-by. Mission #1 was a success. 

We had big buddies. We learned another ninja math game called, "Ninja Slap". The students split a deck of cards (face cards removed) with their buddies. They each flip a card into the centre at the same time. The person with the highest number takes the cards. If there is a matching number the first person to slap the op of the deck and say, "Ninja Slap" takes the cards. The object is to get all the cards. This is a good game for number recognition and understanding quantities. 

This upcoming week we will be participating in a primary class teacher rotation in preparation for our Indigenous Residency, which is happening the following week. On Monday afternoon and Friday afternoon, the kids will be visiting 3 different classes for introductory lessons on various Indigenous topics, beading, story-telling, seasons, button-blankets, and more. 

I will be absent on Wednesday, as I have a meeting at SFU. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Books this week:

Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to be Noticed by J. C. Phillips

Jack be Ninja by Tim McCanna

The Snowman (Wordless Book) by Raymond Briggs

Songs this Week:

Ninja Go by Kids Bop

Ninja Training by Koo Koo Kangaroo

Happy New Year

I am so excited to be back. Some of you noticed the classroom has been rearranged. We are all enjoying the new set-up, although we are all missing the haunted house/ gingerbread house hideout.

Monday:

We started the day with a sharing circle. We talked about the importance of listening to each other and passed a stick around and whomever had the stick received the full attention of their classmates and teachers. Each student shared their favourite thing about their winter holiday, no surprise this became a "What did you get from Santa?" circle.

The students were also excited to talk about the new year and how this year they will be going to Grade 1. We talked about goal setting and read the story, "Squirrel's New Year's Resolution". The kids each decided on a goal for the new year. I let them know that I had many goals for the new year, some related to school, some for home, and some for my health and wellness.

One of my school goals was to keep up with counting how many days we have been at school. I was notorious for forgetting to do this each day.



Tuesday:

The students started the day with some Winter Themed Literacy centres. We have a new Winter Word wall. For math we learned a new game. I showed the students a card with dots on it. Some arrangements were familiar (dice arrangement) and some were new. When I showed the card the students had to quickly try to decipher how many dots. They first showed me the number of dot using their fingers and then used counters to try to recreate the dot pattern on the floor. In Math this term, we will be focussing on making 10, using board games, card games, counters, dice, and dominos. We will continue to work on recognizing dot patterns at a glance. As we learn new games I will let you know how to play so that you can play at home, too.

We made squirrels to attach our New Year's Resolutions to. The kids were all very creative when it came to decorating their squirrel. You can see them up on the classroom bulletin board. 

Wednesday:

We started the day with some new Winter themed math centres. 

 We read one of my favourite stories, "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. The students then cut out their own mitten and animals to help them retell the story at home. You can use the read aloud link below in the stories to have the kids follow along with their animals.

Thursday:

On Thursday we started with Story Workshop. I set up some winter themed scenes. I introduced the challenge of trying to write some letters on their page to label their pictures. 

We played a new game with matching cards where the students each received an animals card, but didn't tell what kind of animal they were. They had to walk around and ask questions to each other about their animals to try and figure out if they could find their match. Ex. Can your animal fly? Does your animal have fur?

Friday:

The kids enjoyed Toy Day. Mr. Dekerf (our new principal) made a visit and some of the students had a chance to tell him about the item that they brought in. 

We read a non-fiction story about what some animals do to survive when it is winter. 

In gym this week, we introduced a new freeze tag game and had the students working together to use their bodies to represent different animals and letters of the alphabet. We also used various gym equipment including balls, scoops, hoops, and rings. 

In the afternoon, we had buddy reading with Mrs. Leeper's class. We read the story "The Balloon Tree" by Phoebe Gilman and we hung a balloon from our classroom branch and repeated the magic words from the story: "Moon balloon, moon balloon, tickle the tree. Four balloons, more balloons, blossom for me." We will see on Monday if our magical words worked. 

Books this week:

Squirrel's New Years Resolution by Pat Miller

The Mitten by Jan Brett

The Hat by Jan Brett

The Sharing Circle by Theresa "Corky" Larsen-Jonasson

The Balloon Tree by Phoebe Gilman

Under the Snow by Melissa Stewart

Songs this week:

Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole 

Big Brown Bear by Kira Wiley