April 20th - April 24th
This was certainly one of the busier weeks in the classroom and school as we focussed on Earth Week activities. The students did a great job of wearing the various colours of clothing for the ascribed days and certainly enjoyed themselves. A particular hit was the bring a stuffy to school day where we were able to discuss why animals are important, what endangered actually means and get to look ay Ms. Jordan's photos on the Smartboard of lions and gorillas. We also watched a short animation film that highlighted many of the choices that people make each day that contribute to climate change and provoked thoughts about how we can all do something to help reduce consumption and look after our planet. Click here to see the film. Thanks for sharing @WhitneyMarie_F
We started the week of with Simone, Ryan's mom, coming in to volunteer with the students. The students enjoyed the math game that she played with them and we thank her very much for her time :) Another visitor who came to classroom, and will be coming in on a weekly basis is Ms. Webb. Ms. Webb is an OCT Registered Teacher and parent in the school who is helping in a number of classes around JW. She will be supporting the Guided Reading programme for SK students and we extend a warm welcome to the classroom. We chose to speak French this week during attendance and had some interesting thoughts on where France actually is on the map!
This was certainly one of the busier weeks in the classroom and school as we focussed on Earth Week activities. The students did a great job of wearing the various colours of clothing for the ascribed days and certainly enjoyed themselves. A particular hit was the bring a stuffy to school day where we were able to discuss why animals are important, what endangered actually means and get to look ay Ms. Jordan's photos on the Smartboard of lions and gorillas. We also watched a short animation film that highlighted many of the choices that people make each day that contribute to climate change and provoked thoughts about how we can all do something to help reduce consumption and look after our planet. Click here to see the film. Thanks for sharing @WhitneyMarie_F
We started the week of with Simone, Ryan's mom, coming in to volunteer with the students. The students enjoyed the math game that she played with them and we thank her very much for her time :) Another visitor who came to classroom, and will be coming in on a weekly basis is Ms. Webb. Ms. Webb is an OCT Registered Teacher and parent in the school who is helping in a number of classes around JW. She will be supporting the Guided Reading programme for SK students and we extend a warm welcome to the classroom. We chose to speak French this week during attendance and had some interesting thoughts on where France actually is on the map!
The "Pupils of the Week" were Harry and Eli. Students enjoyed looking at their presentations of a little "electric bug" that vibrated around and of a Spiderman model with moving limbs. Both students spoke engagingly about their toys and looked very professional as they used the microphone, fielding questions from a very enthused carpet of classmates. Well done boys!
Our phoneme this week was "Z". Some students noticed that it looked a little like the digit "2" while other observed that it was a flipped "S" but with straight lines and not curved. Had you walked in the classroom on Monday you may have thought there was a swarm of bees on the carpet with the prolific sounds of "zzzzzzz" coming from little mouths. There was also the observation that "z" feels like a vibration on the the tongue whereas "s" is a little softer.
There was no "Reading Buddies" this week as Ms Herbert's class were away but students still managed to explore books and complete their responses. Pleasingly, many of the SK's supported their JK classmates and Ms Jordan and I enjoyed circulating the room listening to students, supporting their reading and discussing the stories being read or facts being found out.
There was no "Reading Buddies" this week as Ms Herbert's class were away but students still managed to explore books and complete their responses. Pleasingly, many of the SK's supported their JK classmates and Ms Jordan and I enjoyed circulating the room listening to students, supporting their reading and discussing the stories being read or facts being found out.
Our community clean up for #EarthDayTDSB was a big hit with the class. Students worked tirelessly on Wednesday afternoon to walk around the playground and perimeter of the "field" (I use that term very loosely LOL) to collect rubbish and improve our immediate environment. By the end of the walk some students had independently arranged themselves into search teams and were scouring the floor for rubbish. Great job every one - and we got a favourited tweet from @TDSB for our efforts :) |
Classrooms should rarely be silent. We learn through language and this is particularly true in the Kindergarten classroom. However, on Thursday afternoon we were silent for a very good reason. The "Vow of Silence" campaign for "Free the Children" sought to raise awareness for those children who do not have a voice of there own and are unable to to stand up for their human rights. It was a really big success across the school and in particular for Rm 003. I must confess, the challenge for 31 students (minus those students on holiday/away) to remain silent for at least 10 minutes was one that I didn't think could be accomplished. Well, I WAS WRONG!!! After watching a short video and completing a shared reading activity the students really embraced the significance of why we were being silent and some even chose to draw pictures and write sentences during their "silent time". Special commendation must go to L.V. who really went above and beyond in her response. Oh and incase you are interested, our total time being quiet hit 15m 29s. Congratulations everyone !!!
A truly memorable week was had by all and although we should be thinking about how to care for the Earth every day it was good to have a week to really focus on - in the words of Carl Sagan - this "Pale Blue Dot".
Until next time, have a good week :)