What's Happening in January?

Theme - Community and Winter

Personal and Social Responsibility
- continue to work on following classroom routines and behaviour expectations. We will be looking into more about what makes a Community great, working together and helping each other, and creating classroom jobs.

We will develop a Classroom Mission Statement:

Early Literacy
- continue name printing practice, Jolly Phonics program to learn letters (Dec: L, F, E, P, T, I, H, I, U; Jan Goal: O, Q, G, S, J, D, B, R, K)
A link to a video of the the Songs can be found in the 'Ways to Help at Home'.
- We will work on generating rhyming words.
- We are trying the new process of reading with the story called The Mitten by Jan Brett. We will a page or 2 a day using pictures to help us with predicting the story then reading to see if we are right and noticing patterns.
- We will continue work with our morning message circling the sounds we know and practicing the sounds and song.

Early Numeracy
- We will begin to focus on numbers 1-5, understanding the numerals and representing them in different ways. We made it to 2.
- We continue to talk about sorting, patterning, 3D shapes in the environment, folding, and describing and tracing shapes.
- During calendar, we are dressing for the weather, understanding weekdays and weekends, practicing ABC patterns, counting backwards and forwards to 10, and reviewing sorting concepts. 

There will be a mid year update going home by the first days of February. It will let you know about your child's progress with letters, rhyming, number and patterns. -Almost done!

Physical Skills and Well Being in the classroom
- encouraging and strengthening pincer hand grasp (using large tweezers, placing marbles on tees, placing buttons/gems in a line formation), and scissor use.
- identifying healthy choices for morning snack.

Creative Expression
-We sing many songs to welcome everyone, learn our letters, and transition through our day.
 - We have dramatic play within our Community and Winter themed items.
- Art is accomplished through letter, community and winter themed crafts. 

Environment and Community Awareness
- participating in a variety of centers to explore properties of materials (such as sand, water, playdough, building items, etc.) and using a them safely and properly. 
- During our Community Unit, we discussed important jobs in our community. We built our town and added streets, signs and cars while we played.

Citizenship and Identity
- During our community Unit, we will discuss what a community needs to have.
- We will enjoy Star of the Week presentations from Mackenzie, Malek, Fiona and Karter.
It is great finding out how we are similar and unique. Thank you for coming in to talk to us!
The note is saved "Ways to help at home" if you would like to refer to it.

What's Happening in February?

Themes - Valentine's Day, finishing Winter and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,

Personal and Social Responsibility - continue to work on following classroom routines and behaviour expectations and exploring more of Leader in Me with a focus on Habit #4 Think Win - Win. We will keep focusing and moving through our day with being successful with our mission statement. 

Our Classroom Mission Statement:

We come to kindergarten to be happy, helpful and respectful Bucket Fillers that play with lots of new friends.

School Goal

- We are tracking 100 Acts of Kindness and handing them into the Student Kindness Counts Team.

Early Literacy - We continue to practice name printing focusing on beginning our name with a capital and the rest of the letters are lowercase. 

-We have introduced 20 letters with Jolly Phonics program. We only have to learn Aa, Mm, Vv, Ww, Xx, Zz this month. We will continue to practice sounds but with a focus on the sounds in words (first beginning sounds, then ending sounds, lastly the sounds in the middle of the words). 

-We are practicing rhyming words by thinking of a new word that rhymes. 

-We are listening attentively to stories, and participate in class discussions. We are beginning to talk about characters and trying to remember 3 things that happened in the story. We are going to finish The Mitten by Jan Brett.

Early Numeracy

- We continue to focus on numbers 1-5, understanding the numerals and representing them in different ways. We have started to subitize Dot Collections by making the cards and talking about how we saw the dots quickly. The goal when subitizing is to see groups of dots and to not count the dots 1 by 1. 

-We continue to talk about 3D shapes in the environment, folding, sorting, describing and tracing shapes. We are practicing ABB patterns, counting backwards and forwards to 10, and reviewing sorting concepts.

Physical Skills and Well Being in the classroom

- encouraging and strengthening pincer hand grasp (using large tweezers, placing marbles on tees, placing buttons/gems in a line formation), and scissor use.

- identifying healthy choices for morning snack.

-Mr. Fines is teaching us new activities and helping with our gross motor skills everyday during our gym period.

Creative Expression

- dramatic play within our Valentine's and Space themes. Valentine's and Space themed crafts. Daily songs with dances and movement breaks.

- Art is accomplished through letter, Valentine's and Winter themed crafts.

Environment and Community Awareness - participating in a variety of centers to explore properties of materials (such as sand, water, playdough, beans, rice, and many different building toys) and using a them safely and properly. We are even learning about some aspects of Space.  

Citizenship and Identity - We enjoyed Star of the Week presentations from Kaylee, Brielle and Rumaisa.

Technology -We have used the Smart Board all year to show we are here, dress the bear. We are starting to use Google Slides to lead each other in practicing beginning and ending sounds in short words.

Link to the
Class Monthly Calendar