In the photos of the kids in action, you can see that I often invite one of the children to hold the book at the front of the class and “be the teacher” while the story plays on a CD. The children love to be chosen for this job! From my spot on the carpet, I can see that the “readers” have clearly mastered several conventions of print: they hold the book upright, turn pages from front to back, and scan their eyes from left to right. These are excellent pre-reading skills!
Last week, we have started journal writing, concentrating on creating a well detailed drawing, which is a precursor to creative writing. When you look at a drawing and see many colours, facial expression, a background, more than one object, and specific activities, these are like the nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs in a story. From their drawing some of the students have taken a step further and have printed (in kindergarten printing fashion) their story and read it to a friend or the teacher. Shier students have read it to our dog puppet, Chiot.
Kindergarten printing is exploratory where the children use a combination of letters, numbers, words, and/or squiggly lines to create words, sentences, and paragraphs. We listen to the amazing stories that they tell and watch as they use their finger to follow from left to right as they read to us and point to their illustrations.
A few students gathered together to help put assemble our new water/sand table. They figured out where to put the nuts and bolts and use the Allen key and wrench to tighten everything up. With the boxes, many of the children worked together to create a large vehicle, which we used to "drive to the farm" and pick some apples. Smaller boxes were also used to design smaller cars.
Although we had a rainy day Halloween, the children had so much fun. We started with a parade around the classrooms and a dance in the gym. Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who helped to make this happen!
(Photos to come!) We ended with some treats and a Magic School Bus video.
Gobo (our classroom puppet) lost his lion last week. The children created "Lost Lion" posters and placed them around the school. Many of the teachers and older students have spotted him around the school, but he has been too quick to get him back to class. I wonder where Léo le Lion will go next?
Thank you for remembering to dress your child in layers so they are always prepared for the weather.
Merci et bon soir !
IMPORTANT:
Welcome to our new SK student! She has moved from Alberta and excited to be in our class. We are so proud of how welcoming our students have been. Bienvenue !
ACORN card orders are due Wednesday, November 5th. You will have received an Acorn order in your child's "Sac de communication". This is a school fundraiser where you may order cards or calendars using your child's artwork. Most of the children created a picture at school. If you would prefer to use another piece of their artwork you may simply glue that piece over top of the one on the form. If you are interested in ordering, please send your money and the completed form in by Wednesday. Merci!
Library Walk Form for our walking trip to the Scottsdale Public Library on Friday, November 7th. Tomorrow you should receive a blue form that will allow your child to walk to the library. We have organized a small presentation and tour of the library for the morning of November 7th. This is free of charge. If you are able to walk with us, please check "Yes" on the volunteer ability on the back of the form.
You should have received a $9.00 reimbursement from our last trip. The total trip amount was $16.00 and we had initially received school funding to pay for transportation. We were fortunate enough to receive further funding and able to provide each child with a free class trip.