Gingerbread Fun

Our fun with the book The Gingerbread Man continues. We have read a few versions of the traditional tale and then branched out into some fractured tales.  We read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and acted out the story with puppets.  We read the sequel Gingerbread Friends too.  Finally, we read The Gingerbread Kid Goes to School.  We compared the different versions for similarities and differences.

We estimated and then measured ourselves to see how many gingerbread cookies tall we were.

Students have been rolling and making 'cookies' with the gingerbread playdough.

The kids voted to have a gingerbread house rather than a Christmas tree for the classroom.  Thank you to Miss Annie and Gabi for creating this awesome 5' x 5' structure.  The gingerbread house was a huge hit, so much so we had to limit entrance to 4 students at a time.   They enjoyed reading together in there, making crafts, building and just hanging out together.

 

This week we made gingerbread cookies, rolling out the dough and cutting them out.  Then using a straw we created faces and buttons, etc.  We baked them during recess but while they were cooling, the gingerbread cookies got up and ran away.  We followed clues throughout the school, looking high and low, searching for crumbs, trying to smell gingerbread, and finally found where the cookies were hiding.  We decided to eat them before they ran away for good!

Christmas Activities

The Christmas party for the SK class will be on Wednesday, December 19th from 1:50 to 3:00. 

The Christmas party for the JK class will be on Thursday, December 20th from 1:50 to 3:00.

 

 

 

Students will rotate through craft and food stations. As always, families are welcome.

On Friday, December 21st, there will be caroling in the gym, beginning at 2:00.  This is open to all classes and their families.

Hope to see you there!

L. Rasmussen

Christmas Fun

This month we are reading The Gingerbread Man and all the different versions of that story.  Our co-op student Gabi made a gingerbread door for the classroom which the students decorated with their own gingerbread girls and boys.  We had a class vote between the two classes on whether we wanted a Christmas tree to decorate or get some big boxes and make a gingerbread house for the class.  Can you guess which one won the vote? Stay tuned for more pictures.

We have a classroom elf that is keeping an eye on things here and reporting to Santa.  Every day the students scour the classroom trying to find out where he is and what he is up to.  He is a tricky one.  He likes to hide in the tree, drink orange juice and read books, especially Christmas stories.

Students are enjoying the Christmas themed centres in the classroom too.  They are making "gingerbread cookies" with the gingerbread play dough, creating Christmas cards, exploring the seasonal sensory bin and experimenting with capacity and buoyancy in the festive coloured water.

 

Music Wall Update

Our music wall is finally up in the kindergarten playground.  Of course, I waited until it was glare ice in there with 20 km winds to attach our treasures to the fence.  It was worth it because the kids love it.  It's very musical A.K.A. noisy but thankfully outside, it's not too bad.  When I went out to watch the kids at play it reminded me of the book Mortimer by Robert Munsch where Mortimer said, "Clang Clang Rattle Bing Bang.  Gonna make my noise all day." 

Thank you to Mr. R. and his Beaver Brae wood shop class who made us a lovely Music Wall sign to hang on the fence.  We are still looking for donations to expand our wall so if you happen to have anything headed for the trash that you would like to send (muffin tins, racks, pots, pans, lids, wooden spoons) we'd be grateful.

December Newsletter

December Newsletter

Worm Work

We had a special visitor today in SK.  Mrs. Kathy Boone, Environmental Special Assignment Teacher for KPDSB came to our class to teach us about worms and their life cycle.  I have had a worm vermicomposter in my classroom for the last 3 years and it was time to add some new worms to the mix.

We prepared for her visit by reading a book called Worm Work which told us all about the red wiggler worm.  We found out that worms like to eat leaf litter, fruit and vegetables, egg shells, tea bags and tea leaves.  Students found out that they shouldn't put citrus fruits, onions, dairy products and meat in the composter because it makes it smelly and the worms don't like that.  We found out a bit about how a worm eats, what worm castings are and how to harvest and separate the worms from the castings.

The first thing the students did today was to separate the castings and the worms. We added the castings to our classroom plants. They will love the added nutrients.


















The next thing we did was create a new comfortable 'bed' for the worms. We added some soil, eggshells, shredded paper, vegetable and fruit scraps and then more paper. Worms like a cool damp bed so each student misted 10 sprays into the vermicomposter.  Then we added 500 worms to their new home.

 

Students who were interested, got to hold and observe a worm up close before putting it gently into their new home.  Mrs. Boone gave each group a plate with castings and a large night crawler worm to have a look at with magnifying glasses.

 

 

Finally, students formed partners and had to talk about what they learned about worms today.  They were rewarded with a worm to eat.  A gummy worm, of course.

 

What we learned:

Connor and McKenna - worms are vegetarians, they eat plants

Dylan and Happy - poop turns into castings

Julian and Zach- worms don't have teeth but they have a gizzard

Gage and Dylan - paper comes from trees

Tatyana and Cooper - they like egg shells and they don't have any eyes

Lane and Evey - they need shelter, air, food and water to survive

Tye and Tyler - poop turns into soil

Ryder and Noah - they eat banana peels and they don't have any teeth

 



Patterning in JK

We have been working on patterning in math.  This week students have been showing what they have learned by copying and extending patterns and then creating patterns of their own.  They have used many different kinds of materials including the bugs, vehicles, dinosaurs and pattern blocks to name a few.  What is really exciting is when they talk about patterns they see elsewhere in the classroom. "My shirt has a pattern." "Look at the dishes - yellow, red, yellow, red."  Most of the students can talk about their patterns using colour words and some will describe the shapes too.

 

 

 

Marble Run continued...

Marble run building is still going strong in SK. Students are adding materials from the class such as plastic tubing from the water table, wood blocks and the ever popular pool noodles.  The collaboration and cooperation between different groups of students has been excellent as they share ideas and change and modify their designs.  We watched a marble run video this week that incorporated a funnel feature using part of a 2L plastic bottle. If you have any of those in your recycle bin, please consider sending them with your child to school.