Have a wonderful summer break! We look forward to seeing you back in September!
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If you have extra old shirts that could be donated as painting smocks, please send them to school with your child (Ms. Drummond is looking for a new collection). Ideal shirts are small or medium men's dress shirts, or large men's T-shirts. Thank you!
Just a few short weeks ago, we said "Hello!" to some teeny-tiny caterpillars. It didn't take long for them to grow and go into their "J-hangs". We quickly had many chrysalises hanging from our habitat in the classroom, and eventually butterflies! Have a look around Hawkwood on your walks and maybe you'll spot one of our Painted-Lady butterflies sipping on some nectar or laying eggs.
What a great day we had a Butterfield Acres farm! We had a chance to go on a longer Forest Trail Walk where the kids saw ponds, trees, flowers, poop, bones, tracks, and more! We used our senses to explore and had lots of conversation about animal homes. We also visited the animals, had a wagon ride behind a tractor, and milked a goat! What a great day! Thank you to the parent volunteers who helped us enjoy and explore!
Part of our math curriculum is working with 2-Dimensional (2-D) shapes such as triangles, squares, circles, and rectangles. We also work with 3-Dimensional solids (3-D) such as cylinders, cones, pyramids, spheres, and rectangular prisms. Our curriculum states that students will be able to:
- sort 3-D objects, using a single attribute, and - build and describe 3-D objects. Have a look for these 3-D solids in your home and community. A soup can is a cylinder, a kleenex box is a rectangular prism, and a basket-ball is a sphere. Do these solids slide, roll, or both? Do they have points/corners, edges, or smooth faces? There's so much math to discover in the world around us! Ms. Drummond's students have begun venturing into some technology use. Technology, such as laptop computers and ipads, are used to enhance learning in a variety of curricular areas as students get older. First we have to learn how to use them!
In Kindergarten, our curriculum expects students to: • explore the keyboard, using letters, numbers and the space bar. • begin to use some technology appropriately in learning activities and to communicate with others. We have worked with our older grade three buddies using laptop computers. We have learned: - to log on and log off - to change our passwords to something we can remember (our first names). - a bit about the internet - to find the Google Chrome icon, and navigate to the wonderful website, starfall.com. Our next unit of study in kindergarten is "Farm Animals". Throughout this unit we will be specifically examining the following learning intentions: I can... -recognize changes in weather and some ways people and animals adapt to the seasons -describe a variety of homes (Where do farm animals live?) -recognize familiar animals and their characteristics and surroundings -identify familiar sounds in the environment and community (What sounds do we hear on a farm?) As always, we will be focusing on speaking, listening, understanding, asking and answering questions, and making connections. We will incorporate a variety language arts and math connections throughout this unit. We have two special days to look forward to: Monday, April 8th is an art day where students will be sculpting a farm animal. Short-sleeved shirts would be helpful! Friday, May 10th is a field trip to Butterfield Acres Farm here in Calgary Kindergarten students made clay dinosaurs today! We made 4-legged, long-necked sauropods (with shorter necks, as our clay was interesting to work with!). We had to listen and watch carefully when the teacher was modeling, follow 2 and 3- step instructions, make 3-D shapes such as a cylinder, and use our creative expression to create unique dinosaurs!
These dino sculptures will soon be ready for a new home (yours!) and you may pick them up during our student-led conferences next week. Each Friday morning, kindergarten is planning on going on a community nature walk! We will be using our 5 senses to explore and talk about what we see, from seasonal changes, to animal homes. Please ensure your child is at school on time, and dressed for the weather. These excursions will be weather-permitting.
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