Thursday, June 30, 2016

Goodbye to Kindergarten D, Hello to Grade 1!

We are at the end of our year together as Kindergarten D. Looking back through the year, it's been amazing to witness the incredible growth in all students. The children are leaving kindergarten with well on their way to becoming readers and writers.

It's with mixed feelings that we all say goodbye to kindergarten, but we are all ready to start our new journey in Grade 1. Me included! 
I'm also off to start a new adventure teaching grade 1 with a new school division. I will miss everyone here at Greentree School!

Our kindergarten grad was a rousing success. The children were so proud to show off their poem and songs. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any pictures or video of the actual graduation but here's a video of just our class practicing the grand finale song. The lyrics really sum up our year!  


I hope everyone has a fantastic summer and I wish all of Kindergarten D the best of luck as they start grade 1!

Monday, June 6, 2016

Art Exposition: Still Life and Watercolour


Wow! I am extremely impressed with the results of our art project for this years Spring Art Exposition! 

Each student chose a from a variety of object arrays (mostly plants) to represent through still life drawing. Using Sharpie markers, students closely examined and represented the lines they saw. Later, we went back to our drawings and filled in the lines with watercolour paint. We worked really hard on this project and it definitely payed off!








Monday, May 23, 2016

Field Trip!

We had a blast on our field trip to the Royal Tyrrell Museum!


We spent the morning, touring the exhibits: gasping at the size of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, trying to spot real creatures in the gardens, and showing off our knowledge of dinosaur names.

After lunch, we gathered together in the museum classroom for a dinosaur picnic!


We learned all about what dinosaurs ate; which were herbivores and carnivores and how to tell the difference. We also had a chance to "feed" the dinosaurs and pass around fossils of jaws and teeth.


Answering "yes" or "no" to whether Terry the Triceratops should eat each food item.

Afterwards, we headed outside to explore the badlands and see what creatures and natural formations we could spot.



We loved watching the ground squirrels and seeing how many different kinds of bugs we could find.


Posing on a fossilized tree trunk.



We found the hoodoos!

Recording what we see, hear, and smell.



All the kids had a great time and were raving about the experience for days afterwards. A huge thank you to everyone who made the field trip possible, including our parent and grandparent volunteers as well as the parent council for funding the trip!

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Reptiles!

Recently, M.J. and her mom brought in two creatures for us to examine: a bearded dragon and a corn snake!

We did some reading in anticipation and came prepared with a ton of questions to ask. 




M.J. and her mom patiently answered all our questions, showed off the animals, and then gave everyone who wanted to a chance to touch and hold them! 
















Later that day, many children took the opportunity to record what they had noticed and learned at the writing centre: 


A huge thank you to M.J.'s family!

Friday, April 22, 2016

Earth Day

Today for Earth Day we talked a lot about pollution and ways that we can help take care of the Earth. We discussed reusing, recycling, and making sure not to litter. We headed out to the school yard with trash bags and gloves to do our part to clean up litter.

Sorry, I didn't take many pictures but I just have to share this photo of a recycling centre built by these three little ones:

"The green box is for cardboard recycling, the red box is for paper, and the blue one is for old clothes."

A powerful example of how children consolidate their learning through their play!

We also learned this classic Raffi song, "Evergreen, Everblue." Encourage your child to sing it with you at home!

Monday, April 18, 2016

KD Builds

We are a class of builders this year. Every child loves to build in our class, girls and boys alike. While it might look like they are just playing, they are actually learning a ton about 2D and 3D shapes, balance, symmetry, storytelling, and communicating with others etc..

Oh, and following the rules. Here are the building centre rules the students came up with (read by FM):

We are lucky to have our school district's lending library send us new building materials every month. Here's some things we've built over the past few months:


Magnetos (a magnetic building toy)


Working Together




NH and RL found the magnetic blocks would stick to the radiator. They made a shelf for the balls.




Lincoln Logs

DD made the letter B


KD's airport with airplanes



Megablocks


KL and LP's castle


RM and KD made an elaborate castle with a village inside
The dice are the people


Other materials

NH exploring the cube shape

KL and LP make structures out of wooden sticks and modeling clay
"I made a blue, blue house. Then I had a car in there and a suitcase and two chargers and two Ipads," F.M.


KL and LP used pattern blocks to make furniture for the stuffed rabbit. A bed, toilet, and dresser.


Even numbers can be used to build!

KD made homes for animals using wooden blocks, cotton balls, and rocks.

NH's tower of wooden blocks


For the month of March, I challenged everyone to not only build structures, but to draw and write about them as well. After a while, we had enough drawings to create a class book.


The Castle "Hanging on the Castle is a bird house. At the top is stop" by LP

by AV

by RM

by KB

TY and SA decided to make the longest line of blocks they could. It was a challenge to draw!



Here's the finished product:
"Tower World"

What will we build next?