Dear parents,
I have learned that School Cash Online is not yet available for our upcoming trip. The classes have been staggered since we go on different days. I know I asked for forms and payment to be returned by Friday, but if you are planning to pay online, please feel free to return the form and pay later once it becomes available. If you are registered, you should receive an email when it is available to pay. Alternately, you can always send cash or a cheque.
Sorry for any confusion,
Thanks, Tamara
Tuesday, 7 May 2019
Friday, 3 May 2019
Diagram city!
Dear families,
We have become expert surveyors! We spent several mornings of building different kinds of diagrams together, including a pictogram of our favourite snacks, and a bar graph of our eye colours. Then, I helped each student write out their own survey question, and they thought of a few choices to put on their sheet. During reading buddies, each student walked around with their survey, clipboard and sheet of stickers, and asked lots of classmates and buddies their question. It was really fun to see them all engaged and building their graphs with stickers. This is a great introduction to what they will be doing next year in the data management strand.
Many students enjoyed this activity so much, that they have been making additional surveys in their own time, and doing it all over again!
Yesterday, we had such a great time outside - we had a group of builders working together to build a large structure, some were cooking dinner or baking cookies, and I was playing a great game of baseball. I was so impressed by how everyone worked together and shared materials. And, when we had to clean everything up at the end of the day, everyone helped and made quick work of it. I told the kids how fun it had been for me, and I hope we get to do more of this. Cleaning up has sometimes been difficult, but many hands make light work and yesterday was a perfect example of this. Merci mes amis!
Hope to see some of you later!!
We have become expert surveyors! We spent several mornings of building different kinds of diagrams together, including a pictogram of our favourite snacks, and a bar graph of our eye colours. Then, I helped each student write out their own survey question, and they thought of a few choices to put on their sheet. During reading buddies, each student walked around with their survey, clipboard and sheet of stickers, and asked lots of classmates and buddies their question. It was really fun to see them all engaged and building their graphs with stickers. This is a great introduction to what they will be doing next year in the data management strand.
Many students enjoyed this activity so much, that they have been making additional surveys in their own time, and doing it all over again!
This week we also did a super cool science experiment to address another question from our list. This one was about how the earth absorbs water. We talked about why we want soil to absorb water. Many students mentioned that plants need to drink - yes. Someone actually mentioned what I was hoping - to prevent a flood. We took the opportunity to talk about the flooding that's been going on in parts of Ontario, and how it can damage people's homes (like my leaky basement!). We wanted to figure out which material best absorbs water, the way a sponge does. We tested 5 materials: sand, soil, soil with grass, rocks (like what roads are made of) and the sponge, for comparison. Each scientist made predictions and then poured 1/4 C of water over one of the materials until they had all received 3/4 C of rain.
Our results surprised us a little, as we didn't expect sand to be that great. However, we had noticed that the water pooled on top of the sand and overflowed over the top of the cup in addition to going through, so we talked about how our experiment might not be perfect, and that's something to consider. However, overall, sand and soil seemed to hang on to the most water, while the rocks let it all pass through quickly, meaning that it didn't absorb much at all. Each student drew the result on their experiment sheet. It was a really fun afternoon!
Here are the items we tested in this experiment:
Le sable
Le sol
Une éponge
L’herbe
Des roches
Yesterday, we had such a great time outside - we had a group of builders working together to build a large structure, some were cooking dinner or baking cookies, and I was playing a great game of baseball. I was so impressed by how everyone worked together and shared materials. And, when we had to clean everything up at the end of the day, everyone helped and made quick work of it. I told the kids how fun it had been for me, and I hope we get to do more of this. Cleaning up has sometimes been difficult, but many hands make light work and yesterday was a perfect example of this. Merci mes amis!
Friday, 26 April 2019
Thank you for fundraising!!
Thank you all so much for helping us fundraise!! We worked together to add it up, and our little class raised $755!!! That's over our goal amount! Thanks so much for supporting the programming at Dewson. To celebrate, we danced our hearts out at the dance-a-thon today.
We also danced yesterday at a very cool around-the-world dance workshop. We experimented with dances from different places and styles, including a waltz, a salsa, a jig, some animal moves - we even did the robot!
Earlier this week, we went to College/Shaw library where we participated in some interactive stories, guessed fun facts, and listened to some jokes. We also got a little time in the park.
Today I sent home the calendar for May with more dates. Our next library trip is on the 13th, and you'll see that we have another big trip coming up on the 24th. Forms for this, as well as Scholastic packages, will come home later next week. If I haven't already told you, please keep the evening of May 30th free for our Kindergarten Concert. It will begin at 5pm in the gym (though we will ask the kids to arrive a little earlier). We hope to keep the concert to an hour. Please let me know if your child cannot attend, as each person is important to a performance we are preparing!!!
Next week we will begin a new entry routine. Rather than have outdoor play first thing, we will come in right away, and then go back out later in the morning for our private outdoor time before lunch, as has been our routine all year. This change is good preparation for grade one. In the morning, our goal will be to get to the carpet in time for announcements, and I will expect everyone to listen to the announcements, and try to sing with me (or remain silent) during the national anthem. Please reinforce these expectations at home. A lot of our kids are into sports, so I always remind them of how soccer or hockey players stand respectfully for the national anthem before the game. If they've never seen this done, it might be good inspiration.
Looking forward to June, in preparation for the Dewson Festival, each class has been asked to collect items for a raffle basket. Our theme is Arts & Crafts for kids. If you are able to purchase or donate new items, such as markers, crayons, craft paper, stickers, popsicle sticks etc., that would be fantastic. You can send it to me, or directly to the office (I think) by May 23rd. Just include a note so I remember what it's for. Thanks!
Ooo, we had a great music class yesterday. Mr. Greene taught us about the Gamelan. The Gamelan is a traditional Indonesian ensemble of percussion instruments. I remember learning about this tradition in university. The instruments are revered and honoured, as you might honour royalty. To show respect, we all took off our shoes when playing the instruments. Mr. Greene said that our class had done such a good job, that we could show his next class how it's done, giving me time to run downstairs, grab my camera, and take some pictures!!
We are very into performing right now - I've been invited to a few concerts during centre time. Some performances are songs and poems that I've taught, but others are freshly composed and original. The performers seem to be reading the music from their drawing books...
What else? Plants!! Our large garden is coming along just great. Sunflowers, tomatoes, 4 o'clocks and beans are all doing their thing by the window. We are quite proud of our growing babies. In our plant journal, we learned and labeled the basic parts of a flower, and also put some puzzle pieces in order, showing the steps from seed to leafy plant. This was easy for us, thanks to that cool experiment we did where we watched the bean seeds crack and start growing their little roots out of soil.
Here are the plant parts we learned:
We also danced yesterday at a very cool around-the-world dance workshop. We experimented with dances from different places and styles, including a waltz, a salsa, a jig, some animal moves - we even did the robot!
Earlier this week, we went to College/Shaw library where we participated in some interactive stories, guessed fun facts, and listened to some jokes. We also got a little time in the park.
Today I sent home the calendar for May with more dates. Our next library trip is on the 13th, and you'll see that we have another big trip coming up on the 24th. Forms for this, as well as Scholastic packages, will come home later next week. If I haven't already told you, please keep the evening of May 30th free for our Kindergarten Concert. It will begin at 5pm in the gym (though we will ask the kids to arrive a little earlier). We hope to keep the concert to an hour. Please let me know if your child cannot attend, as each person is important to a performance we are preparing!!!
Next week we will begin a new entry routine. Rather than have outdoor play first thing, we will come in right away, and then go back out later in the morning for our private outdoor time before lunch, as has been our routine all year. This change is good preparation for grade one. In the morning, our goal will be to get to the carpet in time for announcements, and I will expect everyone to listen to the announcements, and try to sing with me (or remain silent) during the national anthem. Please reinforce these expectations at home. A lot of our kids are into sports, so I always remind them of how soccer or hockey players stand respectfully for the national anthem before the game. If they've never seen this done, it might be good inspiration.
Looking forward to June, in preparation for the Dewson Festival, each class has been asked to collect items for a raffle basket. Our theme is Arts & Crafts for kids. If you are able to purchase or donate new items, such as markers, crayons, craft paper, stickers, popsicle sticks etc., that would be fantastic. You can send it to me, or directly to the office (I think) by May 23rd. Just include a note so I remember what it's for. Thanks!
Ooo, we had a great music class yesterday. Mr. Greene taught us about the Gamelan. The Gamelan is a traditional Indonesian ensemble of percussion instruments. I remember learning about this tradition in university. The instruments are revered and honoured, as you might honour royalty. To show respect, we all took off our shoes when playing the instruments. Mr. Greene said that our class had done such a good job, that we could show his next class how it's done, giving me time to run downstairs, grab my camera, and take some pictures!!
We are very into performing right now - I've been invited to a few concerts during centre time. Some performances are songs and poems that I've taught, but others are freshly composed and original. The performers seem to be reading the music from their drawing books...
What else? Plants!! Our large garden is coming along just great. Sunflowers, tomatoes, 4 o'clocks and beans are all doing their thing by the window. We are quite proud of our growing babies. In our plant journal, we learned and labeled the basic parts of a flower, and also put some puzzle pieces in order, showing the steps from seed to leafy plant. This was easy for us, thanks to that cool experiment we did where we watched the bean seeds crack and start growing their little roots out of soil.
Les racines
La tige
La feuille
Les pétales
La plante
We attempted to answer another massive question from our list today. Why do stars look like «?
I found a YouTube video that answers the question very well, but we didn't have time to discuss after everyone's turn.... I'm very curious what our scientists understood.
Have a good weekend, and don't forget your green bags on Monday!
We attempted to answer another massive question from our list today. Why do stars look like «?
I found a YouTube video that answers the question very well, but we didn't have time to discuss after everyone's turn.... I'm very curious what our scientists understood.
Have a good weekend, and don't forget your green bags on Monday!
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