How fortunate we were to enjoy some beautiful days of winter sunshine and light this week before the rains came down again.  Of course, here in the Kindergarten, there is light and sparkle as we settle in for our winter work.

One of our most favourite alphabet crafts is “n is the night sky,” a pretty collection of moon and stars on a dark blue sky.  We’re officially halfway through the alphabet now and observing the mature changes we see in the children’s printing. Their upper body strength has improved with time spent on the swings and monkey bars, which has enabled them to have better control of their arm, hand and finger movements.  As a result, we see much improved letter formation and fine motor development.

We’re still waiting for snow, but at least enjoying it through some beautiful picture books.  We took some time this week to write our own Winter big book about what we see during this chilly season.

During Math this term, we’re developing number sense through a variety of math centres.  We’ve organised the children into cooperative groups and they are making their way through exploring, creating, comparing and counting number sets from 1-10.  We’re adding a written component as well, and teaching the children the correct formation for numerals and practising the printing of number words.

Math Centres are a similar routine and structure the children are well familiar with, from math pattern centres in the fall, to our Hallowe’en and Christmas Centres Parties. We’re continually mixing up the groups so the children are able to socialise and work with everyone in the class (and often both Kindergarten classes together) as it’s important that we continue to foster new friendships while maintaining connections from their preschool days.

This week we painted and created winter trees for our “Here, Near and Far Trees” from our favourite website, deepspacesparkle.com.  The focus for our lesson was multi-fold, but we’d say the greatest emphasis was in developing perspective.

First we painted these stunning backgrounds, colour mixing blue and white paint to create tints.  Then, the children cut out three different sized trees on green paper from small to big, light to dark.  Pastel patterns and details were added.

Careful placement and gluing of the trees (light coloured trees are far away) from far to near was a very mindful activity.  We talked about the horizon, where the sky meets the earth, and how that affects where the trees could be placed.

Finally, our favourite part, painting in the details and adding glitter completed these very special studies in distance and perspective.  

The children started learning the melody and words for “I Can’t Wait to be King” from “The Lion King” musical our school will be putting on this spring.  Although this is a Grades 4-7 production, we’ve asked to have the primary children learn a few songs as well.

It’s never easy to talk about Lockdown practise in schools.  We have always regarded schools as one of the safest places you could be, and continue to believe that is so.  However, it’s also essential that we practise so as a class, and school, to be prepared for life’s uncertainties.  Your children were brave, calm and the very best of listeners throughout the entire procedure on Thursday. The trust we have in each other, as teacher and students, is strong and for that we are very blessed.

Upcoming Events and Reminders

Scholastic Book Orders for January should be placed soon.

Library Book Exchange on Mondays, as usual.

Lego Drive:  we are hoping to collect one cup of Lego from each child in our school to build our Ridgeview Lego collection which will be housed in the Library.  

There is a Professional Development Day on Friday, January 25th so school will not be in session.