Our Kindergarten elves have been very busy the past couple of weeks getting our classrooms ready for Christmas, working on their alphabet and number sense during Mathematics.

We finished our Itchy’s inchworms this week and will be sending them home in the next few days.  We’ve covered letters a-i now, and an easy alphabet game to play at home during your nightly bedtime story would be to identify the words beginning a letter of their choice on a given page.  The children will not be able to read every word, but recognising the initial letter formation and sound is great practise for them.

In Math, we are working on subitizing, which means recognising the number of objects without counting them.  A good example of this is dice patterns, which many of the children are very good at recognising based on their board game experience.  We are now working on subitizing the number of objects, not in the traditional dice patterns, and the children are becoming increasingly adept.  

In Social Studies, we are wrapping up our Personal Identity Unit.  Our last two lessons before Christmas focus on identifying our feelings, and being my best self – how can I contribute to making my classroom a happy place to learn?

We have made some beautiful art, including our Angel Christmas hangers, and our December self-portraits.  We have many more special items to make with our classes in the next two weeks.  We love to teach Art and make crafts with our students so this is a really fun and happy time for everyone.

Upcoming Events and Reminders

It’s going to be a big week.  We can’t say enough about the children having rest and relaxing time afterschool, and adequate sleep in the evenings.

We sent home the following reminder on Friday regarding our Virtual Christmas Concert 

The Kindergarten children are singing “Must Be Santa” and “Dona Nobis (If I Could Have One Wish Come True)” for our Virtual Christmas Concert.

For our costume, we are dressing in the Christmas Best that you have at home.  Please, do not feel you have to go shopping for anything new.  This is a celebration of love, song and being together.

Suggestions for Christmas best:

Girls:  dress (not princess, and no Disney), skirt/leggings and top, dress shoes

Boys:  dark pants, white shirt or shirt with a collar, tie or bow tie, dress shoes or cleaned up runners

We have tried to explain to the children the Christmas Concert is not the same as Jingle Day.  A few have asked about wearing their pyjamas for the Concert, but they should save their pyjamas and fun Christmas hats for Friday, December 18.

Mrs. Campbell’s class films on Tuesday, December 8.   Mrs. Campbell’s Kindergarten children come to school in their Christmas best.

Mrs. Daudlin’s class films on Thursday, December 10.   Mrs. Daudlin’s Kindergarten children come to school in their Christmas best.

If you have any questions about your child’s costume, please ask your classroom teacher.

Friday, December 11:  Return all Library Books for Term One Library Inventory.  We will not take out new books until January.

Thursday, December 17:  Virtual Christmas Concert preview for students in the afternoon.  Please send along a special Christmas snack for your child to enjoy while we watch the Christmas concert in our classrooms.

Friday, December 18:  Ridgeview Spirit Day:  Jingle Day.  The children have been asking about wearing fun Christmas clothing to school and this is the day, at last.  They may wear their Santa hats, elf hats, reindeer ears, Christmas clothes or even come to school in their pyjamas (please dress warmly underneath).  Please note:  Kindergarten Dismissal is at 1:10 pm.