We are beginning to really settle into our Kindergarten routines and the children are enjoying these busy autumn days of playing and socialising with friends, printing their letters, making crafts and creating art…lots of art as their teachers love to draw and paint.

This week we created our painted jack-o-lanterns.  What an AMAZING display of joy, skill and determination to create these delightfully funny jack-o-lanterns.  This is a HUGE two-day art project.  We started on Wednesday with drawing the pumpkin using white pastels.  The children were intrigued with the softness of the pastels and their ability to easily and successfully draw (stocking stuffer idea?).  We drew the ribs of the pumpkin, then took a break for a colour mixing lesson using yellow, red and orange tempera paint and a paint etiquette discussion when sharing a paint palette with your table group.  Then we set the children off with paintbrushes, paint palettes and the simple instruction to colour mix on their paper, not the palette.

The classroom was silent as the children painted, and the peaceful calm that descended over us was truly blissful as we noticed the focus and concentration of our classes.

We have never laughed so much as we did on Thursday afternoon.  Following our directions, the children cut out their pumpkins, and then cut and decorated their own stems and leaves. We shared cutting and drawing strategies to fold a piece of paper, draw once (a circle) and cut out two identical eyes; repeat again to make the eye pupils.   Onto the mouth by drawing and cutting a “u” and adding teeth…and now we had jack-o-lanterns!  The sound of the children’s laughter, their pride in completing the whole project independently and their appreciation of one another’s work is what makes us so excited for the next BIG art.  Stay tuned.

We finished the letter “d” this week and will send home the children’s “diamond d” and printing sheets with them this week.  We complete a second printing page for each letter which we are saving and gathering into an alphabet book for each child which they will bring home when it’s finished (22 more letters to go so it will be awhile).

The children are continuing to explore, create and extend patterns in Math, and we’ve also begun to record and label them.  Patterns are a huge part of our Kindergarten math curriculum and we take the time to see their application in all aspects of our world, in addition to circling back many times throughout the school year to review and introduce new patterns.

In Social Studies, our theme is “Personal Identity.”  We’ve been talking about ourselves, our unique appearances and the first gift we’ve received from our parents, our names.  

We had fun on Monday at the Library at our first Library Book borrowing session.  Here are a few reminders from Mrs. Kennedy, our Teacher-Librarian, that you can review with your child in anticipation of next our Monday Book Exchange:

When browsing for book please:

1.  Be responsible with your words and actions
2. Tidy up after yourself.  Pay attention to where you found your book.

Read your books quietly after check-out.

Upcoming Events and Reminders

Monday, October 25:  Library Book Exchange.  Please return your Library Book so you can take out a new one.  We are unable to allow more than one book out at a time for Kindergarten children right now.

Friday, October 29:  Hallowe’en Parade.  Our big excitement for this week is the Ridgeview Hallowe’en Parade.  We look forward to seeing the children’s costumes, if they are comfortable wearing one to school.  We will send home a letter on Monday with a few more details.

-the children may wear their costume to school on Friday.  They should have their regular school clothes on underneath and a bag to bring home their costume as we will remove our costumes after the parade.

-costume masks are allowed, but please do not send any “weapons,” including lightsabres, to school.

-parents may watch the parade from a social distance if the parade is held outdoors; if the weather is poor we will be parading inside and unfortunately, parents will not be able to view us.  Let’s hope for a good day.

Well, that was quite the river of rain we had on Friday!

These rainy days are hard when the children have to get themselves ready to go outside to play, usually twice a day.  We are helping as much as we can but there are a few things you can practise at home to help increase your child’s independence.

-practising the snaps of the raincoats – very tricky because the snaps are stiff

-practising how to zip up your coat

-pulling sleeves out when you take off your coat and rain pants– this makes it easier to get ready for the next playtime recess and allows the outdoor gear to dry properly

-shoes for classroom use and rainboots for outside – the children can wear a hybrid “shoe/boot” for indoor use provided they change into rainboots for outdoor play.  

The children notice the number of woodchips accumulating on our classroom carpet when other students do not change their shoes – and no one likes sitting or playing on a dirty carpet.

The children met their Grade 7 Buddies again on Friday, and we reviewed some autumn vocabulary and had more time to chat and colour together.  We will hopefully complete our Scavenger Hunt together on a sunny day.

We are continuing the letter “d” for another week with the Thanksgiving Holiday and the upcoming Professional Development Day so close together.

We’re working on patterns in Math using a variety of math manipulatives, through “snap/clap” body actions and during the morning Calendar.  We’re learning about the following patterns:  AB, AAB and ABC.  You can support your child by looking for patterns in their environment (fence railings, crosswalk lines, lamp standards) through creating and extending patterns with small objects (beads, coins, dry pasta) and how patterns occur in our everyday lives (eg., the seasons (ABCD), meals in a day).

We completed our October self-portraits this week, and will begin decorating our classrooms with the Hallowe’en art we’re creating in the next few days. We also finished our Warm Coloured Pumpkins as we have been learning about the warm colours in our Autumn art.

Upcoming Events and Reminders

Friday, October 22:  Provincial Professional Development Day (school is not in session for students)

We’ll be starting the next rotation for Special Helper by adding “Sharing” to your child’s Special Day.  “Sharing” is similar to “Show and Tell” except we usually have a theme where your children will bring something specific to school on their Special Helper day.  We are still finishing our first rotation so this week’s Special Helpers do not need to bring their Sharing to school yet.  We will post the new calendar rotation in Remind so you can see what day is your child’s Sharing and Special Helper Day.  

Beginning in the last week of October, the theme for our first Sharing will be “Alphabet.”  Your child needs to bring 3 objects that begin with the first letter of their first name.  This is a fun way to focus on the initial (first) sounds of words, as part of developing the children’s phonological awareness.

These three objects should fit into a ziploc bag (nothing too big).  You can support your child further by helping them to print the names of each of the objects on a piece of paper and send that in along in the ziploc bag as well.

Please note:  If your child forget their Sharing on their Special Helper Day, we usually ask them to wait till the next rotation.

If you have not yet paid your school fees, please do so.  You’ll need to access School Cash online which was linked within the September school ebulletins.

If you have not yet signed off on the 2021-2022 Policy and Procedures Form, go to our Ridgeview website, then to “Parents” and then “Forms.” It’s located there.  This should be done ASAP.

This week we begin with the new mandatory mask mandate for children in Kindergarten to Grade 3 in BC.  Many children in our classrooms already wear a daily mask, and we are continuing to encourage a school culture of mask wearing at Ridgeview.  Kindergarten children are amazing!  They are keen to learn, flexible in their thinking, show kindness, care about others and love deeply.  We also had very high numbers of children wearing masks last year in school.  It’s important that we as teachers and parents continue to be positive role models, demonstrate patience and focus on the benefits. As Dr. Bonnie Henry said in her announcement on Friday,  the children are our “Super Heroes” and “they wear their mask to keep their community and the people they love safe and healthy.”   This is a message you could follow up with at home as we transition to mandatory mask wearing tomorrow morning.  

Everyday we talk about the importance of wearing a mask for each other’s safety.  As we mentioned previously, it’s our personal and social responsibility to safeguard the health of the people in our school building, and our families.  We always say, the teachers and students wear a mask to protect ourselves, our families and each other.  As we walk through the hallways to go to the Library, Music class and ELL, the children can pass individual students, classes of students and staff members.   Our prime directive is simply to protect our Kindergarten children in every way possible that we have available to us.

We have many children in our classes who want to wear a mask every day but do not bring any to school.  We’ve currently supplied over 100 masks between our two classes.  We’d like to encourage you to send along your children’s own masks, reusable or non-surgical, and keep a small supply in their backpacks. Please make sure they fit appropriately.  

We have noticed some children struggling with the fit of their mask, complaining that they are too big or the ear straps have become too loose.  An improper fit makes a mask difficult to wear all day.  Reusable masks should be washed daily. Non-surgical masks are single use only (eg., one school day unless it gets dirty), and should have the ear straps cut before disposing in the garbage.  The children have observed us cutting the straps when we throw away a soiled mask.  This is for the protection of animals who may be scavenging in the garbage and landfills.

The children go through a lot of masks because masks can become uncomfortable or dirty with food or wet from breathing, become lost or dropped a few too many times on the floor.  A few children change their masks twice a day which we support completely. 

One change we are making for our classes is that the children should have their mask on before they enter the school building.  This means that the children are putting their mask on while waiting in line to enter the classroom.  Then, they will enter the school in their usual manner to hang up their coats and hang up their backpacks before they wash their hands.

We will ask the children to put their masks in their pockets or leave their masks in their backpacks when eating and when they play outside during the morning and lunch recess and outdoor learning activities.  A few children prefer to keep their mask on the whole day and so long as they are comfortable, we’ve allowed them to continue wearing it but they know they are free at any time to change their mind.

If your child is unable to wear a mask due to medical reasons please email Mr. Zerbe, our school principal, (wzerbe@wvschools.ca) to let the school know so it can be added to their file. 

Here are some good resources for you if you’re looking for children’s books about mask wearing and a virtual classroom with links to SafeShare YouTube videos about masks.  

Upcoming Events and Reminders

Wednesday, October 6, 2021:  Early Dismissal for Kindergarten at 12:50 pm

Thursday, October 7, 2021:  Early Dismissal for Kindergarten at 12:50 pm

We were able to meet with most Kindergarten parents in September for our Intake Conferences.  During the Early Dismissal times for our parent-teacher conferences we have scheduled conferences with families that were unable to meet during the Intake Conference time.  We have also requested meetings with some families.  If you have any urgent or private concerns (new family changes, medical situations or allergies) please let us know and we will try to arrange a mutually agreeable time for a virtual meeting.  Otherwise, we are more than happy to have a casual chat with you outside, socially distanced wearing a mask, on the playground after school.