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.