We enlisted the help of a few grade 8 helpers to assist us in cleaning up the front yard of our school. We picked up almost 2 bags of garbage and 4 leaf bags. This big job was made easier with all the big and little hands. Thank you to our older helpers. I am sure we all slept well that night. Check out our before and after photos.

The warm weather cooperated for us so we could  pull weeds and trim our perennials in our kindergarten garden.  We sure didn’t like the prickly weeds. Good thing we had our gardening gloves. We also dug some holes and planted many spring bulbs. We are hoping for a beautiful spring garden after all our hard work. Let’s hope we have a green thumb as we are all new to this!

We read the story of Stellaluna where a baby bat is attacked by an owl and ends up in a bird’s nest. The children had many questions about bats. Some thought bats ate insects but Stellaluna didn’t like insects. Why not? Where do bats live? Do bats drink blood? How do they see at night? The children wanted to be bats and created a bat cave in our block centre. They included books about bats, fruit, insects, branches for them to hang upside down on and brought in plastic bats from home. We learned most bats are shy and gentle, fly at night, eat fruit or insects or blood (from cows or birds) or nectar from flowers. The children couldn’t believe that some kinds of bats can eat more than a thousand insects in one hour! Bats don’t seem so bad after all.

In class, we have been talking about patterns we see around us, reading patterns aloud and creating and extending patterns. These activites–on which we will build further mathematics learning–are designed to help children think logically and solve problems. You can help your child’s learning by asking your child to describe simple patterns, such as wallpaper, on packaging, or floor tiles. Make the beginning of a simple pattern with coloured blocks such as red, red, blue; red, red, blue; and ask your child to say the pattern with you and show what comes next. You can create colour, shape, movement(clap, snap, clap, snap) and textured (soft, rough, rough, soft, rough, rough) patterns.

Our students began to explore apples at our discovery table and with it came many wonders. Are all apples red? How many seeds are inside an apple? Can we grow an apple from an apple seed? We tried a simple apple experiment placing a slice of apple in milk, lemon juice and water. Many of us guessed the milk would keep our apple white but found out this was not the case. To end our inquiry we made applesauce in a crockpot and shared it with Mrs. Booth and Mr. Brownlee. Actually, they could smell it from the hall and came in to join us.

The Dina Dinosaur Program is a social skills, emotional regulation and problem-solving curriculum. It’s purpose is to teach children positive social skills and appropriate school behaviours. Wally and Dina have both visited our classroom and we have learned classroom rules, accepting consequences of breaking rules and using our ignoring muscles when someone is in the time-out or quiet chair. We can’t wait til they visit again and are hoping Wally will bring his sister Molly.

Sorting and classifying are some of the math skills we have been working on. The children have been working on organizing items into groups based on a certain characteristic such as size, colour, shape and texture. They also have been explaining why they have grouped their items as they did. Sorting and classifying are skills your child will use at home and at school as he puts away toys, organizes clothes or empties the dishwasher. Everyday activities present wonderful opportunities for sorting. Ask your child to sort his clothes into 3 piles: shirts, pants and socks. Or when cleaning up, ask him to sort his toys such as noisy toys and quiet toys. Make sure you ask him to explain his reasoning.

Young children often are asked to draw pictures of themselves or a person. Mat Man makes drawing easy. Mat Man activities develop body awareness, drawing and counting skills. “Mat Man has one head, one head, one head. Mat Man has one head so that he can think.”

How very excited the children were to see our new full day kindergarten outdoor play equipment. We have a new large sandbox, a stage, climbing tires, chalkboard, discovery tables and a music station. They have been busy exploring these new areas.

This week we had our first visit to our school library here at Fieldcrest. The children met our librarian, Mrs. Swaileblack and were shown where they can choose story books (look for the letter K) and information books. Our library book exchange day is on Day 1 and the children are asked to return their library books in the plastic bag provided in order to protect our books. If a book is lost or damaged, there is a replacement cost. Reading with your child everyday encourages a love of books and reading. Try reading with your child for the enjoyment of spending time together–it’s a great way to end the day.