June 17th - 21st

 

We had the most wonderful time down in Fish Creek Park this week! We were inspired by Frank Serafini's book - Looking Closely Through The Forest - and did lots of our own looking closely! While enjoying our time connecting to the land, we discovered many different treasures...dew drops on leaves, interestingly shaped rocks, flower patterns, mossy trees, flying and crawling insects, spiders, ducks, natural and man-made structures and so much more! It was great to hear the students making observations, connecting to background knowledge as well as asking thoughtful questions.

Learning Intentions:

• Children examine and describe surrounding environments

I Can:

• Use the senses to make observations about environments 

• Ask questions about surrounding environments 

• Demonstrate respect while interacting with environments 

• Identify natural and constructed objects in surrounding environments

• Represent objects found in nature and those constructed by humans

• Record observations of changes in environments

• Discuss the importance of protecting and respecting environments

• Identify ways to protect and respect environments 

• Reflect on what is personally considered to be beautiful and appreciated in nature 

June 10th - 14th

Wishing all you amazing kindergarten dads 

a very Happy Father's Day 💗

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 Our trip to Fire Station No. 19 

🔥  🚒

Learning Intentions:

- Children demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the characteristics and interests that unite members of communities and groups

- Children examine the ways in which people create a climate of cooperation

I Can:

- Appreciate the important contributions of individuals in the community

- Appreciate the impact that group members have on each other

- Assume responsibility for personal actions, words and choices

- Explore and reflect upon the rules at school, home and in the community

- Work and play in harmony with others to create a safe and caring environment

- Demonstrate appropriate behaviours for social involvement as a responsible citizen

- Consider the needs of others

What an amazing experience we had at the Fire Station! As we walked through the community students demonstrated safety and great community manners by staying on the sidewalk and enjoying our neighbours beautiful trees and flower gardens with our eyes and not our hands! When we arrived, the firefighters at Parkland Station No. 19 were just as excited to see us as we were to see them! Our first job was to go to the 'safe zone' at the back of the station and talk about safety in the fire station. Once we understood what was important about being a visitor at the station, we began learning about how the firefighters keep themselves safe with the special equipment they wear. We noticed how they worked together as a team, checking each other over to make sure their safety gear was on appropriately and working properly. Some of the students made comments - "You're helping each other be safe!", "It's important to help people." and "Teamwork makes the dream work!" We learned that they need to be dressed and in the truck ready to go within 60 seconds so that they can get to the emergency as fast as they can...that sure is quick! We talked about fire safety and the importance of having an escape plan at home just like we do at school. Some of the things we talked about if we are ever in a situation when there is a fire were...

• CALL 911
• Follow your FAMILY ESCAPE PLAN if you can
• DO NOT HIDE (make LOTS of noise so the firefighters can find you)
• STOP, DROP & ROLL if your clothing catches on fire (do not run around)
• STAY LOW and CRAWL (to try and get under the smoke)
• Use your hands to FEEL DOORS to see if they are hot (do not open if it is hot)
• Get to a WINDOW and OPEN it if you can (or bang and wave at people outside)

Once we reviewed all the serious stuff, it was time to check out the fun stuff!

A HUGE thank you to our City of Calgary Fire Department and Station No. 19 for all that they do to help protect and keep our community safe - it is greatly appreciated 💗

June 3rd - 7th

 

It was an action packed week full of great learning, exciting new discoveries and amazing kindergarten kiddos!

Learning Intention:

- Children explore physical activity in a variety of contexts

- Children explore spatial awareness in a variety of physical activity contexts

I Can:

- Participate in a variety of physical activities and games

- Practice moving in relation to the location and proximity of people or objects in a variety of physical activity contexts

What a great opportunity to learn about the awesome sport of lacrosse from one of our very own Calgary Roughnecks player - Dan Taylor - who actually grew up just down the street and went to Andrew Sibbald School himself!

Learn a little more about the Calgary Roughnecks!

Learn a little more about the Elev8 Classroom Lacrosse program

Our first step was learning how to properly hold our sticks and scoop the ball up off the floor...we pretended we were scooping up our favourite kind of ice cream! Next Coach Dan showed us how to cradle the ball by rapidly rotating our sticks in half-turns while also holding our sticks a little more upright. Some of us even mastered a full rotation without letting the ball fall out of our pockets! Once we had got some of the basics under control we were ready to learn the over the shoulder pass!

Did you know...

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Also...with lots of excitement, we welcomed 8 new beautiful Painted Lady butterflies to our Kindergarten family! Stay tuned for more butterfly information coming soon! 

May 27th - 31st

 

As we have been watching our caterpillars tell their story - we have also been talking about the beginning, middle and end of the stories we have been reading in class!

Learning Intention:

- Children demonstrate understanding of messages communicated in texts

I Can:

- Sequence events from a text

- Retell the beginning, middle, end of a text

When we arrived back at school this week our caterpillars had transitioned into the next stage of their life cycle - the chrysalis. As we have been documenting the changes they're going through, we have also been talking about the 'story' of their life - egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly - and referring to these stages as the beginning, middle and end of their life cycle. We continued to explore the idea of beginning, middle and endings of stories and focused on creating simple story maps together as a large group to help us retell these important parts of a story. We did such a great job with our oral retellings so we decided to take on a challenge with a more complex story called 'The Secret Shortcut'. After listening to the story we made our own story maps and then used them to help us retell different events from the beginning, middle and end.  

 

Learning Intention:

• Students explore size through direct comparison

I Can:

• Compare the weight of two objects directly
• Describe the size of an object in relation to another object using comparative language (heavier, lighter, equal)
• Describe the size of an object in relation to a purpose or need, using comparative language
  

Together we had a group discussion about the words WEIGH and WEIGHT. Some of the guiding questions were: Have you ever heard these words? What do these words mean? Can you give an example?  Students came up with the following:

• "It means how much something weighs - like how heavy it is."
• "I weigh myself at home on a scale."
• "At my doctor's I stand on a scale and they see how much I weigh"
• "People weigh food because I've seen them do it at Superstore."
  
  

Next students worked in groups and were given a variety of classroom objects to explore and talk about using comparative language such as heavy/light, heavier/lighter/ heaviest/lightest as well as equal/balanced. Students did a great job working together in their groups sharing the objects as well as thinking and conversing like mathematicians as they discussed their discoveries about the different weights of each object.

May 13th - 17th

 

This week we welcomed a few new classmates who will be staying with us for a little while! We are really looking forward to learning more about them!

Learning Intentions:

- Children explore movement of objects, humans, and other animals

I Can:

- observe and imitate how animals can move

- identify various ways humans and other animals move

When a special package was delivered to our classroom we all wondered what could be inside? We looked closely and used our 'I See, I Think, I Wonder' thinking routine to help come up with some possible ideas.

I See...

• "There are numbers on the box."
• "It has tape all around it."
• "A white paper on the top of the box."
• "There is a picture of a butterfly."
• "Small words and big words and even medium words."
•  "That the butterfly is very detailed and the purple words are fancy."

After looking closely and talking about what we noticed we sounded out and read the words on the box. We talked about the meaning of the words URGENT, PRECIOUS, CARGO and ASAP. 

 I Think...

• "There might be slime in the box or something sticky."
• "It is a butterfly in there because it has a butterfly picture on it!"
• "It has caterpillars inside because they turn into butterflies!"
• "It could also maybe be a cocoon or a chrysalis inside."

Next we opened the box and found some very teeny tiny caterpillars! There were also mini cups, lids, caterpillar food and a paintbrush! We read the directions and learned that we needed to scoop some food into the mini cups and then use the paintbrush to delicately and carefully transfer one caterpillar into each mini cup.

I Wonder...

• "If they will make a chrysalis or cocoon?"
• "How big they are going to get?"
• "If we get to keep them?"
• "What kind of butterfly they will be?"
• "If they will eat all of their food?"
• "How many legs they have?"
• "Why they have spikes?"

After we had all the caterpillars settled into their new homes, we created a page in our visual journals to record Day 1 of our caterpillar adventures! We can't wait to find some answers to our wonders and see how much they have grown when we get back to school next week! Stay tuned for more caterpillar updates soon!

May 6th - 10th

 

Wishing all you amazing kindergarten moms 

a very Happy Mother's Day 💗

Learning Intentions:

- Children develop appropriate grammar in oral language and experiment with spelling and punctuation in written messages

I Can:

- Copy environmental print to become familiar with how words are spelled

- Attempt to spell unknown words using letter-sound relationships

Students were very busy this past week working on their special Mother's Day writing and art. At the beginning of the week we looked closely at the beautiful flower artwork done by the artist Georgia O'Keeffe. Students noticed different things about her art such as her use of colours, the variety of flowers, her attention to detail and the way that the flowers took up most of the space. Once students had decided on how they wanted to draw their flower they drew it using pencil and then traced it using a sharpie. The next step was choosing the colours they would use for their flower and then a contrasting colour for the background. As they used the watercolour paints they focused on painting slowly and carefully to make sure their flower was perfect for mom! Once we had finished painting we move onto writing a special message for our moms. Students copied the words 'Happy Mother's Day' and 'I love you' from off the board and were then encouraged to use their understanding of the letter-sound connections to finish their message using 'kid-writing.'