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Welcome to Junior / Senior Kindergarten
My name is Jennifer Ward and I am proud to be a part of your child's education! I am looking forward to our learning in 2012.
FIELD TRIPS / EVENTS
- Scientists in the school have been booked for March 29th, 2012. Volunteers will be needed to make this presentation successful. Notes will be coming home soon about this event.
- Journey Through the Arts-Spring date. We will have a presentation in the classroom.
Writing
In Writing, the students have been working on several ideas. Their SUCCESS CRITERIA (the things that they need to do to be successful) include:
SUCCESS CRITERIA
1) I can Write what I can hear in words.
2) I can Write about my illustrations (pictures) and stay on topic.
Additional expectations
Junior Kindergarten students should be recording the letter sounds that they hear in a word when they label their picture. Many of you saw what this looked like during our interviews in November 2011. The students are practising printing their names when they "sign in" and are working towards Writing their first name independently. Some students, are already Writing very basic sentences but that it because they are ready. Writing is fun and exciting learning for students. The main focus is that they stay on topic by Writing what they can hear in a word and read their picture to you.
Senior Kindergarten students are working on Writing the letter sounds they can hear in words. They are to tell me their "story" before they begin to Write. They draw an illustration and then Write the "story" that goes with their picture. Many students are able to Write the most of the sounds they hear the words they are Writing. Many students are Writing full sentences. You saw this during our November interview times. The students are also working on printing their first name. Other students are practising their first and last names. Several students are now working on printing their first and last names a long with their address.
Reading
The students have been working on reading accurately this term. The Junior Kindergarten students have been reading some simple one word texts with the teacher. The Senior Kindergarten students have been reading one-on-one with the teacher and have been taking home their books to read with family members.
When Reading With Your Child
Be sure to give your child at least three seconds of wait time before assisting them with an unknown word:) Try not to correct EVERY error. This will begin to frustrate students and then they will not want to take risks with unknown words. If what the child said made sense let it go. For example, if the child said house for home and it made sense don't focus on it too much. Later, when their confidence is higher you can use the prompt "You said house which makes sense but does that word look like house? Look carefully." Usually by this point the child smiles and says home. It is very important that the student is reading to make the story make sense and match.
Possible prompts:
You said _____________ did that make sense?
Did that sound right?
You said _________________. Do you know a word like that? (usually the students reads a "nonsense" word that they have made up based on the letters they see).
You stopped. Well done! What did you notice?
Did that match? (This is a prompt for early readers. Usually they have made up the text in a story that makes sense but did not match word-by-word in the text. They either added words to make it "sound right" or they have omitted words to make it "sound right".
Math
OUR LEARNING GOAL
WE WILL TALK ABOUT AND SHOW OUR THINKING.
SUCCESS CRITERIA
I HAVE MADE CLEAR PICTURES, NUMBERS AND OR WORDS.
I ORGANIZED MY WORK.
The students have been working on their patterning and number sense from 0-5 for JK Students and 0-10 and higher forSK Students. They are asked not to just count objects and match them one-to-one but to show different representations of the number. They are using various manipulatives to show their thinking. If they state that a number is three they are asked "How do you know?" Some students explain that "...I have touched each object one time." Other students use a five frame to show you "I know it is three because my five frame has two empty spaces" While another student might say "I know it is three because I used three of my fingers, counted up and checked." and so on.
The students have been working on geometrical shapes lately. They have been examining regular and irregular triangles and are also beginning to look at other irregular shapes. They have examined regular squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, hexagons and diamonds. They have been using pattern blocks to find smaller shapes (such as triangles) in larger shapes (such as hexagons, diamonds and squares).
Drama
The students have learned that when "we" are in role we need to change our voice, body, and movement. The students have done very well participating in all dramatic activities. They have been taking risks and trying to create represntations of their thinking at various levels (high, medium and low).
Music
The students have been learning about different instruments and how they are used. We have also been examining patterns within music (which relates to Math).
Thank-you for taking the time to look at our web page. I can be contacted through e-mail at: jennifer_ward@kprdsb.ca
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ward
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