Our Thirty-First Post -- Dancing, Dancing, and More Dancing

Thanks to Ms. Stretton's fantastic organizational skills and the Home and School Association's generous contribution, our students were able to participate in a Mac Dance lesson on April 23rd (A Class) and April 24th (B Class). Our A Class students learned a creative dance and our B Class students learned a hip hop routine, and both classes had lots of fun and a wonderful workout too.



Please click on the thumbnail image below to check out the many photographs of the students completing their dancing routines. Have your children use these photographs as visuals to help them when telling you about the new dance that they learned. This is a great oral language activity!



Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather!
Aviva and Dianne

My Montage 4/25/09

Our Thirtieth Post -- April 18, 2009

This was another busy week in our room. The children were excited to finish our twelfth round of literacy and math centres. Talk to your child about the different activities that he/she completed in class, and visit the Photographs link on the Kindergarten Website for guiding questions about these activities. We took so many photographs of the children completing these different centres that we used One True Media to create a slideshow presentation of the children hard at work. Click on the thumbnail image underneath to view the slideshow. We hope that you like it!

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the beautiful weather!
Aviva and Dianne

My Montage 4/18/09

Our Twenty-Ninth Post -- Syllable Game Explanation

Listen to this short video to hear and see how to complete the Syllable Game from our twelfth round of literacy centres. JPEG images of this game are available under the SMART Board News link on the Kindergarten Website. We hope that you have fun playing this game with your child!

Have a great weekend!

Aviva and Dianne

Our Twenty-Eighth Post -- April 10, 2009

Even though it was a short week, we had a very exciting week in our room. Along with completing literacy and math centres on Monday and Tuesday, we also completed our special paper mache activity this week (on Wednesday and Thursday). A special thank you to Ms. Laporte, Mr. Clemens, Mrs. Wolsley, Mrs. Ryan, Mr. Borean, Mrs. Wohl, Shawna, and the entire Grade 7/8 class for making this paper mache project such a success and such an enjoyable experience for everyone involved! We cannot wait to show all of you the final product on May 7th from 6:30-8:00 for Open House. We are also preparing a special slideshow presentation of the entire paper mache process to show at Open House too. In an attempt to keep this special literacy and art activity a secret until Open House, we are not going to post all of the photographs beforehand, but we are posting a couple of photographs below as a little sneak peak of what to expect. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful long weekend and a very happy Easter to everyone that celebrates it!

Aviva and Dianne

Our Twenty-Seventh Post -- Video Footage Of Our B Class Math Problem

Today we used the recording feature that is part of the Notebook Software to record our B Class math problem. It is great to listen and see the children work together as they use the "T-Chart Problem Solving Method" to solve this math problem. Watch this video with your children, and talk to them about the steps in solving this problem. Going through this math problem together will not only help your children develop their math skills, but also develop their language skills and their metacognitive skills!

We are definitely enjoying this new way of using technology in our classroom to help our students learn and to share what we do with you.

Have a great weekend!

Aviva and Dianne

Our Twenty-Sixth Post -- Video Footage Of Our A Class Math Problem

After our 102nd day of school, we replaced our calendar routine with a math problem routine. The children are learning how to use the "T-Chart Problem Solving Method" to solve math problems and explain their thinking as they solve them. We have been completing these math problems as a class on the SMART Board, but in the coming weeks, we will have the children complete similiar problems in small groups and individually. These math problems are a wonderful way to link literacy and numeracy, and they are helping children develop their metacognitive skills too.

On Saturday, March 28th, I (Aviva) went to a SMART Board Inservice, and I learned how to record lessons on the SMART Board. We used this recording feature today to record what the children are saying and doing as they complete this math problem as a class. Since we did not use an external microphone to record this activity, sometimes it is difficult to hear the audio portion of this video recording. Speakers improve the sound though. Have your children listen and watch this video with you and explain the math problem to you as they do. You are sure to be amazed by their new skills!

We hope that you enjoy our latest attempt at bringing technology into the classroom! Please check back here soon for a B Class math problem recording.

Aviva and Dianne