Friday, May 29, 2009

Our Thirty-Eighth Post -- Blog Feedback

This year, we added the Kindergarten Blog to our Kindergarten Website. As the year comes to an end, we are looking for some feedback from you on the blog:

Are you a regular reader of our blog?

Do you find the information here helpful?

What are your thoughts on the slideshow presentations, video presentations, and photographs that we add to our blog?

Is there anything that we do not write about on our blog now that you would like information about?

We would love to hear your opinions so that we can continue to improve our communication with you. Please feel free to post your opinions here or e-mail us directly (aviva.dunsiger@hwdsb.on.ca).

Thank you for your help!
Aviva, Cassi, and Dianne

Our Thirty-Seventh Post -- May 29, 2009

It is hard to believe that it is the end of May already. This week, we introduced our new literacy and math centres, and we will post guiding questions and photographs of these centres on the Kindergarten Website in the coming weeks. Ask your child about these exciting new activities.

Please note that we are still in the midst of the new computer roll-out at school, so our Internet and e-mail system continues to be interrupted in the process. Thank you for being so understanding about this!

Have a great weekend!
Aviva and Cassi

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Our Thirty-Sixth Post -- FirstClass Still Down

The FirstClass server is still down, so we are unable to check our Board e-mail accounts. The Kindergarten Website is down too. Our June Newsletter is complete now, and we will post it and e-mail it out to you when FirstClass is up and running again. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail us at Adunsiger@aol.com.

Have a great evening!
Aviva, Cassi, and Dianne

Friday, May 22, 2009

Our Thirty-Fifth Post -- Humpty Dumpty Experiment

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses,
And all the King's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Poor Humpty Dumpty! Would Humpty have had a different fate though if he was protected before he fell off of the wall? That is what our students tried to find out on May 19th (A Day) and May 20th (B Day). They worked together to design a contraption to keep Humpty safe as he fell off the wall (or, in our case, got dropped off a ladder).

Thank you to all of the parents that sent in the multitude of recyclable materials for the children to use to build their contraptions. Many of the groups considered cushioning (cotton balls, foam peanuts, and/or shredded paper) and space (small versus large boxes) as they designed their plan. A special thank you to Mrs. Wolsley, the Grade 7/8 class, and Mrs. Ryan for all of your help with this special activity. We could not have built these contraptions without you!

Many eggs went flying on the 19th and 20th, and a few broke too, but the majority of the eggs survived the fall. Two more eggs would have survived the fall, but due to Miss Dunsiger's clumsiness (many, many apologies), we had a few additional casualties. At the end of it all, it was clear that we have quite the engineers in our classes!

Please click on the thumbnail image below to view the slideshow presentation of our Humpty Dumpty Experiment. Use this slideshow as a way to talk to your child about this exciting day. We would love to hear your feedback on this special activity. Please post a comment with your thoughts, or encourage your child to post a comment with what he/she thought of this experiment. The more comments, the better.

Have a great weekend!
Aviva, Cassi, and Dianne

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Our Thirty-Fourth Post -- May 16, 2009

It is hard to believe that it is the middle of May already. We definitely had another busy week in our classroom. The students continue to work in their new groups on the latest round of literacy and math centres. Ask your children about these exciting centres. Next weekend, we will post guiding questions and photographs of these centres on the Kindergarten Website.

On Thursday, May 14th, we also had four teachers visit our room in the afternoon. These teachers came to observe our literacy block, and they were all amazed at how hard the children worked independently, in small groups, and as a large class. These teachers are excited to try some of our activities out in their rooms. We were so proud of how well our students worked on this difficult day: not only having people in observing them, but also having the power out for part of the day too.

Thursday, May 14th was also the date of the Teacher Appreciation Lunch. Thank you to all of the wonderful parents that sent in special treats for this amazing lunch. All of the food was definitely overwhelming and certainly appreciated. Many, many thanks again!

Thanks to all of the parents that also sent in recyclable materials for our Humpty Dumpty Experiment. We are excited to complete this experiment on Tuesday, May 19th (A Day) and Wednesday, May 20th (B Day). Our next Blog entry will update you on this exciting experiment.

Have a wonderful long weekend!
Aviva and Dianne

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Our Thirty-Third Post -- May 9, 2009

It was another busy week in our room! We finished our thirteenth round of literacy and math centres and we introduced new literacy and math centres too. The children are working so hard and learning so much. Please click on the thumbnail image below to view the many photographs of the children completing our last round of literacy and math centres. Watch this slideshow presentation with your children and talk to them about what they are doing in class.

Please remember that starting on Tuesday, May 12th, you can start sending in recyclable materials with your children for our Humpty Dumpty Experiment. More information about this experiment is in our May Newsletter. Thank you for your help with this!

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend, and to all of the mothers out there, we wish you a very happy Mother's Day!

Aviva and Dianne

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Our Thirty-Second Post -- May 2, 2009

It is hard to believe that it is already the beginning of May. Our students are continuing to grow both academically and socially, and they are becoming even more prepared for next year. This week, all of the children have been hard at work completing our latest round of literacy and math centres. Ask them to tell you about these exciting centres. We will be starting new centres next week (beginning May 6th) and posting information about our current round of centres next weekend (May 10th).

This week the children also completed a visualization activity that will be displayed for Open House. We have a couple of photographs below of the children working on this activity in class. Look at these photographs with your children and ask them about what they visualized and why they visualized what they did. We were amazed with their thinking!

Have a great weekend! We hope to see you on Thursday, May 7th in the evening for Open House.

Aviva and Dianne