We Celebrate Literacy

Our current unit of inquiry focuses on sharing ideas through literacy, and one of our lines of inquiry is "we celebrate literacy". Today during reading workshop we entered a new phase as we were introduced to reading fairytales. To celebrate this new, exciting time we each were given a special book to unwrap.

Ms. Winta - our special deliverer!

Our faces were filled with grins as we unwrapped our books to see which one we were given. We  excitedly shared them with our reading partners.

Tomorrow we are very much looking forward to celebrating literacy in two more ways. In the morning we will gather with another kindergarten class to celebrate our writing and share our own books. Then in the afternoon we will have a reading parade during our KG/Grade 1 assembly to show off some of our favorite books. Stay tuned for more photos!

ICS Responsible Use Policy

Parents: ICS requires all students to adhere to a policy in regard to digital citizenship. Please click on the following link and discuss it with your child. Then please digitally sign the responsible use policy:

ICS Responsible Use Policy

We Are Readers & Writers

In KG-B we have been learning all about what it means to be readers and writers, and we have begun to realize that we are already both of these things! This learning coincides so nicely with our current unit of inquiry, whose central idea is "We share ideas through literacy." We follow a workshop model in both reading and writing instruction, which allows us the opportunity to learn new things and practice honing our skills each day.

We begin with a mini lesson. This is where teaching points are made and we have an opportunity to remind ourselves of past lessons. For this part of the lesson we gather on the carpet as a community of learners.

Next we get the chance to develop our skills through individual and group practice. In our reading workshop this includes both private and partner reading each day. Right now we are learning how to slow down to read each page and then how to share our thinking with a partner. We've learned that we can learn so much more simply by rereading stories and looking more closely.

In our writing workshop this is where we can continue our stories from the day before, or start a new piece. Right now we are writing books about experiences we've had or things we know lots about. Today we learned more about how we can make our stories into books, and some of us even started making covers to publish our books!

At the end of both workshops we have a sharing time. Sometimes we share our work with a partner, and at other times we share ideas and thoughts about a story or piece of writing. We are so excited about all that we've already accomplished. As we continue 'trying our best and forgetting the rest' we see that we can do so much more than we initially gave ourselves credit for. When the year started and we were asked to write and read, almost every one of us said "I can't". Now, only three weeks in, almost every one of us is saying "I can!"

*During Back to School Night the librarians shared more about reading and writing workshop and how you can support your child in the area of literacy. If you missed the presentation, please take a moment to read through it:

We Are Inquirers

The hail storm today provided a perfect opportunity for us to be introduced to the Primary Years Program (PYP) learner profile trait inquirer. We were amazed to see, in Anastasia's words, "the sky raining ice". We wondered why this happened and from where the ice came. We are interested in seeking answers to our questions. We will use this word a lot during our journey through the PYP and invite you to use this vocabulary at home as well.

Sorting and Classifying

One of the things we focus on within math is the ability to sort and classify. In kindergarten we learn how to classify objects into given categories, count the numbers of objects in each category, and sort the categories by count. Throughout the year we will learn that objects can be described by attributes, and these attributes help us classify.

We began our exploration of sorting today. As I was walking along I accidentally tripped and spilled all of the tools out of the table tub. Oops!!

Immediately Danique said "I can help!" and Maria quickly jumped in and gathered all the scissors. I told them all not to worry about it and that I could be responsible and clean up the mess. I quickly gathered everything in my hands and dumped it all into the tub:

After exclaiming "Okay, all finished!" there were many loud groans followed by, "No, no! You can't leave it like! You have to put everything back in its spot!" I was quick to remark that it didn't really matter and that they could find what they needed. Of course once again the students disagreed and said that if the tub was left this way they wouldn't be able to find what they needed. They decided to show me what to do:

As different students gathered like objects and put them together, we began to realize how much easier it would be to find the materials we needed. We had a bit more trouble when it came to the crayons, however. We realized that there were two of each color! How could we sort these? Lyla suggested that we put the same colors together and then put one of each color into two separate pouches. This way when the tub was put onto the table each person could reach the color they needed.

With help from our entire team we got our table tub all sorted and looking back to normal:

A discussion followed about how important it is to organize things, and we learned that we just did a skill called "sorting". We then thought of a time we have sorted things ourselves or seen things sorted. We drew these examples to show our current understanding of sorting and classifying. We handed these in as our 'exit tickets'.

We will continue our exploration of sorting and classifying next week. In the meantime, ask your child to identify objects you sort at home, and be sure to point out sorting as it is happening during your every-day movements! 

Back to School Night Presentation

Thank you to those who were able to make it to Back to School Night tonight. I hope you found the sessions informative and helpful. Please do email me with any lingering questions you may have. As promised, here is a copy of the presentation that was shared:

Also as was discussed in the presentation, the following document provides more information about our current unit of inquiry which explores the central idea "We share ideas through literacy." Please read through it so that you can better engage with your child at home and foster home learning. Our units of inquiry are essential to our day, so having an understanding of what these look like is important.

Informational Parent Letter

Back to School Night

This Thursday, August 18 is Back to School Night, during which time information about ICS and kindergarten will be shared. Please see the flyer below for more information and I look forward to seeing you all then! (FYI - you can click on the flyer to enlarge it.)

Our First Week

Our first week of school was filled with fun, and each day we are getting to know each other a little more. On the first day of school we joined the other three kindergarten classes and listened to "Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes". We then made Pete the Cat headbands and spent the rest of the day rocking in our school shoes too!

 

 We also spent time our first day working as a team to make playdough. We had to measure out our ingredients and kneed the dough to get the consistency we wanted. I'm sure you saw our stained hands from the food coloring! 

We have spent time getting to know each other through many classroom community building activities, as well as through snack, recess, and choice time. 

Created with flickr slideshow.

One of our favorite experiences this week was when we read the story "The Gingerbread Man", listened to the book in song version, and then decorated gingerbread men to eat. Unfortunately we didn't have time to eat before it was time for recess, so we decided we would eat our cookies when we returned...but when we reentered our classroom our gingerbread men were gone! We decided they must have run away just like in the book. We determined we needed to hunt around the school to find them. This hunt provided us the opportunity to meet some important people and see some important places.

Mr. Schooler, elementary principal, helps us in our hunt

Those sneaky gingerbread men! We eventually found them hiding in the library. Of course we needed to eat them up so that they couldn't run away again!

Created with flickr slideshow.

We are looking forward to another wonderful week this week as we begin our first unit of inquiry and explore our different learning materials. Check back again for an update on our classroom happenings!

Welcome to KG-B!

Hello and welcome to KG-B's blog! We hope you find this platform helpful in providing a glimpse into our daily happenings, as well as a means through which to share information.

Because information will be shared on a regular basis primarily through this blog, I highly recommend that the first thing you do is scroll to the bottom of this page and enter your email address into the bar titled "Email Notifications". It should look like this:

Your email will not be shared with anyone; this simply allows you to easily see when I have posted something new as the post will show up in your inbox. At the end of the year you can very easily unsubscribe from our blog.

Expect to see updates on our blog regularly, and expect to see a posting of our first week (of course containing photos!) coming very soon. Thank you for sharing your children with us this year!