the -at word family

We are learning about rhyming and we started by reading the Cat in the Hat and learned about the -at word family. bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat and sat. At home, make up rhyming games with your child. Point out rhymes you hear around you. Kids love rhymes and having a firm grasp can really help them with their reading and writing skills.

:)
Miss Mynes

What a day!

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped me take the children to The Name of the Tree. The children loved the play (and the adults had fun too, I think). The play is based on a book. Next time you are at the public library, look it up - I'm sure your child would love to hear the story again. The children were all so well behaved - a fantastic day all around.

:)
Miss Mynes

20 Minute Clean Up

This afternoon, J.G. Workman P.S. will be participating in the 20 Minute Clean Up. I will be absent, unfortunately. The occasional teacher will bring the children outside, along with the rest of the school to pick up trash and clean up our school yard. The children will be given plastic gloves and bags. Feel free to send gardening gloves with your child if they own them. I'm sad to miss this activity. The kids always have so much fun and feel so accomplished when they look around at how much better the school yard looks.

:)
Miss Mynes

Family Fun NIght

Thanks you to all of you who came to Family Fun Night last night. The school really felt like a community and there was smiles all around from adults and kids alike.

:)
Miss Mynes

Today

Today we started out 3D shape unit! Sphere, cone, cylinder and cube!

The morning class is in library and the afternoon class will be working on spatial awareness with an obstacle course in gym.

Today our riddle was about chicks (they come from eggs). Thanks to all of you who have returned your field trip forms.

:)
Miss Mynes

a little about our day

This week, we are learning about things that come from eggs. Today, we are working in our writing folders or journals. The morning class will be doing an obstacle course in physical education in order to improve our body awareness. The afternoon class has library.

Thank you to those of you who have returned the field trip form. The Markham Theater plays are usually really terrific. I look forward to having all 31 students joining us for this fun life experience. I need volunteers so hopefully 5 of you are able to come with us.

Have a great day,
Miss Mynes

supporting our future students

For those of you who have little ones who will be in my class next year, here are some accomplishments they can achieve before their first day of school.

- recognize specific books by cover
- pretend to read books
- understands that books are handled in particular ways
- enters into a book-sharing routine with primary caregivers
- vocalization play in crib gives way to enjoyment of rhyming language, nonsense word play, etc.
- label objects in books
- comments on characters in books
- looks at picture in book and realizes it is a symbol for real object
- listens to stories
- requests/commands adults to read and write
- may begin attending to specific print, such as letters and names
- uses increasingly purposeful scribbling
- occasionally seems to distinguish between drawing and writing
- produces some letter-like forms and scribbles with some features of English writing


These are things children should accomplish between birth and 3 years old. It creates a firm base of literacy skills, preparing them for the accomplishments expected in kindergarten

:)
Miss Mynes

our focus today

I try to read with the seniors every day but, in all honesty, I rarely - if ever - get to all of them each day. Today, reading with the seniors is my main focus. I want to check in to be sure that their book bag books are the right level for them. I love getting that one on one time to read with the kids.

Enjoy your day,
Miss Mynes

Literacy Learning

Here are a few things kinds in kindergarten are expected to accomplish.

- knows the parts of a book and their functions
- begin to track print when listening to a familiar text being read or when rereading own writing
- "reads" familiar texts emergently, i.e., not necessarily verbatim from the print alone
- recognizes and can name all uppercase and lowercase letters
- understands that the sequence of letters in a written word represents the sequence of sounds (phonemes) in a spoken word (alphabetic principle)
- learns many, though not all, one-to-one letter sound correspondences
- recognizes some words by sight, including a few very common ones ("the," "I," "my," "you," "is," "are")
- uses new vocabulary and grammatical constructions in own speech
- makes appropriate switches from oral to written language styles
- notices when simple sentences fail to make sense
- connects information and events to life and life experiences to text
- retells, reenacts, or dramatizes stories or parts of stories


Well, I could go on and on but I will leave it there for today and take the rest of my preparation period to prepare for the launch of our 3D shapes unit.

Enjoy the sunny day,
Miss Mynes

Monday

It's a sunny Monday, thanks goodness for the better weather. We had lots of yummy birthday treats last week - thanks, to Jesse-James family and Vincent Seto's family.

Today, we are writing in our journals and writing folders. The morning class has gym where they will be working on spatial awareness by moving around and over pylons. The afternoon class has library. Our theme this week is "in the rain forest".

:)
Miss Mynes

rain, rain go away

Well, a dreary day indeed but April showers bring May flowers, I guess.

Today, we continue our theme of ways to take care of the environment. We also have a Math lesson followed by work in our Math folders. The morning class has library and the afternoon class has gym where we will be playing Space Invaders (games to help us learn to stay in our personal space in the gym).

Focus on those May flowers,
:)
Miss Mynes

we're back...

I thanks to Keira's family for the yummy birthday treats on Friday and to the parents who sent in Easter treats for the kids. They really enjoyed them.

On our first day back we are pretending it is Monday and writing in our writing folders/journals. Our theme this week is about ways we can help the earth. Today we talked about keeping the air clean so the animals and us have clean air to breathe.

Have a good day..the sun is trying to break through.

:)
Miss Mynes

a bit about our day

Today, I am out of the classroom in the morning for a Teaching and Learning Critical Pathway meeting. I am not sure which occasional teacher has been booked for me.

In the afternoon, we will be going outside for gym at the end of the day. It's nice to have a break from the physical education program and play in the sunshine at the park.

Have a wonderful long weekend. For those of you celebrating Easter - Happy Easter!

:)
Miss Mynes