Bulletin # 1

Welcome to Senior Kindergarten!

We are off to a terrific start! It's been wonderful meeting with you one-on-one during our Intake interviews and Meet the Teacher BBQ.

"Homework"

We hope that you've been enjoying Snuggling up with your child and reading everyday! Please continue to read 15-20 minutes each ay. Talk about the pictures, make connections to personal experiences, search for letters and words, and most of all, have fun! There will also be occasional activities sent home to be completed with your child. They will be focused around numeracy and literacy skills. Thank you in advance for supporting our program.

Communication is Key to success  

We are really looking forward to working closely with each of you to ensure that our child adapts easily and comfortably to our classroom routines. Open and clear communication is key to your child’s success. Please continue checking Mr. Zipper and make sure to send it back everyday. Please also feel welcome to call us at school at any time. The number is 613-836-5987. And, of course, our doors are always open!

Pick-Up & Drop Off

Thank you for waiting at fenced-in kindergarten yard in the beginning of the day and at the end of the day. Our Kinder friends are now in routine of lining up by the wall after the bell in the morning and getting in their own lines to go home.

Library

Our library day is on Wednesday, therefore, we will kindly ask you to send the library books no later than Tuesday. Please make sure the book that your child has brought is in the library bag that was provided to them. Thank You!

What We’re Working On…

The focus for the beginning of the school year is learning our routines and procedures. You can help by asking your child questions like, “What do you do as soon as you arrive at your cubby?” (The answer: change my shoes, hang up my coat, put my shoes on the top shelf of the cubby, place Mr. Zipper in the green bin, and answer our question of the day then sit on the carpet.

Try to avoid questions that can be answered with a yes or no. Tell your child to tell you the best part of his/her day. Ask open-ended questions as they challenge your child to synthesize his/her ideas and to express them clearly.

We focus on ensuring that all of our friends feel safe, secure and welcome. Understanding the school routines is a process that takes time. We offer lots of choice and praise, reassurance, high fives and hugs throughout the month of September (and the rest of the year, of course!).

The children are working on their ‘circle time expectations’ (hands up, taking turns, quiet voices, sharing, eyes on the speaker, etc.) Nicely done!

Full day is new to most of our friends. To ease the transition to school, you can ensure your child gets to bed early (kids this age generally needs 10-12 hours of sleep), eats well and gets plenty of outdoor play.

We are also focusing on learning names, making friends and recognizing the people at school (the principal, the vice-principal, the librarian, etc.). We’ll reviewing shapes, colours, simple patterns, and printing our names. Please encourage your child to print his/her name using a capital and then lower case letters. Thanks!

Scholastic Book Orders and the Birthday Book Program

Please note that Scholastic Book Orders will be sent home each month. When you place your order please ensure that you send a check made payable to Scholastic Canada, Inc. Ordering books from Scholastic is convenient for you and it benefits the classroom. Every class order over $30 qualifies us for free books! You can build your child’s library and help us build our’s at the same time! Our September book order is due on October 04^th, 2013.

Birthdays are very important to our young learners! We mark our special day with a crown, certificate, pencil and a song! Please do not send cake, cupcakes or candies. A healthier and longer-lasting option is to send in a ‘Birthday Book’ to be donated to our classroom library in honour of your child’s special day. We will place a dedication on the inside cover. The book can be new or gently used.

Snacks

Please send in healthy, easy to manage, nut-free lunches and snacks. Number them so your child can independently take out his/her snack/lunch when he/she feels hungry. P.S. Nutella contains hazelnut, therefore, Nutella sandwiches are not allowed!

Thank you for your ongoing help and support!

Regards,

Room 20 Educators

Looking for Parent experts...

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are looking for this year’s Classroom Experts. Please include a small description of your profession/hobby (if you have one), and some of the duties you perform. You may just have a particular skill that may be perfect for enhancing a particular topic of Inquiry, and the kids LOVE it when they see their parents as the Guest Experts in our room.

Please follow the link and fill our our survey.

Thanks in advance!

Room 20 Educators

Room 20 is on the road of learning, exploring & having fun!

Hello Parents/Guardians,

Students in Rm. 20 have started their journey of exploring the world around them.
They are mathematicians, writers, readers, and explores! While juggling with all this jobs, they're being a friend who share, are kind and above all bucket fillers...

Check it out!

Number Sense: We're showing that we know are numbers and our 1-1 correspondence. 

Patterning: We can make our AB patterns...

Data Management: We can use more than one attributes to sort our objects. 

Reading: we know 3 ways to read! Ask us about them...

We are great writers!!! One way to write is to draw pictures. Ask me about my pictures and I'll tell you my story...

Learning & Exploring time: Play and Inquiry Based Learning...

Using our social skills to share and take turns.

Using our imaginations to make sense of the world around us...

Using our questioning skills to wonder and inquire about things we are curious about...

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
~by Robert Fulgham~

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything.  Play fair.  Don't hit people.  Put things back where you found them.  Clean up your own mess.  Don't take things that aren't yours.  Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.  Wash your hands before you eat.  Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.  Live a balanced life.  Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.  Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup.  The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup ~ they all die.  So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all:  LOOK.  Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.  The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all ~the whole world  had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap.  Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes.  And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Cheers,

Room 20