Welcome back and Happy New Year, we hope you all had a safe and Joyous
Holiday!
Here are some Highlights from the month of December:
December was a very busy month in our JK/SK class! We continued to work hard to learn our letters/
sounds of the week, numbers of the week and we definitely did a lot to prepare for Christmas!
For literacy, children had an opportunity to lots of writing; writing in their journals about weekends and
any Christmas decorations they had put up around the house, as well as making Christmas cards for
friends and family members. We also read a number of Christmas stories and have been focusing on
developing comprehension skills. We have been discussing the characters in the stories, where the
setting is, the events in stories, what are favourite parts of the story are as was as well as why the
author may have written the story (the “big idea”). In January we will be continuing to focus on
developing our understanding of stories. We will be sending home some follow up activities for you to
complete at home, there will be a note explaining this coming home soon! In Math we have been
focusing a lot on developing one-to-one correspondence when we are counting as well as working a lot
with the number line. Many children have made their own number lines. We have been playing a lot of
dice games as well as board games to help develop concepts of numbers to 10 for the JK’s and 20 for the
Sk’s. We have also done a lot of patterning as a whole group and in
small groups. Look for patterns at home and around the
community…you would be surprised how many patterns are out there!
The children have also enjoyed going on scavenger hunts around the
school. They have been looking for shapes, our number of the week
and Christmas trees.
Earlier on in the month, we set up our Christmas tree as a class. The children
enjoyed decorating the tree with Christmas bulbs, Christmas chains that were
patterned in various ways; red and green, and we even went online to print off
ornaments such as, Santa’s head, bells and small Christmas Trees. The children
used their fine motor skills to cut, paste, staple and colour for the Christmas tree
decorations.
Advent had arrived! Every week in the gym we had an Advent Celebration where we lit the appropriate
candle for the week. For the first week of Advent, we used our fine motor skills and we put on our
thinking caps to decorate paper poinsettias. The theme was A Time to Wait. We asked the children
when they have had to wait for something before as a symbol of waiting for our Saviour Jesus Christ to
be born. They responded with different answers including, waiting for a special birthday party, waiting
to have a special lunch or dinner or waiting for Christmas to arrive. In the second week of Advent, we lit
the second purple candle on the wreath. Our part in this celebration was to bring up the light. The
children were given small tea lights to hold in their hands as a symbol of Shining in the Light. We had
also decorated stars in various colours with oil pastels, in addition to bringing in the light. The children
used their fine motor skills and eye/ hand coordination to colour and cut the stars as well as to draw or
write a word on their star that represented Shining in the Light. Thank you to all those that joined us at
the family Advent mass, the children had fun learning the song “Take a Walk to Christmas”.
On December the seventh, some students from the University of
Waterloo came in to show us a cool science program based on dinosaurs.
The children enjoyed learning about various types of dinosaurs including,
herbivores and carnivores, we also learned what kind of climate they lived
in which included, the dessert and areas where they could be
camouflaged from meat eating dinosaurs that could be a potential threat
to them. We made special dinosaur
floor- puzzles, as well as participated in
a special dinosaur craft where we used
plaster of paris and clay to make
dinosaur foot prints.
We loved to hear all about some of your family Christmas traditions! Some of you choose to include a
small note in the mailbags with some details of traditions that occur within your household and we
loved hearing about the. Along with this, Mrs. Malleck and Ms. C also shared our family Christmas
traditions which the children enjoyed hearing about because we are from Italian and Portuguese
backgrounds. We also learned a little about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, and that in both traditions there is
also a candle holder they use to light special candles with. One is a Menorah in Jewish tradition and one
is a called a Kinara in the African-American tradition.
As a special Christmas activity, Ms. C. introduced us to what we decided to name as a class, Jingle Bells.
Jingle Bells was our classroom Christmas elf for the month of December. She watched to see if
everybody was following the rules of the classroom and reported this back to Santa in the North Pole.
Jingle Bells goes along with the book “The Elf on the Shelf” which some of the children were familiar
with.
Our annual Family Advent Mass at St. Teresa’s Parish went very well! Both kindergarten classrooms did
an awesome job singing “Take a Walk to Christmas” on the church altar, as well carrying the tea light out
of the service. We hope you all enjoyed this special Christmas mass with your families!
Some Activities for January 2013:
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We will be reading the story “The Mitten” and will discuss the elements of a story: characters,
setting (where the story takes place) as well as what happens at the beginning, middle and
ending of a story. We will also discuss what the Big Idea is in the book. Please work on
discussing these elements at home when you are reading to your child.
We will be reading many different versions of “The Gingerbread Man” and even baking
Gingerbread cookies
We are also looking into booking a Dance or Yoga instructor to come in and teach us the
different dance moves and routines ( i.e.- Hip Hop, Jazz, Tap dancing, relaxation techniques)
Please be aware that JK’s do not receive a report card until the end of June. Parent observations will
take place again this term. SK’s receive a second term report card in February.
Please Remember that winter is officially here. Please ensure your child is dressed properly for
the weather. Extra mitts, socks are good to have in your child’s backpack just in case.
Thank you Very Much for your Support!
The Early Learning Team