November Kindergarten News
Time flies when you’re having fun! It’s hard to believe that November is already
here. October was a fun and festive month in our classroom as we celebrated
Thanksgiving and Halloween.
During our discussion about traditional Thanksgiving meals, students decided they
wanted to survey the class to find out which foods were their favourite. Apple pie
had the most votes, with mashed potatoes close behind.
Students were involved in a variety of math, literacy and creative arts activities as
we prepared for the ever anticipated Halloween. After reading “Go Away, Big
Green Monster” by Ed Emberley, students created their own shape monsters. Our
monster friends were so cute, they couldn’t scare anyone away if they tried!
Identifying number patterns on dice, was a mathematical focus this past month.
Students practiced this while playing various Halloween games. We also did some
more surveying when trying to decide on a jack-o-lantern design for our pumpkin.
Math and science overlapped as we sequenced the life cycle of a pumpkin.
Numbers, sight words and Halloween words were the focus in our Halloween
counting books for many students. The chime-in “Five Little Pumpkins” is a class
favourite. Students created their own pumpkin puppets and enjoyed reciting the
poem to a variety of audiences. Literacy is clearly embedded in all we do.
Throughout our various inquiries and topics, we read many related stories and
practise our writing skills. Sight words and focus letters of the week are
practised daily throughout our classroom in areas such as the play dough centre,
light table and even during outdoor play. Please make note of the focus letter and
sight words on the calendar as you may wish to review them with your child at
home.
Recycled baby food jars and corks were used to create little orange jack-olanterns to help decorate your homes. A variety of other materials such as paint,
stickers, stamps, q-tips, toilette paper rolls, jewels and chalk were used to create
various Halloween art. Thank you to parents for continuing to collect materials for
our wonderful creations!!
During outdoor play, students eagerly collected and indentified many leaves in our
neighbourhood and created leaf people and animals. Students also enjoyed painting
some rocks with bright acrylic paints.
No Halloween is complete without carving a pumpkin! Students took part in a
pumpkin investigation. Great words were brainstormed to describe the inside and
outside of the pumpkin. Students used their counting skills to measure the height
of the pumpkin in cubes and counted 23 lines around the outside of the pumpkin.
Students also took many guesses about the number of seeds in the pumpkin and
together we counted 450 seeds by groups of 10.
The best part of Halloween is dressing up! How cute are all our friends???
This month we focused on the virtue of Empathy. As empathetic students, we * to
ask themselves, “How do you think he/she feels? How would you feel if that
happened to you?” During the season of Fall, we also reflected on God’s wonderful
gift of nature and the changes that we see around us. As part of our Thanksgiving
celebration, we discussed how thankful we were for our food, home, family and
friends.
Reminders:

Thank you to parents for helping your children complete the chime-in
activities and reviewing all poems in their green folders. Good job!

The red letters and review duotangs do not have to be returned to school.
Insert the sheet at the end of the week and review on a regular basis. This
will help reinforce the letter and sound concepts studied in class.

Our weekly visits to the library on Tuesdays continue. The library book your
child had chosen may be kept for a week. A new book can be taken out only
if the previous one had been returned.

We will continue to go outdoors daily. It is important to practice winter
dressing with your children at home. Providing opportunities for them to
practise will help further develop their independence. Please label all pieces
of clothing if possible.

Thank you to parents for their donations of play dough, tissue boxes and a
pumpkin for Halloween. From time-to-time your child might require a plastic
spoon or fork, therefore such donations would also be appreciated.
You are always welcome to drop into the classroom and ask your child about what
we are working on. Please feel free to write a note or contact me at any time with
any questions or concerns.
Thank you for your continued support and co-operation!
Mrs. Bagnarol