Math Week in Kindergarten!

This week as we prepared for our school's math night, we celebrated Math Week!

We asked the class 'What is Math?' and they came up with some fantastic and deep ideas.

Here are some of our favourite games, puzzles, mini lessons, and meaningful problems from the week.

Lego Math
1 student made trees out of Lego. He figured out how to make the tree trunks using the number 4. He used different blocks to make 4.
4 Block
2 Block and 2 Block
2 Block and 1 Block and 1 Block
1 and 1 and 1 and 1

Another student compared Lego. She found important numbers called doubles on the blocks with 2,4,6, or 8 dots on it. 
1 and 1 makes 2
2 and 2 makes 4
3 and 3 makes 6 
4 and 4 makes 8. 

Unifix Cubes

We used our measuring strings to see how tall or how short people are. We used the cubes to measure our strings to find the tallest.

We had a colour survey and asked people what colour was their favourite. We used the unifix cubes to show what we found out. Most people in our class like blue. Green, red, and orange were a tie.

Locked Out!
A Wizard locked us out of Character Land! We needed 12 different keys using 5 bricks to get back in! We worked together and solved the problem!

What a Cake!
Our Bakery had a cake delivered by the Wizard! It is so big it almost touches the ceiling! We measured it with red blocks.

Math Art
Students visited the Art centre and made structures out of popsicle sticks. We then had to figure out what 2D shapes and 3D solids we used to make our structures.


How Far...
You throw the bean bag and see which number it goes on. It could land on 30 , 40, 20 or 50. The smallest throw was 0 and the biggest throw was 50.
Can you jump? We stand at the line and then you jump as far a you can go. Then you can see what number you landed on. The shortest jump was 10 and the farthest jump was 28!

Jet Plane Races

You can measure the jets to see how far it goes. You start by putting your jet in the launcher and you pull the switch and press the red button and off it goes! One jet even made it to 100!

April 18 - 22

Dear Families,

We read some great books in Kindergarten this week and we have made it to 60 books in our reading challenge!
Here are some of our favourites!
No Clean Clothes
Lacey didn't have any clean clothes so she had to wear a shirt Grandma gave her. She wore a shirt that said 'Kiss me' on it but all sorts of animals started to kiss her! It was so funny!

The Earth Book

This is a fun book that teaches us how to take care of the Earth.
1. Use both sides of paper
2. Save left over food
3. Turn off the lights when you're not using them
4. Bring bags with you for shopping
5. Take the bus


Today is Earth Day but all week we have celebrated the Earth with a special energy challenge! We won two times (Monday,Tuesday) and they won two times (Wednesday, Thursday). Somebody will win the challenge today - we hope it's our school!!
Today, we have turned off all our lights so we are not wasting electricicty. 


Spring is here!
It is warmer now. No more Winter jackets! sometimes we take our water bottles out for recess and we sometimes take off our jackets. We are practicing putting on our own sunscreen too!
We planted tulips in September. They are growing bigger this week and are almost flowers.

Here is an update from Character Land:
We have made a map for Character Land. It will show us all the lands we have created. If you have not visited a place before and don't know where to go, you can look on a map!



Angry Bird Land
We made a pig building out of jenga blocks and we put fruit and TNT in it like in the video game. We do not have a sling shot but can pretend there is one. We have almost everything we need, but the pigs are not there yet. 


Plant vs. Zombie Land
We have grass and graves in this land. There are a lot of pretend zombies under the ground and on the road. The plants must protect their garden. 



Minecraft Land
We made Minecraft out of wood and lego and cardboard. Our favourite parts are the wooden house and the lego trees.



Mario Land
Mario and Kirby live in Mario land. We made a flag, a question mark block, a toad house, another house, and a green tube. It was really fun!

Our Week April 11 - 15

We are learning how to retell the stories we read together and have been thinking and wondering about different characters and settings in the books we read. We read a book called 'Each Peach Pear Plum' and wondered where did this story take place? We decided the setting of this story is the land of Fairy Tales. 

This week we have started to build 'Character Land' in our construction area and we are thinking about the characters we like and where their stories take place.

Each different area in Character land has a background.   We use the backgrounds because it tells us which movie, video game, or book the characters come from.
Here are some student stories about places in Character Land.

The Jungle Book
This book is about a Tiger who gets a boy and all the other animals from the jungle protect him. 

Pride Rock
This area has Simba, Nala, and Rafiki. Pride Rock is from the Lion King. It is a favourite movie in our class. 

Superhero Land
The superhero land is very big. It has triangles and squares and arches for Batma's secret hideout and a tall yellow building for Superman's house. Ironman and Aquaman live here too!
Adventure Bay
Paw Patrol takes place in Adventure Bay. It is our favourite TV show. The pups lives there in front of the lookout. 


Arendelle
Arendelle is the land in Frozen. Elsa lives in her gigantic castle and her friends Anna, Olaf, and Sven live there too.



And in other news...

Listening Centre
Our listening centre has music and books and CDs that we can listen to. We put the CD in the machine, press the green button, and put on the headphones to listen.

String Measurement

We each made a string by measuring how tall we were. Then, we used that string to measure our friends and things in the classroom that are taller, smaller, or the same as us. This week, we took our strings to the forest for our nature walk to measure outdoors.

Curriculum Expectations:

Reading            2.9

retell stories, in proper sequence, that have been read by and with the EL–K team

Reading            2.2

identify personal preferences in reading materials in different contexts 

Geometry          G3.4

build three-dimensional structures using a variety of materials and begin to recognize the three-dimensional figures their structure contains

Data Management DM5.1

sort, classify, and compare objects and describe the attributes used

Measurement      M2.1

compare and order two or more objects according to an appropriate and use measurement

Measurement       M2.2

demonstrate, through investigation,

an awareness of non-standard measuring devices and standard measuring devices and strategies for using them 

Measurement       M2.3

demonstrate, through investigation, a beginning understanding of non-standard units that are the same type but not always the same size

Our Week April 4 - 8

Here are some stories of our week from the Blue Jays (SK students). 

Visiting Next Door
We have begun visiting the classroom next door during different parts of the day. When we go we are meeting new friends, playing at new centres, and learning new things.

Together we created some rules:
-The classroom must be open
-You must tell the teacher where you are by writing your name on the sign up board
-Remember to be responsible and have fun next door.




Creating Characters

We really like learning about different characters from video games, movies, tv, and books. We enjoy Mario, Minecraft, Superman, Batman, and Lion King characters. We wanted some characters in our Construction Land. Each student made a list of the characters they wanted. We made them out of cardboard and paper. We use the characters to play pretend and tell stories. 

Lego Centre

We now have a Lego centre at our Sensory Station. We build ships, houses, vehicles, cars, and battleships! 

Retelling and Math
This week we have begun using books and songs to learn about making numbers and counting backwards. These songs follow a simple pattern and make us laugh and smile!
We have 5 frogs in our puppet centre to tell the story song '5 Green and Speckled Frogs'. We count backwards from 5. We love to have the frogs jump into the pool. 
We are making boy and girl puppets for the story song 'Ten in the Bed'. We are also making a bed. We count backwards from 10. As we count down, somebody always falls out of the bed. This is our favourite part!

Our Week - March 29 - April 1

Hi Families,

Holiday Journals
We all had a Holiday Journal over March Break. We have been taking turns telling our stories, and sharing our pictures with the class. 

New Outdoor Equipment 

Our flowers are beginning to grow in our Kindergarten Pen. We also have new pin wheels outside. We like to watch them in the wind. 

Squeeze Bags and Calming Bottles
We made squishy balloons and we use them when we are feeling mad or upset. When we squeeze them they help us feel better. Our calming bottles are for us to shake if we are mad or sad. We watch the glitter and sparkles go down and feel better. 

Puppets

We have so many new puppets and we like to use them to put on shows. We have a squirrel, a doll, a turtle, and more. 

Imagine 

Last week, we read a book called 'Imagine'. It told us about different places. We used the words from the story to imagine these places and drew pictures of our own. We have visited the arctic, the jungle, and even Australia!



Spinning Tops
Ms. Boag brought us some spinning tops from Mexico. Lots of people had fun using them. We even had challenges with our friends.