September Review

In September we did a lot of learning!  Here is a glimpse at what we’ve been up to.

Belonging and Contributing:  We have been getting to know each other by introducing ourselves in French, by using different social skills during play such as sharing with our peers. We have begun to learn how to care for the natural world by exploring our play yard and by discussing and practising recycling practices during snack and lunch times. 

Self-Regulation and Well-Being: We have begun to show our independence by asking our teachers to go to the bathroom in French, choosing how much to eat at snack and lunch times and choosing to eat our healthy foods first.  We care for our own materials such as our coats, backpacks and lunch pails and we are learning to clean up after ourselves at mealtimes and to return our toys to the proper locations so that we can find them next time.  We have also been taking ownership of our classroom in recognising that it belongs to all of us and have contributed to its look and maintenance by keeping it clean and decorating it with our handmaid paintings and drawings.  We are off to a great start this year!  We have also been studying the emotions of "Happy" and "Sad" and we have been discussing strategies such as deep breathing and the turtle technique to help us handle our emotions when we are feeling angry.  We have learned that all emotions are okay, it is how we deal with them that matters. 

Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours: We have begun laying the foundation to be readers, writers and mathematicians!  We have been integrating counting to 10 in French, and have begun to make meaning of quantity by showing what each numeral represents.  We have begun using tens frames during playtime where we give our friends a number and have them represent it on their card.  We check our findings by counting to make sure we're right!  On a daily basis, we help spell out the star of the day's name using magnetic letters and the star always gets to write their name on the white board (those of us who haven't had a turn just can't wait until we get to do it too!).  The SK's have begun writing in their journals on an almost daily basis.  They draw a picture, and then independently or with the help of a peer or teacher, they add words to their work by sounding out the words.  We use the analogy of stretching out the word like an elastic band to help students sound out the words.  The JK's and some SK's have been spending this time exploring books and talking about what they see.  We also spend some time every day listening to books to our Emotional Literacy unit read by a teacher and discussing them.  Literacy and Mathematical behaviour is often integrated into our daily learning activities and we hope that over time, your children will see themselves as mathematicians, readers, writers and more!

Problem Solving and Innovating: We have begun to demonstrate our problem solving skills by working through social problems as they arise, both independently and with guidance from the teachers.  We have begun to use the inquiry skills such as questioning, planning, predicting, observing and communicating during our play when building at the bock, Lego, mobilo and laci centres, or when we investigated volcanoes, or simply when questioning whether the weather will allow us to go out for recess!