Thank You!

Happy Holidays! 

We had a fun and celebratory last day of 2017 classes in Kindergarten. Thank you so much for the generous gifts and kind cards!

Have a wonderful break with family and friends and we will see everyone in 2018!

Week Before the Break!

Ugly Sweater Day!:
Ugly Sweater Day is on Thursday the 21st of December! Wear a holiday outfits to get spirit points for our house teams.

Holiday Crafts:
Thank you so much to our parent volunteers who made these crafts possible! Students will be coming home with their tree ornaments this week.

Winter Break:

The last day of school before Winter Break is December 21st and it will be a regular day of school. The first day back following the break will be January 9th. 

Happy Holidays!

Concert Tonight!

Our Winter Celebration is tonight!

Please drop your children off at the Kindergarten room between 6:15 and 6:30. Our dress code is just our best attire. Kindergarten will be on the stage twice and can be picked up from our classroom following the show.
Thank you so much for all of your help and understanding!

K Info Drop!

Winter Concert:
The Winter Concert is fast approaching! We will be having a rehearsal on Thursday, December 14th from 10am until to 12. All afternoon students are invited to attend should they want some onstage practice time. Afternoon students who attend the rehearsal will need to be picked up for lunch and return to school at 1 for their regular class time.

For the concert, K kids are to asked to dress in their favourite dressed up clothing. We will be on stage twice throughout the show to perform our songs and poem. Please see the handouts your children brought home for full details. The show will be Thursday, December 14th. We can't wait to see everyone there! 

Math:
K has been working on learning about "greater than" and "less than" and what the symbols mean. There is some important math language that we can enforce when talking about numbers at home. When two numbers are the same, we say they are equal. A larger number is referred to as greater and a smaller number is referred to as less.

Kindergarten Happenings!

Food Bank Drive:
Elboya is collecting donations for the Food Bank! Please help support our Food Bank Drive by sending donations of non-perishable food items to school with your children. We have themed weeks for donations! This week is breakfast week! Baby items and personal hygiene items are in high demand and would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

Scholastic:
I sent home some Scholastic catalogues in the Yellow Folders yesterday. Should you wish to make any orders, please send them to school by Tuesday, December 5th. Payment can be made by cheque or by credit card. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Winter Concert:
Our Winter Concert will be on Thursday, December 14th! It will run from 6:30 to 7:30. Kindergarten will be performing! (Or something that resembles performing while looking very cute on stage!) We have been practicing two songs. Should you wish to practice together at home, the lyrics are below.

Burn Little Candle

Burn, little candle, through the night.

Show to us your flick’ring light.

Turn our darkness into day,

Then slowly melt away.

Say the words:  Burn, little candle, burn so bright. (4x, each time gets a little louder)

Burn, little candle, through the night.

Show to us your flick’ring light.

Turn our darkness into day,

Then slowly melt away.

Festivals of Light

Festivals of light,
Candles glowing oh so bright
Different people have different ways
To celebrate winter holidays
Candles warm up the night
In festivals of light

This Week in K!

Language Arts:
Visualizing:
Kindergarten Students have begun working on a new comprehension skill, visualizing. We have two new songs to help us remember how to visualize. K students have been practicing drawing out their visualizations while a story is being read aloud.

Writing:
Letters To Huck:
Our new Centre, Letters To Huck is open! Students can choose to come to this centre, write letters to our class pen pal, Huckleberry, and he will write them letter back!

Printing Work:
Kindergaten is wrapping up our first round of printing work and rolling into our second round. Up to this point, students have been working to print their upper-case letters, we are now beginning to write with both upper and lower-case letters.

Math Art:
Kindergarten kids have begun working to build Tangram art. They are using shapes to create designs of their own or to follow a pre-set pattern. While they are building, they are discussing the names of the shapes as well as how many sides they have.

Kindergarten Remembers

Remembrance Day Poem:  

Kindergarten students have been practicing some Remembrance Day poems to help us learn about why we wear a poppy in November. 

Poppy Art:
Kindergarten completed some Poppy Art while learning about and discussing what Remembrance Day means to each of us. The art will decorate our windows for the month of November.

Work Books for at home: 
Please check your yellow books for a Remembrance Day workbook. This workbook can be kept at home and completed as a family.

Post Cards for Veterans: 
Kindergarten completed postcards for our Veterans. They wrote messages of thanks and drew pictures for them. The postcards will be distributed to Veterans across Canada.

Library!

Kindergarten has started our Library program. We will be going most weeks for the rest of the year. The morning class goes on Wednesdays and the Afternoon class goes on Thursdays. Students can check out one book. If they do not return the book, they are unable to check out another one until the book is returned. Kindergarten books will come home in a big ziplock bag. Please return the book in the bag as soon as the kids are finished reading their story.

Kindergarten News and Events!

Costume Day Tomorrow! 

Tuesday (October 31st, 2017) will be our Halloween Spirit Day.  Students are encouraged to wear their costumes. All costumes need to be school appropriate and respectful. No toy or real "weapons" at school, even if they fit with the theme of their costume, and masks are not to be worn in class. It should be a really fun day!

Socktober!

This October, students at Elboya have been collecting NEW socks and underwear to donate to Calgary’s homeless shelters.  As the weather gets cooler, we know that our most vulnerable populations are always in need!  Your child can bring any unopened donation to their homeroom right up until Friday November 3rd. Socks and underwear for children, women and men are welcome! 

PJ Day!
PJ Day was a big success! We had a great day with some PJ themed activities.

Show and Tell!
Show and Tell is up and running. Please remember to check Yellow Folders for Show and Tell notices. Show and Tell helps Kindergarten students to learn about public speaking, leading discussions and answering questions.

Painting!
We have been painting up a storm in Kindergarten! Students are continuing to work on our Eric Carle art. If you happen to visit the school, please make sure to check out our Eric Carle Art Board.

Pumpkins!
Kindergarten participated in the K-4 pumpkin contest! A huge thank you goes out to our parent volunteers who put our submissions together with the kids. The kids had a fantastic time and we couldn't have done it without you!

Centres!
Kindergarten has some new Centres up and running. We have a Craft Centre and a Rocket Centre. These centres are designed to help students build their fine motor skills while working in groups with their peers.

Update!

Pajama Day!: 
Kindergarten will be participating in PJ Day tomorrow! Students are welcome to come to school dressed in their favourite PJs! Just a regular snack and drink is all that is necessary for our classroom picnic. 

Volunteers:
Kindergarten is in need of a few parent volunteers for an hour or so on October 24th, 25th and October 31st. If your criminal record check has been completed, and you would like to volunteer, please email me at mvhaines@cbe.ab.ca

Math Engagement Night (K – 9)

Our school would like to invite you to a math engagement evening.  We are planning on hosting this at our school on Wednesday, October 18 from 6:00 – 6:45 pm.  There will be cookies and water/ juice served.  We will have numerous teachers present sharing with you ways we have been working on math and plan to work on math this year.  We believe in a balanced math approach utilizing both traditional and modern ways of learning.  We look forward to listening to our parents about their thoughts around math as you are partners in this work.  Our school board has been involved in meeting with parents from across the system, as well.  Some of you may have participated in that engagement work.  This night is focused specifically on listening to our Elboya School parents.   

 

If you cannot make this evening, we would be interested in hearing from you through our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/C6H59VQ

It will open on Friday, October 13 at noon and close on Friday, October 20 at noon.

 

Throughout the 2016-17 school year the Calgary Board of Education worked to develop its K-12 Mathematics Strategy. The strategy reflects data on CBE students’ achievement and our provincial context, educational research as well as input from students, teachers, parents, community members, mathematicians and post-secondary educators. The following is an overview of the strategy that is intended to help students be more successful in their math learning. The math strategy will guide principals and teachers in determining the appropriate actions to take to improve student outcomes in math. The CBE also recognizes parents as partners in their child’s learning. School and classroom-specific actions will vary in response to the needs of specific groups of students and will be informed by research, best practice and ongoing data analysis. CBE’s Mathematics Strategy focuses on the following: - Ensuring mathematics learning programs are active and rigorous - Enhancing positive mathematics cultures in each school - Building clarity and coherence in mathematics instruction and assessment practices - Providing professional learning to enhance teacher confidence and skill.

October Events and K Happenings

We have some important October Events coming up!:

• PJ Day will be on Wednesday, October 18th! Kids can come dressed in their favourite pajamas!
• Costume Day will be on October 31st! Kids can come dressed up in their costumes for the class and will participate in fun learning activities throughout the day. 
• Photo Re-take Day is November 6th- Students should come dressed for photos on that day if retakes are needed. 

Show and Tell:

• Show and Tell has started in Kindergarten! Keep an eye on those Yellow Folders. Students will come home with a Show and Tell note the day before their special helper day letting them know that the next day will be their day to bring Show and Tell.

New Centres:

• We have two new centres up and running in our classroom. The kids can spend time at our sand pit and dino station. There are dinosaur books to explore and things to dig up! We also have our craft centre open for business. The kids can cut, tape, past, stick and glue to their hearts content at our crafting station. 

Buddy Time:

• Kindergarten has been working with our buddies to complete some Eric Carle art. Ask your child about their Grumpy Ladybugs and how they made them. 

Library:

• Kindergarten will be starting to visit our school library next week! Stay tuned in to the blog and messengers to learn our Library procedures. 

Kindergarten Update!

Things are moving right along in Kindergarten!
You will have noticed the Yellow Message Folders coming home, please have a look at them each day and return them to school for future messages.

Winter is here! Please ensure your children are dressed to be able to play outside every day. If you haven't already sent in appropriate indoor footwear for your child, please do so.

Math:
In addition to working on our hands-on math skills, we have begun working on writing our numerals. You can encourage your children to interact with numbers on a daily basis while you're out and about. Eye Spy Numbers can be played anywhere from the grocery store to the living room couch!

Language Arts:
Kindergarten students are working on learning their letters through hands on learning centers and written work.  While you are reading with your child, spend some time challenging them to find individual letters within words or on the page. You can discuss the sounds they make and what the capital and lower case letters look like.

Students have begun working on some sight-word books. The students learn from reading the books as a class, with partners and individually. From time to time, your child will come home with a sight-word book in their Yellow Message Folder. These books will be theirs to keep at home. Have your child share the book with you!

Math and Art!

Math: 

Kindergarten students are continuing to build their number sense by practicing their one one-to-one correspondence. They are practicing matching a numeral to a quantity.

Art:
In order to work on fine motor skills, students have been working on fall leaves to display in the classroom. Some good way to continue building fine motor skills at home are using scissors, ripping, drawing and glueing.

Buddies:

We have started our Kindergarten/Grade 4 Buddy Program! Our K kids have been paired up with one or two buddies from our grade four classes. We work on projects together throughout the year and work on making friends throughout our school community. Our first class together, we worked on drawing portraits of each other. 

Kindergarten Update!

Terry Fox: 
Our Terry Fox Run will be on Wednesday, September 20th from 2:00 until 3:30. The morning class is invited to join us! If any morning students would like to join in on the assembly and walk, please drop them off at the office at 1:45 and they can be picked up at 3:30.
Please make sure all students are dressed for the weather and have a water bottle.

Toonies For Terry:
We are collecting money to support cancer research. If anyone would like to donate a toonie, they can bring it to class and deposit it in our collection box.

Our students helped to decorate the gym by colouring shoes to be displayed on the walls during our assembly.

Reading Power:
We are beginning to work on our reading comprehension in Kindergarten! We have started by working on making connections to our reading.
When readers learn to connect:

• the story reminds them of something they have experienced.
• their minds become flooded with memories.
• they are making sense of the text in terms of events and people in their own lives.
• they can make connections to pictures, plot, characters, and feelings from the story.
• they are most likely reading books about real-life situations, such as family, friendship, school, siblings, pets, vacations...

In Kindergarten we sing a song to remind us of how we make connections to our reading. The song is below!

Picture Day:

Picture day is tomorrow, September 19, 2018. Our classroom photos and individual photos will be taken tomorrow. 

Directed Drawing:

Kindergarten has been working on step-by-step directed drawing to help build hand strength and listening skills. Student follow along with one step instructions to create a variety of drawings. 

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Welcome to Kindergarten! We are in our second week and we're off and running! 

Math:

We have begun working on number sense and building a 1 to 1 numeral to object understanding. You can reinforce this understanding at home by practicing counting like objects and ensuring the spoken numeral matches the corresponding number of objects. 

We are also working on building our understanding of patterns. We are working on building patterns verbally and concretely. You can practice patterns at home by discussing patters found while you're out and about and by practicing drawing patterns. 

Teamwork:

K Kids have been working to complete puzzles as a group in order to build teamwork and social skills. 

Indoor Shoes:

If you have not yet sent indoor shoes for your child, please do so. We are heading into a period of bad weather and wearing outdoor shoes inside will be less and less of an option. Indoor shoes are important for staying safe at school.

Demographic Forms and Waivers:

If you have not already done so, please ensure that you have completed your demographic forms and waivers and return them to school with your child.