The Decision of Kindergarten...

All schools (public, separate and independent) are "Calling All Three Year Olds" during the month of November.
Avon Maitland District School Board
Huron-Perth Catholic School Board
Huron Christian School

This is when you would go into the school of your choice and register your child for JK/SK. Each child is expected to visit several stations so they can "evaluate" the children to offer feedback to parents on areas you can work with your child prior to school beginning in September, 2013.

This can be a difficult time for parents as the school environment is so different than the cozy, home atmosphere your child and you have become accustomed to. My suggestion is that if you have any reservations about sending your child to "big" school arrange for an observation of the JK/SK class without your child. Go and observe the class in action. With the influx of schools closing there are many schools that have more than 1 kindergarten class, so if you can, I would try and observe each class. You could then specify which teacher you feel would best suit your child's personality.

Before going into the classroom I would read through these attached links. The information sound terrific - so, be sure to use the "language" in the guides and look for examples of these learning experiences when you visit the classroom. The classroom and your child's experience at school really does depend on the teacher. Take notes if you need to during the observation time and then send them to the teacher or principal in an email after the observation. You will not be able to discuss anything with the teacher while they are in the classroom with the other students, it will be an observation only.

Kindergarten Curriculum - full document
Kindergarten - A Reference for Educators

You are not required to register your child in a publicly funded school setting - however, once you complete paperwork - they do have your child "on file" and will continue to call you until you have enrolled them. So, it's easier to not enrol them now if you have any reservations. Kindergarten is not a mandatory full-time program. You can choose when you send your child (2 or 3 days/week, mornings or afternoons only) of course the school encourages full-time enrollment because they receive more funding, but the decision is yours to make.

You can also homeschool your child. The general rule of thumb is 1 hour/grade/day. Kindergarten is at the discretion of the parent. The amount of quality and focused time is what counts, not the length of the day. You, as the parent are also able to follow any curriculum that you would like. The Ontario Curriculum is online Ontario Curriculum by Grade so you can have that as reference but it is not mandatory that you follow it. I would encourage you to check in with it though just to make sure there isn't an area of study that has been overlooked. The majority of home-schooling families I know do school in the morning and the afternoon is less structured, independent time, spent reading, sketching, observing nature, etc. There are a couple of home-schooling groups in our area and if you would like to have some contact information I can supply you with that.

And lastly, learning doesn't happen inside 4 walls of an institution. Learning happens all around us and it is up to us as parents to be an advocate for our child in any learning situation they are exposed to. We know our children best.

Week Eight - Review

Your children absolutely amaze me (and Calvin)...I think this is what I love most about my chosen career!

To be honest, when I began thinking about the "study" for this year I knew the children would love learning about different places, people, animals, music & flags from around the world but to learn the individual countries I thought was "stretching it". But, I thought I would put the country names to music (as I've done with most everything else)and see what happened. Your children have proved me wrong - and I'm so glad to say that!

Today, I began by holding up the printed copy of the map of Central America and asked the class if anyone remembered what this map was of.  One of the students (3 1/2 years old) confidently came forward and said, "Yes, Mrs. Kerr, it's Central America.  And here is Guatemala and Belize.  This is El Salvador and here is Honduras.  This is Nicaragua and Costa Rica. This one is Panama."  Yes, I said...what a brilliant girl you are! She replied humbly with "Thanks, that's just what you told us." Who knows, maybe this girl will end up being a world traveller or a cartographer! Calvin & Quaid were home for the afternoon today and she showed this map and told them the countries as well. Calvin honestly said, "Wow, you just taught me something because I didn't know where any of those countries were located on a map!"

They know how to pronounce the names of the countries in North America and recognize them when written! They have been practising printing out each country name and I've been reminding them that only the first letter is capitalized all other letters must be written in the lower case form. It's wonderful to hear them talking about these countries in their free play, being a Monarch travelling over the Great Lakes, through the USA, until they reach the oyamel forests of Mexico! Or the beautiful quetzal bird flying in Guatemala.

We reviewed the sounds of oy, ir, o, and this week I introduced the soft c sound, like in Central America. Words like cent, centre, percent, cent, cylinder, circle, Gracin, race, face. We also reviewed blended sounds like br, dr, tr, cr, gr, squ, st, sm, sp, spl. And we've been practising spelling our first names, both written and orally.

We practised counting to 100, by 1s, 5s, 10s.

I also introduced nine North American animals (Canada & USA) pictures and words to the children. The animals were lynx, moose, racoon, eagle, beaver, mountain goat, chipmunk, monarch, brown bear.


We've felt a little cooped up lately with all the rain - so it was really nice on Wednesday & Thursday to be outside for a good length of time. The children are such keen observers - noting the differences in the deciduous trees in the neighbourhood, most are bare already.

We have only 2 more chapters to read in Tommy Smith's Animals, the Squirrel & the Barn Owl.

Next week, we'll be studying the Caribbean Islands of North America.  Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, The Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Antigua, The Virgin Islands, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago.  We'll listen to some steel drum music and calypso music!

If you have any items from these places that you'd like to send with your child, please feel free to do so! It's always nice to have something concrete to look at and touch.

We will also be celebrating Amelia Greydanus' birthday - she will be 4 on Sunday, October 28th!




   

Week Seven - Review

Wow...what a week!  We had a terrific week...lots of fun adventures and lots of learning!

We learned about Mexico...the flag, the anthem (which makes us feel very happy) and the shape of the country. We learned that the people of Mexico speak a different language, Spanish. We watched an amazing documentary from PBS which held their attention for the entire show (not common). I've included the link so you can watch it too! The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies
We learned that the monarch migrates to Mexico and winters on the oyamel fir tree. We learned the oy sound, in words like oyamel, joyful, boy, toys, soya.  We also learned that an o at the end of a word like in Mexico, just says its' name. Words like tomato, potato, tornado, Tobago, sombrero. We learned ir, like in fir, bird, skirt, dirt, stir.

We ate pinto bean soup for lunch and guacamole, salsa & corn chips for snack. The pinto bean soup was not a big hit but I am happy that the children are at least trying these new foods and are eager to do so.  Sadie Black also brought in some family souvenirs from Mexico, a maraca, a bowl, a doll, and some beautiful dresses.

We had SO much fun on our field trip! The weather could not have been nicer on Wednesday & Thursday and we enjoyed a lovely fall hike on the Greenway Trail.  A special thank you to Chef Gusso and his hospitable staff at Part 2 Bistro.  If you are looking for an excellent meal and ambience this is the place to go...and be sure to mention that you're little one was their for their "fancy" dinner!

On Wednesday, Chef Gusso started us off with a cup of butternut squash soup...

Followed by pickerel from Lake Huron (one of the Great Lakes - not to be confused a "good lake" as referenced by one of the students when explaining where the fish came from!), mixed rice with corn, green beans, carrots, beets & peas.

And, the best dessert one could ask for!  When the dessert was brought out the restaurant became so silent, you could hear a pin drop.  We maybe should have only went in for some dessert!  This cake is what Chef Gusso known for, his flour less chocolate cake (made from black beans!) with some ice cream.  It even had a gluten-free pretzel on top!  Delicious!

The children thanked Chef Gusso for his delicious meal.

The Thursday group was treated to a spinach, beet salad with goat cheese, walnuts and dried cranberries.

Followed by a delicious pasta which was eaten ALL up by every student...and they even asked for more noodles!

With an excellent carrot cake for dessert!

On Friday, we were able to visit a Tanzanian Choir at Quaid's School.  The children enjoyed watching the members sing and dance.  There was a lot of jumping and jingling.  Here are a few photos.

His shoes are made from the tires of motorcycles!

Week Six - Review

This week has gone VERY quickly!  We studied the USA.  The children learned about the flag (it's red and white striped with a blue rectangle and there are white stars on the rectangle). They each had the opportunity to colour the flag and most of them attempted this.  We listened to an instrumental version of the anthem as well and we could hear the music become forte (loud & strong) as well as pianissimo (soft and quiet).

I introduced the concept of "silent e" when reading words.  The idea that when there is a vowel, then a consonant followed by an e..."the e jumps over the consonant and makes the vowel say its name". When we read United States of America...we can see this in the word "united" and "states". We practised reading words like cake, rake, vase, slide, kite, mine. The letters are highlighted in red so it is visually easy to recognize. We also reviewed the idea of blends...putting 2 letters together to make 1 sound...like united states, stripes, stars.
The gesture that I'm using is linking your fingers together and trying to pull them apart but they are "stuck".   We thought of many words with the "st" sound at both the beginning and ending of words and we spelled them out using the moveable alphabet.

I introduced the idea of upper case (capitals) and lower case letters. That we should only use upper case letters when it is the beginning of a sentence or a proper noun, the name of a person or place or the brand of a thing. We worked on matching upper case letters to lower case letters. And the fact that some letters look exactly the same as an upper case as they do a lower case - just the size differs - like Cc Kk Oo Pp Ss Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz while others look completely different like Aa Bb Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Ll Mm Nn Qq Rr Tt, yet each makes the same sound. I am beginning to correct the 2nd & 3rd year students with their letter formation as well...only using capital letters for proper nouns or beginning of sentences.  It will help instil good writing habits prior to grade 1.

I think our most fun was had making the apple pies!  It is a sticky job but also full of fragrant aromas. Cinnamon always smells so good!  Here are a few pictures...

Begin with a crust...

Peel and core eight apples...

Coat the chopped apples with 4 TBSP of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar (maple syrup), 1 tsp of cinnamon

Spoon all the apple mixture into the pie crust and bake @ 350 F for 1 hour and ENJOY!!!

We will be very busy next week.  Monday & Tuesday we will be studying Mexico and the migration of the Monarch butterfly.  Wednesday & Thursday, we will be in BLYTH to enjoy "A Bunch of Munsch" play at the Blyth Festival Theatre, lunch at Part II Bistro part2bistro.ca a visit to Pianovations pianovations.ca and a lovely walk on the Greenway Trail stopping by the "Peace Garden" that one of my classes created and we continue to maintain in the Memorial Garden.

On Friday, we will be attending a performance at Huron Christian School beginning at 10:30AM featuring the En-Kata Choir.  A group of adults from the Maasai tribe in Tanzania, raising money to help build a school room for children in grade 1.  Children from the Tuesday/Thursday group are invited to attend with us as well as parents if you wish.  I will try and video part of the performance so you are able to "see and hear" as well and I will post on the blog here next week.

Enjoy your weekend - and I will see you all next week!

Week Five - Review

This week we said farewell to the final 2 butterflies that emerged from the chrysalis...on their way to Mexico to enjoy a warm winter!

We have had a busy week learning all about Canada!  We have learned that it is the northern most country in North America.  We learned that every country has it's own flag and our flag is red and white.  It is made of 1white square with 2 red rectangles on either side with a red maple leaf inside the white square.  Each child is able to identify the Canada Flag.  We also learned that each country has a special song "anthem" and ours is called "O Canada".  We learned that Canada has 2 official languages english and french.  We listened to a variety of Canadiana folk music too.  We have been busy learning all the provinces and territories and the children are able to sing along to the song which helps us remember.  We learned the provinces from west to east, then the territories west to east.


We read the story of Paddle to the Sea.

A terrific book about how the water flows from Nipigon Country through the Great Lakes eventually ending up in the Great Salty Sea, the Atlantic Ocean. Calvin gave me a map of the waterways so the children have enjoyed looking through this and seeing how "Paddle" made his voyage.  We could see that Lake Superior looks like a wolf head and Lake Michigan looks like a long, zucchini squash. Lake Huron looks like a man with a back on his back. Lake Erie looks like a lump of coal and Lake Ontario looks like a big, fat, carrot. We learned that the word buoyant means to float and the opposite of buoyant is to sink. We also watched the NFB of Canada vignette of Paddle to the Sea if you'd like to watch it too! The children were quick to point out that the book was different than the movie and some of the parts were mixed up.


This is a photo of Calvin kayaking in Lake Superior this summer with Quaid looking on...a family trip we took at the end of August.

This is a favourite photo of Calvin's (he loads these lakers so to kayak beside one in Lake Superior en route to Lake Huron, port of Goderich was quite exciting)!

These photos were taken at Whitefish Point Bay, a place mentioned in Paddle-to-the-Sea, it is home to a Shipwreck Museum and has a display on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The children were also able to learn the Canadian coins and symbols (quarter has a caribou, dime has a bluenose schooner, nickel has a beaver and the penny has a maple leaf) and they sorted these out under the proper word headings.  They also learned all about Canadian animals and matched the written word to black & white sketches of each animal. We have been working on printing too.  We reviewed again our alphabet sounds.  We also learned that sometimes when 2 letters are put together they make 1 sound.  Because we are studying North America this month, we learned the "or" sound and the "th" sound.  The children pretend they have an "oar" in their hands and paddle to the side when they see the "or".  They were reading words like, tractor, orca, fork, cork, cord, corn, horn, pork. When we learned about the "th" sound, the children have to remember to stick their tongue out and then place their teeth on it and blow.  They were reading words like math, think, thin, moth, bathtub, with.

We will be learning about the United States next week - followed by Mexico - followed by the Island Countries  - and ending with the Central American countries which will lead us into South America in November.  If you have any items at home that you would like to send in that relate to the upcoming topics please feel free to do this...like a sombrero?  Thank you to the Greydanus' for lending us their Smart Globe!

And - there's nothing more American than apple pie - so, you guessed it!  We will be making apple pies next week (thanks to the Davidson family for picking up 2 bushels of apples for us)!

Enjoy this long weekend and remember to...