Another week!

Continuing with our gingerbread stories, we started by making puppets for different gingerbread characters. We chose any gingerbread character of our choice to draw (Man/boy/girl/bear/etc.) and picked a few other characters as well that we colored in and put popsicle sticks on. Using our puppets, we then got together with our peers in small groups and acted out different gingerbread stories. Some of us played the part of a horse, a gingerbread girl, a cat, cow, old man and woman, etc. We even used a puppet theatre to present to our class. 

The next day, we did a guided drawing of a gingerbread house. We also designed our own gingerbread houses for a big gingerbread man stuffy and used big wooden blocks, real candy, sticks, straws, and other building materials in groups to make the perfect house for our Gingerbread Man. 

Continuing with patterns, we brainstormed different winter objects and used them in our blue journals. We have continued talking about the core of their patterns and renaming patterns. 

We also did a science experiment with a gingerbread man cookie and made predictions in our journals. Do you know what happens when you drop a gingerbread cookie in the water? Ask your child to confirm your thinking. This helped us understand why the gingerbread man is afraid of swimming across the river. PM Kindergarten also attended a beautiful band performance from Captain Nichola Goddard School, who played different songs for us including Pink Panther and Let it Go!

Important Updates:
- AM Kindergarten attends this Friday. There is no school for PM Kindergarten.
- Christmas concert tickets were sent home today. Please check your child's folder.
- Christmas caroling Dec 11 at 1:00 pm and Dec 13 at 10:15.
- Dec 12- Drop Everything And Read day! (DEAR Day) is tomorrow, Dec 12.
- Dec 18- Winter Concert
                   Afternoon: (K-2) 12:45-1:40
                   Evening: (K-2) 5:00-6:00
- Dec 19- Pajama Day, Buddy Day, Indigo Circus presentation
- Dec 20- No school for students
- Jan 6- No school for students
- Jan 7- Students return to school
             

How Can Kindergarten Help the Homeless?

"Warm Toes Without Holes" for the Alex Youth Health Centre 

The Youth Health Centre provides comprehensive health services in a multidisciplinary team in a welcoming, accessible, confidential and youth friendly environment, free from judgement and bias.

 The Alex supports youth aged 13-20 who may be homeless, and those who are at risk of being homeless.

During the month of December, PHS students along with their families will be asked to donate a pair of woolen work socks filled with toiletries to help support and aid the many homeless youth in Calgary.

This project will help PHS student develop their decision-making and critical skills as they consider a wide range of political, social, ethical, and the moral problems of youth homelessness.

As a family, you may also want to include a Christmas card or a message of hope and holiday greetings.

Last day will be on Tues., Dec. 17th, 2019

Mayor’s food drive:

• Non-perishable items
• Food: canned items, spaghetti, cereal, granola bars, etc.
• Items: new soap, toothbrush, toothpaste
• Pet food
• The donation boxes is located in the grand hall.
• Last day will be on Mon., Dec. 16th, 2019

Thank you Kindergarten students and parents for your support with these initiatives! 

Patterns and the Gingerbread Man, Boy, Baby, Girl, and Bear!

Our week started with our last round of Inline Skating. We had a really great time and learned so much during the last couple of weeks.

We continued reading more Gingerbread books and have now learned about other Gingerbread books such as the Gingerbread Man, Gingerbread Boy, Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Girl, and the Gingerbread Bear! We even have students bringing their own version of the Gingerbread Man that we are excited to read and share with one another. It is exciting to see how each book has similarities and differences. Ask your child what their favorite Gingerbread story is so far. We look forward to reading more in the next few weeks.

After reading one version of the Gingerbread Man, students put their thinking caps on and worked on sequencing. They thought about "First..." "Then"and "Last" to remember what happened in the story in the correct order.

We also learned about predictions after we read "The Gingerbread Girl" by Lisa Ernst. We stopped reading the book when like every other version of the story the Gingerbread character meets the fox and keeping in mind that in this book the Gingerbread Girl does NOT get eaten, we predicted what would happen next. Students came with different answers such as "the old woman will come to save her," "the fox keeps his promise, helps her cross the river and doesn't eat her", and "the fox and the Gingerbread girl fall in love." Ask your child to share what their prediction was and what happened in the book after we finished reading it.

This week, we worked with Ms. Carson, A mathematician to look closely at patterns. We looked for patterns in our classroom, our school, and even looked at patterns in the environment. We saw pictures of Christmas lights that Ms. Carson took and noticed patterns they made as well. We also made our own patterns using musical instruments. We encourage families to find patterns around their house and community. They can be emailed to your child's responsibility teacher so we can share them with each other.

AM students worked on their pictures of a house, a tree, self portrait, and their names for the month of November. We are excited to see more and more details being added on each time. We also attended an Assembly on Friday about The Alex (Warm Toes Without Holes) where students learned about:

What is the Alex?
- Organization that goes around in a van to help people in need.

 People the organization are helping:
- Youths that are homeless and/or at risk of being homeless (ages 13-20)

Why should we do the “Warm Toes Without Holes” project?
- Why do we need to lend a helping hand? Everybody needs and deserves help
- We need to show compassion and not judge others
- Understand the needs of others

We will post more information about how you can help in the next blog post.

Thanks!

Looking Closely- Microscope!

We have been using a digital microscope in Kindergarten to look VERY closely at things. Here are a few things we have zoomed in really closely at. Can you guess what they are with your child?