It's almost February! A few days to keep in mind...

February 4 “National Sweater Day” Wear your favourite sweater as we will be lowering the temperature in the school by 2 degrees as part of our Eco School initiative. 

February 8-9 “Adopt a Stuffy” drop off 

February 9 Pizza Day February 11-12 “Adopt a Stuffy” Permission forms to be returned in order to participate

 February 12 Pizza Order Forms for March 22- June 28 session due at school 

February 15 Family Day: No School!

Jello making on Wednesday!

Dear Families,
I will be back on Monday and I am excited to continue our science explorations (changes in state/structures).

On Wednesday, we will be making Jello. If you are able to send your child in with a box of jello, we would greatly appreciate it. We would like to make several colours and flavours and we will make them in different ways.

ie., With boiling water, with warm water, with cold water.

We will observe and taste test (on Thursday).

Our new ECE Ms. T will be in. Please welcome her when you see her around.

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Porto :)

The Letter Ll

Our class did a great job with the letter "Ll" today. Try this with each picture, ask your child what each student (in the photo) is holding. Ask them to say the word. Then ask them to spell it out or write it down! A great homework activity. 

For tomorrow's lesson plans I have asked Mrs. A to lead a ladybug activity with the class...what letter does ladybug start with Purple Room? Have you ever heard of "The Grouchy Ladybug"? We will be reading that on Wednesday!

Have a great night. Mrs. Porto :)

A few exploration pictures from our purple room and reminders...

Torsten

Tripp

Take a look and see what our class has been doing over the past week. 

Remember: 
Please remember to bring in your Ll item for tomorrow's homework and a Styrofoam cup or two by Thursday for our hot chocolate science class. 

Thank you and have a great night/morning (depending on when you are reading this).

Mrs. Porto :)

Next week...Notes and needs please!

Hi Everyone,
Just a note to let you know about next week.

As you know, Mrs. Kimberley will be on her first day of her leave and we will have a new ECE in. I will be away for the week as my doctor has asked that I take time off to get healthy. I should be back on the following Monday.

Mrs. Alec has been in for me twice this year and she is a lovely, strong FDK teacher. 
She is aware of what the children are learning and I have left her very detailed lesson plans.

We are in need of a few things for next week:

1) Styrofoam cups (we are making hot chocolate in Science class, I have everything needed but the cups)-Changes in state-These are needed by Wednesday please. Even if you have only a few to send in, we will take them.

2) Something that starts with the letter Ll. This is due in on Tuesday morning :)

Thank you so much for your understanding.
Mrs. Alec and I will be in touch all week and I will still be updating the blog.

Take care,
Sylvia

Sylvia Porto
FDK Teacher
Dr. Charles Best PS

Goodbye Mrs. Kimberley ;(

Dear Families,
It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this today. As you know, Mrs. Kimberley has sent home a note to let you know that she will only be teaching our class until this Friday.

It is time for Mrs. Kimberley to take a break from the classroom and to get ready mentally and physically for her babies.

We will have a new ECE at some point, however, I anticipate that this will take some time.

Mrs. Kimberley and I met in September and we have worked so well together. I really am going to miss her, as I am sure that our students will also.

Please help me send Mrs. Kimberley off with much appreciation by writing her here on our blog.


Thank you Mrs. K, I will miss you and loved having you as my teaching partner.
xox Mrs. Porto :)

What a special day!

This morning we had Mrs. Mighty Music Maker come in to sing with our classes. All three FDK classes attended, participated, and had a great time.
Please ask your children what they learned!

Important days ahead...

Important dates to remember and our new PJ and Pancake date!

January 19th Pizza Day (school)
Wednesday January 20th: Purple Room PJ and Pancake day (our class only)
January 26th Pizza Day
 January 29th Spirit Day: Wear your Pajamas to school!
 February 5th PA Day
 February 15th Family Day – school closed
 February 26th Spirit Day: Twin Day!

Winter Inquiry at it's best!

As I (Mrs. Porto) was outside on yard duty with our friends yesterday, I wondered if the children wanted to do a little snow inquiry. I ran in to get some spray bottles filled with water and food colouring. The group of 7 children who were interested, started to spray the snow and print words/make shapes.

At the end of the day we took another group out, we painted the snow, played in the snow and put out water filled ice cube trays. The question was...what do you think will happen to the water?

Today we extended the inquiry and put out buckets and bins. Filled them with water and food colouring and placed them outside. Tomorrow we will see what we have made.

Please chat with your children about this to see what they are learning.
We hope to extend this with structures and buildings (blocks of ice will be perfect to create structures with outside).

Have a great evening!
Mrs. Porto :)

The Hat Literacy Exploration!

PJ and Pancake Day will be next week :(

Dear Families,

We are going to postpone PJ and Pancake day Friday for a few reasons:

1) Our bucket is far from being filled up (we need to make sure that they are earning the day because of the bucket filling).

2) We have not received many items to help us with pancake day.

3) Mrs. Kimberley is away until Monday afternoon and I am not able to make 60 pancakes on my own at home tonight.

Please stay tuned on the blog for more information. We hope to have pancake day at the latest, next Wednesday.

We are also hoping to get a few more items. Thanks so much for those who donated!

Mrs. Porto :)

Pancake supplies needed by Thursday morning please

We need your help:

On Friday we will be making pancakes. What we need from you as our partners...

1) More toppings for our pancakes-i.e., fruit like berries, jams, maple syrup, chocolate chips. 

Thank you to Natalie's family for bringing in the strawberry syrup.

2) A loonie or a toonie to help pay for pancake mix (Mrs. K and Mrs. P will be making them at home, if you bring in a topping or utensils...please, no need for $)

3) Paper plates

4) Plastic forks

If we could get all of this by Thursday morning it would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you so much!

This is what we do in FDK! Please read below...

It is a new year and our children are well on their way! We have introduced word problems of the week (always Math related). We are getting more in-depth with our stories. We have also started Guided Reading Groups, Cuddle Up and Read (Home Reading), Smart-board activities (for assessment) and we will have more new activities coming in the next few days/weeks. Please stay tuned for what is to come.

Mrs. Porto and Mrs. Kimberley

The Letter Jj Homework!

Today we learned the letter Jj, we will be reviewing it daily. Thank you to the above children for brining in their J j items to make Mrs. Kimberley's and my lesson a lot more fun!

Table activities today...

Table/Learning Activities: Tuesday Morning

Today we had several new table/learning activities. We build towers with pop-corn word Lego and wrote the words down. We built structures with dixie cups and wrote all of the pop-corn words. We used Elicia's game and learned how to play, and we drew shapes and wrote their corresponding name beside them.

Please ask your child what they did today. 

Please practice 2-D shape recognition and pop-corn words daily.

:) Mrs. P and Mrs. K

Pancakes!!!

We are hoping to fill the class bucket by early next week. Your children decided on Pancake and PJ (or sweat pants) Day!
Please be aware that this could happen as early as next Thursday.

We are not sure how we will go about making the pancakes, as one at a time on our stove in the kitchen isn't a whole lot of fun for the kids. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

We could make them prior (with parent volunteer help?) and toast them or heat them up. The fun part could be adding the fix'ins like fruit, syrup etc.

Your input and a volunteer to help ;) would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Mrs. Porto and Mrs. Kimberley.

PS- I will be back tomorrow! See you all at the gate!

Letter Jj item for next Tuesday and Home Reading: Please Read

Today we are learning the letter Ii and we will continue to discuss what a vowel is. Please check out "letter rap" songs on Youtube with your child to help review our letters. 

Next week we are learning the letter Jj, please have your child bring in one item that starts with the letter Jj on Tuesday. You've got one week to get something great. We will present them and use them for our lesson.

On Monday evening, some of the SK's were sent home with a Home Reading Bag. The bag contained a book at their reading level, a notebook for assignments and a book mark. Please read the corresponding letter with your child and spend some time with them for "Cuddle up and read". We don't expect these to return daily, once a week is sufficient. We will then read the book with your child, if they are ready for a new one, they will pick another.

SK's and JK's who do not have a Home Reading Bag: Please continue to practice letters, sounds and popcorn words at home. You can do this through games, books, letter searches and songs. Your child will be going home with a reading bag before the year is through.

Thank you for your time and cooperation. It's greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Mrs. Porto 

Happy New Year Everyone!

Today we welcomed everyone back and we couldn't wait to share what we did over the holidays! We wrote journal entries and we made our own celebration hats.

After (indoor) recess we talked about goals and resolutions. Your children came up with several resolutions such as: to be a good listener, to skate more with my family, to be nicer, to learn all of my popcorn words, to get along better with my brother or sister etc.

We watched a small clip on Youtube called "Squirrels New Year's Resolution" and we even had a count down.

Thank you to our families for sending in all of the healthy snacks.
Your children had a great time celebrating. Please ask them what they did today.

Welcome back and here's to a great 2016!

Cheers, Mrs. P and Mrs. K

Monday is our New Year celebration! Please remember...

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

On Monday afternoon we will be celebrating by having a mini new year's celebration with the Purple Room. Please remember to bring in "tooters", hats, beads and healthy snacks to help your children celebrate.

Healthy snack ideas:
Clementines, veggies, crackers and cheese, popcorn...

Mrs. Kimberley and I hope that you had an amazing and safe holiday.

:)