Swimming

Thank you for your patience today when we were late getting back from the pool....we should have the kinks worked out and tomorrow will go more smoothly. The students will be dismissed through the Kindergarten doors as usual, even if we are a little bit late getting back again.

Thank you for sending your child in their swimsuit, that helped us to get ready quickly today!

This following message is for my parents volunteers who are helping out with swimming this week and next Monday:

Dear Parent Volunteers,

Thank you for volunteering for our swimming field trip, without the support of parents like you we would not be able to take our students on field trips!

When: I have recorded the specific dates that you have offered to volunteer. Thank you for volunteering on these dates. If for any reason, you cannot volunteer, please let me know. Just a reminder of the dates that we will be swimming: February 3,4,5,6 and 10^th.

Where:  Thornhill Aquatic & Recreation Centre: 6715 Centre St NW, Calgary, AB

Times: If you are planning on riding the school bus with our class, please check into the office and come to the classroom between 9:00-9:15. If you will be driving yourself, we will meet you in the lobby of the facility. Volunteers should plan to be at the pool at 9:30am.

 The following are ways to support the students at the pool:

Before lessons:

·      Encourage students to take their shoes off and place them against the wall

·      Supervise/encourage students to undress and put their belongings/bag in a locker with a towel over their locker door

·      Remind students to shower before going out to the pool deck

·      Remind to students to walk (not run) on the pool deck

During lessons:

·      Please return back to viewing area (upper or lower) as parents are not allowed on pool deck

After Lessons:

·      Ensure that students shower/rinse off after the lesson

·      Support students with finding their locker

·      Encourage students to dry off and undress ASAP as they get very cold when they stand in their wet bathing suit

·      Encourage students to dress and then put all belongings in their bags☺

·      The teacher will be out in the lobby area to supervise after students leave the change area

In addition, kindly encourage students to be mindful of the other patrons (many who are elderly). This includes using an “indoor voice”, walking at all times and using our manners. There are two change areas, one for the boys and one for the girls. Female volunteers will assist the girls, male volunteers will assist the boys.

There is a viewing area that the pool staff provide parents in order to view their children during swimming lessons. This helps to ensure that students are focused on their swim teacher’s instructions during their swim lessons.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me,

Tara Moore

Our Week and our Learning!

Just a reminder that this is a short week for Kindergarten, as there is no school Thursday and Friday due to conferences. Please book a time to come in and celebrate your child's progress! If you are having difficulty booking please email me and I can help.


For literacy we have started to incorporate some 'popcorn' or 'sight' words into our learning. The words we are currently learning are: is, it, I, a, to, in, and, of, and the. See if your child can recognize any of these sight words in books, on signs or posters!

We have continued to work on number sense by playing subitizing and counting games using dice, manipulatives, and a 10 frame. See if your child can recognize an arrangement of dots at a glance. They are getting very good at doing this quickly!

We have wrapped up our unit on 'I am Unique' and have completed our books.They will be on the bulletin board during conferences so please feel free to take them off the wall and enjoy them with your child while you wait for your face-to-face time with me.

Also just a reminder that we start swimming on Monday so don't forget to send your child to school with their bathing suit underneath their clothes and with a towel and dry undies!

Swimming Dates

It was brought to my attention that one of the swimming forms has the incorrect dates for swimming on it. Just to clarify, our class is swimming on February 3, 4, 5, and 6th (Monday to Thursday) and then again on Monday the 10th. We have school on Friday the 7th but we will NOT be swimming that day due to it being a half day (which does not affect us in kindergarten but it does affect the other grades).

Please let me know if you have any further questions and also remember  to return the signed forms as soon as possible.

Also, I have one male volunteer to help out in the boy's changeroom but we always need more! Please let me know if anyone has their CBE police clearance and is able to help out.

Thanks :)
Mrs. Moore

Volunteers for Swimming and Felting

Most of you have seen the swim forms that were sent home on Tuesday. Please return all signed forms as soon as possible:)

I will also need volunteers to help the students get changed before and after the lessons so please let me know if you are able to help on any of the dates on the forms (Feb. 3-6th and 10th). I will send home a volunteer form for those who are able to help and it needs to be signed and returned to me before the volunteer date.

I will also need some volunteers for a felting project that will be taking place in class on February 20th. It will be for the entire morning hours (8:00-10:50). Please let me know if you are able to volunteer for this as well; but you are not required to fill out a form for that day.

Thank you in advance! Hope everyone is staying warm:)

Report Card Envelopes

Just a reminder that the envelope that contains the report cards needs to be returned to school so that we can re-use them in June to send the final report card home.

Thank you and STAY WARM!

Fine Motor | What can we do at home?

FINE MOTOR

In kindergarten, a big part of our learning includes strengthening our hands. 

This improves our fine motor skills and improves pencil grasp, stamina, drawing and printing. 

We use a variety of materials, games and centres to do this including eye droppers, clothes pins, playdough, painting easels. manipulating buttons and gems from palm to our finger tips, buttoning up buttons and zipping up zippers. 

Sheija Abraham is the Occupational Therapist who works with the teachers and students at Ken Taylor School. She has put together some ideas for families to work on with their children at home.

Enjoy!

Fine Motor - What can we do at home?

Happy New Year!

We survived our first week back at school! I hope everyone had a restful break:)

To start off the new year we have continued to reinforce the learning of our letter names and songs with a fun new song called 'What do the letters say?' Click on the link below to listen:

CLICK HERE

We have also started to incorporate 'Popcorn' words (sometimes known as Sight Words) into our learning. This week we focused on the sight words it, is, and to. We have a Popcorn Word hunt center, a writing center, and a reading (Wall story) center using the words. Today we also used the words as codes to colour a picture. Here are some pictures of our new centers.

You'll notice that there are lines and circles on this sentence. This is to remind students that letters have 'spaghetti' spaces between them but words have 'meatball' spaces between them. This will help when students are progressing in their writing ability, they know how to separate the words in their sentences as they move beyond just writing a string of letter sounds. 

For math we will continue to develop our number sense with a focus on subitizing this week. Here is a great video that practices this skill with students.

CLICK HERE

This week we also talked about New Year Resolutions. I told the students that when you're a grown up you usually want to eat less junk food and work out more ;) But for these young students I wanted them to focus on something that they can practice and get better at in school. Here is what the students came up with:

Report cards came home today; please check your child's backpack. You should have received an email about setting up a conference time for the end of January to discuss your child's progress. Please if you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to contact me:)

Mrs. Moore