This week, as part of our religion curriculum, we learned about the Hindu/Sikh celebration of Diwali which began in late October this year. We read some stories and watched some videos about Diwali and learned that it is also called the Festival of Light. We coloured our own "rangolis" which are traditionally made with colourful sand or rice and are meant to welcome others into one's home during Diwali. Yesterday, we used modeling clay to create "diyas" or small lamps that symbolise goodness and purity, and lighting them denotes dispelling darkness and going into light. They came out so beautifully - we used beads and glitter to decorate them. Students will take them home at the end of the week.
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We've been up to all kinds of exciting things these past few weeks. From our Terry Fox Walk, to Janeway Jamarama Day, we have been doing all kinds of learning through participating in these activities. We've been learning some Halloween songs in French (available here) that we've been really enjoying! This week, we visited the library to do special Halloween STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Math) centres with Ms. Borden and Ms. Stockley, and yesterday, we made a really fun araignée headbands with our Grade 3 Buddy Readers in Mme Earle's class. Check it out! Today, we are having a very special day - making our own applesauce, wearing our pjs, and cashing in our ClassDojo points for a movie afternoon. Students voted for which movie they would like to watch and once the final count was in, Encanto was the winner!
PS. There is a copy of our applesauce recipe in each child's mail bag in case you want to try making it at home ☺ Welcome! I am a little later than usual getting started on my blog posts this school year. It's been a hectic start but all of our new Kindergarten students seem to be adjusting well to the expectations of school. I am so impressed by how quickly they are catching on to our classroom routines and becoming more independent! We have learned so much already and will continue to work our way through all of our Kindergarten outcomes - both academic and social-emotional. Speaking of outcomes, HTE will host our rescheduled Curriculum Night for parents/guardians this Wednesday, October 5th from 6-7PM. I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet with you in person and present some important information about the Full-Day Kindergarten program here at Holy Trinity, as well as other bits and bytes to help you navigate your child's first year of school. Don't worry if you are unable to make it on Wednesday - I will be forwarding along my presentation that you to review when you get a moment.
A paper copy of our October calendar was sent home in mail bags last week, but can also be accessed digitally here. I'm looking forward to a wonderful year working together to help your little ones learn and grow! Mme O'Driscoll I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of Kindergarten already. To say this year flew by is an understatement! I just wanted to take another moment to say thank you for all of the ways you've supported your child throughout their first year of school. Even though we were faced with many pandemic-related challenges and restrictions - we certainly made the most of our time together both in-person or virtually. I feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful group of students in my class and I am so proud of how much they've all learned and grown throughout their Kindergarten year. This will be my final post of the year - I hope everyone has a fabulous and safe summer break and I look forward to seeing all of my little friends again on the first day of school in September ready to begin a new and exciting adventure in Grade 1! Here are some photos from our field trip to Whee Indoor Playground, our school-wide pancake breakfast, and the Great Big HTE Book Swap! Wow! It's the last month of school already and what a busy month it is! We've already had a few of our fun activities - a visit from Liberty the Spirit Horse, our Walk-a-thon, Future Career Day, and our outing to Lester's Farm - and we've still got lots more to go! Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks as well as a video of the Kindergartens performing their virtual concert. Enjoy! Check out some of our writing about what our Kindergarten friends might want to be when they grow up! So many exciting careers to choose from - and I am so impressed with how creative and detailed their drawings are! This morning, we began our Tomatosphère project by rehydrating our peat discs and carefully planting our seeds. Our goal is to investigate whether or not spending 6 months on the International Space Station had an effect on the number of seeds that germinate and grow into healthy tomato plants. We began by making predictions on whether packet "U" or "T" went to space - and we won't find out whether our guesses were correct until we input our results at the very end of the experiment. Below you can see our predictions: We will continue to tend to both groups of plants each day, ensuring they receive the same amount of water and sunlight, and monitor their progress. Hopefully, next week, we will see many of our seeds begin to sprout into baby tomato plants. During this time, we will be learning about the different needs and parts of a plant. We will continue to monitor and nurture our tomato plants until they can be repotted in containers. At the end of our experiment, we will input our results into the Tomatosphère website to see if our predictions were correct, and then each child will get to take one home. I've had many students in the past continue to care for their plant throughout the summer and were so proud to show me photos of them harvesting and enjoying their very own tomatoes in the fall! Keep checking back for updates on how our experiment is going!☺️Hi everyone! It's almost time for Easter break (I'm ready - how about you?) so I thought it would be a great time to share some of the fun activities we've been doing at school lately. April is poetry month, and after reading some poems aloud, Ms. Borden helped guide each Kindergarten class through a series of prompts to create their very own poem. We were assigned orange as our inspiration colour for our poem, and together, students were able to share their ideas to write a collaborative poem. You can check out all of the poems written by the Kindergarten classes here (ours is the very last slide!) We also had some visitors from Let's Talk Science join us yesterday for an interactive presentation called "Dynamic Dinos." Students were able to play pretend paleontologist and search all over the cafeteria for different dinosaur "bones" which we then worked together to rebuild it's skeleton. Students learned the difference between herbivores and carnivores, and used play-doh, toothpicks, and beads to create their very own dinosaur. They were encouraged to be as creative as possible, because, while humans have discovered many dinosaur fossils, we'll never know for certain exactly what they looked like! Here are some photos from our Dynamic Dinos session: Yesterday, the Kindergarten classes at HTE went on an outing to the Jack Byrne Arena for our first Skating session. We were lucky to have so many parents and grandparents available to come help lace up skates and secure helmets! I know everyone had a wonderful time on the rink - some already confident on skates, while some were just learning. I know I wouldn't have been very steady if I had gone out on the ice - I feel much more comfortable as a spectator!! I think I managed to snap a photo of all of my little friends at the rink - but if not I will have another chance at our next session on Thursday, March 31st - I know we're all looking forward to it! |
Welcome! Bienvenue!Hi Everyone! I'm a Kindergarten EFI teacher at Holy Trinity Elementary in Newfoundland and Labrador. Archives
October 2024
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