Book Week

Book Week is one of my favourite weeks of the year and this week did not disappoint. All of the Kindergarten children looked fantastic dressed up as book characters! We had superheroes, princesses, animals, firefighters, witches, pirates and astronauts. Many children brought in their favourite book to share with the class. 

We were visited by Sharon and Lynn, librarians from Clarkson Library. They read us some interesting stories about insects and then gave each child a better beginnings book bag!

On Wednesday Group 2 went to the library and listened to Author and Illustrator Wendy Binks talk about her experience writing and illustrating children's books. She showed us many of her beautiful stories and illustrations and then the children were taught how to draw her favourite character, Stripy the Emu. Their drawings were very impressive!

Marshmallow Ants and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Hook

A very strange thing happened in Room 4 this week. We went to eat our fruit and discovered that there were holes all through it! We had a discussion about what could have done this to the fruit and most children thought that it was some kind of insect. We then read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and discovered that in the story a caterpillar ate its way through a lot of fruit. Perhaps the Very Hungry Caterpillar decided to visit Room 4?

One of our Talk for Writing focuses this term is learning to label pictures. We are learning about the different body parts of insects and mini beasts. We learned about the body parts of ants and created our own marshmallow ants complete with a head, abdomen, thorax, legs, eyes and antennae.

Ant Jungle and Worm Farm

This week we learned about where ants and worms live and what they need to survive. We built an ant jungle and a worm farm. We learned that they both live underground so we gave them lots of sand and soil in their new homes. The children in group 2 each held a worm and thought they felt slimy, slippery, cold and tickly. We have enjoyed watching the ants and worms go about their busy day. So far we have seen the ants exploring their new home and eating pieces of apple and the worms burrowing down creating worm tracks against the glass.

Term 3 Newsletter

Welcome back to Term 3, which is already proving to be very exciting!

This term we are looking at Minibeasts, which ties in well with our new Talk for Writing text. (Soon to be announced).

We have started Surprise News Bags this term, to promote oral language development. Bags will be sent home with instructions and a description chart. Students are to choose one item from their home, practise describing it with their family and then bring it to school the next day. The student will describe the item and the rest of the class will try to guess what is in their bag. 

We have just had school photos which went really well. Everyone use their best smiling faces. These will be handed out later in the term when they are returned to us. 

We began the term by reading 'The Very Grouchy Ladybird' by Eric Carle. We discussed why the ladybird might have been grouchy and then explored our own feelings and identified what makes us grouchy. We turned our grouchy faces into a grouchy ladybird! Check them out in the class. They look fantastic!

We are looking at a possible excursion to Perth Museum later in the term. We will keep you posted when we have more details. 

Please remember to follow our classroom morning routines. Each student should be practising their name writing on the name writing sheets and in the new name writing books. When helping your child to write their name, please ensure that they use correct pencil grip and correct letter formation. By the end of the year students should be able to write their name independently. It is important that they use this time to practise these skills. 

Looking forward to the rest of an exciting and informative term!

Creating Houses for the Three Little Pigs

Over the last few weeks of term the Kindergarten children have been learning about non-fiction procedural texts, in particular a text called 'How to Build a House'. They received a letter from the 3rd Little Pig asking if they could build houses for his brothers. The children practised building houses out of lego, blocks, sticks and popsticks. They then designed and created their own houses out of cardboard boxes. The children had to select which materials they would use then record the steps that they took to build their house. I am sure that the Little Pigs would love to live in all of the children's beautiful houses.

I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!

Senses Week and Pyjama Party Fun!

It was a big week in Kindy that began with our pyjama day to celebrate the winter solstice. With the chilly weather this week it was the perfect time to rug up in our pyjamas and cook up a feast. We have been learning about fairytales this term so we decided to cook gingerbread men like the old woman does in The Gingerbread Man. Unfortunately, the Gingerbread Man escaped from the oven and we had to run after him. Luckily, we tracked him down in the office and library. He tasted delicious! Each child described the way he smelt and tasted and the answers ranged from 'sweet and biscuity' to 'like grass and feet'. All of our answers are hanging up in the classroom.

We have been learning about our senses this week. We learned that we don't just use our hands to feel things and participated in a sensory obstacle course for our feet! 

The children stepped through squishy spaghetti, cold water, hard marbles, bouncy bubble wrap, gooey water beads and soft towels. 

Number Rhymes

This term we have been learning to recognise numerals and count quantities to 10. We have been learning many number rhymes including 10 in the Bed and One Grey Elephant. We have acted out the rhymes with our bodies, counters and teddy bears.
We have been working very hard to remember that when counting quantities we:
always say the number names in the same order,
count each object only once,
know that the last number name said is the number of objects
and it doesn't matter which object we start counting first.