Thursday 30 October 2014

Halloween Fun!

We have been busy in the Hummingbird class. Halloween is an exciting time for our kinders, and we love to bring Halloween activities and crafts into our learning. We have been working on making patterns, so we have been using Halloween crafts to help us make them. Some of our patterns are amazing!



We have also been making a number line for our class. Our kinders have been busy creating the posters that we will display in our class for the year. 

Writing the number, the word, and using stickers to show how many.  
Eva made this amazing number poster all by herself! 
Every day we practice reading and writing popcorn words. Popcorn words are words that often "pop up" in the things we read and write, and are also called high frequency words. Here are some of the words we have been working on since the beginning of the year: 

I    can    am    see    look    at    a    the

A reminder that students are not to wear costumes to school tomorrow - we would hate if anything happened to them right before they head out for trick or treating. If your child wishes, they are more than welcome to wear orange and black tomorrow. 

Have a wonderful Halloween! 


Tuesday 28 October 2014

L'HALLOWEEN


Bonjour les parents, 

Here are some vocabulary words that we have been working on in October.  Your child should know some of these words in French, some children might even know all of them!




This is a song that we have been practicing.  See if your child can sing it to you!




HAVE FUN!!!  

Friday 24 October 2014

Friday Reminders

Just a few reminders as we head into the weekend:


  • Monday is Photo Retake Day for any families who are interested. We will also be having a school photo taken.
  • We are asking all students to wear red and white on Monday. 
  • On Friday October 31 we ask that students wear orange and black - no costumes please! 

Have a great weekend!



The Hummingbird Team

Monday 20 October 2014

A FEW QUICK NOTES

Tomorrow is CRAZY HAT DAY FOR 2$.  Your child can wear a crazy hat and donate 2$ for United Way.

We are currently holding a canned food drive for the "We Scare Hunger" campaign by the Social Justice Committee.  Please feel free to send canned items or non-perishable items to school.

I will be away Wednesday, October 22nd.

Thank you and I look forward to seeing my Hummingbirds on Friday, I will miss them!!

Mme Natalie



Thursday 16 October 2014

AND MORE PUMPKINS!!


We continued our pumpkin observations in French today by carving the tops of the large and small pumpkins.  Many observations were made such as "They smell!".  Maverick showed me two seeds and said "une grosse graine et une petite graine".  Markus observed that "the seeds look like they could be planted to make a huge pupmkin!"


The children enjoyed touching, smelling and making observations of the insides of the pumpkin.
Through these activities, the children really understood the meaning of the words citrouille (pumpkin), graines (seeds), petit et grand (small and big).


I found a few more French Autumn videos, ENJOY!!




La valse de l'automne




Bricolage d'automne




















Il pleut


And finally, what to do when we can't go outside??  After tidying up after play time, we did a 5 minute disco posted below (have fun trying it at home).



Then we did some table top activities.  Everyone was very focused and worked very quietly.




Tracing numbers with buttons : Le numéro trois



Puzzles 


Mazes


Dot to dot



And a little earlier, we had done a craft -  Les feuilles de l'automne: rouge, jaune, orange



Wednesday 15 October 2014

Pumpkins Everywhere!

Yesterday Mme Natalie brought in two pumpkins for our class to explore - a large one, and a small one. The students learned the french words for big ("gros") and small ("petit").  Today, Ms Quinn brought in a third pumpkin to show the class. We decided that this pumpkin was medium sized because it was bigger than the small pumpkin, but smaller than the large one.


We started to investigate the pumpkins. We used magnifying glasses to examine the pumpkins up close, we drew pictures of the pumpkins and wrote about them, and we used cubes to help us measure how tall the pumpkins were. 



The students have lots of wonderings already about the pumpkins and what's inside. Stay tuned to see what we do next!

Also, thank you to all of the families who have sent in family pictures for our class display. We have created a family tree in our book nook for the students to enjoy. If you have not sent in a picture, but would like to, we will gladly add them to our tree as they come in!


Thursday 9 October 2014

Have a wonderful long weekend!

The past two days have been Spirit Days at Georges Vanier. Yesterday was "Crazy Hair Day" and today was "Pyjama Day". It was wonderful to see so many students taking part. A reminder that tomorrow is a PD Day - please enjoy the extra long weekend with your families as you celebrate Thanksgiving!

We are also sending home your child's blanket. We will send blankets home once a month to be washed. Please return to the school next week.

Today your child is coming home with a Scholastic Book order. This is a wonderful way for you to purchase books and other activities for your child while helping support our class. It is not mandatory for you to participate, so if you would rather not receive the flyers, please just put a note in your child's Note Tote. This month's orders are due back October 24. Please make payment by cheques only, made payable to Scholastic Canada. 

A reminder that you can subscribe to our class blog so that you always see the posts that Mme Natalie, Mrs. S and I share about our day. When you subscribe to the blog, you will receive an email update with our latest blog post. You can also follow Ms. Quinn on Twitter (@MsCQuinn). 




Tuesday 7 October 2014

MONTRE ET RACONTE

Maya, my 5 year old daughter, proudly demonstrates what is expected for the upcoming "Montre et Raconte" presentations.





HAVE FUN WITH YOURS!!!

Look at our pumpkin!


It was a very busy day in the Hummingbird class today! We had our library day this morning, and then our first whole school Mass in the gym with Father Virgil. On top of all of that, it was a rainy day! 


Ms. Quinn brought this pumpkin in today for us to explore. Many of the students had some observations and questions about the pumpkin: 

"It feels like it's heavy." (Zoey)
"It smells like orange juice." (Joshua)
"You can cut it and there will be yucky stuff inside." (Nicholas)
"We can bake and eat the seeds." (Markus)
"What does it taste like?" (Brady)

We also used some of our fall leaves to make some Leaf Creatures at the art table today. I love how the students used the found materials to make faces and bodies for their creatures!


Another fun-filled (but busy) day!



Monday 6 October 2014

OCTOBRE!!

Bonjour les Parents,

October is here and Halloween is in the air!!  The students are having fun with the costumes in the dramatic play area.


We are having a few spirit days this week to promote our magazine fundraiser:  Wednesday, October 8th is crazy hair day and Thursday, October 9th is PJ day.  A reminder also that Friday is a PD day.


Following is a Halloween song and a Fall song that you can watch with your child.



A cute Halloween song



C'est l'automne



Thursday 2 October 2014

Wonder Wednesday!

Wow - we had such a busy day yesterday that I completely forgot to post about it!

We had our very first school-wide fire drill this morning, and the Hummingbirds did a great job! Way to go :)

This morning, we read a book called "Thanks for Thanksgiving" and we talked about what it means to be thankful, and all of the things we have to give thanks for. Some of our friends even started to write about it.


This afternoon, we went on a little adventure outside - Ms. Quinn took some of us on a "trip" to collect leaves from the beautiful maple trees we have at the front of the school. We found some lovely leaves to bring back to the class and put in our sensory bin to explore.


Ms. Quinn