Newsletter Sept.-Oct. 2016

Mme Maklin and Mrs. Burkhardt

Kindergarten Newsletter

 

Hello Parents! Here is our first Newsletter of the school year. It will give information about what the children have been learning the last couple months. This year, we will be working with the new format of the kindergarten program that will reflect the four main components of the new kindergarten report card: Belonging and Contributing, Self-Regulation and Well-Being, Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours, Problem Solving and Innovation. The expectations are the same as in the old program with just a few additions (more or less 3). If you want to learn more about The Kindergarten Program go under Links on our blog and you can press on the document to view it.

The philosophy of the play based program is the try to find the children’s interests and to have the children demonstrate The Kindergarten Program expectation in what interests them. For example, some of our girls like to choreograph dances. We try to teach them the elements of dance so they can apply them in the choreography, and meet the expectations of The Kindergarten Program. One student was interested in making mud. We brought in different type of soil to help him and his friends discover what soil makes the best mud. Every day for the month of September, our JK boys would build ramps with the race tracks. We got them to extend their problem solving skills by building tunnel ramps. We also extended their learning by making them discover between several materials which one allows their toy cars to roll the farthest. Our dramatic center also got changed following the children’s interest. It was transformed into a Spy Headquarters, a Mission Centre for our rocket, and a Spooky Wagon Ride. We planned activities around those interests so the children could meet expectations from The Kindergarten Program. Some activities have to be teacher directed in order to help the children meet more specific expectations and to demonstrate that knowledge in their play. You can go to your child’s ePortfolio to learn more about what you child has been learning in class. We are updating it regularly so make sure to check it often. 

Click on the link below to learn about a few other activities we did with the children based on the overall expectations of The Kindergarten Program.  

Newsletter Sept.-Oct., 2016