The Year Ahead

It is with great sadness that I must announce that I will not be one of your child's teacher in the new year.I have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.  My surgery is next week and after that, the course of treatment will be determined.  I am very positive and am surrounded by an incredible group of supportive people.  It is very difficult for me to leave these two wonderful classes of children as they are truly kind, gentle, capable students whom I love and I have truly had the pleasure of teaching.  I have not been able to tell them that I will not be continuing as their teacher.  I am hoping that you will help me by explaining that Mrs. Sonnenburg is sick and she is working hard with doctors to make her better soon. No doubt you are worried about your wonderful child...rest assured, that he or she is still surrounded by a wonderful team of extremely talented Kindergarten teachers.  There will be a new teacher in my place and the announcement will be made shortly of who that will be. Obviously Cassie Byrne will remain in her current role and every effort will be made to maintain as much consistency as possible. In the meantime, if you wish to communicate specifically with an English teacher, please don't hesitate to contact Ms. Byrne at cassandra.byrne@ocdsb.ca.  I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday, and all the best in 2017.

Mm mm....candy

We have tried to listen to the students and their interests. Lately, they were organizing their play and discussing some baking and Christmas candies, so we set up our dramatic arts centre as a candy store. 

We made some pretend lollipops, some jubejubes, some wrapped candy, some peppermint sticks and some chocolate bars. We were encouraging the students to label and price the items. It is so rewarding to see them so excited to complete their own writing for a meaningful purpose.

Just a little giggle

Which one is your child....?

Christmas Probability

We have a dice in the classroom that the students enjoying rolling, predicting and recording what they land on! It was a very rich experience as there was so much math going on. They were using tally marks, recognizing number value, even adding (I have two tallies, I need 3 more to get to 5!)

Cookie Dilemna

Today, the green group were baking. While pre heating the oven, Ms. Behnke found two trays of coolies that got left behind yesterday....oops! 

They immediately asked if they could have one. I asked if there were enough for everyone to enjoy one. They counted 17. They immediately suggested that they break them in two. I asked if that would be enough for everyone to have some, and how would they know? After some thought, one child said, "how about I count each cookie two times"!

We soon discovered that there were enough for each child to have half a cookie!

Wintery walk

The blue group senior Kindegartens went on a walk today in our winter wonderland. Our job was as an animal investigator, looking for evidence that animals were there. We started by reading "Tracks in the Snow".

On our way to the forest, we observed the tracks of many different humans, which evolved into a discussion about shapes and patterns! 

As the snow was so fresh, we found very little evidence of animal tracks, but it was a fun walk in the winter sun anyway!

Hopefully tomorrow is an equally nice day for the green class to go! Maybe by then a few critters will have ventured out leaving their tracks behind.

A Festive Morning

Due to the snow day yesterday, we took the blue group for a short time this morning to meet with our reading buddies. We made some cards, made and decorated some cookies, played some games, and read some Christmas books. 

We baked our cookies, then enjoyed one each. We also decided to "pay it forward!" We took a tray of cookies to a grade one class. They definitely enjoyed our gesture...it is the season of giving!

Confirmation...and some extra details

Apparently the school sent out some details about an upcoming Holiday Concert on Dec. 15.  That is a BAND CONCERT.  We apologize for the inconvenience.  Of course, you and your family may still attend, but no Kindergarten student will be involved.  Each of the 2 classes are learning some songs to prepare for our mini-concerts held in our classroom.  For the Blue class, the concert/party will be in room 101 on Wednesday Dec. 21 (not the 22 as was mistakenly sent home). For the Green class, their party will be in room 98 on Thursday, Dec. 22. Both are at 2:45.

For our concerts, each class will be performing a "hip-hop" song...it is a secret...don't ask!  We were hoping that each child would have a pair of sunglasses to help support their super cool image! If your child has some sunglasses and he or she could make use of them for a week or so, we would sincerely appreciate it.  Please send them to school in a labelled ziploc bag so that they do not get lost. Thanks in advance!

We have a little visitor from the North Pole!

On December 1st we had a little visitor appear in our classroom! He has been up to some new tricks everyday since and the students are really enjoying having him around!

Meet our new friend "Elfie"

He was tired travelling from the North Pole so Elfie decided he needed to have a sleep!

He brought each child a mini candy cane the first day and the kids we're amazed that he new each of their names!

He was up to some tricks the second day! 

Elfie left a note reminding the kids that there was 23 days left until Christmas!

Elfie decided to bring in some jelly beans! Each child received a jelly bean in their cubby when they arrived to school!

Elfie hiding up high on the car ramp! Didn't take the kids long to find him! 

Elfie looking a little green...... Could he have been using our paint?!

Srubba-Dub-Dub! Elfie decided he needed to take a bubble bath!!

Elfie just hanging around...........

Elfie reading a story to his friend the "stonecrest fox"

Elfie looks like he's already for Hip Hop Reindeer!

Helping feed our classroom fish!

A message from Elfie on his last day in Kindergarten!