Go Away Big Green Monster

We have read the story Go Away Big Green Monster to each of the classes.

We then offered the opportunity to make their own big green monster.

They turned out pretty cute...opps, I mean scary!

The students also loved the opportunity to make puppets with popsicle sticks.

What a fun book!

Acting out our books

We often include some “props” when telling a story. Not only does it add an element to the story that grabs the listeners attention, but the students are more apt to retell the story if they have the props to remind them. When students retell stories, they are developing good story telling skills, understanding sequence, building on their vocabulary and enhancing their understanding (such as first...then...then...finally...). These are skills that they will continue to work on throughout their school career.

Here are some photos of students enjoying stories using various props.

Some of our favourites have been The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Mouse Paint, The Little Old Lady who was not Afraid of Anything, Big Pumpkin, The Scarecrow’s Hat, The Barking House, The Red Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear.

Alphabet hunt

After reading a familiar book to many... Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, the junior Kindergartens went on a walk in search of some of some letters.

A well loved version!

The red class was able to go outside and search for letters.

Due to wet weather, the JKs in the blue class had to go on a search in the halls!

Once everyone had found a letter, we sang the alphabet song so that we could get in the appropriate order.

(yes, I must blur faces when a photo has been taken face on!)

Lots of fun was had by all.

Cut, cut, cut

Learning how to cut has been a focus recently. Some students are very good at cutting, while some would benefit from additional practice. We try to encourage a proper grip.

We’ve also been singing this song:

Open shut, open shut

That’s the way we cut, cut, cut.

Fingers on the bottom,

Thumb on top,

Do not let the paper drop.

Open and shut, open and shut,

That’s the way we cut, cut, cut!

Many of our students practiced their scissor skills by cutting out the long twirly tail of a ghost.

We also did some fun practice, and their imaginations helped to turn the strips into crowns.

We gave them scissors and some flyers, and let them cut all they wanted!

Eating vegetable soup

Yummy...after smelling the delicious aroma of the soup cooking in our classroom, it was time to enjoy!

It was delicious! Happy thanksgiving everyone...we were thankful that we could grow our own vegetables!

Growing vegetable soup

Last spring, we planted a garden. We enjoyed some of the early crops and had salad, but we promised the current Senior Kindergartens (who were Junior Kindergartens at the time) that come the fall, we would be able to make vegetable soup from the produce in our garden.

To set the stage, we started off by reading this book.

We went out with our shovels and rakes and gloves. The garden had become quite overgrown in our absence!

With a little elbow grease, we soon discovered that our potatoes and carrots had grown and were ready to be picked.

After “pulling” our harvest in, we started washing the vegetables.

Next, we began chopping them.

We added some broth, turned on the slow cooker, and boy did it smell delicious!

Stay tuned, we’ll let you now how it tastes! The Junior Kindergartens didn’t get a chance to do much, but they will get a bowl of scrumptious soup!