Happy Tuesday Chickadee dot family!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with your children! Did you like their “turkey” handprint cards? Did they sing you our “Hello, Mr. Turkey, how are you?” song? Didn’t their pictures turn out lovely?

It was really good to see the kiddos back to school rested and smiling! I actually thought they looked like they had grown since last Thursday!

On Friday, while the students were at home from school, we came together as a staff for professional development to discuss Restorative Practices and Inquiry learning.

Restorative practices is a philosophy that helps us work with children in solving social issues that may arise on the playground or classroom. We have learned valuable questioning techniques that will guide us with the children in their social interactions. For example asking the question “What happened?” rather than why did you do that…is more positive and effective. If you would like to know more about this, I am happy to share more!

Although we have been using the Inquiry model for a few years now here in Kindergarten, the session was very informative. Basically, the Inquiry learning model is developing activities and learning opportunities that are driven by the children’s interests. There can be a few inquiries going on in the classroom. As educators, it is our primary objective to listen carefully to our students while they are at play and catch the spark of interest, so to speak. The other day, the children were wondering why the moon was still out in the morning… As our young learners get more comfortable with school, the routines, each other, the inquiry learning begins to unfold! Both sessions were very helpful and I feel very fortunate to have such a great learning opportunity.

Both sessions were very helpful and I feel very fortunate to have such a great learning opportunity. Have I mentioned, just how thankful I am for this wonderful learning opportunity here at Highlands!

This week we are learning about:

-Fall, Seasonal changes. We are reading wonderful, rich stories about leaves, pumpkins and harvest time. (both in French and  English). We will be reading one of my favourite stories tomorrow, “The Little Yellow Leaf” which is a book about empathy and taking risks!…feel free to send in a yellow leaf tomorrow in Mr. Zippy! We will add this to our writing piece!

 

-Discussing the lifecycle of a pumpkin (Both in French and English)

-Estimating and predicting how wide (circumference) and heavy our pumpkin is, how many lines it has on it and learning the strange fact about our class pumpkin…why is it pink???or a funny green-speckled colour?

-Sorting and classifying class objects like buttons by colour and size.

-Number sense: what does 5 look like? what does 6 look like? Introducing “ten frames” in this process.

-Practicing writing our name (“Kindergarten style”: Capital only at the beginning, lower case for the remainder), drawings and “bumping up” our pictures in our “Hot News” responses to stories and from community discussions. Today we tried “Knees to Knees” which is an activity I like to use (called Think, Pair, Share) to develop listening and speaking skills. Each pair was asked to listen and retell their partner’s hot news from the weekend. The children did well, considering it was the first time! Each time we do this, the children get better and better! 🙂

I think that is it for now! I am enjoying our communication, please feel free to send me an email or jot me a note in Mr. Zippy if you have any comments, questions! We love to hear from you!

Monthly Calendars

Also, would you like a monthly calendar for topic dates for your fridge each month? I have always done one in the past but was not sure it was an effective tool for communication.

Any comments in Mr. Zippy would be appreciated!

A few pictures to leave you with!

Love, Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

 

Hi Chickadee Dot Families!

Happy Monday!!!

I hope you are having a lovely evening with your family! Wasn’t today a beautiful Fall day?! We have been watching the leaves in the trees of our Forests turn colour.  They are turning red, orange and yellow now! Breathtaking!We are so fortunate to be surrounded by such beautiful nature here at Kanata Highlands.

Last week on Friday, we had a great Terry Fox Run! Wow! What a great community event! It was so fun to run around our field together as a Kinder community while the older students, teachers, and parents ran on the trails. Thank-you to the parents who were able to join us! and THANK YOU for your generous donations! What a wonderful, feel-good activity to raise money for cancer research.

 

This week, we continue to explore the Seasonal changes of Fall. We have completed our first Art project of Fall Trees. The children drew trees and used paint and their fingertips to make Fall leaves. These turned out beautiful. Wouldn’t you agree? I am hoping to put these up tomorrow!

In Literacy, we continue to work on recognizing our names and the many letters in our name. We are doing this through play activities and some whole group instruction activities such as morning message, I Spy letter activities and daily routines. We are learning to draw pictures about things we like at school, responding to stories that we have just read “What is your favourite part”? with a variety of colours in our “HOT NEWS”. The students are progressing so quickly! It is amazing! If you would like to help your child practice writing your name, that would be wonderful.

In Numeracy, we will be learning to sort and classify items. Learning to sort by size, colour and shape. We will sort classrooms items such as math manipulatives such as buttons, gems, pattern blocks, link cubes etc.  I think it will be great to go and collect leaves next week and sort the leaves by colour and or kind of leaf.  Next we will move onto patterning!

Also, we are talking about the upcoming holiday… Thanksgiving…We all have so much that we are thankful for in our lives. We are teaching the children to be thankful for the wonderful things and opportunities you provide them with every day. We are reading stories and talking about our families and the discussion is so positive! I wish you could all be flies on the wall in our room! Our children have amazing stories and ideas! Keep an eye out for your special card on Thursday in “Mr. Zippy”! Be prepared for some serious cuteness! :0

Ms. Bennett has been coming in each day doing music with the children. She introduced rhythm sticks to the nursery rhyme “Hickory Dickory Dock”! It was incredible how well the children listened and followed her instructions!

We have a new “puppet friend”…Big Blue! Ask your child what kind of bird Big Blue is?

In French, …From Madame McCurry… (Email and information has been added and glued inside the front cover of Mr. Zippy for you if you would like to contact Madame McCurry)

…over the last couple of weeks Mme McCurry and the chickadees have been working on simple French vocabulary and getting comfortable hearing and using familiar phrases. Last week we sang the song “comment ca va” and practiced possible responses. The students love to be askd how they are doing! We have also been working on “je m’appelle” (my name is), colour vocabulary, commonly used school vocabulary and snack vocabulary. While the students are busy at play, Mme McCurry circulates the room and supports the students at play by asking questions in French and teaching them new words to identify their learning materials. The students are starting to feel confident hearing the language and using some simple words. They are repeating very well and they like to use big actions to imitate Madame. Can’t wait to learn more this week as we are focusing on the word “merci” and things that we are thankful for.

I think that is all for now! FAMILY PHOTOS STILL MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please send in for our “Family Wall”. You would be surprised just how many times the kiddos go and look at your family photo for comfort or a smile in their day! Thank you to the families for sending those in!

School-Home Connection: If you would like to help your child practice writing his/her name, that would be wonderful. We are encouraging the children to use only an upper-case letter for the first initial and only lower-case letters for the remaining letters. A few minutes here and there would be great practice! Using a family chalk board, writing with bubbles in the bathtub, using a white board etc. are a few ideas!

Any harvest items such as gourds, little pumpkins, acorns, pinecones, interesting nature, Fall items are welcomed and appreciated!

Love, Ms. Jo-Anne

PS…thanks for reading! 🙂

I am so thankful to be your,  one of your child’s teachers this year! I am so lucky to have this opportunity!

Hi Chickadee Family! “Chickadee, dee, dee, dee dots!”

Hope you are having a great night! Brrrrr…it sure is starting to feel like Fall! We are so lucky to be surrounded by our beautiful Trillium Forest here at Highlands! The leaves in the trees are beginning to turn colours! It is beautiful and will be even more breathtaking in a few weeks!

I know it almost a week later since our Open House but it was sure great to talk to many of you again! I enjoyed seeing the children introduce you to us and show you around their learning space! I was happy to hear your positive comments at how the classroom is decorated more with your child’s work, pictures and learning tools! We have been working very hard here in Kindergarten at school!

Just a few things to tell you about:

1. French/English…the children are in full swing of switching to French each day. Monday, Tuesday and Friday the children have French in the afternoons. They have French in the mornings on Wed and Thurs. with Mdme. McCurry. They are learning a lot of vocabulary in the areas of colours, school colours, classroom environment (to name a few) each day. They are learning how to say the letters in their names in French this week. Madame has planned some fun activities for them in the areas of letter recognition and patterning for the week.
   

   French with Madame McCurry

2. In Literacy (English) with myself, Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Goyal, the children are learning to recognize their names in written forms and we are concentrating on their beginning initial. We have been reading stories, morning messages and Echo reading a few times/week. We have been enjoying playing in the various play centres in the classroom focusing on social skills such as making friends, using manners and sharing and playing together. The children are doing amazing!
   

   Listening to Mrs. McCarthy explaining the centres

   3. Terry Fox Run- Letters went home on Friday! If  you are able to volunteer with the Kindergarten classes, please return the bottom portion of the letter. We will be walking around our new sodded-field for Terry Fox on Friday Sept. 30. Donations are welcome as indicated on the letter!

    

   4. “Housekeeping Items“- All verification forms are due back at the office. Thank-you to the families who have already done so! We are still in need of family photos, optional detail sheets returned and student profiles. Thanks so much! I am hoping to organize our class list phone numbers for you.

   5. Birthdays and Umbrellas… Please do not send in big birthday items for your child. We do our own special celebration here at school by making a birthday crown for your special child, singing “Happy birthday” and giving out birthday pencils. Non-food items (eg. stickers, inexpensive loot bags) are welcome or small fruit or veggie trays but please do not bring in a cake, cupcakes, candles or balloons. Those party items are perfect for home, but not for school. Thank-you so much for your cooperation with this. Umbrellas are not necessary for school. Please keep umbrellas at home. Hooded raincoats and rubber boots are perfect for rainy days at Kanata Highlands! *** Remember to label all of your child’s items!”… you would be surprised how many spiderman shoes we have! 🙂

Well…that’s it for now, here are some pictures from the last week for you to enjoy! Remember to check “Mr. Zippy” each night!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

PS… This is the best job EVER! 🙂

 

 

 

Hi “Chickadee Dot” families! I hope this blog entry finds you enjoying the evening!

Today was another great day!

The children are adjusting very well to the huge adjustment of coming to Kindergarten every day! They are amazing!!!

If they are tired at night it is because they are working so hard! They are learning to listen carefully to instructions from ALL their teachers, follow the routines of dressing and undressing to/from outside play, listen carefully to stories and learning discussions, share and play with friends, walk in a straight “train”, eat quietly and tidy up etc. This is A LOT of hard work for our little 3, 4 and 5 year olds! ….and they are doing AMAZING! We are praising and encouraging them for their hard work and doing our best to give them “TLC” when needed!

Just a “few” items to remind you about:

*If your child is absent, please send an email to the KHPS absence email address instead of me. I do like to know as well and  you can also send me an email if you want but please send this information to the office early to avoid us calling you to confirm your child’s absence! Thanks so much!

Khpsattendance@ocdsb.ca

*Verification forms are due back to the office via “Mr. Zippy” please

*20$ donation

*Open House will be held here at KHPS on Tuesday, September 20th from 4-6 pm! We will be painting rocks for our  AMAZING school-wide ROCK garden on Thursday, September 15th (this Thursday). We are asking you to please send your child in older clothes as the paint we will be using is acrylic and IF some paint should get on your child’s clothes, this won’t be so heartbreaking. Thank-you for your help with this!

*Terry Fox walk/run for the school as well as Kinder students is approaching mid-September. More information coming soon!

Here are some pics for you to enjoy from today! Lots of learning going on through PLAY! Take a look!

Love, Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

Hi Chickadee dot families!

Happy Saturday! I hope you are enjoying your family time and doing well!

Looking forward to Monday!!! 🙂

We are still sorting out our schedule and outside play times as we get to know the children. French instruction with Madame McCurry, Madame Bourre and Madame Rashida will start on Monday afternoon. We are starting this part of our program slowly. We will have one period/day and gradually increase this over the week, depending on  how the children are adjusting! It is a lot of adjustment for our kiddos at the beginning of the year and our primary goals for September are to establish positive feelings towards school. We want the children to be safe and happy and introducing the Kindergarten program slowly is necessary to achieve this in September. 🙂

Here is a picture of our entire Kinderteaching team to help you and your child remember who we are!

Also, starting on Monday we will be starting our first nutrition break at 10:30 am and our second nutrition break at 1:oo pm. Outside play time will follow each eating period.

*Please dress your child for the weather. We will go outside to play each day, even if it is raining a little. Raincoats, rainboots and hats please!

 

Please send your child with the following items each day:

-wearing velcro shoes (no laces please)

-water bottle

-Mr. Zippy with any necessary information we may need to know about your child each day

-smile 🙂

Friendly reminders:

-please send in a family photo

-20$

-Student profile information sheet

-Media release forms

Here are a few pics from Friday for you to enjoy!

Thanks for reading,

Love, Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

Hello,  “Chickadee dot” families!

I hope this blog entry finds you having a nice quiet evening!

Is everyone asleep??

The children had a very good,  no amazing, first day here at Kanata Highlands! They did a lot of listening, following routines, trying their best, playing, colouring, looking at books, eating lunch and playing outside! That’s exhausting for a 3, 4 or 5 year old!!!

Our day consisted of  many great activities such as learning our morning routines and songs, playing with the various centres in the classroom, listening to the story, “The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn. I hope your child told you about the secret of the “Kissing Hand”. 

Mrs. Bennett also came in at the end of the day to do some songs and movement with them! So much fun but very exhausting for a Kindergarten student!

Did your child sing our  “chickadee, dee, dee, dee dot” motto to you tonight???

Mrs.  McCarthy, Mrs. Goyal and I were very pleased how well the day went!

We look forward to seeing all of our chickadee dot children tomorrow! All SKs and all JKs. I apologize for the confusion around this.

Here are a few pictures from today for you to enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for subscribing to my blog!

Love, Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

PS. Thank you for sending in all of the forms, family pictures, school supplies and 20$ donation!Much appreciated during this busy time of year!

 

Hi Chickadee dot Families!!!!

Just checking to see if you subscribed to my blog????? 🙂

If so, well done! 🙂 A+++++

It was great to meet you today! I know it was a lot of information and we hope that you left feeling rest-assured. If you have any unanswered questions please feel free to send me an email and I will hopefully answer your question!

2 requests please:

1. Can you each send me an email so I have your email address and confirm your child’s transportation arrangements please?  I just want to make sure I have everything correct. My email is Jo-Anne.Pulley@ocdsb.ca  (For example: Child’s name    Am: bus     Pm: EDP)
2. Please bring in a family photo as well as extra clothing, indoor shoes and school supplies.

Thanks so much!!

We look forward to seeing all SK students on Thursday Sept. 8,

some of our JK students on Thursday Sept. 8 and

Friday Sept. 9 and everyone on Monday Sept. 12!

We are the chickadee dots! Chicka dee, dee dee!!! 🙂

Have a great night!

Love, Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

 

 

Happy September to you all!

Only 2 more sleeps until school starts! Yipeeeeeeee!

I hope you had a wonderful summer! The weather sure was perfectly summery!

 

 

As you know, I am no longer teaching at W. Erskine Johnston PS. I miss the community of colleagues, parents, my team of Mrs. Lara and Ms. Melissa and especially your children.. our students already! I bet they have grown so much over the summer! Please say hello and give them a big polka dot hug from me!

Although I  miss WEJ very much as it was my home for 6 great years, I am very excited to begin my journey as a teacher at Kanata Highlands PS!!!

I am already enjoying the excitement and hard work of starting up a new school with a team of inspiring teachers and administrators! It has been an exciting and eventful last few days moving into the new, beautiful building and setting up a brand new classroom! I have purged, organized, planned and created a new learning space for Junior and Senior Kindergarten students who will be offered a Bilingual program! So many new and exciting opportunities!

Let me introduce myself, Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Goyal! We are thrilled to be your child’s English teachers! As you know, Kindergarten in the OCDSB is now a Bilingual program where Kinder kiddos learn English and French 50%. At KHPS, we will be doing half days of English and French and the children will remain in their classroom! Our French team of teachers are Madame McCurry, Madame Bourre and Madame Kahn. We are all new at this model but are extremely happy to be working together to provide our kiddos with a balanced, play-based, Language-rich program! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

If you do not want to receive my notifications anymore, I understand completely and feel free to unsubscribe to this blog!

I would love to hear from you and hear how your child is doing in either SK or grade 1. My email address is the same at Jo-Anne.Pulley@ocdsb.ca! Please drop me a line and let me know how you are!

I wish you all the best for a successful school year!

Lots of love, peace and of course Polka dots!

Love, Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

 

 

Hi Kitty Dot families!

I hope you are enjoying your summer so far!

Just a wee last blog entry to say thank-you so much for the pleasure of teaching your children this year! I miss them already! The last few days of school were a whirlwind…lots of special memories!

I wanted to thank-you for the kind and generous gifts that you gave to us!  Each card, kind word, hug and gift is so appreciated by Ms. Lara, Ms. Melissa, Ms. Stuart and myself.

I wish you all the best and please keep in touch via email! Jo-Anne.Pulley@ocdsb.ca.

I would love to hear how your children are doing next year!

Take good care!

Have a happy and safe summer!

Here are a few pics for you to enjoy from the last few days/weeks of school! (Feel free to send me pics from party etc).

With Love, Peace and of course… Polkadots,

Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

 

REMINDER☺

Dear Parent(s),

The Kindergarten classes are going on our field trip to the Agricultural Museum on Thursday June 23rd. That’s TOMORROW!

The busses will leave WEJ at 10:30 am and return by 2:30 pm. All parent volunteers are asked to report to the office to sign-in by 10:10-10:15 am, and then go to their child’s class to check-in with their child’s teacher. Please remember no siblings or additional guests are to come with the volunteers.  

Busses will be loaded at 10:30 am, attendance will be taken on the bus and then we will leave the school property promptly. We will not wait for late arrivals. 

Remember, this is a fully functioning farm. Part of the trip will be outside rain or shine, so please dress according to the weather. Please apply sunscreen on your child before school. Hats, water bottles, and RUNNING SHOES are recommended (rubber boots if rainy). This tip is also for the volunteers☺

Simple finger foods such as sandwiches and wraps, veggie sticks etc. are best for this field trip, as we are likely eating lunch ‘picnic’ style. Students who get milk from the school will receive their milk in the afternoon upon returning. Please send your child with a waterbottle. 

Volunteers, please ensure you bring your own lunch as well, as there is no place for you to purchase a lunch. Please remember the lunches/snacks are to be NUT-FREE and not to be shared among students for safety reasons (volunteers, please don’t share your lunch/snacks with the students either☺).

We look forward to a great trip with lots of learning and fresh air.

 

Love, Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂