Donamo's Kindergarten

 In Kindergarten this week we starting learning about ourselves and each other.  We have discussed physical characteristics, and similarities and differences between students.  We also completed our first class graph where each student had the opportunity to count the number of letters in his/her name and then fill in our class graph.  The students then were able to figure out that in our class Presley has the most letters in her name and Eric, Kate, Lily, Kyla and Rana all tied for the least letters in their names.

 We had a very busy week in Kindergarten this week!  The students transformed into authors and created their very first book at school.  Their books were based on the story, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?"  The students coloured pictures of the animal characters from the story for the illustrations in their books.  They used a high quality colouring rubric to self-assess their work and make goals for improvement.  For example, many students coloured their first animal and went out of the lines a lot.  With Mrs. Donamo's support, they were able to use the high quality colouring rubric and realize that they were going out of the lines, their work looked a little messy, and that they could "do better."  These students decided that if they coloured slower then they would be able to stay in the lines when colouring.  They tried their colouring again and were able to stay in the lines and improve their work.  When all the characters ...

 In Kindergarten we have been learning that we can find patterns everywhere!  The students have been using objects to create patterns, listening to patterning songs, copying the teacher's patterns and creating their own patterns.  They're learning that patterns repeat themselves and if we can figure out the pattern we can also figure out what comes next in a pattern.  After listening to Go Noodle's "Banana, Banana, Meatball" song, the students had the opportunity to create their own movement patterns and practice them with the class.  Here is what some students came up with: Novah - touch your elbow, touch your knee, touch your elbow, touch your knee Presley - smile, smile, jump, jump, smile, smile, jump, jump               - jump, jump, spin, spin, touch the floor, jump, jump, spin, spin, touch the floor Audie - jump, spin, jump, spin Kensi - jump, touch the floor, jump, touch the floor Melat - spin, smile, spin, smile Ky...

In Kindergarten we have been learning about making friends and how to be a respectful friend.  One way we can be a good and respectful friend is by giving our peers compliments.  We have started doing a compliment train so that the students can practice giving and receiving compliments.  The students quickly learned that when we give and receive a compliment we feel happy.  Here are the compliments from one of our compliment trains: Mrs. Donamo – “Melat I like your necklace” Melat – “Kyla I like your bracelet” Kyla – “Novah I like shoes” Novah – “Qasim I like shoes” Qasim – Nods yes when asked if he likes Rana’s mask Rana – “Henry I like you” Henry – “Kate I like your shirt” Kate – “Jaylee I like your shoes” Jaylee – “Kensi I like your headband” Kensi – “Neiko I like your shoes” Neiko – “Audie I like your shoes” Audie – “Presley I like your hair” Presley – “Bryce I like your shirt” Bryce – “I like Yaseen plays at the park with me” Yaseen – “Eric I like you playing in...

 In Kindergarten this week we have been talking about our favourite things.  The students were asked to share about their favourite colour, their favourite foods and their favourite part of Kindergarten.  Here are their answers when asked the question, "What is your favourite part of Kindergarten?" Kyla – “the playdough”   Neiko – “playdough”   Melat – “seeing the airplane outside”   Qasim – (point to colouring)   Rana – “draw pencil”   Kate – “playdough”   Yaseen – “watching Franklin learning videos”  and  “reading Pete the Cat”   Henry – “the park”   Eric – “Making look like a vacuum” (he made a vacuum out of building materials)   Bryce – “playing vacuum”   Novah – “the centres”   Audie – “My favourite part is going on the swing and watching the puppet show.”