Building, Playing, Erupting and Signing

We had another busy Friday.   We started the day playing with blocks.  A small group of students worked together so well to build a really tall tower.  If you look at the pictures, you can see that this tower looks pretty tall at the beginning but it continues to grow as the photos progress.  If we hadn't run out of time (or blocks) I wonder how tall it would have become!

After recess, our favorite scientist came in with some assistants and taught us all about volcanos!  He even built a working model and demonstrated how a volcano erupts.  He taught us about the three different kinds of volcanoes, how volcanoes are formed and what causes them to erupt.  He drew a cross section of the Earth and talked about where the magma is and how it moves to become lava on the surface.  He even told us all about underwater volcanoes and how some islands are formed.  Wow, we sure learned a lot in half an hour!!!

On such a beautiful day, it was hard to stay inside.  We went outside a little bit early to enjoy having the playground all to ourselves.  Here are a couple of photos….

Finally, Rhena came in for her weekly signing lesson today.  We learned 4 new words and how to count to ten in sign.  

play (which can become "party" with a slightly different movement)

more

dance

share

1

2

3 (this was a new way for me to show 3!)

4

5

6 (look carefully, a bit challenging)

7

8

9

10

Have a wonderful weekend!  Keep saving those toilet paper rolls….only 17 to go!

Paper rolls

Hi parents,

I'm looking for 20 toilet paper rolls for next Monday.  If you have any in your recycling bin at home I would be happy to take them off your hands.  Thanks!

Baby Beau

I don't have too much to share today.  Miss Dunkley tells me that the class has been working really hard to learn some dances in Music class.  She is so impressed with how well they have learned the dances.

We had another visit from baby Beau today.  He spent most of his time looking at all of our faces.  He is now reaching for toys and holding them by himself.  Here are a few pictures so you can see how he's growing….

Jump Rope For Heart information came home in your child's home envelope today.  Please have a look for it.  

Have a great rest of the day, enjoy this beautiful sunshine!

Combining Numbers and Jump Rope for Heart

Today, in math, we learned about combining numbers.  We used color beans and did an activity called "spill the beans" to combine numbers to make 5.

This afternoon, we went into the gym for a "Jump Rope for Heart" assembly.  Information will be coming home with your child tomorrow to tell you all about the fundraising campaign.  This will be Brooksbank's 5th year participating in Jump Rope for Heart and to date, we have raised over $16 000 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.  Impressive!  The day of our school Jump Rope For Heart event is February 11.  More information will be coming soon.  For Kindergarten students, jumping rope can be a challenge.  We will try to get outside and learn some jumping skills before February 11th.  I encourage the kids to practice at home too!

Brooksbank received a banner for our 5th year of participation.

We practiced jumping without a skipping rope

We learned how much sugar is in some common drinks.   Did you know that a slushy drink has 2 days' worth of sugar!  And juice contains one day's recommended amount of sugar.  Thank you so much to all of you for sending your kids to school with water bottles!

L sharing

Tomorrow is L sharing day.  I didn't manage to put reminders in home envelopes today.  Thanks!

Test of Phonological Awareness (TOPA)

At this time of year, all North Vancouver School District Kindergarten students are given the Test of Phonological Awareness (or TOPA).  You should have received an email about it today explaining it in more detail.  At school, we are working on our phonemic awareness skills (hearing and identifying the beginning sounds of words and distinguishing between sounds that are the same and those that are different).  The TOPA assesses these skills and helps us identify those students who will benefit from extra support and early intervention.  At this point, I'm not sure of the exact dates that the TOPA will take place, but it will be within the next week or two.  Please let me know if you would like more information.

Last Day of Tennis, Emotions and Light

Today, we had our last tennis lesson with Marcus.  Thanks to all of you parents for providing this opportunity for the kids.  They had a great time and really learned some good fundamental tennis skills. I know the pictures all kind of look the same, but I thought I'd include some from today for you to see.

Today, during Roots of Empathy, we learned all about emotions and how to read others' emotions.  The kids had a chance to come up in front of the group and show an emotion and we tried to guess how they were feeling:

happy

sad (this was a challenge for this student because she is ALWAYS smiling!)

excited!!!

shy

not sure which emotion this is….but he's definitely up to something!

shy or worried

angry

worried

serious

Finally, at Centre Time today we played with light.  Coloured pieces of glass are quite magical when lit from below.  Have a look: