October

October was filled with hands-on learning, creativity, and discovery in Kindergarten! We began the month by going on nature walks around our Parkcrest forest. As the season changed, we observed leaves transforming into beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow. We collected and examined leaves closely, learning about their different parts, such as the stem, veins, and blade, and discussing how they help plants grow.

 

During our morning time, we enjoyed reading together and doing a variety of math and literacy stations that encouraged problem-solving, letter recognition, making patterns, counting, and collaboration.

 

We created self-portraits. Using mirrors, we carefully observed our features and drew pictures of ourselves. We also explored different ways to make our names using natural materials.

We celebrated Thanksgiving by reflecting on the people and things we are grateful for. As a class, we brainstormed what we are thankful for and discovered that many of us were grateful for our families, food, friends, and toys. During Story Workshop, we used loose parts to create stories showing how we spent Thanksgiving weekend with our families. We then orally shared our stories with our friends and teachers, helping to build our confidence as storytellers.

 

We met Big Buddies from Division 7. They joined us in our classroom for shared reading and together we celebrated Halloween by creating silly monsters.

 

We learned about the different parts of a pumpkin, including the stem, skin, flesh, pulp, seeds, and vines. We investigated a real pumpkin by estimating how many seeds were inside, counting the seeds, and measuring its height and circumference. We tasted both sweet and salty roasted pumpkin seeds and then graphed our results.

 

Welcome to Div. 12

September was a busy and exciting month in Kindergarten as we settled into our new routines and quickly formed many new friendships.

We practiced writing our names in a variety of creative ways, including using loose parts, stamps, Sharpies, paint, and playdough.

We learned about our local hero, Terry Fox, and proudly participated in Parkcrest’s annual Terry Fox Run. To celebrate his courage and determination, we drew pictures of ourselves running alongside Terry.

As part of our learning about Truth and Reconciliation, we discussed how Indigenous children were unfairly treated in the past. We read I Hope by Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith and shared our ideas about what helps us feel safe, welcomed, and happy at school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Not a Box!

Inspired by the story It’s Not a Box, our class transformed ordinary cardboard boxes into extraordinary creations! Using our imaginations, we turned plain boxes into a rocket ship, seals, Super Mario, a sun, turtles, a cat, a photo frame, an apple, a kite, flags, and houses. With creativity, markers, paint, and tape, each student brought their unique ideas to life.

This activity encouraged creative thinking, problem-solving, and imaginative play—and most importantly, lots of fun! To celebrate our learning, the children also worked together to create a dragon and proudly marched around the room with it.

 

Exploring Force, Motion, and Financial Literacy

Our Kindergarten students had a wonderful time learning about force and motion through hands-on exploration. We brainstormed our ideas and visited different stations, including building ramps to test how fast cars could go, exploring friction with different materials, creating domino chains, using magnetic force to paint on paper plates, and designing marble runs. All the teamwork encouraged problem-solving as we explored how gravity and motion work together.

 

 

We also learned about financial literacy through dramatic play. Students ran an ice cream shop and played restaurant with Mrs. Steverding. A special highlight was enjoying the real waffles she made for us—they were so yummy!

 

Building Our Commuity

As part of our Community Unit, we brainstormed what makes up a community and discussed the important places and people that help a community thrive. Div. 12 shared many wonderful ideas and decided what they wanted to include in our own classroom community. Working together, they designed and created a community filled with places that are meaningful to them, showing great teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

 

 

We also had a special visit from Ms. Steverding’s brother, who is a police officer. Sergeant Steverding shared information about his job and how police officers help keep communities safe. The children were excited to learn about his equipment and even had the opportunity to try on some of his gear.

All About Chicks!

Our kindergarten class had an exciting opportunity to learn about chicks through the Eggucation program.

 

 

Our three precious eggs came on April 22.  The students eagerly watched and waited as the eggs developed in the incubator.

 

 

 

Mango Love surprised us by hatching a week early!

 

 

When Sunflower and Cutie finally hatched, everyone was overjoyed with excitement!

 

 

It was a wonderful hands-on learning experience that filled our classroom with curiosity, love, and joy!

 

 

We wrote creative stories about chicks. We focused on including a beginning, middle, and end and adding details to make our stories exciting and interesting.

 

 

We learned about the life cycle of chicks, practiced careful observation, and showed kindness as we cared for our new feathered friends. Using the information we learned and our daily observations, we each wrote a non-fiction book about chicks. We were proud to share our learning with other classes during our Non-Fiction Showcase Day.

April-Blooming, Growing, Learning!

April was another joyful and busy month in our classroom!

We were so lucky to have the Burnaby North Leadership Team visit us. They spent time decorating beautiful Easter baskets with our kindergarten students, followed by a fun Easter egg hunt together. A big thank you as well to our wonderful PAC for organizing another exciting Easter egg hunt for the children—we truly appreciate your continued support!

In Art, our focus was all about flowers and spring. Inspired by Eric Carle, we painted giant colorful flowers. We also created blooming tissue paper flowers. We also made adorable chicks hatching from eggs, inspired by the chicks we’ve been learning about in class.

We participated in the Jump Rope for Heart event hosted by Division 4—thank you to everyone who supported this meaningful cause and donated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Our students also worked with their Big Buddies to create welcome cards for next year’s kindergarten students. It’s hard to believe that our current kindergarteners will soon be moving on to Grade 1!

In PE, we learned how to play lacrosse. Students practiced important skills like cradling, scooping (ground ball pickup), passing, and shooting on goal. They picked up the game quickly and demonstrated wonderful sportsmanship during our games.

In Math, we explored measurement using non-standard units, comparing and measuring different objects in fun, hands-on ways. In Literacy, we are writing lots of creative ideas in our journals. We continue to build our vocabulary and learn new letter sounds and words to support our reading and writing skills. During Story Workshop, we wrote about spring using our five senses, and continued developing our storytelling skills by retelling stories with loose parts. We especially enjoyed retelling “Little Owl Lost” and “I Want My Hat Back.” Ask your child to retell these stories to you at home—they love sharing them!

All three of our chicks have now hatched! We are very excited to continue learning about and exploring our chicks together. Stay tuned for a future post to see our discoveries!