May

Hey everyone!

This is what the month of May has in store for us!

Early Literacy - We are almost finished learning our all letters! When we are done, the rest of the year will be dedicated to letter and sound recognition reinforcement, and playing with sounds, rhyming and writing to improve early reading and writing skills in preparation for Grade 1. We are also doing an author study on Eric Carle this month. The students will be read many Eric Carle stories and will have to think about, discuss and write about their favorite stories, and characters. Students will also have to practice reading skills such as prediction and retelling stories.

Early Numeracy - We have just started our measurement unit. We will be learning how to measure volume, weight and length. Later this month we will start our unit on 3D shapes.

Citizenship and Identity - Last month we worked very hard on the concepts of group work, cooperation, respect and being helpful. We completed a big group work project where we worked together to clean up our school playground. This also tied into our Environment and Community Awareness curricular outcome of protecting our environment and taking responsibility for our part in keeping the earth clean. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and contributions of each student who participated in this project!

Environment and Community Awareness - With the coming of spring and this great weather we have started our unit theme of Plants, Living Things and Creepy Crawlies. Our centre themes consist of various activities centred around farm animals and creepy crawlies. We will be doing group and table top activities focusing on taking care of plants and identifying living versus nonliving things. The celebration this month is Mother's Day!

Personal and Social Responsibility - As well being responsible for the completion of our new goal sheets focusing on farm animals and creepy crawlies, the students will be learning about nutrition and hygiene and the importance of taking care of our bodies. We have also started the "Zones of Regulation" program where students are taught to identify how they're feeling and are given suggestions of tools they may use to keep themselves happy or "get back to the green". Tied into this theme, we will be celebrating mental health week by wearing green on Thursday May 5!

Physical Skills - During gym class we have been working on hand-eye coordination skills. The students have been introduced to the basic skills of soccer, basketball and volleyball. We will continue with these skills for the duration of the month.

Creative Expression - We will be starting to look at roles of artists and how everyday things such as picture books have artists that contribute to the look and feel of the stories. This will tie in with our author study of Eric Carle. We will be using his illustrations as inspiration in our own artistic creations.

Thanks to everyone in their participation in the EDI Screening Assessment! Please check the May calendar of events for special dates and don't forget to check out our classroom photos under the "Classroom Fun in Photos" tab.