June 22-26

Hello Kindergarten!

WE MADE IT!

I can't believe this is my last blog post to you!

It wasn't the school year that we all wanted for our children BUT, I think we have all pulled together to make this year the best that it could be.

I am so appreciative of all your hard work.

I am so thankful for all your kind emails.

I am so grateful that I have had your children in my life.
I am so honoured to have been part of your child's first year of school.

And...MOST of all...

I am so PROUD of all our kindergarten kiddos!

This week we will practice counting by 2's!  

We will also solve some more math problems.  

You've been doing such a great job at solving problems and showing your work with pictures, numbers and words!  

I think we must be ready for Grade One now!

Please click HERE for the weekly schedule.

Day 1

• Use your 100 chart to show your child what happens when we count by 2's.  We skip every other number!  Colour or highlight the numbers to show counting by 2's up to 20 (or beyond if you like!)  
• Watch this video to learn about counting by 2's.
• Here is your math problem for today:

There were 4 frogs in the pond.

3 jumped out.

4 more jumped in.

How many frogs are in the pond now?

Day 2

• Watch this video and count by 2's!
• Today's math problem is 'open ended'.

You went to the farm.

You saw some animals walk by and you counted their legs.

There were 12 legs altogether.

Some animals had 2 legs and some animals had 4 legs.

What animals did you see?

Day 3

• Watch this video and get moving while you count by 2's!
• Today's math problem is another open ended one!

A toy maker had 13 wheels.

He used all 13 wheels when he made some toys.

What toys did he make?

Day 4

• Math reflection day!  Your children are true kindergarten mathematicians and they have learned SO much this year.  Today I would love for you to sit down with your child and talk about everything they have learned in Kindergarten math.  Talk about where they were when they started Kindergarten and now talk about the things they can do now!  This year we have:

• learned to count accurately, make sets of objects and recognize numbers
• learned to subitize dot cards, dice, dominos and ten frames
• discovered that numbers can be broken into their parts
• represented numbers by printing them, showing them on ten frames, using number lines, using tally marks etc.
• sorted objects in many ways
• recognized, extended, copied and created repeating patterns
• experimented with measurement, weigh scales and capacity
• learned about 3D shapes, how to recognize them, draw them and describe them
• learned about solving problems in math by acting out the problem and drawing what we have done
• begun to use mental math by visualizing how numbers are made of their parts and using this information to think about how many more you would need to get to 10
• started to understand how addition and subtraction work
• learned that math is all around us and that math is FUN!

• Now, ask your child to write, draw or tell you 3 things that makes him/her a math superstar!
• Next ask your child to write, draw or tell you 3 things that he/she is looking forward to learning more about in math in Grade One!

This week Miss Roberts and I will see you at our last google meet.  Details are to come.  

WOW!  We are really ready for Grade One!

Speaking of Grade One...I've graduated to Grade One as well!  After 14 years of teaching Kindergarten I am moving to Grade One.  As many of you know I will be moving to a new school next year.  I will still be close to here at Sunnyside School in a half time position.

Leaving Briar Hill is a very difficult for me.  The staff, the parents and the students all mean so much to me and it is hard to go.  It is especially difficult because I won't be able to give your children a goodbye hug.  However, I hope that maybe one day our paths cross again.  Who knows where we might run into each other...the zoo, the park, the pool...I see former students everywhere I go!  I sure hope I see you!  Please always come to say hello if you spot me somewhere...there is nothing more rewarding to a teacher!

I wish you all the most wonderful and relaxing summer and the best of luck in Grade One!

Thank you for giving me the true honour of being one of your children's first teachers.  Your child has a place in my heart forever.

💖 Mrs. Seddon 💖

June 15-19

Happy Monday Kindergarten!

Wow...it's already June 15th!  I don't know what's happened to time but it is flying by at record speed right when we all expected it to stand still!

I hope you had a great week counting by 10's!

Check out all our creative ways of solving some of the number problems from last week.  I love how you used pictures, numbers and words to show your work!

 

 

 

 


Look at these great giant number lines!

Did you figure out how you could sort the houses in 7 different ways?!

This week we will be learning to count by 5's!  

Please note that kindergarten children are not expected to count by 5's or 10's but many of them are ready to do this at this stage so it doesn't hurt to start.  

If your child is not able to do this yet, please don't worry...they will learn this skill in grade one.  

This week we will be solving some more math problems.  The problems this week are a little trickier and it is to be expected that your child might need some help with these.  Remember we are using these problems to teach the process of problem solving and we should not be expecting children to be proficient at this yet!  Remember the steps:

1. Talk about the problem and figure out what it is telling you and what it is asking you.
2. Act out the problem with real objects.
3. Record your answer to the problem using pictures, numbers and words.

Please click HERE for the weekly schedule.

Day 1

• Print off a One Hundred Chart HERE and have it beside your child as they watch this video to learn about counting by 5's!  Pause the video when it shows the one hundred chart and talk about where the numbers are on the hundreds chart that end with 5 and with 0.  If you have a highlighter you can work with your child to highlight all the numbers that end with a 5 and a 0.  This way they can follow along as they count by 5's.

• Here is your number problem for today:

There are 3 children.  

There are 12 apple slices  

All the children need to have the same number of apple slices.  

How many will each child have?

• Use the one hundreds board to play 'race to one hundred'!  You will need 2 dice, and a small object for each player to use as a place marker.  Each player takes turns rolling the dice, adding them together and moving that many spaces on the hundreds board.  The first person to get to one hundred is the winner!

Day 2

• Watch this video to practice counting by 5's!

• Here is your number problem for today, this one has 2 steps, so it is a little tricky:

Mrs. Seddon was having a party.  

She made 3 vanilla cupcakes and 3 chocolate cupcakes.

How many cupcakes did she make altogether?

There will be 10 kids at the party.

How many more cupcakes does she need to make?

Day 3

• Watch this video to get moving while counting by 5's!

• Here is another two step number problem:

There are 8 kids at the splash park.

There are 10 popsicles, but 4 melted.

Do we have enough popsicles?

How many more do we need?

Day 4

• Watch this video to practice counting by 5's!

• Today's number problem is about an ice cream party!  I really wish we could have an ice cream party!

The Kindergarten Kids were having an ice cream party!

4 kids wanted double scoops of chocolate.

6 kids wanted single scoops of vanilla.

2 kids wanted triple scoops of strawberry.

Quick - before it all melts!

How many scoops in all?

I hope you had a fun week!  

Only ONE more week of Kindergarten left to go!  I can't believe it!

I am so proud of you all!

💖  Mrs. Seddon 💖

June 8 - 12

Hello Kindergarten Families!

I hope you all had a wonderful week in the lovely spring weather!  Aren't the blossoms on the trees beautiful?

Last week we made some patterns...

And we solved some pattern problems....

Can you find the patterns in these great photos that you took this week?

 

This next one is tricky...at first I couldn't spot the pattern, but then I did!  
Can you spot it?

Patterns really are EVERYWHERE!

This week we are going to work on some number problems.  Our goal is to help children pick out the important details in the problems.  It can be tricky for kindergarten children to figure out what the problem tells them and what the problem is asking.  

1. Before talking about the math involved make sure you spend time talking about the details in the problem.
2. Allow your child to use objects to 'act out' the problems.  It is important for Kindergarten children to understand what is happening in a problem and model it with pictures and objects.  Remember, we haven't done a lot of work with addition and subtraction (this is yet to come in Grade 1) but our kindergarteners are used to using and playing with manipulatives and numbers and they can solve all these problems by doing just that.
3. Let your child do his/her own thinking.  Try not to tell your child how to solve the problems but rather guide them through questioning.  Let your child choose a strategy that works best for him or her.  Your child might choose a strategy that you wouldn't have thought of (for example, you may use subtraction, but they may count up), but if it works for them, they understand what they are doing and can explain their work then it's all good.
4. Encourage your child to record their answers in a neat and organized way that shows their thinking.  Their work doesn't have to be 'pretty' but it does need to show their thought process.  They don't have to write an equation for every problem, but they can of course if they want to.

Most importantly...

Make sure your child is having fun!  Math should be enjoyable!

This week we will also be practicing counting by 10's! 

Please click HERE for the weekly schedule!

Day 1

• Here is your first math problem (remember to follow the steps above):

There were 10 cookies.

Bear ate most of them.

Now there are only 3 left.

How many did bear eat?

• Next you are going to make a giant number line!  You will also need the number line cards found HERE.  You will also need some masking tape and a space to make a large number line.  If it is a nice day and not windy you could even do this with sidewalk chalk instead of tape.   You will need to cut the cards out before doing the activity.

1. Make a long line of tape on the floor and at even intervals put a cross piece of tape and write numbers 1 - 10 on each of the cross pieces.
2. Shuffle the number cards and have your child turn one over at a time.
3. Your child will place the number cards in the correct spot on the number line until all the cards are placed.
4. Next clean up the cards.  Now you flash the cards for your child to see quickly, your child looks at it and runs to that spot on the number line.

Here is the completed number line that my boys made:

• Let's learn to count by 10's by watching this video

Day 2

• Here is today's math problem:

Mrs. Seddon went on a bug hunt.  

She caught 3 ladybugs, 4 caterpillars and 2 butterflies.

How many bugs did she catch?

• Practice counting by 10's and get moving by watching this video

Day 3

• Here is today's math problem:

You need 10 apples to make a pie.

You have 3 red apples and 6 green apples.

How many more apples do you need?

• HERE is another video to practice counting by 10's

Day 4

• Here is today's math problem:

There are 4 tables in the classroom.

We need 2 glue sticks for each table.

How many glue sticks do we need?

• Get some exercise with this video counting by 10's!

Bonus Question:

• Go HERE to try sorting some houses as many ways as you can think of!  You can even sort them right on the screen!  Just scroll down the page and you will find the interactive tool...you can just drag them to sort them.  I wonder how many ways you can sort them!  Hint: there are 7 ways...can you find them all?  Let your child come up with as many ways as he/she can think of first and then provide prompts if needed...when I did this with my son he came up with 3 ways that I hadn't even thought of.  It is amazing what kids see that we don't!  

I hope you had fun solving these math problems!  

Next week we will solve some more number problems!

It's hard to believe we are almost Kindergarten graduates!  Only 2 more weeks to go!  It's very bittersweet but I feel so proud of everyone for making the most of this very crazy school year!

Have a wonderful weekend!

💖  Mrs. Seddon 💖