Kindergarten Learning Term 1 2020

Each day is a gift

Throughout the term, Kindergarten has been reflecting on each day during our daily prayers and class discussions - we are grateful for so many things in our lives and the gift of each other at school. It feels like a long time since our little Kinder team has been together, but the time we have spent learning in the classroom has been so much fun and we have come so far! Here is what we have been learning about in Kindergarten.

In Religion we learnt about the importance of the lenten season. Kindergarten created posters, traced and painted the symbols of Lent. We also visited the church to see how the church looks as we prepare for Easter. We found the colour purple all around the church! To help us remember the liturgical colours, we learnt a little song:

Purple and green, red and white, remind us of the light!
Purple’s for preparation
White is for celebration
Green is for the growing time
Red is for Pentecost.

The Kindergarten students have also made so many beautiful connections while learning about ‘Who is Jesus?’ through their engagement in the religion presentations. We planted some wheat seeds which remind us that Jesus is the light we grow towards. We watched the dioramas of the city of Jerusalem, and retold the story of the Good Shepherd and the Annunciation. Through these experiences, the children have learnt about who Jesus is and how he lived in a real place at a real time. Many of the children say that the best part of learning in religion is when they get to use the dioramas and retell the stories they have watched.

During the last few weeks, Kindergarten has grown in confidence with their reading and writing! The children are so good at guided reading groups now, and are more confident in using the pictures and pointing to each word as they read. Some children are also using their ‘lips the fish’ reading strategy to say the first sound they can see in a word.

During writing time, we have had a big focus on developing our growth mindset. The students have learnt that “mistakes are proof I’m trying” and that “I can train my brain.” As the children consolidate their sound knowledge, they are attempting to write their own words using the sounds they know! In Kindergarten we have been calling this ‘little people’s writing.’ ‘Little people’s writing’ means we can also use scaffolds from around the classroom, like the teacher’s words, word walls, sight word mats and the sound charts to help us write. We are learning to become more independent writers!

In Mathematics, the students are now fabulous at completing their familiar maths warm ups of tug-o-war, handfuls and tens frames. The children have learnt more about whole number and have been learning to represent numbers using concrete materials, numbers and words. We have also been learning about the numbers ‘one more’ and ‘one less’ than a number!

We started our learning about two-dimensional shapes in the classroom. We went on a 2D shape hunt around the classroom and we made a variety of 2D shapes out of craft materials, and then had to describe the features of the shapes. So much fun, hands on learning!

A highlight for many of the students has been our play based learning during Investigations.

We have been exploring ‘how things move.’ We started off the learning by building some moving toys using mobilo, gears and cogs, trains and marble runs in our building workshop! This allowed the students to come up with some new inquiry questions; such as - can my toy move in water?

What a great question! So during Investigations, one of the tasks was to see which objects will float or sink? Did the water push the object up, or did it get pulled down to the bottom?

The students also had the opportunity to make some predictions about magnets - what objects are magnetic or not? They then tested their thinking at the magnets station in investigation time- so many objects can be pulled by a magnet!

The learning in Investigations did not stop there! The children have had the opportunity to play and inquire into how a variety of digital technologies move. They constructed mazes out wooden blocks for the Beebots to move through when they coded them, they have used the Osmos application on the iPads to turn shapes and twist them to make a picture according to the instructions on the screen.

Our learning in Investigations has continued at home with our remote learning on Seesaw. Thank you to the Kindergarten children who shared their maps of their obstacle courses they had built at home! I loved seeing how you moved through them! I bet some of the mums and dads would have liked to have had a go….

Finally, a huge congratulations to the Kindergarten children! You have definitely demonstrated some fantastic resilience this term transitioning from the classroom to remote learning. As teachers, we always reinforce with the children how important it is to ‘bounce back’ when things go wrong or change from the way we are used to.

Here is a little quote:

Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.

Keep up the wonderful learning on Seesaw at home. I have loved hearing all of your little voices talk about your learning, and I am so glad I can give you some feedback each day.

Take the time to enjoy some fun family time with your child. Go for a walk, sing songs, play a board game! Children will remember this precious time they get to spend with you.

And remember - the most precious gift you can give your child is the gift of your time and attention.

Keep up the wonderful learning. Remember to pray each day, have some fun family time and continue to shine bright Kindergarten.

Take care and God Bless,
Miss Fitzalan