Tweets by foleynism

Monday 5th September-Friday 9th September

This week we got to meet our grade 9 buddies who will be writing us a special story. We had great fun meeting them and telling them lots of information about ourselves to help them write their stories for us. We even got to show them around our classroom. 

It was great fun!

Some of the Fire Dashers decided that they wanted to start up their own Restaurant. We had a class vote on what we wanted to call our restaurant and then the Fire Dashers began creating and developing their restaurant. 

They researched menu designs and made their own menus, they created a sign for the restaurant and even created a seating plan to help the waitresses find the tables.

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Firer Dasher Cafe. The Pizza was delicious and the service was even better!

Yet again we have been very busy during readers and writer workshop. 

In writers workshop we are trying really hard to put detail into our stories and some of us are even trying to add words to our stories. Hopefully we might be able to think about holding a publishing party to celebrate our finished books, but first we might need to edit them.

During one of our Maths Workshops this week we had a visit from Mr Steve who taught us how to play a number sense game. Luckily we managed to beat Mr Steve and keep the tickle monster away!

In centers this week we have been creating space pictures with name rockets, counting backwards, practicing our handwriting, learning how to play a game fairly within a group and talking like a robot to help us break down words.

We also have lots of new toys in our classroom and we have had great fun exploring these new toys.

Tuesday 30th August- Friday 2nd September

It may have been a shorter week this week but it was still a very eventful one, particularly for our class bear Snowy who went missing on Wednesday! 

But thanks to the Fire Dashers and their super investigation skills we managed to follow the clues Snowy had left around the school and bring him back safely.

We found a message from Snowy which lead us to the clinic.

At the clinic we found another clue. It said Snowy felt like
going for a swim.

We found another clue by the pool
which lead us to the Kantina.

Writers Workshop 

In writers workshop this week we have begun to work on creating our very first book. We spent time looking at books written by other authors and looked closely at the front covers to decide what we needed to put on the front of our own books. We decided we needed a title, a detailed picture and of course our names as we would be the authors of our stories. We have also begun to think about what we could draw and write about in our books and came up with lots of ideas. I think the Fire Dashers will all be very busy developing their very first books over the next few workshops.

Maths Workshop

In Maths workshop this week we investigated the maths tools we had in our classroom and went on a scavenger hunt to find tools we could use to measure, count, connect and create a design with. While some of us went on the scavenger hunt the rest of the class went outside to work on our number recognition and counting. We had great fun racing to the correct number and working in groups to throw the correct amount of beanbags onto the number.

We found the number nine!

We need 8 beanbags. 1, 2 ......

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ......

Investigating our Maths resources

I found links, they connect!

These shapes make pictures.

Monday 22nd -Friday 26th August

The Fire Dashers have had a very busy week this week and have been working hard during our workshops.

As well as working hard in our workshops we have also be thinking about the power word... YET! We have been discussing how even though there may be things we can’t do, it just means we can’t do them... YET!

The children loved watching this sesame street video all about the ‘power of yet’ which then lead onto a great circle time discussion about things that we can’t do that we would like to be able to in the future. During center times the children worked with Ms. Diwa to think about two things they can do and one thing that they can’t do yet. They then discussed steps they could take to help them achieve their goal.

The Fire Dashers have also been developing their teamwork and communication skills. In Math Workshop this week the Fire Dashers worked on playing a maths game with a partner. Together we created an anchor chart to show what playing a game with a partner would look like. Some of the Fire Dasher’s suggestions were; to take turns, don’t argue, look at each other when you are talking and don’t get upset if you lose.

Waiting patiently

Turn taking 

Waiting for your turn

Giving eye contact

Looking at your partner when you talk

Looking at your partner when you talk to them.

It was also lovely to see these skills move into their free choice play. During free choice one child made a paper aeroplane that quite a few other children liked and wanted to make too. Rather than just make one for each child he used his communication skills to help explain to his friends how to make a paper aeroplane so they could all make one themselves. We then had a great time testing them and seeing which plane flew the furthest. One child even began to experiment to see if a smaller plane might travel further!  

Using our listening and communication skills

Working together

In writers workshop this week the Fire Dashers each created a page to go into our very first Fire Dashers book called ‘All about the Fire Dashers.’ First we created our pictures really thinking about the detail and taking our time to create pictures of ourselves, new friends we have made and something that we enjoy doing in Kindergarten. We then moved on to thinking about colours and colouring in. We discussed what it means to use an appropriate colour and what the boundary line is. Finally we wrote about our pictures. We used our words of the week to help us with our sentences and tried hard to sound out any letters we could hear in new words.

In readers workshop this week we have continued to learn about how to take care of books, particularly how to look after the spine when we chose a book and put a book back. The Fire Dashers also loved listening and helping me to tell the story ‘The Journey’ by Aaron Becker which is a wordless book. This also helped us with our writers workshop as it showed how the details in pictures can really help us to tell an exciting story. I was extremely impressed with the language the children used to describe the forest and the castle that appeared in the story.

During readers workshop we also went on a reading walk around our school. We were amazed at how many signs there were to read around the school and how some of those signs were just pictures that we could read. We definitely learnt that reading doesn’t just happen in books, it’s all around us, everyday! Take a look at all the signs we found around our school to read.

This week we also played a sound game. The children enjoyed playing the game and deciding what sound the object started with. We also enjoyed lots of fun activities during our center time. Take a look at the videos and photos below to see what we have been getting up to. 

Monday 15th -19th August

We are now drawing to the end of our second week and what another great week we have had. As well as being busy developing new friendships and learning new routines, this week the Fire Dashers also began writers workshop, readers workshop and maths workshop. We also discussed how we can be safe, responsible and respectful members of our school.

In writers workshop we have been busy learning how we can all be authors by using the strategy, 'think, draw, write' and ensuring we have our writing tools ready. In readers workshop we have also learnt how everyone can be a reader. The Fire Dashers learnt how to handle books careful and worked on reading stories through pictures.  

Take a look below at the Fire Dashers in action during one of our reading workshops this week.

In Mathematics this week the Fire Dashers took part in two Maths Workshops. We discussed what makes a good Maths problem solver and the Fire Dashers came up with the following ideas:

How to Solve a Math Problem

Investigate

Work together

Share your ideas

Explain your ideas

Stay positive!

Some Fire Dashers even took to the mathematicians chair to explain their thinking behind their ideas. A big well done to Kit, Konrad, Lottie and Onni for explaining their thinking to the rest of the Fire Dasher team!  

In Mathematics this week we have also been exploring 2D shapes and Ernst noticed that there were shapes all around us in our classroom. We noticed that the clock was the shape of a circle and that we had tables that were in the shapes of squares, rectangles and hexagons. We decided that we should investigate further and went on a shape hunt around our school. The Fire Dashers worked in pairs and discussed how they would record their findings before setting off on their hunt. 

Take a look at the Fire Dashers on their hunt for shapes!

Come and take a look at the Fire Dashers exploring their new classroom and making new friends along the way.

Monday 8th -Friday 12th August

What a fantastic first week we have had! It has been great getting to know one another and exploring our new classroom. We have found lots of exciting things to do and we have also learnt lots of fun songs and games. Our class bear Snowy has been helping us to learn the classroom routines and encouraged us to use our good looking and listening skills to help us learn. Take a look at all the pictures and videos below to really see what we have been getting up to this week.

Carpet Time

During carpet time this week we met our class bear Snowy, played simon says to help develop our listening skills; learnt a fun game called ‘bug in a rug’ and joined in with some number songs.  

Centre Times

During centre times this week we looked in mirrors to create our self portraits;created patterns using the links and unifix cubes; found the letters in our name and compared them with our friends; worked together to complete alphabet puzzles and talked about and drew our family pictures.