Welcome to Mrs. McGregor's Wiki Space!

On this page, I will be posting reminders for the parents of the kindergarten children and I will also be sending home hard copy notices to make certain parents get the important information.

THIS PAGE IS USUALLY UPDATED WEEKLY.

Ooops! I forgot to put the date on the Scholastic Book Order papers when I sent they home.  I will be sending in the order this Friday, February 3.  Sorry for the inconvenience. 

On Monday January 30th the children will have their ice cream party at 12:00.  This was their prize for the fall fundraiser.

We are going to see "The Cat Came Back" at MTYP with the grade two's on Friday.

Hurray! This weeks should be warm enough for the children to go outside for lunch recess.  Please make sure that they are dressed for the weather with warm mitts, hats and snow pants.   

On February 14^th, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day and on February 22, in the afternoon, we will be celebrating 100 Day.  There are a few things

we need to do before the big days.

****Please have your child address and sign a Valentine’s card for each child in the class.  This is a huge task for a five or six year old so please start ahead of time and allow a few days to finish.  I have sent home a list of the children’s first names to help your child. Your child should bring his or her completed cards to school during the week of February 6^th to the 10th or at the latest Friday, February 10.  The children will be delivering the cards

 themselves into the right “mail bags” and they will take them home on February 14 to open them with their parents.  This will give you the time to sit down with your child and have a look at each one and read who it is from.  If we do this in class, the cards tend to get lost and do not really get looked at.

If you would like to bring a special snack to school for Valentine’s Day, please let me know. Vegetables or fruit would probably be a welcome healthy snack as well as the usual cookies or treats.

*****Each child should get a collection together of 100 things and bring it to school on February 22 in a clear container or a Ziploc bag.  This collection could be something like hockey cards, a sticker collection book with 100 stickers, 100 cotton balls, 100 toothpicks, 100 bottle caps, 100 little cars, 100 lego blocks, 100 paperclips etc. Your child should actually count out the objects by hand not just bring in a package labeled 100 items from the store. This practice counting is very important. Please do not have your child bring in their collection before February 22.

*****We need 6 parents to volunteer to take 4 children each to about 5 centres in the class (and in the hall) to do fun activities for 100 Day.  These will include making a snack mix with 100 pieces, making something out of 100 blocks, seeing how far we will get taking 100 steps and licking a sucker 100 times to name just a few.  I will have the centers organized and set up ahead of time.  I am sure it will be great fun but you will have to help the children count to 100 many times during the afternoon.

If you can help out on February 22 please let me know.  I hope to have the groups organized by Friday, February 17 at the latest.

Please make sure you read the home reading book with your child on more than one day.  Maybe 3 times on one day and 3 times on the other day. Children learn to read by reading and get better at reading by reading more. 

We started our morning letter, our journals and home reading this week.  The children are doing really great and are very interested.  We are talking about how people learn to read and how important it is to look at the words when you are reading. I am frequently pointing out all the words thay do know how to read.  Many of the children are starting to recognize the words in our morning letter and are very proud of themselves.

I hope the home reading is going well.  Please don't forget to read the book to your child, and then have your child read it back to you, pointing to the words as they read. Please have your child read it to you a few times over the course of a few days.  Any problems or concerns please let me know.  Some of the childen are reading already and I gave them the option of taking harder books but they wanted to take the ones they chose.  After their confidence grows they will be ready to take more difficult stories. Home reading should be fun not difficult or too hard.  They need to be taking books at their comfort level. ( sometimes as well they want to take books their friends are taking and that is ok right now)

For math, we have been counting by fives, tens and twos as well as by ones.  Please play games with your child using cards or dice so they begin to recognize the dot patterns automatically.  We are also trying to focus on recognizing numbers and sign a song on youtube called "Numbers in the teens start with a one" and another one called "Numbers in the twenties start with a two". Thre is another one that counts to 100.  I will send you the links is I can.

I sent home your child's alphabet book on the last day of school. Please complete the remaining letters of the alphabet with your child (work pages and cutting out pictures) and have your child bring it back to school in January. I will be giving certificates to the children who finish their ABC book and bring it back to school.

We will be starting some new activities in January including journal writing and guided reading in class and home reading. Home reading will start going home twice a week and I will send a letter home with instructions and suggestions soon. During this term in kindergarten, children show tremendous growth I excect you will see changes in both their literacy and numeracy skills. If you have any questions or concerns about what we are doing in class please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you have any of our classroom books at home (the ones the class made in September and the beginning of October) please send them back to school.  I only have one at school right now that I could find. We will be writing more books in the coming months and I hope you and your child enjoy them.

  Please let me know if you or your child have any concerns or worries.  I think most of the children are becoming very independent and know the morning routines.  If you want to say good bye to your child outside the door when the bell rings, please know that we will take good care of them and help them get settled.

I know the bathroom is a concern for some of the children. I am trying to reassure them but please let them know if any big kids are bothering them at any time, they need to let me know right away (or another adult) so I can address it immediately. I also try to watch out the classroom door, or ask Mrs. Vasquez or Mrs. Boccini too if they do go to the washroom during class.

At lunch time, Mrs. Boccini is trying to encourage the children to eat their sandwiches, pizza etc. befor having dessert.  She is doing her best to encourage the children to eat at least some of their lunch. I know sometimes this is not an easy task buy please rest assured that we are tryng to make sure the  children eat enough.

 We are going on about 10 field trips, by school bus.  All fees have already been paid for with the school fees but we will be asking for volunteers to help us out.  We will be going  to 2 plays at MTYP (The Cat Came Back and Starkeeper) as well as the zoo, the Children's Museum, the Manitoba Museum, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Fort Whyte.  These places all have excellent programs for kindergarten children that fit in with our curriculum.

Please remember to label all your child's belongings in case they get misplaced in the school or in our class.

  I sent home information about how your child should be forming the letters.  It is much more efficient for children (and adults) to form most letters from the top down.  Please reinforce this with your child and remind him or her to go "down". 

There are two adults that will be helping out in the classroom.  Mrs. Vasquez will be in our class every morning and she will also be working at the after school program every day.  Mrs. Boccini will be in our class to supervise lunch hour and lunch recess on the playground and will also be helping out every afternoon in the classroom.  Your children will be in good hands!

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you or your child has any concerns or questions.