Mrs. Lee and Ms. Jacques's Kindergarten Class

We would like to announce with great excitement and enthusiasm that we have not only  reached our goal but have surpassed it!!!!!!!  Our goal was 5000 minutes and we currently have 6161!!!  What great reading our children have done and continue to do! We couldn’t be more proud.

However, we have decided to keep reading and see how much more we can add. The children seem very excited and our trips to read the thermometer in the front hallway are always filled with anticipation. Their faces light up and they have a hard time controlling their exuberence!  Keep up the fabulous work, and keep sending in those minutes!  Way to go, Bulldogs!

We wanted to let you know that our goal is to read 5000 minutes.  We are hoping to surpass our goal. As of today we have read 3271 minutes.

To all the children that are reading and have brought in there sheets, keep it up. Way to go!!!! For those that have yet to bring in sheets, we hope you are busy reading and tracking your minutes  at home.

We have been trying to do a weekly tally and posting it on the thermometer in the front foyer.

Thank you for your participation!

Mrs. Lee and Ms. Jacques

I hope everybody is having a wonderful and safe March Break. We have all been working very hard and deserve a nice break from our regular routine. See you all soon!

Ms. Jacques

Wow!  Mr. Dunkley is here right now and he brought blocks of wood, a hand drill and some safety glasses.  Sammi and Tycen got to try drilling a hole in the wood.  The children were very excited to see the bits of sawdust and curls of wood come out when the drill is backed out of the wood.  Each child will have the opportunity over the next while to drill, sand and decorate their block of wood.  Lots of fun!

It was International Pancake Tuesday, so we thought we better take part in the action!  We stirred, broke eggs and poured the milk together.  We all had little pancakes to dip in our cup of syrup.  Some friends dipped fingers into the syrup, as the wait for the delicious treat seemed sooooo long.  Some friends drank the syrup they had left.  We read the book Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle.  It’s about a boy named John who wants a big pancake, and he must go through all the steps of making one to help his mother.  He cuts the wheat, takes it to the miller, milks the cow, collects the eggs…. a good story with terrific art work!

We danced and bopped til we dropped at the Dance-a-thon this morning!  Children won prizes and Mrs. Lee did the YMCA dance!   It was fun to do the Chicken Dance, Hokey Pokey and some twisting to the 50′s tunes!  We even did the Mexican Hat Dance!  It was nice to see a few parents out.  Thank you to the families who sent treats in today for our “buffet”.  We love a good party!

We love to be scientists, do experiments and see what happens!  Last Thursday, we mixed 9 tablespoons of Borax and 3 cups of boiling water in a glass jar.  Ms. Jacques twisted a pipecleaner and tied it to a pencil.  She then set the pencil across the top of the jar with the pipecleaner hanging down into the mixture.  When we came in on Friday morning, we had a beautiful crystal in the jar.  We were able to chip some pieces out of the bottom of the jar to look at with our magnifying glasses.  Very cool!

Well, some interesting findings in the bread department.  After 8 days, a loaf of regular white Wonder bread did not have any mold anywhere. Lots of preservatives?  (We didn’t include any moisture at first – maybe that’s why!)  We decided to try again with a loaf of fresh bread from the in-store bakery.  Ha-ha!  Success!  After a few days, some of the pieces have beautiful blue/green mold.  Guess where all the germs are?  No, not the toilet which is cleaned everday by our wonderful custodial staff – my piano!  Yuck!  I’m getting the Lysol wipes out!  I don’t want to be hitting any sour notes! 

In continuing with our “germ” theme, we decided to try another experiment.  We got a loaf of white bread and asked the children to think about where we would find germs in the classroom.  They really knew where they would be!  We then rubbed a piece of bread in many of those places and put them in ziploc baggies with labels on them.  We had Dawsyn lick a piece, wiped around the toilet, sink handles, floor, my piano, a pencil, the table in our house centre and the soap dispenser (among others).  We even had Emma and Michael cough on a piece!  We are now waiting to see what happens.  There are magnifying glasses and books on the back table with the pieces of bread.  We’re hoping to see some really yucky, gross and colourful molds and germs.  We’ll keep you posted!

Well, we have been coughing and sputtering, so we decided to talk about germs.  We have found some stories and experiments to help us learn about germs.  One fun experiment we tried was with glitter.  Ms. Jacques put red glitter on her hands and said they were germs.  She washed her hands but did not dry them, and many of the sparkles were still there!  Then Hannah dipped her hand into the sparkles that had fallen on the floor.  We had Hannah shake hands with a few  friends, and sure enough, they got sparkles on their hands!  A couple of kids were “grossed out” and didn’t  want to shake hands. It was a terrific way for the kids to see how easily germs can spread and how important hand washing, scrubbing and drying is.  We also learned that a good sneeze can make germs travel up to 9 metres!  That’s from our word wall to the cubbies!! Yikes!