Today we read No More Hitting for Little Hamster

Little Hamster has trouble finding anyone to play with. That's because he uses his hands for hurting others every time something doesn't go his way. People don't like getting hurt and so they won't play with Hamster. Can you blame them?

But Little Hamster comes up with a solution! He promises (remember that word from last week?) to keep his hands off others.

We reminded ourselves of things we can do to keep our hands off others;

"I can take a breath."

"I can walk away."

"I can get help."

"I can talk about how I am feeling."

In math, I challenged the class to figure out a way we could sort ourselves out.

After coming up with several different attribute choices - we decided on shoe colour.

We had six different shoe colour groups.

"Black shoes have the most."

"White shoes have the least. Only two."

"Wait! Blue shoes have only two too. They are equal with white."

"Red shoes and pink shoes both have four- they are equal too!"

Today we read "Hands off Harry!"

Harry makes so many bad choices! He uses his hands to hurt others and make them mad.

After hearing how much he has upset his classmates - Harry decides to use his hands for helping - not hurting.

Working together to sort by shape.

At home, you can try sorting the same group of things - but by different attributes (yes - your child has learned the word attribute!) size, shape, colour etc...

 Our core text for this week is Hands are not for Hitting.

Can you talk to you child about the things we learned in this book?

Hands are for many wonderful things - but hitting is absolutely not one of them.

As a class we are focusing on keeping safe hands at school.

Hands are not for hitting. They are for...

"raising your hand." (to get the teacher's attention)

"high fives."

"hugging."

"sharing."

 Today we read two books on our theme of A Treaty is a Promise

I Make Promises talks about the everyday promises we make in our lives.

We also revisited the conversation around what happens if we break a promise. 

How does it feel for the person we made the promise to?

"They would feel sad."

"They will be angry."

"They will feel frustrated."

"Maybe they would get frustrated."

We also read "I promise" 

We learned that adults can make promises to kids too.

 Continuing our learning about promises we read The Butterfly's promise.

"I promise to tidy my room."

In math we are talking about sorting. We are learning the amazing math word "attribute".

We sorted these magnets according to different attributes.

Size

Colour

Shape

Could you do some sorting at home? Socks? Crayons? Buttons?

 Mindful Monday

Today we did a guided meditation. You can try it at home!

How did you feel after?

"I feel relaxed."

"I feel calm."

"I feel lovely."

Our sound of the week this week is /c/

What can you find around the house that starts with the /c/ sound?

This week is Treaties Recognition Week. To talk about treaties at a kindergarten level we are talking about how a treaty is a promise. 

After reading the book "Alex Shares his Wampum Belt" we had a good discussion around what a promise is and why it is so important that we keep our promises. We will continue this discussion throughout the week and I encourage you to talk about it at home too.

 What a beautiful day for outdoor learning!

On our way out - great excitement! The garbage truck came!

Now is the time of year that the milkweed plants spread their seeds. So we thought we might give them a helping hand and hopefully find some new milkweed plants next spring!

Can you see the ingenious "parachute" that the seeds are on?

Designed perfectly to be carried away on the wind to a new home. 

Who can resist a beautiful pile of leaves?

Not us!