October Summary
Fine Motor
Each week we have continued to practice identifying and building our names using a variety of fine motor skills.
· Gluing ripped paper
· Playdough name mats
· Bingo dabbers
· Wiki stiks
· Fingers in sand
· Pompoms in sand
· Gel bags
· Find and clip
· Q tip dot painting
· Kinetic sand and magnetic blocks
· Magnet names
· Cut and glue name
· Clay
Literacy
Each day we complete a lesson from the Heggerty program working on our phonological skills. Each lesson includes the following:
· Rhyme repetition (Hop, mop)
· Initial phoneme recognition (beginning sounds in a word – mat - /m/)
· Blending words (cup – cake - cupcake)
· Phoneme isolation – final sounds (ending sounds in a word – mat - /t/)
· Segmenting words (cupcake - cup – cake)
· Adding words (some – add one - someone)
· Deleting words (someone – take away one - some)
· Alphabet knowledge (letters and sounds)
· Language awareness (counting words in a sentence – I can see = 3 words)
Each day we have reviewed the alphabet in order and practiced saying the letters and their corresponding sound.
We have also begun participating in daily literacy centers. These have included pumpkin rhyming, matching uppercase and lowercase letters, identifying beginning sounds, and matching to the appropriate letter. We are using sand to practice writing upper and lowercase letters with our fingers and using beads to fill in letters.
Math
Sorting
We began discussing sorting by introducing the concepts and “same” and “different”. We read Same but different as well as Different? Same! We then watched various sorting videos to explore different ways that we could sort items. We discussed that when we are sorting we are putting different items in groups based on their similarities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZSWt9fyOSA
We practiced sorting by sorting:
· Uno cards by colour
· Playing cards by colour and shape
· Pattern blocks by colour, shape, and size
· Googly eyes by colour, shape, size, as well as by dots or no dots.
· Pompoms by colour and size
We also had a discussion about the various disposal bins we have at our school – blue bin (refundables), black bin (garbage) and green bin (compost) and the different items that go in each bin. We then practiced sorting different items into each bin.
Patterning
To begin our patterning unit, we watched the following video as well as read Pattern Bugs by Trudy Harris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js45cR_7wFE&t=207s
We put these skills into practice using:
· Coloured bears
· Unifix blocks
· Bingo dabbers
· Pattern Blocks
Wellness
Mindfulness
Below you will find each mindfulness technique that we have practiced over the last 3 weeks:
· The Body Scanner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLoK5rOl8Qk
· Belly Breathing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiMb2Bw4Ae8&t=1s
· Thought Bubbles! For Anxiety and Worry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70j3xyu7OGw
Classroom Volume
We have been focusing on the different volume levels of our classroom. We discuss when each volume will help us be successful and learn at school. During morning circle we discuss the different volumes as well as times that we are able to use each volume of voice.
· Volume Level
o Level 0 – Silent – we are silent when others are sharing or adults are talking.
o Level 1 – Whisper – we use our whisper voices when we are completing work and others are learning. We also use a whisper voice in the library.
o Level 2 – Talking – we use our talking voice when we are playing or during snack time,
o Level 3 – Shouting – we use our shouting voice when we are playing outside at the playground or if someone is in danger.
Problem Solving
We have also been learning about how to solve problems independently with our peers. At Glenbrook we follow WITS. Every morning we role play each step of WITS to practice problem solving as a group so that are able to better use these strategies when we are on our own.
· WITS
o W – Walk away
o I – Ignore
o T – Talk it out
o S – Seek help
Emotions and Feelings
During circle, we also discuss different emotions that we feel in a day using our calm down kit. Our calm down kit includes various stories that help us understand the physical things that may come along with our emotions as well as ways to help us calm down or cheer up.
· Anger:
o We may feel
§ Our hearts beat fast
§ Our jaw clenches
§ Hot or shaky,
§ Like we might hit something
§ That we need to scream
o To help us calm down we can:
§ Sit
§ Fold our hands
§ Take 5 breaths
§ Count to 10
§ Drink water
· Sadness:
o We may feel
§ Our hearts hurt
§ Like we need to cry
§ Confused
§ Like we want to be alone
o To help us cheer up we can:
§ Talk to an adult
§ Read
§ Play with a toy quietly
§ Draw or color
§ Take a break
September 18 - 22
Website Resources:
CBE Occupational Therapy Website: https://sites.google.com/educb...
There are many wonderful resources and ideas on the CBE OT website for fine motor and emotional regulation.
Monday:
We started off our week with a review of our entry routine. We used our visuals on our lockers to remember the steps we need to complete before entering the classroom:
1. Remove our shoes and put them on top of our lockers
2. Take off our backpacks and jackets and put them in our lockers.
3. Take out our snacks.
4. Line up.
We then transition into the classroom by identifying our names on the table and building them using different materials. This week we are building our names out of lego, beads, pompoms and tweezers, and on our Lightbox.
Today was also our Terry Fox run. We first read the story Terry Fox and Me to begin our discussion about how he made an attempt to run across Canada to help raise money for cancer. We then had a special visit from one of our own students who shared her cancer journey and encouraged our students to persevere even when times get hard.
Tuesday:
Today we read Touch the Brightest Star. This interactive story introduced us to some positional language such as under, beside and below. We also had a special visit with Mrs. M during our library time. She continued to educate us about the different parts of a book such as the spine, front, back, author, and illustrator. We completed our library time by each choosing a special book for us to sign out to keep in the classroom. We finished our library time off reviewing how we should care for our books and the proper way to hold them when we are reading them as well as when we are carrying them from one place to another.
Wednesday:
We reviewed the story Touch the Brightest Star and began a discussion about what a constellation is. A constellation is a group of stars together which make a picture and often tell a us a story. We then completed our connect the dot activity (numbers 1-10) to create our own constellations made with white crayons and stickers. During circle time we read There is a Bear in My Chair. This story introduced us to rhyming words. We talked about how rhyming words have the same middle and ending sound such as "chair" and "bear".
Thursday:
Today we began learning about how to properly hold our pencils. We begin by placing our pencil down with the sharp end pointing towards our bodies. We then use our pompom buddies to keep our three bottom fingers (pinky, ring and middle) tucked in tight to our hand. After this we use our pincher fingers (thumb and pointer) to pinch our pencil before picking it up and laying it to rest on the top of our hand. We then began learning about our pre-printing lines which we use to create our pre-printing shapes. These lines include: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and curved. We first learned about vertical lines. We discussed how vertical lines are lines that are up and down. We also talked about how it is important to always start from the top. After practicing our vertical lines using mini white board markers on the whiteboards, we then transitioned into using our visual journals, mini pencils, and crayons for a vertical line rainbow write. We loved having everyone at Meet the Teacher night and are looking forward to connecting going forward.
Important Dates:
Orange Shirt Day - September 28th
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Statutory Holiday (No School) - September 29th
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation - September 30th
