St Joseph's Kindergarten Where little learners succeed 

Hello parents and families

Navigating the  App Store can be an expensive minefield. We all want to help out children to learn but sometimes don’t know the educational value of the apps or websites that we are sharing with them. I have put together a list of useful apps, mostly free, that I have found to be useful with my own children and in the classroom. While we don’t want our kids glued to the iPad or computer they can be a useful way of enhancing our children’s learning. One way that you can get some great freebies is to Like the Facebook Page “Free Apps for Kids”. Each Friday they have an app available for free that is usually a paid one. In the meantime here are some suggestions.

Apps

Monkey Maths – a great early maths app that helps children learn patterning, number recognition, counting and basic addition. It costs $2.99 but you can set it up for up to 3 players with their own names.

I learn with Boing – language – The free part of this app asks children to find certain objects. It is good for building vocabulary and memory as children uncover items and then need to remember where they saw them.  Free

School writing – this is a great app for handwriting. It insists that children use the correct formation before moving on. It has the feature that you can watch the correct formation before having a turn and it will let you customise it. You can type your child’s name in and it will present their name for them to practise with the correct formation.  at $7.49 it’s at the more expensive end of what I like to pay for apps but it is very good and is far better than any free app I have found.

Hop Frog Hop – a fabulous free app for building working memory. Apps such as Hop Frog Hop are great to build children’s memory skills and can help prevent a lot of problems with memory that might get in the way of academic learning.  Free.

Let’s Name Things – is a Family Feud style game that ask children to name all of the words they can think of in a given category. For example, “Name things that are cold”. A great one to play in the car!  Free

Profs’ Phonics 1 – (I couldn’t find the picture with the 1 in it)  This is an eye spy type game where children are presented with a picture and have to find all of the things that start with a certain sound. The free version (Profs’ Phonics 1) has lots to do but you can upgrade to number 2 for $2.49.  Great to help build the listening skills necessary for reading and spelling. Free

Play School Art Maker – this app allows children to create scenes and then film little videos where they narrate the story. The benefits of this app are that children build their language skills and vocabulary as they give life to their stories.  Free

Little Builders – Not a free one, but at $3.99 it is well worth it! This app features cranes, dump trucks, diggers and dozers all on a construction site. A great opportunity to discuss lots of doing words (dig, fill, tip, drive etc.).

Any Toca apps – Toca has a range of both free and paid apps that are designed to get children talking. The idea is that as they talk as they create and play, helping them to build lots of productive language along the way.  Free

I hope that you find these suggestions useful.  Let me know if there is any more information that I can help with!

Jocelyn

Dear Parents and Families,

Students were very excited to arrive at school to find a hair dressers set up in our classroom. After a demonstration they had the opportunity the explore it on their own, immersing themselves in the play.

The purpose of dramatic play is to firstly develop language skills. When students play using role plays they assume a character, allowing them to step outside of themselves and explore the world from another perspective. By pretending to be an ‘adult’ children learn to communicate using adult language structures. Today I overheard conversations like, “What way do your want your hair done?”, “Would you like to come and sit here?” and the use of lots of ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. As well as the development of this social language children expand their vocabulary to include many more describing words such as ‘wavy or straight?’ as well as words like ‘appointment’ and ‘cape’.

(Do not worry everyone – combs are taped up to avoid real hair doing!)

Students are given the opportunity to practice their writing as they complete the appointment sheet.

Even the boys were happy to get their hair ‘done’!

It all starts with hair washing…

Reading magazines in the ‘waiting area’

This week we are also learning about snakes in the rainforest. Check out this QR code!  (Download a free QR reader from iTunes or the Google Play store) Your children can show you how to use it!

Until next time,

Jocelyn, Michelle and the Kindergarten Class.

The Kindergarten students enjoyed performing for their families and the school concert last Thursday. Thank you to those who attended. If you couldn’t make it, here it is!

Indonesian Learning

This term Mrs. Westley has been linking the Kindergarten Indonesian lessons with our rainforest theme. This has been great fun and has really helped the children to make strong connections between the different areas of learning.

Today in their Indonesian lesson the Kindergarten students created a rainforest with their bodies.

Can you pick which students are acting out which animals? (Hint – ask your child to help!)

tree – pohon                      frog – korok                   spider – laba laba                 snake – ular

ant – semut                        fish – ikan                      butterfly – kupu – kupu       orangutan  –  orang hutan

Children have also been learning their colours in Indonesian and counting to ten.

The Three Little Pigs

This week we began our study of the Three Little Pigs.  This book provides us with a great opportunity to develop our understanding of a number of concepts including ordinal numbers (first, second, third) and  building materials and a great opportunity for the children to practise their story telling.  Today we read through the story and then had a go at building our own houses of straw.  Children were encouraged to make a structure and then retell the words that the Big Bad Wolf said. (I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!) before blowing their structures down.

Next week we will make houses with sticks and then with blocks the week after. Children also have a mini copy of the three little pigs which we introduced today. They will be able to read these to themselves in quiet reading time and then bring them home later in the term.   They are encouraged to look at the pictures and retell that part of the story from memory. The Kindergarten students LOVE this story  and have approached it very enthusiastically!

We look forward to sharing more of our great learning over the next week,

Until next time,

Jocelyn and Michelle

Hello All!

It it has been a fun week here in the kindergarten and I would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Jarvis for filling in while Mrs Coleman has been away.

We continued our science study about the Rainforests this week by exploring butterflies and insects. Children have had the opportunity to explore the butterfly life cycle and represent their understanding in a cutting and pasting task.

For for our rainforest unit we are making ‘lap books’ which is a folder with small tasks that children will be able to bring home at the of the term.

We have had some lovely moments this week. Thursday afternoon the girls asked if they could do some yoga. We have been following along with Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube which you are able to access from home.

Yoga is a great brain break and helps us get the wriggles out in between activities. It also helps us work on our coordination which is great for our overall learning.

We have also introduced some new speaking and listening tasks including the one that you see above. Children are encouraged to play with the pictures, talking as they go. These activities are very important as they help children learn the skills needed to set them up for reading and writing. I can share copies of these if you’d like to do some at home. Let me know and I can get some ready for you.

We have also seen that our science study has ignited all sorts of curiosity in the classroom. One student asked “can I see what’s inside of me in the microscope?”. We couldn’t quite do that but we did look at some hair under the microscope.  He then asked if he could watch a movie about hair in the iPad. This enthusiasm for new learning is just wonderful to see!

It’s very exciting to see what happens when you put the magnufying glasses on top of each other!

Thank you to families who have returned details of email addresses to share information about your children’s learning. I look forward to receiving the rest so that I can share photos and news about your children.

Until next time,

Jocelyn.

P.S. Here is the photo of us with our spider webs!

Welcome back to school for Term 3. We have jumped headlong into our study of Rainforests and this week we are learning all about spiders. Today we explored spider anatomy and started to explore our spider exploration station.

Here is what we learned today!

Students all had the opportunity to explore spiders in our investigation time.

The boys were very excited to learn more about spiders in our quiet reading time.

Students are encouraged the ‘be scientists’ and draw pictures of the (very fake!) spiders in our classroom.

Our spider exploration station is all set for children to learn more about spiders.

No scientist can work without a microscope!

We had lots of fun wrapping up bugs for our spider’s dinner.

Tomorrow we will learn about the life cycle of a spider and on Thursday we will have fun making webs.  We’d love it if parents and families could drop in and see our rainforest for themselves.  See you soon!

The kids at St Joseph’s Kindy.

Hello Everyone

Today was warm winter woolies day.  Here is what some of the children had to say about our day.

We did skipping in the morning.

We had fun playing in the playground.

We got to wear different clothes to school.

We love taking photos.

We had lots of fun playing.

We loved posing for our photo.

We went to Church and sang songs.

We drew pictures and wrote words.

We have been learning about humpback whales.

We got lunch orders today. We had a cupcake. It was yummy!

See you next week!

Hello to parents, families and friends of St Joseph’s Kindergarten

Week 10 has been an exciting one with the arrival of a very special box of Antarctic artefacts from the Museum in Hobart. The items (including the trunk) have either been used in Antarctica or are similar to those that were used. The children have been very excited to explore krill, whale baleen (the bit of the whale’s mouth that filters the water – I had to look it up!), Antarctic Medals, a whale’s tooth, cold weather clothing and a weather balloon.

Electronic tracker used to trace penguin movements in Antarctica

Sperm whale tooth and shell fossils from Antarctica

Whale Baleen that filters water so the whale can eat

Krill from Antarctica

Kindergarten students have been very good at putting on their white gloves and handling the items with great care while investigating.

We have been learning about Humpback Whales this week as part of our study of Antarctica. To truly understand the size of an adult humpback whale we went outside and measured out a length of 16 metres, drew a giant whale and then discovered how many Kindergarten children it would take to cover that length.  We didn’t quite have enough children to do the job!

After all of our learning on Tuesday we were VERY tired and needed a bit of a rest time after lunch.

Today we learned about how whales eat. We felt a whale baleen and had a close up look at a Krill that whales eat in Antarctica.  We also watched videos of whales working together to herd the Krill into place so that they could feed. To help us understand what it is like in a whale’s mouth we watch a little bit of finding Nemo (where Marlin and Dory are stuck in the whale’s mouth).  We then had some hands on fun using combs to catch our own ‘krill’ in containers.

The children are very excited to be learning about Antarctica. They have asked some very interesting questions about whales including:

• How do whales go upside down to put their tales to make the bash sound?
• How do whales jump?
• How do whales sleep?
• How do dolphins talk to whales?

Next week we will learn about how people have survived in Antarctica over the last 100 years. Children will be trying on real clothing worn in Antarctica and learning about food and living arrangements.

Until next time,

Mrs Seamer, Mrs Coleman and the kids of St Joseph’s Kindergarten.

P.S. We would love it if you could leave some comments for us on our posts. We can then read them together as a class and respond.

This week Kindergarten students are learning about Weddell Seals and how they live. A life size seal pup (now named Swimmy Sam Seal) has been introduced to the classroom  and today our budding aquatic vets were very busy keeping him healthy.

In today’s science lesson students learned about how seals move, their size and what they eat.  Students asked some very interesting questions including:

How do seals get energy?

Do seals drink sea water?

Do seals kill penguins?

Do the Mums and Dads show love to the babies?

How does a penguin escape from a leopard seal?

Do baby seals crack out of an egg?

Do seals get up from the water?

What do baby seals eat?

How do seals escape from people in boats with shovels?

These questions show that the Kindergarten students are developing a keen scientific curiosity and have a good grasp on the learning they are undertaking.  By the end of the week we will answer all of these questions through our classroom activities.

After we watched some clips online about Weddell seals we explored the sizes of animals we have been learning about. We drew the outlines of various sizes of animals on the carpet with chalk and then measured the adult seal against Kindergarten children. It took 3 children to measure the length of the seal!

Students also had the opportunity to compare themselves to an adult Emperor Penguin and a Weddell seal pup.

We are having fun with our new learning and are looking forward to the arrival of a special delivery all the way from Antarctica next week!

Until Next time,

Mrs Seamer, Mrs Coleman and the children of St Joseph’s Kindergarten.

This week Kindergarten has been learning about Penguins. We have leared that they are birds that do not fly, but they do lay eggs!  As part of our study we watched You Tube clips of a penguin egg being laid, father penguins looking after the eggs and penguin chicks hatching. The children were in awe while watching these videos and it was terrific to see their little mouths drop open as the chick hatched from the egg. To learn about how clever Penguins are the children all had a turn of transferring eggs from one set of feet to another.

It was a bit tricky but they got there in the end.  The children have really enjoyed their Antarctic exploration and we are looking forward to what the next week will bring.

Until next time,

Jocelyn