We had a "Dino-riffic" week.

.
Dinosaurs....Dinosaurs...everywhere! What a fun week we had. We were so lucky to get another great Science Alberta Crate called Jr. Palentologists. I called in some great parents and together we spent a whole afternooon learning about dinos. Watch the video below to see our activites and a huge thank you to those parents who gave time to us out of their very busy lives.
We capped out week off with another amazing experience. We actually video conferenced live with the Royal Tyrrell Museum. We interacted with a very friendly gal who taught us lots of things about dinos that we didn't know. We split into groups and played a game to try to get our dinos off the volcano before it exploded. The kids loved it and a big thanks to Ian's Mom for the leg work for this great activity.

Well, we almost got him!

The traps were set, the gold layed about, the camera ready to go...and he got away again! Lenny the Leprechaun has escaped from us once again, I have to wonder if we are ever going to actually get him! I was able to snap a picture as I snuck into the room this morning, you can just see his back in the picture above. This picture and the fact that Lenny lost his hat caused quite a stir as you can imagine. Lenny also left us a note. Lenny was good fun in Kindergarten and we hate to see him go, but I am pretty sure he will be back next March. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

If you wondered why they were so tired on Friday after school.

What an absolute fun time we had at the TH Ranch on Friday. Huge thanks to all our parent helpers for helping us make this happen for the kids, Grace's Dad, Madison S's Dad, Cameron's Dad, Aiden's Mom and Dad, Austin H's Mom and Dad, Brittyn's Dad and Mom, Jorja's Mom and Dad and Mrs. Price.
As always, thanks to Mr. Crawford and Ron and Laurie Melnyk for going to all the trouble of having us and making us so welcome at the farm.
Enjoy the show...

Another first in our Kindergarten.

This was one of the coolest things we have ever done in Kindergarten! We had a live video conference with our friends in the Grosse Ile, Quebec Kindergarten. It was so exciting. We started by introducing ourselves, then each class sang a song, then Mrs. Anderson (their teacher) and myself read Sadie and the Snowman, alternating pages, we then shared what we like about winter and sang a few more songs and waved goodbye. Can you believe we were interacting with Kindergarten kids on the other side of the country, that truly amazes me. If you would like you can view Mrs. Anderson's blog. The above picture shows our kids in the video conference room, I am reading the book while the Grosse Ile kids can be seen on the screen behind me. I videoed the kids as they were coming out of the room, I asked them what they noticed about our video conference with the kids from Quebec and this is what they said....

Green on a Shamrock, Green on a tree, Green on a lephrechaun and Green on me!

Below is a copy of the note that came home from school before all the terrible weather and before teachers convention. Lots of exciting occurrences are about to happen in Kindergarten and we need the below items to kick off our quest to catch Lenny the Leprechaun, I think this may just be the year we get him!


"It has been said that a leprechaun visits our Kindergarten every year around St. Patricks Day. We really do want him to come this year, so we are looking for lots of green things. Please help your child find 10 green things to put in this bag and bring to school next Tuesday. We will use them for lots of activities and you may not get them all back.
Thanks,
Mrs. McMahon and the Kindergarten kids"

Here is an example of our "green bags"

Whoa, this is a great site for kids!

A big thanks to Ian's Mom for telling me about this site, it is magnificent! You can sign up for a 14 day trail and have your child try it out and then if you wish to subscribe you can purchase a subscription. Honestly, this is one of the best sites I have found for our little learners. My own little learner is loving the site. The letter/sound recognition it provides is so valuable. It is worth a click to look at Reading Eggs.