Hi KA families, 

Congratulations on making it through your first week of Kindergarten! We truly had a great week here in KA. Mrs. Hogan, Ms. Roberts (our two incredible EAs) and I have been so impressed with how quickly this group has been catching onto our KA routines. It makes us very excited to work with this incredible group of students this year. I’ve also been grateful for the awesome communication from our KA parents and for everyone having their Early Closure Forms filled out and turned in right away. Thank you all! 

We squeezed a lot into our first week at West Kent. We watched a video about Bus Safety, we practiced for the fire drill and then had two school-wide fire drills, we learned many new routines such as entry, dismissal, recess, lunch and snack, center time, morning meeting, feeling flowers, free play, math meeting, and other transitions. We also learned our very first letter in FunDations. FunDations is the program we use to help students learn to read and write and they will continue with this program until Grade 3. This week we learned the letter Tt. This means that we learned how to properly form the lowercase t, and we learned the letter name, keyword, and sound that it makes. Next week we will add two more letters. 

Students have been taking good care of our class pet, Blue. The Star of the Day feeds Blue and students have been enjoying watching him in class.

On Thursday, forms went home for the Bike Bus. This is optional if families would like to participate, and there will be another opportunity in the Spring. The West Kent breakfast program begins on Monday and runs 8:00-8:20am. Students do not have to register for this program, and it is free. Once students drop their backpacks off in their lineup, they have the option to come into the front lobby to have a light breakfast, and then they can go back outside to play until the 8:20 bell. A reminder that if you are ordering lunch from the School Lunch Program, please send utensils for your child to use. The program does not provide utensils and we do not have any here at school. All student forms are now online through Powerschool and parents are asked to fill those forms (4 in total as of right now) out by September 16th. Our school’s Occupational Therapist, Sandra Aguilla has shared a letter for all parents that you can find here.

Save the Date:

Thursday, September 24, 6pm – Meet the Staff & Ice Cream Social

December – Kindergarten Christmas Concert

Next week in KA:

Monday, September 14, Day 5 – Music, Mrs. Mac & Library

Tuesday, September 15, Day 6 – Phys. Ed. 

Wednesday, September 16, Day 1 – Music and Mrs. Mac 

Thursday, September 17, Day 2 – Phys. Ed. 

Friday, September 18, Day 3 – Music and Mrs. Mac 

Enjoy the weekend, 

Lisa 😊

Hi KA adults,

We had a fantastic first day of school today! Some of your children will be coming home with all sorts of stories to tell you about their very first day at West Kent. Some may be a little more reserved and you may be wishing to hear a few stories. Some questions to help them share about their day could be: What color feeling flower did you choose? Who else sat at your table? What center did you choose at playtime? Do you remember any names of your classmates? What did you play at recess?

You will notice on your child’s backpack there is a blue tag on a yellow zip tie. This is dismissal information to help staff make sure everyone arrives where they are supposed to at the end of the day.

You will also notice inside your child’s backpack a burgundy zipped bag. This is their homework bag. This will travel to and from school every day with your child. It’s important to build a daily routine of checking the bag for any communication from the school. Encourage your child to take it out of their backpack themselves and put it in a location that will remind you to check it. It could be notices from the office, a birthday party invitation or some school work that is going home. Some of it will be time sensitive. You can also use the homework bag to send items to school as well, and I check the bags every morning. Today, you will find information about milk and lunch ordering, the school calendar, pamphlets on eye care and Home & School, and the Early Dismissals/Closure form. This is an important form to fill out and return in the homework bag before the end of the week. Please let me know if you need any assistance with this.

Even though it was a great first day, we were all pretty tired by the end of the day. It’ll be a deep sleep tonight and then ready for it again tomorrow. All of us in KA will need some time to build our stamina up.

I hope everyone enjoyed today’s milestone, and I’m excited to do it all again tomorrow!

Have a great evening,

Lisa 🙂

Welcome to KA,

I am so excited to see all of your children on Tuesday! I’m sure your week is full of labelling backpacks, lunch-bags, indoor shoes (Phys. Ed. appropriate), and answering all sorts of questions from your excited and/or anxious kids. This week can be full of emotions for them, for you and for us as well.

My name is Lisa MacLeod (Mrs. MacLeod), and I will be your child’s Kindergarten Teacher! I am really looking forward to the new school year and I hope your little one is getting excited as well! I am happy that I’ve been able to speak to you all in the lead up to the transition to Kindergarten. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have. I am busy setting up the classroom and prepping for all the amazing new KA students to arrive next Tuesday, September 8th!

Some info for the first day of school! 😀

-The Kindergarten pick up and drop off area is at the main front doors

-There are duty teachers outside in the morning at 8:00am and students enter the school at 8:20am

– Kindergarten teachers will also be outside in the mornings for the first few days to help everyone learn the morning routine

-If you are picking up your child, pick up is at 2:20pm

-They will need a snack and lunch (peanut and tree nut free)

-A change of indoor shoes (labelled with their name)

-A school bag (labelled with their name)

-A water bottle (labelled with their name)

-A change of clothes in their school bag (in case of spills or accidents) (labelled with their name)

-If you need to change your after school plans during the school day, please either call the main office and let Lena know, or you can email me and CC Lena at lcmacrae@edu.pe.ca so that I won’t miss the message while teaching. 

Thanks for checking out the class blog. This will be the primary form of communication used through the school year. I will post each week about what we are learning in class so that you can stay in the loop. You can subscribe at the bottom so that you are notified when I make a new post.

The School Milk Program will  be providing FREE white milk (237 ml) to all PEI Kindergarten students for the first three full weeks of school, from September 14 to October 2, inclusive, with the exception of September 30. Parents do not need to order white milk for this period. Milk will be offered to all Kindergarten students each day and they can accept or decline. 

**If your child will be going on the bus, you will need to contact Transportation Services to register them for the bus. They will also let you know which bus number your child will be going on and the pick-up and drop off locations and times. Once you have the bus number, please pass that along to me. They are very busy this time of year, so it is best to contact them as soon as possible! They cannot go on a bus after school unless you have them registered through Transportation Services. If your child needs to change busses (ie: if they are going to Kidsfit), you must register them for both busses that they will be taking. 

Here is the contact information for Transportation Services:

1.            Click on the following link: https://psbbusing.princeedwardisland.ca/TransportationEligibility

2.            Enter in the info and click Submit

3.            Scroll down and click Request transportation for this address

4.            Fill out the Transportation Request

Thank you so much for your help with the dismissal information! One of our biggest worries as Kindergarten teachers is not knowing where to send students at the end of the day, so having it organized early is very helpful. If you have any questions at all, please let me know 🙂

Tuesday will be a very exciting day and I can’t wait to see their smiling faces!

Next week in KA:

Monday, September 7 – Labour Day (NO CLASSES)

Tuesday, September 8, Day 1 – First Day of Grade 1

Wednesday, September 9, Day 2 – Phys. Ed. 

Thursday, September 10, Day 3 – Music and Mrs. Mac

Friday, September 11, Day 4 – Phys. Ed. and Assembly

Have a great weekend, 

Lisa 😊