Monday, March 31, 2014

A sunshiny day of learning!

 Today the class did some writing in their journals. Many students drew pictures of and wrote about the popular movie "Frozen".
At the block centre R.G and J.M built Elsa's castle.

Students can be seen using books to help them in their play. Here M.D is learning about construction workers. At our dramatic play centre students opened a restaurant and read recipe books. At the art table, they are using arts and craft books to inspire them. We've seen a lot of masks, airplanes, and origami frogs!
At the writing table there are jenga blocks with letters and words on them. C.A was able to match some of our blocks to words on our word wall.  The students had fun building up the jenga blocks and seeing how many they could take out without it falling down.

There's a leprechaun loose in the classroom...at least the children think so. A whole group of kindergarteners could be seen using magnifying glasses to try and spot the leprechaun. They even put together a leprechaun trap baited with pretend pizza (a leprechauns favourite food of course!).

A.J and S.M spent quite a bit of time at the art table today, making the letters in their names. Here they made a picture of a seed, a sprout and a flower. We'll have to check outside for some signs of Spring and see if we can find any sprouts!
This afternoon, our ECE student Amena showed the students a slideshow of all the learning they've done together about fish. Students were invited to write about their favourite part about the lessons they did together.

Here are some more amazing creations done at centre time. In case you couldn't tell, we're excited for spring and the return of flowers!



Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Purple Day!

Thanks to everyone that participated in Purple Day for Epilepsy Awareness! The kids looked great dressed in all their purple :)

Today, the class read a story called "Green" with Ms. Alannah, and then got to make their own green leaves at the art table:



M.C. made a special picture on the overhead projector:


L.M. and J.M. worked together to build with the wooden shapes:

While half of the class went to work in the computer lab, the other half stayed in the class and played a game with Amena, one of our ECE students.  They played Musical Fish (quite similar to musical chairs):


A.H. sat and enjoyed reading "The Paperbag Princess" while wearing his own crown. He told us he is "a king" :)


Hope you all have a great evening! :)


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Signs of Spring!





Today the students brainstormed what they see, smell, touch, hear and taste in Spring! There were a lot of great ideas and we could tell the students are excited for warmer weather.
We went outside for a community walk to see if we could find any signs of spring.


We were surprised when we saw it snowing!
"I'm listening for the birds."- Q.G
"I'm seeing a sign of spring! There are wood chips and before there was only snow and ice."- R.T
"The snowbanks are melting." - M.D

It's getting a bit warmer." -G.D At centres, J.M worked on building a boat. She wanted to use a popsicle stick to hold up the sail. 

At centres, J.M built a boat using paper, tape and a popsicle stick for the sail. She'll be able to test if it floats tomorrow!

Q.G and A.H used our pretend microphones to interview each other and the teachers.


One of our ECE students did some Yoga with the Kindergarteners. Some of the poses looked very relaxing!
At the writing table, students got to play underwater bingo. They had fun finding the matching animals on their pages.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Imagine a Tree

Wednesday (March 26th) is Epilepsy Awareness day! Students are asked to wear purple to spread the word about epilepsy.

Happy Monday!

Today we read the story "Picture a Tree" by Barbara Reid. All of the images in the book are created using plasticine.  The students are working to create their own tree image!

Students started by making a sketch or a plan of what their tree might look like. The students decided whether the tree was a Summer, Winter, Spring or Fall tree.

Many students picked a favourite tree or a favourite season to illustrate.
 Once the plan was done, the Kindergarteners drew a background for their tree and started using plasticine to make their plan come to life!

Here R.T is using a toothpick to add details to her tree.

M.C chose to make a fall tree because that's when her birthday is and she likes the colours.

G.D added a bird to her tree and told us how it was her "tree friend at the cottage".
 The plans helped students remember the details they wanted to add to their trees (branches, leaves, holes). It was fun to see how all of our trees ended up looking a bit different from the original plan!
 A.H loved using the plasticine to create his tree and added yellow, red and green leaves.
Each tree is unique and reflects the students growing skills and preferences as artists!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

A reminder that pizza orders are due tomorrow!

This morning, half the class went to the computer lab and the class continued to learn how to log in and out themselves!

They got to do an obstacle course in gym:


They got to cross the crooked bridge

Hop in some hula hoops

Do a crab walk

After gym, we continued our discussions about whether different items sink or float.  We tested some different materials, such as cork, foam, plastic, cardboard and paper.  We documented what we thought would happen and what did happen.  See if your child remembers what happened to the different materials!




Tuesday, March 18, 2014

A Very Busy Day!

Today was very busy day of learning!

During centre time M.R saw the fish camouflaging and hiding inside the castle.

Many students continued our Eric Carle inspired paintings. They all have a favourite material that they like to use. Many enjoyed using the toothbrushes and mixing colours!

G.F and G.F used the Geosafari camera to document the learning going on in the classroom.

At the art table, one of our ECE students gave students materials so they could make their own underwater animal, complete with scales!
 Our investigation into what floats and what sinks continued today. We gathered student knowledge about what they know floats and sinks.

J.M told us that "on a vacation in Florida I kept trying to put a ball underwater but it kept popping back up".

D.R-B. said "when I wear my shark floaties in the water, I don't sink."

We noticed that many objects filled with air, don't sink. We wonder if boats have air in them to keep them from sinking. We'll keep building on our ideas as we conduct more experiments and read books!

 Look at this smiling face! Our ECE student brought in snorkels, flippers and goggles to our aquarium. The students really enjoyed dressing up and pretending to feed the shark.

A.H told us he was a scuba diver and that he was going swimming.

Here's a group shot of our scuba diving team!
At the reading corner there was a special puppet show put on by M.C and A.J. They told us a very funny version of "Fish is Fish"

M.R made a "letter train" at the writing table and spelled out his name!
 Here, one of our S.K students is helping our J.K student do some writing about our fish.


Outside, we took a look at our class trees. Some students noticed buds on the trees and said it was a sign that Spring is coming!

Other students saw that the tree was growing and had more red branches than last month.