Outdoor Explorers

 

 

 

 

Although, most of us at this time of year would prefer to escape the cold weather and fly to a tropical destination such as this…

 

 

we can’t all get away.

Our class has decided to do as bears do and adapt to the cold Canadian weather. We put on our warmest clothes and set out to explore the beautiful forest. We have found some amazing things on our adventures which have helped us to appreciate the cold winter months so much more.

 

A light sprinkling of snow and fridgid temperatures, changed the forest dramatically. We very quickly realized that we could no longer walk on the logs because they had ice on them.

 

Some children took a closer look and noticed that the ice was only forming on the tops of the logs and not all around. We wondered why? 

We found an amazing fort that was made out of tree branches. After talking about how to be safe and respectful around the fort we explored it a little bit closer. The children wondered who made it. Some thought that it must be a beaver because it was the only creature that could carry such large branches and they believed that they spotted some teeth marks.

We also came across some tracks in the snow.

P.C. ~ “Look it’s bear tracks, lets go follow them to their cave”

L.D. ~ I don’t think its bear tracks, bears don’t live in this forest.”

P.C. ~ Yes they do, I’ve seen them.”

Two weeks later we visited the forest again after a bigger snow fall and once again we were amazed at how different it looked.

Some children tried standing on the log but could only do it while holding another tree for balance.

                  

 

Our class has become very interested in winter birds. We have noticed a lot of Canadian Geese flying south in V formations. This began a discussion about the birds that stay back in the winter time. A group of children decided that we should feed the birds and have been bringing in bread and bird seed on our weekly walks. We took our binoculars to see if we could spot any birds in the forest. We saw and heard two Blue Jays.                

                    

 

We made sure that everyone got some of the bird seed and divided up the pieces of bread   so that everyone could share.

 

We found more letters for our hidden alphabet board.

We also saw more bee hives up in the trees. We wondered if bees would come back to the hives or if they would just make new ones.

 

The tree fort was still there and the children are still wondering who could have made it.

We love winter, just as much as any other season!

What sort of fun winter exploring do you do as a family or class?

“Are Princesses Really Real?”

It all started with the question:

L.D.- “Are princesses really real Miss Franklin?”

From the first day of school the children in our class have been sining the Frozen theme song, building castles and dressing up like kings and queens. One afternoon in early October one of our students asked if princesses were real. After some discussion we figured out that their are both real and pretend princesses.

Miss. Franklin – “Yes, princesses are real.”

L.D.- “See, I told you they were real, I saw them in Disney world!”

A.M. – “But they are just people dressed up”

Miss. Franklin – “That’s true, their are real princesses and their are ones that are dressed up like princesses from stories. The real princesses are ones that live in countries where they have Royal families.”

L.D. “Like where?”

This prompted us to take out the iPads and do some research.

We found pictures of real castles and princesses as well as Disney Castles and princesses. We printed out photos and compared them, Real / Pretend .  This lead to an ongoing inquiry into Casles.

Its amazing to me where the topic of Castles has taken us over the past few months. Here is some documentation of our journey leading up to our trip to a REAL castle.

           

At the beginning of our inquiry the students were building the Frozen Castle out of everything and anything they could find in our classroom. They used construction materials to build the castle, they painted castles with water colours, and drew pictures of every Disney princess they knew. Ms. Smidt and I knew that we had to follow their interest in castles and see where it would lead us.

We read some fairy tales and compared them. The children realized that a lot of the stories began with Once Upon a Time and finished with The End. Although we read many varieties of Fairy Tales, from Cinderella to The Three Little Pigs, the children remained most interested in the ones with Castles and princesses.

We learned about different types of music and the way that people would dance at royal balls. We watched a Christmas performance by Andre Reiu, which was filmed in his castle in Switzerland. The children were so inspired by the beautiful music and way of dancing that they tried to waltz together. They dressed up like different people found in a Castle and danced to instrumental music.

Our trip finally arrived and we got to visit a Real Castle…

Casa Loma

We walked trough tunnels and pretended that we were the people that worked for Sir Henry Pallet and Lady Pallet. We climbed winding stair cases to the highest point of the castle and looked out over the city of Toronto. They children were so excited to climb up to the top and run through all of little halls.

We wondered what it would be like to dress like them…

To sleep in their lavish bedrooms

 

And to have friends over for tea and cookies

We wondered if the tiger was real or fake.

 

We watched a ballet performance of the Snow Queen and were all amazed by the wonderful dancers. When we arrived back at school some of us demonstrated our dance moves for the class.

A week later the children were still talking about their trip to Casa Loma and began role playing at our imagination table. They set up little scenes and acted out stories that they imagined. To our surprise we arrived at school one day to find a gift from our classroom “kindness elf.”

       

A Castle for us to paint and play with at our imagination table.

 

 

 

  

 

 

We look forward to seeing where this inquiry will take us next.

 

Colour Mixing

 

Often as educators we set out provocations in hopes that the students will use it in a certain way. It aways amazes me that so often as you let play unfold with out interruption from an adult it can take a completely different direction that is equally important and meaningful to the children at that particular time.

At the water table we set out some jugs and measuring cups for them to explore with. With this provocation, we had intended for the students do some measuring and predicting but as we listened to their discussions, we discovered that they activity had taken a totally different direction.

Z.R. “Hey look, the water turned green!”

L.C. “because you put it in the yellow one. Blue and Yellow make green.”

Z.R. “It’s back to blue when it’s in a white container.”

As I continued to listen to their conversations I realized that this group of students knew a great deal about colour mixing. I read the book “Mouse Paint” to see if we could spark  discussion about colours and engage other children in a conversation about colour mixing.

Later that week we set out a painting activity hoping that the students would do some patterning. To my surprise it turned into another colour mixing experiment.

Here, one of the girls drags her finger across the foil to mix the different colours together. She really wanted to make purple and figured out that she could do that by mixing red and blue.

My partner and I then decided to read the book “Mix It Up” to take their interest a little further and talk about shades.

                         

Using the primary colours, the children mixed the paint to create their own shades. Once they found a colour they liked they used a Q-tip to fill in a circle on the sheet. The children created many colours and shades and then named them when they were done. As you can imagine they came up with some pretty funny names for their colours!

Our next experiment with colour will be dying our own wooden cubes using liquid water colour. Our hope is to create a rainbow of coloured cubes to explore with in the Hands on Learning area.

How have you experimented with colour in your home or classroom?

Thank You!

I would like to extend a big Thank You to all of the parents who were able to visit our class during parent observations. The children were so excited to show you their classroom and I know that they were very proud to share their learning with you. I hope that it was a memorable experience that gave you a glimpse of what we do and how we learn at school through play and guided activities.

With the winter weather upon us, I would like to remind parents to send their child with snow pants, hats and mitts every day. The weather seems to change on a dime and we spend a great deal of time exploring the outdoors. We don’t want anyone to be too cold and uncomfortable. Also, please send extra pairs of mitts and socks in your child’s back pack, they tend to get very wet by mid morning!

Thank you again for your continued support.

Graphic Communication

Last Spring, I attended a workshop at Havergal College which has an exemplary inquiry based Kindergarten program. Among the many things that I was introduced to and learned, the scaffolded writing in kindergarten approach was most interesting to me. Kindergarten children relay their messages in so many forms, from basic shapes on a page to detailed pictures accompanied by simple sentences. Since we can have children on all levels of the developmental writing continuum, it makes most sense that we focus our attention on where the child is and provide instruction that scaffolds their growth. I decided to expand upon our writing area and focus on all forms of communication. This is why it is now called the graphic communication learning area. Here, children are encouraged to write stories, send friends letters, make lists and plans for their daily activities. In addition to the many authentic writing opportunities, I also do guided instruction to provide individual children with the tools that they need to become better graphic communicators. One way that I encourage our emergent writers to extend their stories and independently write is through Scaffolded writing. This approach helps those children who are ready to write, remember their thoughts and elaborate more on their stories. I have found that this approach is incredibly helpful to our emergent writers to become more independent.

Above, students were asked what they wanted to write about their picture. The teacher drew lines that corresponded with the length of each word. Once the lines were drawn, the teacher and student repeated what was going to be written. Using prior knowledge of sight words, a portable word wall and phonemic awareness strategies, they were able to independently write and add detail. With continued practice, it is expected that our students will be able to write much more and do so with confidence and enjoyment.

Should you be interested in learning more about this approach to writing you can refer to the link below. Their is much more in the article to support children at various stages of writing. Also, keep in mind that the key to building a classroom full of confident writers is to meet them where they are. Writing should be fun and enjoyable. If a child is not yet ready to write or has not yet had opportunity to experiment with various forms of writing, then it is very easy to change a child’s perspective from an enjoyable activity to a daunting task.

Click to access doc_122.pdf

Looking A Little Closer

On a regular day in our class, you will find that the Art Studio is one of the busiest areas in the room. The children love to draw, paint and create! This week we decided to introduce pastels to the students. I did a mini lesson on how you can create both bold and soft colours with oil pastels, while still showing detail in the drawing. The children were very eager to give it a try at the Art Studio.

On a walk that we took last week we collected fall leaves in different colours and shapes. We have been matching the leaves to the trees that they come from and learning why leaves change colour and fall off the trees.  To extend the learning, I decided to set up a provocation with fall leaves, pastels, white paper and magnifying glasses.

Paying close attention to the details they observed in the leaves, the children used their sharpie markers to draw the veins. They then began to blend different coloured pastels to create the colours they saw on the leaves.

M.B. “Their are lots of different colours on my leaf!” 

A.R. “The bottom of the steam is bigger than the top part.” 

The results were quite remarkable! The detail that the children were able to observe and portray in their drawings showed us that its very important to ask children to look a little closer and pay attention to the finer details. This skill with help them later when they are reading, writing stories, or discovering something new. This was not only a lesson for the children but also us. We are reminded that we have to take a moment and look a little closer so as not to miss the learning that is happening while children are engaged in their play.

“The Full-Day Early Learning- Kindergarten program capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and their desire to make sense of their environment. However, curiosity on its own is not enough. The guidance of a thoughtful Early Learning-Kindergarten team is essential to enable children to learn through inquiry.”                                            -Ontario Ministry of Education, FDK Document

Mystery Reader

Today marked the first day that we welcomed our mystery reader into our room. As the children sat waiting for our day to begin, I shared with them that we had a very big surprise. I explained to the children that a mom, dad, brother or sister would be coming in to read to the class but that the person was a big mystery. I suggested that we brainstorm some questions to ask the mystery to gather some clues. We would use these questions to guess who’s parent or sibling was hiding behind the curtain.

Here are some questions we thought of:
“Are you a boy or a girl?”
“Do you have a boy or girl in our class?”
“What colour is your hair?”
“What stories do you like to read at night?”
“What colour skin do you have?”

The children could barely contain their excitement and hurried out of the room so that the Mystery Reader could get set up.

Upon the children’s return, they asked the reader questions and eventually guessed who’s mom it was.

Thank you Mrs. Dhas for being our first mystery reader. We thank you very much for keeping it a secret from your son and being such an enthusiastic volunteer. We can’t wait for November 3rd when we will meet our next Mystery Reader!

If you are interested in being a mystery reader please send in a note with your child and we will book a date for you (we are looking for Mystery Readers for the months of March to June).

The Outdoor Classroom

This past week was very exciting! We had a great deal happening in our outdoor classroom. Mrs. Quinn Dias and her husband installed two new learning areas for the children to use while exploring outside.

The first is a chalkboard that will be used to extend the children’s inquiries outside. We will be using it to write messages, record our findings and our wonders.

We now also have a musical fence! The tubes are designed to make different sounds depending on where you hit them.  The colours are arranged in a pattern which will encourage the children to hit the tubes in sequence so that they can discover the different sounds that can be made.

Thank You Mr. and Mrs. Quinn-Dias for adding these exciting new learning areas to our outdoor classroom!

Many of the children have been showing interest in boats and cars. They are using various materials and toys to transport objects and people across the playground.

Two students created a bridge to walk across. They discovered that the plank had to be placed in just the right spot to ensure that it wouldn’t fall when they crossed it. Later, it turned into a draw bridge when another student wanted her boat to pass under their bridge.

A.G. and I discovered that our shadows were much longer in the morning sun. Here, we measured A.G’s shadow against her structures shadow to see which was taller.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the long weekend with their friends and family.

This weekend I am thankful for my family and good health.

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Lately…

Over the past few weeks Ms. Smidt and I have been doing our first term assessments. This will allow us to get a better idea of where each child is individually and how we can support them in their learning.  Our goal is to look at were the children are in terms of the curriculum areas and plan our program according to the needs of the children in the class.

Below are some photos of what we have been up to…

 

Patterning at the Hands on Learning Area

Making numbers and letters at Light

Celebrating Birthdays by making cakes and cookies at play-doh and Dramatic Play

Creating our own Kandinski inspired art using overhead transparencies and sharpie markers.

This week we will begin our Beautiful Stuff project. You can expect to see an introductory letter and a brown paper bag in your child’s mail bag this week.

Bringing the Learning Outdoors

             “The richest classroom and deepest cupboard is roofed only by the sky”

~David Sobel ~ Environmental Educator

My fondest memories as a young child are exploring the great outdoors with my family. Walks through the woods, biking to the river or trips to the beach, played a big role in our weekend adventures and daily activities. My brother and I not only gained an appreciation for God’s beauty but we learned a great deal about sustainability, the importance of taking care of all living things and what it means to truly wonder.

As a teacher, I view the outdoors as much more than a place to play and get some exercise. I see it through the lenses of an educator. A place where we can get real life experiences that teach us about science, math, health, and language.

Our class will be taking our learning outside on a daily basis. Recently, we have introduced Forest Friday’s to the children. This past Friday we went with the purpose of finding letters in nature and in our environment. Our class decided that we would create the alphabet out of photos of letters that we have found in unusual places.

We had to stop in our Kinder Garden to see the sun flowers that had fallen over first. This group was estimating how many seed were in the sunflower.

A.R was sure that their were “100 seeds in it” but J. convinced the rest that she was sure their were 1000.

One friend spotted this bee hive from quite a distance. Some children wondered where all the bees were? Ms. Smidt and I were glad that it seemed to be a vacant hive!

We will continue our hunt for the missing letters to complete our environmental alphabet.