Surveys

The children can't get enough of surveys. Every day there are a handful of children walking around with clipboards. The surveys about the Three Little Pigs got the ball rolling. Then they were doing surveys on predicting the results of our candy cane experiments. Now the children are creating their own questions and investigating many different topics of interest to them. So much learning is connected to this activity. 

Candy Cane Experiments: This idea came about when the children earned "Hot Chocolate Day" by filling the jewel jar. There was some discussion about adding marshmallows and candy canes to the hot chocolate. This turned into chatter about what would happen to a candy cane in hot water. The children couldn't wait to test this idea with an experiment and surveys were soon being made asking for predictions. You will see that this experiment lead to others!

Corn Experiment Update

Check out a previous post for the background information on this growing experiment.

Our class is pleased with the results!

The Acting Bug Hit Room 106 - Check Out Our Props And Costumes!

Letter Writing

We always love to see the children writing in Room 106.  Recently, Mrs. Beselaere and I put out seasonal stickers and stamps/stamp pads and before we knew it, many students expressed an interest in writing to Santa.  Many children also wanted to make "mail" for their peers.  They have been filling the mailbox in our classroom daily!  We had many letters addressed to the North Pole.  A walk to the neighbourhood mailbox was the next step!

Our Corn Experiment

We used the Indian Corn that was in our "Fall Store Dramatic Play Centre" in an experiment.  We put the corn in a shallow dish with water.  We were thrilled to see the corn sprouting!  In time the corn kernels were falling off of the cob and the children were able to get a good look at the roots and shoots.  The children wanted to try planting the kernels in soil.  They also developed a survey asking their peers to predict whether the kernels would grow faster in water or soil.

The Interest In Fairy Tales Continued With The Three Little Pigs

The children enjoyed building houses out of hay, sticks, and bricks!

We completed a house building activity with our Big Buddies.  We provided the students with straws,  toothpicks, pipe cleaners, paper, tape, etc.  The Big and Little Buddies had 5 minutes to gather their materials and sketch a house plan.  Then they were given 5 minutes to build a home for a pig before the "Big Bad Wolf" would be blowing their homes! 

There Was A Huge Interest In Reading Different Versions Of GoldilocksAnd The Three Bears

The children loved hearing the variations from story to story.  They became experts on this fairy tale very quickly.  It didn't take long until we were bringing in costumes and making props with the children so they could act out the story.

Measuring With The Three Bears

We were working on measurement in Math.  The children are always very interested in building so we brought in different sizes of stuffed bears and challenged the children to build different sizes of chairs to fit the bears (after introducing the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears).  Our measurement explorations transferred into other activities. 

Lost And Found - Mittens, Gloves, and Socks!

Please let us know if any of these items belong to your child.  We just began with mitten weather and our Lost and Found bin is already full!

Lost and Found - Miscellaneous

Do you recognize anything? Most of the ice-packs, barrettes, etc. have been unclaimed since September.  We will keep them in our classroom Lost and Found bin for a few more days.

Making Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

 We made the bread prior to the Remembrance Day Assembly.  When we left the assembly we could smell the bread baking in the oven.  It was a tasty treat to enjoy later in the day with our Big Buddies.  It was also a great lead-in to our "Recipe For Peace" writing activity. (Stay tuned for a post on our "Recipe For Peace").

We Know Pumpkins Have Seeds...What About These?

Three girls wanted to investigate the question above. We spent a lot of time discussing pumpkin seeds and counting the seeds from "Jack" (the pumpkin involved in the "rotten pumpkin experiment").  The girls made surveys and asked their classmates (and others) whether they thought the acorn squash and "long-neck" would have seeds.  There was much anticipation as I cut them in half.  Some children were surprised to see seeds and they enjoyed picking the seeds out.

Learning About Height

This is the end-result of one of our math lessons related to measuring height.  Mrs. Beselaere and I each worked with a group of students.  Each child placed their item on the board according to "shortest to tallest" order.

Before Halloween the children enjoyed measuring the height of different pumpkins in our classroom using snap cubes.  For the activity shown in the above collage, the children measured pumpkins they made.  They could make their pumpkins any size and shape.  The children measured their pumpkins from the bottom to the top of the stem and recorded the measurement  on a sticker on their pumpkins.  A few students were very interested in ordering the pumpkins from "shortest to tallest" (see our "Short To Tall Pumpkin Wall" collage below).  

Their Interest In Rolling Pumpkins Took Us Outside! We Needed A Hill!

The Children Discovered That Pumpkins Roll! That Discovery Lead To A Ramp-Building Project!

Pumpkin Party!

This was one of our centres at the Pumpkin Party on Friday morning.  This craft turned into a special photo keepsake that was placed in your child's mailbag on Monday.  The second craft the children made has also been sent home in mailbags.  We also had a games centre and a snack centre.  The collage below shows the sensory centre.

Worms And Dirt Continued!

We Made Pumpkin Glyphs With Our Big Buddies On Tuesday

Our Fall Store In The Dramatic Play Area Continues To Be A Popular Spot!

Measuring Height With Our Smaller Pumpkins

How Tall Is The Pumpkin?

Measurement - Learning About Height

Our Books About Squirrels

We are learning the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts. We are enjoying the exposure to squirrel facts. We are also getting a kick out the silly ways of the fictional character "Scaredy Squirrel". 

Outdoor Fun In The Leaves

Our class really enjoys our walks in the school yard. These walks always include stops at our favourite fall trees (in addition to making "leaf angels", enjoying the "crunchy" sounds as we run through the leaves, rolling in the leaves, making leaf piles and leaf forts). We have been keeping an eye on these trees for weeks, watching for colour changes, falling leaves, etc. For this walk, we were also on the lookout for squirrels and their nests. Our non-fiction books about squirrels described the nests so we knew what we were looking for. We are pretty sure we found two nests!

The Children Were Asked To Wear Clothing With Patterns

We continued our mathematical investigation of patterns by examining the patterns in our clothing.  We had lots of excellent examples!  Please ask your child to identify some of the patterns seen below.

Worms Continued!

Another fun science experiment using gummy worms, vinegar, and baking soda.

Some Creative Highlights From The Week

In the top left corner you will see the gorgeous stained glass leaves the JK/SK children made with their Big Buddies. In the upper right corner the beginnings of a "still life" painting are shown.  The student was making a poster for our "Fall Store" and painting a piece of decorative corn.  The bottom pictures highlight a squirrel craft that was made with the fall leaves the children brought in.  Thanks for collecting leaves last weekend!

The Fall Store Is Open For Business!

The children are enjoying our new Dramatic Play Centre.  As the pictures show, they really love loading up their shopping carts!  The students priced all of the items in dollar amounts.  One of the photos in the collage shows a student reaching into her purse to pay the cashier (wearing an "apple apron") with loonies.

Our Shoe Store Has Closed - We Have A New Store In The Works!

It was a busy store for a few weeks! The children voted to change our Dramatic Play centre into a "Fall Store". On Friday we listed all of the items they would like to "sell to their customers". This weekend Mrs. Beselaere and I will be on the lookout for gourds, squash, Indian corn, different pumpkins, etc. Please email Mrs. Garrow if you have any to spare. Thanks so much!

Sweet Acorn Treats!

We tied in some mathematical language (ordinal numbers: first, second, third, fourth) as we created these delicious treats. 

Acorn Science And Art!

A New Home For Our Worms

Mrs. Weller changed our worm habitat.
Did your child tell you about the fun we had after the rain on Wednesday scooping up the abundance of worms on the pavement in the Primary Play Area?

A Surprise On Some Of The Leaves

Looking for falling leaves and colour changes!

We have walked through the back school yard several times over the past couple of weeks.  The children have been curious about falling leaves and changing colours. We were not seeing a lot of change until this past Thursday. The children were delighted to see leaves under one of the trees and they had a ball running through the leaves.  The students can't wait for more leaves to fall so we can rake up piles of leaves for them to jump in! You can bet that we will continue our walks through the back school yard in the coming weeks and Mrs. Beselaere and I will have our rakes ready!