Using Shapes To Create Pictures

Jack Frost Visited Our Windows

New Year's Activities Continued

We watched an amazing video showing New Year's Eve fireworks from around the world.  This inspired us to make fireworks with our Big Buddies.  We had "a blast" making fireworks by blowing paint with straws.

Here are some of the finished products!

We did this activity with our Big Buddies as well.
This involved filling the jars 3/4 full with water.
In a separate bowl the students mixed 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil with drops of food colouring.
This solution was added to the water in the jar (without mixing).  The students were amazed as they watched the droplets of food colouring explode into fireworks!

We Are Celebrating The New Year In Room 106

More Gingerbread Fun

This classic tale sparked so many interesting activities.  The graphing activity shown above was a hit! As well, the children thoroughly enjoyed going on several hunts for the Gingerbread Man in our school by following hints left behind by the sneaky character.

Gingerbread Fun

After reading one version of The Gingerbread Man, the children were hooked! They wanted to make gingerbread cookies and that idea evolved into having a gingerbread house.

In the Gingerbread House the students "made" hot chocolate, posed for pictures and enjoyed gingerbread cookies of course (made of ginger-spiced play dough)!

The students were very interested in the ending of the classic story. They wondered what may have happened had the Gingerbread Man become wet.  We conducted an experiment to find out!

Beautiful Seasonal Art

A Math Activity - Festive Patterns

The students did a wonderful job creating and extending patterns.

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").