Looking at the Dead Tree in our Yard

Today when we went out to play, we discovered an uprooted tree in our play yard.

The children were very excited to see a whole tree just lying there waiting to be discovered!  This lead to questions on how it got there, what the different parts of the tree were called, and what they could do with it.

They looked at the end of the tree and noticed that the roots are still attached and they questioned what they might be for?

Then they looked at the top of the tree and wondered why there weren't any leaves on it?

They then attempted to use some team work to pick it up and see how heavy it was (using our Math measurement skills).  It was fun to explore our new found nature!  Maybe a new inquiry topic for us to think about...stay tuned!

Sharing a Thanksgiving Treat with our Classroom Family!

This will be my last post before Thanksgiving this weekend.  Ms. Switzer and I are looking forward to some much needed rest and relaxation.  We also plan to spend time with family being "unplugged" from the computer.  

Yesterday, we did our walk-a-thon around our neighbourhood. It was a beautiful fall day for exploring all the familiar sights.

 

 

We also made apple crisp with the children to share for our Thanksgiving. The children helped out with cutting of apples (plastic knives) and preparing the treat.

The children enjoyed eating our wonderful snack and when we were done, we made a chart story about how we made it and thought of many words to describe how it tasted!

It's been a very long, busy week! All of us are feeling tired...see you on Tuesday!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

 

Snails! and Moth and Other Stuff...

Today, Alexander came through with four snails for our snail habitat! We also had a donation from a Grade 1 student who had heard that we have a bug sanctuary: a giant moth!!!  I had nowhere to keep a giant flying bug so we put him in the snail's home for the morning so that we could check him out and then we later released him back to the wild.

 

In the meantime, the snails went under investigation by our little scientist crew who needed to check them out.

 

 

 

 

They also handled the mealworms.

We put the snail on a mirror to increase depth and see it better.  The kids spent all of their play time studying their new class creatures!Thank-you Alexander!

When the students went home, I noticed that the snails were hungry and eating the cucumber.  I guess they like their new home.

Another highlight of our day was playing with trains!  Ms. Switzer and I put out the trains to reinforce letter Tt so they had lots of fun building train tracks and running the trains over them.

We had some fun painting with toothbrushes.

Some children also made pattern turkeys using an AB pattern.

Where Have All The Snails Gone?

On Friday, the children found snails and we brought them in and began wondering about what they eat and their habitats.  Ms. Switzer and I worried that we didn't have resources to sustain the snails over the weekend so we let them go in the dirt by the yard before home time.  I went home thinking about them and did a little research about how to keep snails.  I got some dirt (clean topsoil without any fertilizer), an aquarium, some of our rocks that the kids brought in and a small can (from our can inquiry) for the snails to hide in.  We put some lettuce and a cucumber there for food.  There! We were all ready to go out collecting new snails.  We also decided to get earthworms because I read that they live together nicely.

 

We set out on a wet day with our shovels, rainboots, and containers. The children looked everywhere!

 

They dug in the dirt in the park.

 

They looked in the puddles.

 

They looked and looked but NO snails!!! What happened to all of the snails?  They finally managed to find a couple of earthworms and some giant Fall leaves. It was soon time to go back to school.

I guess tomorrow is another day!  Their homework is to bring in any snails that they find on their way to school.  Wish us luck!

 

Parents, if you happen to have any idea where to find snails or any information on how to take care of snails (or earthworms), the students would appreciate your comments (at the bottom of this post).  Maybe we can use them in our snail inquiry (if we ever get new snails...).

 

Other Highlights From our Day:

I visited a pumpkin patch this weekend and Ms. Switzer also went to a roadside pumpkin stand near her cottage.  She got a bale of hay and some corn, pumpkins and gourds.  I got pumpkins and a scarecrow. We set up a pumpkin patch drama centre. The kids enjoyed it immensely!

Stay tuned to see how the rest of the week goes!!

Saying Good-bye to September and the Learnings of The Last Week

September has quickly come and gone!  We took down our student-made calendar for September but we saved the memory with a picture.

This past week, we celebrated Autumn coming to Toronto but the weather was more like summer.  We spent everyday outside enjoying the playground and noticed the changes in the leaves on our trees in the park.

We have chosen to watch this tree for changes over the school year.

 

Speaking of nature, lots has happened since we found the spider and put it in a jar!  The students have been visiting the nature table and writing about what they see.  They are interested in doing research on all things creepy crawly.  I noticed the clipboard was full of writing!

The students are busy looking around for creatures in the park and they keep busy collecting leaves and pinecones to add to our nature table.  On Friday, Aliyah brought a snail to the classroom so we put it in a jar for the kids to explore.  Before we knew it, we had 3 more to add to the collection!

The children found one on the way in from the park so Ms. Switzer out it on a towel that we used to dry the slide.  By the time we got inside, the snail had moved across the towel;  it left a trail of slime!!

 

This of course led to questions about snails and what they eat, do and their habitat!  I've ordered books from the library to help us care for snails and learn more.  Somewhere I have an old aquarium and some soil...gotta dig it out!

I also purchased some mealworms from Petsmart for us to observe as well.  Mealworms make great classroom pets as they are cheap, simple to care for and they have a fast life cycle.  They turn into black beetles!  We'll see how the children react on Monday...

 

Below, I've included random pictures of our learning this past week.

 

The students practiced their fine motor and scissor skills cutting up paper scraps and sticking them to contact paper to make Fall window cling decorations.

 

They played with apple pie play dough and cinnamon sticks ( it smells like apples).

They built the City of Toronto, including the Sky Dome and the CN Tower!

They made creations on the light table.

I'm not sure what we'll we blogging about next week.  Everyday is an adventure!  Stay tuned...