Playing With Words and Literacy in the Pumpkin Patch ELP

At the beginning of October, before Thanksgiving Ms. Switzer went up to her family cottage. On the way, she picked up a bale of hay and a bunch of pumpkins from a roadside stand. Together with the children, we set up a pumpkin/vegetable stand in the dramatic centre.

We asked the children how they would like to make it their own and they responded by asking to decorate using pictures and words.

We gave the children a piece of brown butcher paper, pencils, and markers.

Check out the final sign!

The children enjoyed  playing in their vegetable/pumpkin stand.

This activity supports the Big Idea of the FDK curriculum: "Children are effective communicators."

Overall Expectations:

4.1: Demonstrate an interest in writing.

4.2: Demonstrate an awareness that writing can convey ideas or messages.

4.3: Write simple messages.

4.4: Begin to use classroom resources to support their writing.

4.5: Experiment with a variety of simple writing forms for different purposes.

(Taken from the Full-Day Kindergarten Program pg. 88-90; 2010-11 Ministry of Education)

The students have also been experimenting with writing in other ways:

At the inquiry table:

At the writing centre:

And stencils!

Writing is happening everyday in all sorts of ways!

Putting our Lookers on in Search of Nature - A Great Idea to ReuseThose 3D Glasses ELP

The past few weeks have been very busy for the children. The JK's have been learning how to follow classroom routines and have also been exploring what Kindergarten is all about. The SK's have been getting reacquainted with school life as well. Needless to say, Ms. Switzer and I have also been very busy; hence this late post!

"Looking" for Nature:

Last year, we had so much fun with outdoor learning. We wanted to get the children excited about the outdoors so we decided to try an idea that I got from Pinterest (Teach Preschool). We read the books: The Looking Book (P.K. Hallinan) and The Listening Walk (Paul Showers)

The Looking Book is about a mother who wants to get her children outside instead of hanging around inside so she gives them a pair of "lookers" (plain glasses) to go outside and find things in nature. I had a bag of old 3D glasses so I decided to punch out the lenses and call them "lookers". After reading the book, I asked the children what they think "nature" is (I Think). Some responses were:

Trees, ladybugs, birds, squirrels, dogs, ants, snails, and butterflies.

The Listening Walk is about what sounds we hear when we go outside. I asked the children what they expect to hear when they get outside. Some responses were:

Cars, firetrucks, bees, birds, people,  and dogs.

Both books helped us to identify the senses of touch, sight, and hearing. 

I introduced the 3D glasses and called them "lookers". We put them on our inquiry table along with other interesting materials.

Then we stepped back and waited...

The children had fun trying them out at the inquiry table. Then we diced to take them outside! (I See..)

Armed with our iPad, Ms. Switzer and I followed the children and asked them what the found with their lookers...

They started by looking around.

They called me to capture their findings.

They collected stuff.

We brought some in to add to our inquiry table (some of the ants crawled away in the middle of the night).

Our next step is to ask the students what nature is and to collect their ideas. We will then ask if they have any wonderings; this will serve as the "I wonder" portion of our inquiry. We hope it will lead to the topic(s) for our focused inquiry.

This activity supports the Big Idea of the FDK Curriculum: 

"Children are curious and connect prior knowledge to new contexts in order to understand the world around them."

Overall Expectations:

1. demonstrate an awareness of the natural and built environment through

hands-on investigations, observations, questions, and representations of 

their findings;

2. conduct simple investigations through free exploration, focused exploration,

and guided activity, using inquiry skills (questioning, planning, predicting,

observing, communicating);

3. demonstrate an understanding of the natural world and the need to care for

and respect the environment;

(Taken from The Full-Day Early Learning–Kindergarten Program p. 114; 2010-11, Ontario Ministry of Education)

You can help us at home! The next time you go outside, ask your child what kind of nature they see. You can even send in interesting artifacts that you find for our inquiry table.

Welcome to Ms. Hennessey's and Ms. Switzer's Kindergarten 2014

Welcome Back to our Returning SK Students and a Big Warm Welcome to our New JK Students! We can't wait to spend our days with you!

Our days will be very busy, filled with both indoor and outdoor learning and play.

Even though we are very excited to meet and spend time with your JK child, he/she may be experiencing anxiety about entering a new setting.  You as a parent may also have questions about how to ease the transition to school for the first time. Check out this article by Today's Parent on How to Prepare for the First Day of School:

How to Prepare for the First Day of Kindergarten - Today's Parent

Ms. Switzer and I will be busy setting up our classroom and preparing for our first week of school at the end of August.  In the meantime, you may want to check out our blog page: "Upcoming Dates and Information for Parents" (just click the tab at the top of the page).

Please enjoy these last precious weeks of summer vacation.  We are asking that all students bring in a rock from their summer vacation during their first week of school.  We will take time to discuss where your child found it.  We will also use our collected rocks to help with friendship building activities as well as attendance.

Colour Mixing With Snap Cube Beyblades ELP

The children are constantly using snap cubes to make a version of their favourite toy, "The Beyblade". While Ms. Switzer and I often question their motives for making Beyblades (they like to fight each other with them), we figure that it takes a lot of mathematical problem solving to ensure that they are constructed so that they spin, so we let them go at it.

Today, Ms. Switzer was hanging out with a group of students to see exactly how it all works when something wonderful happened.  She noticed that the children were looking for particular colour combinations. "Let's try red and blue" said one child...Ms. Switzer listened and watched as she spun her Beyblade. "It makes purple!" said another child; Ms. Switzer could not believe her eyes!!! "Come here Ms. Hennessey and see what they are doing!", she said.

Before we knew it, the children were testing their colour mixing theories. They mixed white and black, blue and yellow (which didn't work as well so they tried different combinations of each colour) and red and yellow.  For the most part, it worked! This lead to questions and curiosity about colour mixing. 

I'm sure that this could lead to all kind of fun stuff like paint mixing, coloured water bottles, food colouring mixtures, great books...the possibilities are endless! Only now there's about 5 days left of school. 

It kind of makes me sad, really. Gives us something to think about over the summer.

This is the stuff that makes us remember what play-based learning is all about! 

Planting Vegetables and Using Salad Spinners for Art ELP

Since our last blog post, we have been having fun exploring plants and vegetables.  The children made a plan to show what they wanted to plant: carrots, cucumbers, yellow beans or radishes.

We planted our own plants and watched them grow.  We measured our plants a few times to see how much they grew.

We carefully watched our plants to see if they grew.  We measured to find out if they did using cubes lined up from bottom to top.

We also used salad spinners to create flowers!

We glued the flowers, a stem and leaves on.  Then we drew roots and labeled them with words. We know the parts of a plant!

Getting Clean Getting Dirty - Mud Investigations and Fun With Shaving Cream ELP

Finally, the spring weather has arrived! Yesterday, we spent the better part of the morning rediscovering nature in the outdoors.

The worms are back! It took lots of digging, but they found the worms.

The children also noticed other signs in nature.

When we returned to the indoors, we continued the fun! The children played in mud and made mud pies.

Ms. Switzer put shaving cream on the painting table and the children experimented with different tools.

It was lots of fun getting clean after getting dirty!

More Plant Inquiry News:

Alexander brought in his cactus to share last week. This inspired us to think about the cactus.

We also wrote about what we know about plants to add to our "I Think..." Bulletin board.

"Dirt is important; without dirt, the plant would not survive" - Aidan-Paul

Yesterday, we looked at different types of seeds. 

In the afternoon, we soaked some beans seeds to see if they might sprout roots over the weekend. We also read a book about how plants grow. We put some paper napkin in a clear cup and put the beans in.  Then we wet the paper napkin.

Now we wait!

Let's Clean Up The Park - Taking Care of Our Environment ELP

On Friday, April 25th, we participated in Toronto's school clean-up day. After morning snack we headed over to our favourite park, equipped with disposable gloves and plastic bags.

Before heading out, we read stories about keeping our park clean. We also discussed what sort of garbage was safe for picking up (bottle caps, paper cups, plastic items, etc.) and what we never pick up (sharp items such as syringes, broken glass, pins, etc). We also reviewed what goes in the garbage and blue bins.

It was a cold and windy day but the children got to work picking up whatever garbage they could find. They found lots of garbage all over the park.

We found some natural treasures too so we took them in to put on our inquiry table!

I wonder what kind of wonderings we will get from these great findings??

Many thanks to the children for helping to clean up our park!!

We found a great book on "why plants grow and other questions"... We put out our artifacts on the table and we asked the kids what they know about plants, "I think"... They got busy writing about what they know like, "plants grow", "they need water and sun", "they sprout roots", "trees grow leaves". 

I even found this tidbit which I though was neat, "We always have to learn about science!" (Mary) so I  put it up on our "I Think" wall.

Cleaning up our park has actually breathed new life into our plant inquiry. We are going to plant our own plants with seeds soon...

Our Vegetable/Fruit Growing Inquiry Continues ELP

Our investigation into growing plants from other plants continues.  We found that the sweet potato began to sprout roots after being soaked in water so some children wanted to draw about the changes. B was wondering if we could find information in a book.

The sprouted potato is growing nicely. V and C thought we could measure it with cubes to keep a record of the growth.  So far it is 15 cubes tall! 

A wondering: "Will new potatoes grow?"

Our potato plant in the window.

The onion plant sprouted roots as well so the children planted it in some soil since the potato seemed to do well in soil.

We also noticed some green growing in the middle of the pineapple leaves.

The pineapple is sprouting fresh green leaves!

The avocado seeds are soaking and seem to be splitting but we don't see roots. Stay tuned...