Fun With Sensory Play ELP

Getting Messy for Fun’s Sake

This year, we have been experimenting with messy materials such as sand, shave cream, goop, pumpkin guts, water, playdough, etc).  Sometimes we add a smell (like pumpkin spice, baby oil or other stuff) to enhance the students’ experience and sometimes we add other fun stuff like sparkles or food colouring.

Sensory play is important so that the children can experience learning with all of their senses (touch, sight, smell) and they also develop their manipulation and fine motor skills in the process.  Ms. Switzer, Ms. Mallory and I set up several investigation stations. Most times, we make the experiments with the children, incorporating fun Science investigations:

Pumpkin spiced play dough.

In October, we investigated pumpkin guts.

Shaving Cream Investigations.

Pumpkin spiced moon sand (cornstarch, water and sand).

Playing with "Goop".

Ms. Mallory did baking soda, vinegar and food colouring experiments.

Ms. Mallory made sparkle moon sand.

Doing the dishes in warm, soapy water.

Halloween Fun ELP

A Month of Halloween Fun and Learning

Every year, as soon as October hits, the children begin getting excited for Halloween. This year, Ms. Switzer and I began to think about how we can shape the learning environment together with the children. We thought that we would incorporate curriculum through fun, play-based opportunities which reached most the children's senses.

Here are some things that we had fun with this month:

Pumpkin Investigations

Halloween Writing and Literacy:

Our classroom inherited an old pumpkin box that the children decorated to make a spooky reading nook.

Enriching Oral Language through songs and finger plays.

Samara's depiction of "Five Little Pumpkins"

Sensory play using shaving cream.

Sensory play using pumpkin spiced play dough and pumpkin spiced moon sand.

Ms. Mallory and Tianna (our Notre Dame Co-op student) made a Haunted Drama centre.

Mathematics and Fine Motor Skills

Making pattern necklaces with straws.

Halloween Activity Day

On Friday, we paired with Ms. Devitt's FDK class to have Halloween games and activities. We combined the children into groups and had lots of fun things to do in each classroom.  It was a great day!! 

We also celebrated our Virtue of the Month assembly on Gratitude together in the Gym.  The FDK students sang the "Thank-You" song for the school.

Ms. Switzer and I are thankful to have the important job of teaching and caring for your precious children everyday!

Using our "Lookers" to Find Nature with Mallory ELP

Discovering Nature at the Local Park

For the fall/winter term, we have been fortunate to welcome an ECE student from Ryerson University, Mallory McClaskin.  Mallory spends Thursdays and Fridays in our classroom.  As part of her practicum experience with us, Mallory has been listening to the children when they are playing/exploring to see what they are interested in learning about.  She noticed that when they were playing at the park, the children would bring natural artifacts over and ask questions about them.  She decided that it was a good idea to ask the students what they know about the nature in our local park and to follow up with a nature walk in the local park space.

She began with a circle discussion on nature:

Question for Inquiry: "What Kind of Nature is in our Local Park?"

She got a list of things to look for: trees, grass, butterflies, bees, worms, leaves, acorns, birds, clouds, sun, dirt, and sticks.

She introduced the "looking glasses" (3D glasses from the movie theatre with the lenses popped out) which are meant to help us look closely for nature. All of us put them on (including the teachers) and armed with paper bags, we set out to find nature. 

The students began collecting their artifacts.  They were very focused and intentional in their search.

When we got the nature, the students emptied their bags and we looked at what we found: leaves (from different kinds of trees, in different colours), sticks, acorns, pine cones). Mallory decided that it would be a waste to just throw the nature away, so she decided to make nature hand print trees.

During our mixed outdoor play in the yard, Mallory painted the children's hands/arms to make the tree outlines. We set them to dry.

The next day, the students used the hand prints to make nature tree art. They glued the nature that they found anywhere on the page to make beautiful nature art.

When they were completed, we displayed them outside of our classroom! 

Sorting and Patterning Fun Outside ELP

Taking our Sorting and Patterning Outside

The weather in September was fabulous! The days were mostly sunny and warm, giving us a chance to take some of our learning outside into the Kindergarten yard. Ms. Devitt and Ms. Dwamena (the other FDK class) set up the Kindergarten yard with some Math manipulatives such as pattern blocks, colour tiles, and sorting animals.

Before we went outside, I read two books to the children from the Nelson Mathematics program for Kindergarten: At the Toy Store (sorting) and The Pattern Farm (patterning). 

We used these stories as an introduction to Sorting and Patterning. We also asked the children what they knew about the concepts. We took the students outside to explore further.

Sorting

The students worked together to make animal groups using the squares from a hopscotch painted on the ground.

This picture shows a group of kangaroos.

They used coloured hoola hoops to make groups of colour tiles.

Patterning

The J.K.'s made simple patterns using colour tiles.

A simple AB pattern using red and green tiles.

An ABC pattern using red, yellow and green tiles.

The S.K.'s used pattern blocks to make more complex patterns.

An ABC pattern, using a red trapezoid, orange square and a tan rhombus.

An AB pattern, using a red trapezoid and a blue rhombus.

An ABB pattern, using one green triangle and two orange squares.

An ABC pattern, using one yellow hexagon, one red trapezoid and one blue rhombus.

The S.K.'s also used snap cubes to make patterns.

While it may look like the children are playing with the manipulatives, a deeper look would tell us that they are learning valuable "Big Ideas" in Patterning and Algebra. If you are a teacher (or a parent wondering about Curriculum), there is a valuable resource written by the Ontario Ministry of Education called, 

A Guide to Effective Instruction in Mathematics, Kindergarten to Grade 3 (2007). You can click on the link to go directly to the site. It will take you to the page for Patterning and Algebra.

Through this lesson, the Kindergarten students were learning to:

• "recognize, identify, describe and copy repeating patterns involving one attribute";
• "develop an understanding of the repetitive nature of patterns";
• "create repeating patterns". (Ont. Ministry of Education. A Guide to Effective Instruction in Mathematics K-3, p. 19)

Hatching Chicks and Butterflies ELP

Memories From Last Spring...

So, needless to say, life gets busy in full-day Kindergarten.  That is my excuse for not keeping up with blog posts!  We spend a lot of time working on inquiry projects and play-based activities around here.  I find it difficult to get all of our fun out onto our blog for everyone to see.

I did, however, come across some documentation of projects from last school year and I felt that it was important to share our 'Chick and Butterfly' project. Hopefully next year, I will be better at getting more things to our blog; that is a goal of mine. If for some reason I don't, it is because we are busy making memories, without time to share them.

In May, the parent council at our school gave us the money to get eggs, an incubator, and the food/bedding for 12 chicks from Green Acres Farm.  We set it up in the classroom and then we had a knowledge building circle with the students to see what they were thinking.  We used the "I See, I Think, I Wonder" format.

I see...

"eggs"

"they are oval"

"they are brown"

"the incubator looks funny"

"the incubator is warm to touch"

I think...

"the chicks will grow and hatch"

"the egg will crack"

"the incubator keeps the eggs warm"

I wonder...

"how do they get out?"

"why do we have to turn them?"

"why do they need an incubator?"

"how long will it take for them to hatch?"

"are real chicks going to come out?"

"what will they eat?"

"where will we keep them when they hatch?"

"what do the eggs look like inside?"

We found some books and videos on chick egg development and pictures of what they might look like inside the egg as they develop to give the kids a better understanding. We attached the pictures to our calendar so we could keep track of the development over 21 days.

We learned that it takes 21 days for a chick to hatch and that in nature, a hen sits on her eggs to keep them warm. She also rolls them with her feet so that they do not drown in there.  We had to turn the incubator 5X a day.  They grow and develop inside that small egg. We also learned that they have a special "egg tooth" to help them break the egg so that they can get out.

We watched and waited everyday to see if the eggs changed.  In the meantime, our teacher candidate from O.I.S.E., Joan Piloya came up with an 'egg inquiry' centre so that the children could explore what an unfertilized egg looks/feels like.

The children got to crack the egg open and explore it using most of their senses (they didn't taste it).  They described the inside and then they played with it a bit.  They got to see the yolk and learned that chicks use the yolk when they are inside a fertilized egg as food.

We set up a "brooder box", using a large bin, a 60 watt light bulb, small animal bedding, a drown-proof water bottle and some food.  We waited for 21 days...

On exactly day 21, they eggs began to crack! By the next day, 10 eggs had hatched (2 did not).

We left the chicks in the incubator until they were dry and fluffy and then we transferred them to the brooder box.

Ms. Switzer took a survey on which names the students would like the chicks to have.  This was our final list!

The chicks in their new home.

The children checked out the eggs after they hatched.

Getting to touch the chicks.

Over the course of the next 7 days, the students got to learn how to care for chicks (what they eat, drink, and how they behave).  They learned that chicks need a farm habitat after a while because they eat a lot, they grow very fast, and they make a big, stinky mess!! Green Acres Farm came to pick up the eggs and took them home. What a fun learning experience!!

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Our partner FDK classroom ordered 'Painted Lady' butterfly kits which came with small caterpillars in containers with food.  We also got a zippered case in which to hang the Chrysalis' when they were ready.

We checked the caterpillars everyday.  Finally, when they were done eating and growing, they formed a Chrysalis inside the container which they attached to the lid of the container.

We asked the children what they were wondering about...

The teachers hung the Chrysalis' from the top of the mesh housing.  It took about a week for them to open up.

We hung the Chrysalis upside down and waited.

Finally, they came out! We put some orange Gatorade on cotton balls and we left it for them to feed on. After a few days, when the butterflies were strong, we took them outside and released them.

Both of these activities brought rich learning experiences for our FDK students. They not only learned about the Science of living things (Life Cycles, Habitat, etc.), they also used Math skills (Data Management, Counting, Measurement) and Language Skills (Reading and gathering information, Writing, and Oral Communication). They also got to touch and interact with animals; that's something we don't get to do everyday!

We are looking forward to embarking on new inquiries this next school year!