Friday 31 May 2013

Dandelion Wishes

One day, on our weekly trip to the park, we were surprised by a yellow delight.


Children have a special relationship with dandelions. As one of the only flowers they can freely pick, dandelions are a source of wonder and creativity.
They embody all the joyfulness of childhood. Who doesn't remember picking these as a child and blowing the seed heads? Remember the hope and wishes we put into those little balls of fluff? Did you ever sing "Momma had a baby"? Or rub the petals into your arm to smear on the sunny yellow?

At what point did our love of these happy little flowers turn into the disdain most of us adult now hold?



The simple joy of dandelions has carried through to our newest generation. The children delighted in harvesting and playing with the flowers.

 The whole field was a sunny yellow, and it formed a magical, beautiful backdrop for their games.
"It's just so beautiful!"

In the shade of a picnic table, friends taught each other how to make bracelets and other jewellery.


Ella- "How do you make a bracelet?"
Lily- "1st you put them in a pile and pick a good one with a long stem.
Then you  make a hole and poke another stem through."

"The inside is slimy! It smells like avocado."

Back in the classroom, we used  the flower heads to create some art.




"It's kinda turning watery from the juice."

"I used my imagination!"

"I'm squishing it down to make it flat!"
 Upon experimentation , the artists found that the closed flower heads made the best paintbrushes.
"Squishy! Splashy! Look at that splash! Splash!



Caterpillars and Butterflies

*Today's post is brought to you by the students in our class, who chose the pictures and dictated the text. Miss Russell added her observations and some quotes under the photos.*

We got some caterpillars in cups from the butterfly farm.
We wondered what was the yellow stuff. Some of it is poo! But most was food the farmer made.

The children were fascinated by the caterpillar waste products! They were amazed I was letting them say pee and poo, so we talked about how using bathroom words is ok as as part of science. This is part of building self-regulation - different rules for different situations.
 Everybody was looking at them in the cups. They were climbing up the sides. They lived in the cups so they wouldn't go everywhere and get squished.
 He got his skin off. The blacks stuff is his old skin. He molted. He also pooped on the top of the lid.
"Maybe we should go back to the farm and get the first leaf he was born on."
 When they molt it's because they want to get bigger so they can go into a chrysalis. The caterpillar is getting bigger. It can walk on us now. When it was walking on Cameron Hu, it slipped off his hand! But the caterpillar was ok, he was tough.
Ayden- Stop tickling me!
 Cameron Ha is looking at the caterpillar and writing a name of a caterpillar. He named it Walkie. (Cause he walks.)
 This is what Faith wrote. It's a sign that says "Don't touch. They are about to turn into chrysalises." Cause if you touched them when they were in their j-shapes, they could fall and they might die.
 This stuff is poop and skin and web. The web is practice for making butterfly glue.
Aidan:"Spider webs! A spider snuck in at night and made a web!"
Makayla: "No, the doors are locked at night."
Aidan: "But spiders can sneak under the door."
 These are caterpillars in the bug box. They are climbing on the ceiling. Caterpillars are good climbers!

These are the chrysalises. They are brown and golden. We were waiting for 9 days until they turned into a butterfly. They are probably sleeping in the chrysalis. Why do the caterpillars turn into butterflies?

Then on Monday we saw butterflies flying in the cage! 

Some were hanging upside down to make their wings air out and dry. You can see the shell of the chrysalis hanging down too. It's empty now.

They used their proboscis to drink juice out of the orange. A proboscis is thing that they drink with. It curls up when it doesn't want to drink but they stick it out to get juice.

This is a chrysalis that was shaken off in Mrs. T's class. We tried to help it, and it hatched even though it was on the ground.

It was time to let them go! They had a long time in the class. Why do they want go? Because they needed to look for nectar and put their eggs on the plants outside.

Lily opened the net for them to fly out. Before we let them go, we made wishes for the butterflies to carry for us.

Miss Russell is holding a butterfly. Then it took a deep breath and started to fly and fly away.

We are watching them fly away.

We looking at a chrysalis that didn't open. It died. Sometimes things die before they are born. It was very sad.

We learned all these things about butterflies and caterpillars:
-They drink with a straw called a proboscis.
-They spin webs to make the sticky stuff for them to stick to the top of cup.
-Caterpillars sometimes eat their poo. They and pee together.
-Caterpillars eat A LOT!
-Butterflies drink nectar flowers.
-Butterflies have to lay eggs to make more caterpillars.
-We learned how to be scientists who observe by smelling and watching and touching.
-We learned to write down our learning and thinking and questions.

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Learning from the masters

Today our children were inspired by some prints of famous artwork, and decided to create their own.

I need green. Now a bit of blue for the flowers.

After experiencing how engaged some students were during this morning's play time, we read a kid-friendly biography of Vincent van Gogh.
Did you know that he was only active for 10 years, and in all that time sold only a single painting? The children were fascinated to learn he cut off part of his own ear! They felt very sad for him.

We also read that he learned how to paint by copying the masters, just like we were doing.

I see houses at the bottom. I'm copying him.

I'm done the stars. Now I'm going to do the red house.

Oh, I see yellow. We need those, the houses here.

A joint effort.

Let's share the black, ok?

The children learn a great deal engaging in activities such as this. Not only do they build artistic abilities in terms of colour mixing and fine motor control, they also exercise powers of observation. They use and improve oral language skills while examining the paintings and while talking about their own processes. The learned new vocabulary, such as swirl or watercolour. They practice getting along with each other and using self-regulation to control themselves. Most children spent more than half an hour on the paintings and many returned at the next play block to continue adding details- proof of an increasing ability to focus and persevere. 

All of these skills are directly transferable into language, math, and personal development. It's amazing what children can learn while playing with art!

"Les Iris" by van Gogh
"Les Iris" by Cameron Hu
"Les Iris" by Emma and Olivia
"Curly Tree" artist unknown
"Curly Tree" by Jaxin and Olivia
"The Starry Night" by van Gogh
"The Starry Night" by Payton and Ayden
We are looking for more examples of great art to be inspired by. Please let me know either in the comments or in an email if you have any suggestions, or better yet copies we can borrow!

Thursday 23 May 2013

Writing About Butterflies

Our caterpillar inquiry has sparked a serious case of writing-itis in our room!
I love the month of May...snowsuits are gone, the children are independent in so many ways, there are lots of chances to get outside. But most importantly, I love seeing all the skills we've been working on consolidate and become more solid. Just look at this writing to see what I mean:

"Caterpillars make a chrysalis."
The children have been enjoying recording their observations in these blank booklets.

Art work is beginning to represent our caterpillars and soon-to-hatch butterflies.

"I wonder why it is black. I wonder why it needs goo. I wonder why it needs paper in the cup.
This paper belongs to Lily."

The children were REALLY interested in watching the caterpillars poop. Gotta love 5 year olds :)

"Why do they shed? Because that's how they grow."


"Caterpillars go in cocoons so..."

Children are much more likely to engage in writing about a topic that interests them. Many of or SKs and even some JKs are eager to observe and record their findings. It is rewarding to see them automatically picking up a marker and clipboard when they see something interesting!