Friday 29 January 2016

Grab bag

A snap shot of our learning this week









Making learning visible

Sharon and are we're very lucky to be included in a project called "Making Learning Visible". The project is an inquiry into how documenting a child's learning can affect their own literacy development, and the effect it has on other children who view it. 

We are working with a group of 6 other kindergarten and grade 1 educators and our Early Years consultant at the board. Last week we were lucky to have Teresa all to ourself for a half day of research, planning, and creating. 

Using current research and reflections of our students, we decided to focus on documenting visual literacy behaviour- writing, drawing and representing. We framed our research question:

What influence does student talk about documentation have on responding, extending, and challenging new learning?

We started by creating a display space for each child to share their work.

The next day, the children helped us build the documentation board. Max and Ben made the sign about our learning goal: We are learning to be writers. 


Next we put up everyone's display space. 




It didn't take long before the board sparked some more writing. We put out some word rings to help build vocabulary, and they are already a hot commodity in the writing studio. 



We are excited and curious to see where this project will take us. Children learning from each other is the ultimate goal in an emergent program like ours. We hope the board and other supports will encourage them to write, share, talk, listen, and learn collectively. 


Friday 22 January 2016

Results are in

Our Animal Care Commitee has been hard at work preparing to vote for some new animals to adopt with our donations. Over the last few weeks, the group researched the types of animals available for adoption. Here, they are using the information sheets to cut out photos for the ballot. 

They decided to vote on the yak, the emu, the squirrel monkeys, the wallaby, the yellow-footed tortoise, and the lemur. We watched some videos about each animal so we could make an informed decision. Then, we each voted for two animals in a secret ballot. 


Claire spent a whole day making the ballot box. It was overflowing!


We counted the votes and made a tally. Great math skills girls!


We figured out that we wanted the yellow-footed tortoise and the lemur. Both of them happen to be endangered!


The end ( by Claire and ms Delahunt )

Monday 18 January 2016

Airplanes galore

  The children were a flurry when prototype foam planes were used to spark their interest.  The children quickly put the 2 planes together and then asked " what now?"  Now let's take them apart.  We looked at the pieces needed to copy and build our own and then started the process to do it.   The children started to trace onto the foam trays and plates and quickly discovered that scissors did not work well to cut out the shapes Instead they continued to use their pencils until the shape was etched in the foam and easily popped out.  The pieces were then put together.  Here are some photos of the busy builders.






The curiosity, persistence and skill development was a sight to see.













Friday 15 January 2016

Welcome!

We are so happy to welcome Lynda Jackson to our classroom team. 

Lynda is an educational assistant and will be working with some of our children with special needs. 

Mrs Jackson lives on a farm, where she and her family grow beef cattle, corn, vegetables, and maple syrup, when she's not busy teaching our little ones at school. 


We are very happy Mrs Jackson is a part of our community! Come say hi the next time you are at school. 

Cinna-yum!

Yesterday, I sat down with a group of learners with a cup of cinnamon tea. The little munchkins observed the smell and started listing all the things they like to eat with cinnamon. Cinnamon buns were the favourite, so we decide to bake some!

Here's the recipe we used: http://picky-palate.com/2012/06/11/perfect-cinnamon-rolls/

We started with yeast and a very eager group of girls. They giggled lots when I explained how the yeast burps make the dough rise. 


Careful measuring is a math readiness skill. 

We worked on proper kneading technique- a great hand building exercise. 




We set the dough to rise during recess and lunch. 


We each got a turn to roll out the dough. 


Next was the slippery butter. 


The final ingredients were some more sugar and lots of cinnamon. 


Yum!!


Teamwork made the rolling go easily. 


And on to the pan for a final rise. 


After 20 minutes in the oven, it was snack time! 

 B

Smells great!


And tastes even better!

Friday 8 January 2016

This week in kindergarten

As we got back into the swing of things after the weekend, the children were busy re-exploring the learning environments. Here's a grab bag of photos from our week:

Measuring and estimating with snow


Dramatic play in the playdough


Full size dramatic math, acting out an addition story book


Quiet moments with the puzzles 

Exploring measurement and the inquiry process with airplanes

Reading pictures and following sequential directions

Where did this rainbow come from? We've been observing and inquiring all week. 

The fire truck visited when the fire alarm malfunctioned

At quiet time we've been experimenting with mindful colouring. The children were immediately hooked and got right to work picking colours.


We've observed that the children are either quiet as they work, or are calmly talking to their friends. Their conversations are balanced and connected, with each child listening and taking a turn to speak on the topic. We are wondering  is the effect of the colouring?


Normally, in an emergent program, colouring does not have a place. But we are going to continue observing the activity to see what kind of learning happens.