Wee Wigglers

We had a special visit today from our Wee Wigglers teacher. The children were tickled about the very own child-sized yoga mat.

The children learned about different ways to exercise (such as stretching and dancing) and about cardio-vascular health.

With fun and upbeat music playing, we learned to do Sun Salutations and both dynamic and static balances.

The scarves were a hit and the class was transformed into a moving rainbow!

We ended off by cooling down and stretching out. It was a great workout and we learned some fun ways to exercise (teachers included!). Thank you to our class parents for funding this experience.

Out we go!

As the weather is improving, we're moving more and more of our centres outside. The children have access to nearly all the learning opportunities they have in the class, plus the gross motor activities that can only be done outdoors.

What did we do and learn?

Playdough on the mat

Music, books, and writing exploration

Science discovery. Here the ant hunters are hard at work.

Water table fun

Plein air painting

Gross motor control and strength on the trikes

Building with blocks and in the sand pit

Dress ups and fun with scarves

Even our intrepid volunteer Mrs. Ball joined us outside!

Who says we need to be inside to learn?

Weather Watchers

Well, it was supposed to be a stormy day today, so I asked some friends to be weather watchers so we can track the storm. 

The storm never materialized, but some rich conversation did. 

Kenadi- What happens to the birds in lightening?

Ava- my mom days that thunder doesn't hurt the birds. 

David- What about the spiders? Are they hurt by the thunder?

Brynlee- No they are a part of nature and they like the rain. Like the Itsy Bitsy Spider. 

Eric- We were walking last night and it started raining last night on the way to Freshco. 

Ava- We're not going outside today. 

Eric- We might not cause it's going to rain. Hopefully the lightning doesn't hit us.

Brynlee- Sometimes people don't die when the lightning hits them.

David- No sometimes they don't. 

The world is our canvas

In the kindergarten community, our time is governed by the rhythms of nature. The moods and interests of the children wax and wane through the seasons and even the moon cycle. (Any teacher can tell you the day before a full moon is always crazy!) A long string of rainy days can put a serious crimp in our plans, so it is best to plan ahead.

As a result, I always seem to have my eye on the weather report. Today was the last sunny day for at least 5 days, so we were determined to get outside while we could. But I had planned to do some explorations about the role of an artist...so on the fly, we adapted the plan and went outside.

We prepared by making some special paint: 3 spoons of cornstarch, about a quarter cup of water, and 2 drops of food colouring. The children enjoyed the dry slippery feel of the cornstartch, and we talked about more, less, and the same amounts.

Ready to go outside:

Immediately the children got to work turning our drab pavement playground into a rainbow! They delighted in spreading out and making art on a grand scale.

Tomorrow, as the rain arrives, the masterpieces will be cleared away. The ephemeral nature of this medium is part of the allure - do what you will, because it will be gone tomorrow.

Deepening and Refining

More children are becoming engaged in the Perler bead project. 

Their designs are become more complex and planned, and with practice the speed is picking up. 

We are starting to experiment with different shapes to see if they work. (This one below didn't). But even when they fail, the children are learning to test hypotheses, observe results, and plan for refinements. 

I asked many of them: "Did you have any problems while you were making this art?"

Invariably the answer was "Yes...it kept breaking but I tried again and again and then it worked." Several children used the word perseverance to describe what they were learning. Jack referred to our learning goals, saying "It's kind of like being an artist and a builder at the same time. I have to pay attention and make something beautiful like an artist, but I have to solve problems and work in a team like a builder." Wise words!

Here are some proud faces from today:

Thanks to Nolan's family for getting us going on this project. If you're a class parent with some Perler or Fuse-Art beads gathering dust at home, we'd love to use them!

Fine Motor Art

Perler beads a great medium for kindergartens. The tiny beads are arranged on a spiked grid to form a shape. An adult then irons them down and they are fused into a solid piece of art. They are colourful and highly engaging. 

The tiny beads require a great deal of fine motor precision. The spikes are so small that the slightest bump or mistake can ruin an hour of work. Making a Perler bead creation is an exercise in patience, perseverance and control...in other words, self-regulation. 

Yesterday about 8 children sat for nearly an hour or more working on their creations. They chatted about how to sort the beads, but otherwise the mood was quiet and meditative. 

Some children used their knowledge from math to create patterns and symmetry. 

When finished, the children were proud of their creations, which represented a lot of finger control and self-regulation. 

The creations quickly became phones, iPods, and Nintendo DSs and were embedded into play. 

The projects continue tomorrow. 

Representing Birds, Building Brains

We have an inquiry into birds brewing right now. On Tuesday, we went to the stairwell windows to observe the birds we see in the yard. I thought the children might draw the birds, or write down some words about what they observed, but instead they wanted to count.

Clipboards in hand, they each started making tallies of birds they saw. 

What was really interesting was the way in which the children represented each bird as a tally mark. Maya used bird shapes.

Brynlee made horizontal lines, with the columns divided "so they don't get mixed up".

JJ made very careful dots in a vertical column. He was proud when the tally reached the end of the page.

Eric tallied using numerals, so he "knows how many there are all the time."

Mia also used dots, but she added another element. She represented the houses neighbouring the school as a rectangle made up of dots (each a house). If she saw a bird flying over the houses she made a circle in the rectangle. For birds flying in the school yard or on the ground, she made dots outside of the rectangle. In doing so, she is demonstrating an ability to tally, count, sort, and use spatial reasoning.

This spontaneous activity reveals a lot of thinking and learning. These children are thinking and communicating using representational thought. The ability to represent is foundational to reading, writing, math, and art. To an outsider's eye, these just look like dots on a page. But in fact they are evidence of a major step forward in brain development.