Summer ideas

Click HERE for a list of crafty things to do with your children in the summer (compiled by The Long Thread).

Ms. Brown says goodbye to Kindergarten :(

As many of you know, next year I will not be teaching Kindergarten. Starting in September, I am moving upstairs to teach Grade 1/2. I taught Grade 2 when I first came to EB, and those Grade 2s will be in Grade 8 in the fall!

I have had a wonderful 5 years in Kindergarten. Parents -- you all have such wonderful children! Thank you for trusting me with them :) I'm hoping to come back to Kindergarten in the future...

So, starting in September -- this won't be a Kindergarten blog. It will be a Grade 1/2 blog! On to new adventures.......

I'll see you in the schoolyard!

Have a safe and happy summer!

Remember -- that there is no such thing as a good tan.
Please watch this video and send it to all of the teenagers you know. (it's about skin cancer)

Wear a hat!

Creativity

I believe that creativity is one of the most, if not THE most important part of schooling. We need to educate the whole child.....


Watch these videos by Sir Ken Robinson -- they are amusing -- yet thought provoking.

1. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity (2006)

2. Bring on the Learning Revolution! (2010)

All children are born artists -- the problem is how to remain one once they grow up (Pablo Picasso).

Pony apartment

The students made an "apartment" for the ponies!


This straw connector building set is great! The children have started making huge structures from it. They have started using paper and cardboard to make "floors", and are experimenting with ways to make the structures less "tippy". This is when having only one class (i.e. a morning class or an afternoon class -- or a full day class) would come in handy because the morning class will work on something and then the afternoon will take it apart (or vice versa). Sometimes we try to "save" things to work on, but sometimes this isn't feasible! As you likely know, full day Kindergarten comes to Earl Beatty in September 2012. This will definitely help when the children ask "Can we save it?"

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey -- Back to the Pond.

On Thursday, June 16, Bill and Ted left their cozy home in our classroom and after a brief stay in Ms. Brown's kitchen, they traveled down the highway to London.


On Saturday, June 18, Bill and Ted went back home to their pond (isn't it beautiful?)


Bill went first:


Then Ted:

Bye bye boys! Have a safe and happy life! We'll miss you!

Perfection

One of our favourite games this year has been Perfection. You have to match 25 shapes into their negative spaces in 60 seconds -- or the shapes all pop out! We started the year without using the timer. Now the timer is broken -- but that doesn't matter -- when the shapes pop out they scare us anyway. It's way more fun when all of your friends help!

In the summer I like to jump in the pool!

In the summer I like to blow bubbles

What we like to do in the summer

We wrote (and drew) in our journals about what we like to do in the summer.

(In the summer I like to eat ice cream.)

(In summer I like to swim.)

( I like to (go) swimming in a pool.)

(In summer I like to get wet.) (that's a sprinkler!)

(In summer I like to play in the sand.)

Dinner

So, Ms. Brown, what did you buy when you went downtown shopping? Oh, not much, just dinner for Ted. Which I had to carry around in my purse for the afternoon (note to self: make the cricket store the last stop on the shopping trip next time).


Crickets from a petshop in Chinatown (Did you know that there is a very large pet store featuring all sorts of water creatures and amphibians in the basement level of Dragon City? -- I didn't until this weekend)

I think that I know why Bill hasn't changed into a frog yet -- he's vegetarian. He's happy eating the lettuce that I boil and then freeze to make it nice and mushy especially for him.

Are you tired of Ted yet?

Bill and Ted will be traveling back to their pond on June 18. They need to go home and see all of their friends! We will say goodbye to them on June 17.

(Ted)

Bill has large back legs and his front legs are just starting to grow. It's hard to photograph him because our aquarium now has lots of algae on the sides. Frogs are VERY sensitive, so I can't clean it out. The snails are shirking their duties. Oh those naughty princesses......

If anyone would like some little snails, they would love to come home with you! We have many to share! Please speak to me or send me a note. (I didn't share this information with the children -- I didn't want them to all go home and beg for snails.

Warning #1: if you put one in your home aquarium, you may find yourself with 20 or 30. They can produce young without a mate, although they prefer not to. They can also live in a large jar. You can feed them lettuce.

Warning #2 -- please DO NOT release them into local ponds or rivers. These came from a pond in London, Ontario, and many in the pond were as large as my fist. I suspect that these may not be local and that someone may have let some tropical snails into the pond (although they are hardy and have lived there many winters).

Ted Update!

I swear that more parents ask about Ted's progress than the children's progress. (Don't worry, the children area ALL progressing well)

Today I arrived at school and Ted was looking a bit thin. Well, very thin. But I had made arrangements for Gus Papoutsis (Rowin's dad, Ms. Ling's husband) to pick up some crickets at the pet shop for me (they live near a pet shop, I don't :) Gus was nice enough to pick me up a dozen crickets -- and deliver them to the school. We dumped the crickets onto a branch (oops, some fell in the water). I went upstairs to a lunch meeting -- and when I came down Gus told me that Ted had eaten. He ate a WHOLE cricket! (almost as big as he is!). I missed it. I can only find 8 crickets in the tank now. I'm not sure if they are hiding, or if Ted has eaten again. I'm not sure if I want the children to see Ted eat, or not. Will they think that it is cool or yucky? Well, it's all part of nature. We have discussed that all animals need to eat. And Ted eats bugs. There you go.

Sadly, the crickets sound really pretty in the classroom.

If anyone wants to see Bill (still a big tadpole with growing back legs) or Ted (now a full fledged frog), feel free to come in and see them. The best time to come in is before school starts in the morning (around 8:45) or after school (3:15 until 4:30 pm)(I usually stay until 6, but the caretakers lock the floor up at 4:30 -- so if you'd like to come later, please email me, and I'll let you in!)

Arts Night

It was wonderful seeing you all at Arts Night last night!
For those of you who didn't have a chance to see our wonderful mural, here it is:

(please click the picture to enlarge)

It is quite long -- maybe 3 metres? It took us a month to paint the papers, cut out the grass, flowers, sun and birds. The children did ALL of the cutting and the gluing (except for the sun -- I glued that :)

Here is the poem that we wrote about our mural:

Birds on a Wire
Colourful
Soft
Beautiful
Playful
Feathery
They are sleepy

The line "They are sleepy" gives a perfect lead into the songs that we sang! Lullabies from around the world! Below are the words to the songs. (The morning class doesn't know these songs -- Ms. Marks teaches us music in the afternoon. Ms. Donovan teaches the morning class music and taught the morning class "The World is a Rainbow" -- which the afternoon class also knows).



I would like to give a big THANK YOU to Ms. Marks for teaching us these wonderful songs and to Sheila Philcox for playing the piano for us. We couldn't do it without either of you!