Mud Play

 Firstly - we apologize to the parents for sending your children home with so much mud on them this week. But we have had SO MUCH FUN! Not one child has complained about playing in the rain this week. (We really try to monitor the wetness and come inside before they are cold). The only time we are a bit cold is when we are hand sanitizing before we put our masks on to come inside, but that can't be avoided. Maybe when it is colder, the children will want to keep their masks on to keep their faces warm?  

Our mittens are on and off multiple times when we are outside. Please make sure that your child can put on their own mittens!

We explored the "rivers" the water was making as it flowed off the pavement into the yard. We explored the mud and found it fascinating that it could be piled up, but it was still "ooey gooey". We found that if we pulled our feet quickly out of the mud, our boots might stay in the mud, but if we pulled our feet slowly, the mud "let go". We discovered that mud with sand and woodchips in it is less "dirty" than the mud near the trees. So much learning has happened this week!

A less muddy day :) The sand bucket line up (our repurposed sand buckets are much more durable than any "real" sand buckets that we have purchased). We are each responsible for our own sand bucket. If you leave it outside, it might disappear and you won't have one to use the next day.

Thank you parents for sending extra clothes (extra socks and mittens are so helpful)! We are so impressed with the flexibility and adaptability that our whole class shows. 

 

The importance of outdoor play!

(click on the above image to see it larger!)

Coding - Going on a Bear Hunt

 We have been listening to, reading, and acting out Going on a Bear Hunt with Ms. Lilakos (who has been replacing Mr. Drew for the past month or so).

(watch it on Safetube HERE)(no ads)

We did some "unplugged" coding of the story.

The concept that we are learning here is sequencing. The students can already tell the story in sequence. Now they have to explain how to get from Home to the Cave (and back again!) by using arrows to show the directions they need to go. We can go left, right, up, or down (up and down are easy - we don't expect them to verbalize left and right, but they should be able to point the arrows in the proper direction). The tricky part is when we have to change direction - up, then right, for example. We can use two arrows on top of each other, or use the turn cards. 

ABOVE -- we created our sequence code in a pocket chart. We left home and traveled 2 pockets to the right.>> . Then we were at the Long Wavy Grass. We left the long wavy grass and turned upward to the Deep Cold River. We left the Deep Cold River and traveled up and turned left and then went one pocket left to the Thick Oozy Mud. Then we went up and turned left toward the Big Dark Forest. We went one more pocket to the left and reached the Big Dark Forest. Then we went up and turned right, and went right one more pocket to the Swirling Whirling Snowstorm. Then we went up and turned right, and went one more pocket to the right, and we were at the Narrow Gloomy Cave. YIKES! A BEAR!!! Run!

BELOW -- we did the trip in reverse! But note: our path on the way home was different than our path on the way to the cave. The children chose their paths (both are correct)

We will continue coding some maps (and just drawing maps). Maybe we will find treasure!

Remembrance Day - Peace is in Our Hands

 We read many books about peace, and also talked about why we wear poppies. We focused on remembering people who we miss because we don't see them anymore, but we also talked about peace, and how the world would be a better place if there was no more fighting.

Our discussion went something like this (Many different students added to the conversation):

Student: "But why do people fight?"

Ms. Brown: "It usually starts with an argument, because someone wants what someone else has, and it is often about land or space.... For example... What if Ms Melino's class (from the physically smaller classroom across the hallway) decided that they wanted our classroom.  How would you all feel if they banged on our door and said "Get out of here! We need your classroom! We are coming in!"

The whole class -- speaking all at once, very excited, incensed! - "We wouldn't like it! We would hold the door and not let them in!" (One student "I would cry").

Ms. Brown "So, What should WE do? "

 Student -- "We should ask them why they want our classroom." (WOW)

Ms. Brown - "They say that they need our classroom because theirs is too small and crowded and they don't fit in it anymore. And also, they are tired of their toys and they want to see if we have better ones"

Student -- "We could share our toys!" 

Student -- "We could trade our toys" (lots of nods for this one)

Student -- "Some of the kids over there could come to be in our classroom because we have a big one"

Student -- "Those kids over there should start following the Golden Rule" 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all followed the Golden Rule? (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) ( Treat other people the way you wish to be treated)

Ms. Emerson and I are so proud of this class! They are wonderful problem solvers! They will bring peace to the world.

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 We read many books about Halloween - Fiction and NonFiction. Ask your child which one was their favourite!

We learned the chant "Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate" - and also learned that some of our friends knew it - with a little bit different words, but that's okay!

We drew some faces on our pumpkins and had them sit on a branch (gate) and then put the numbers 1-5 on top - in order (or the best that we could do)

We mixed some yellow and red paint, and then painted a pumpkin shape on paper. 

 

The next day we each cut out our pumpkin shapes (We teachers drew some outlines for the students who wanted it). We added some details to make our pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns! - eyes and a mouth -- with teeth! If anyone wanted help, Ms. Emerson or Ms. Brown drew circles on the white paper for the children to cut out. Almost everyone did the eye cutting themselves! The black pupils of the eyes were punched out of black paper. The mouths were harder to cut out, so the teachers helped with some cutting. The teeth were snipped out of strips of scrap paper - the children did all of the teeth cutting. Then we glued. Dots not Lots! (or Raindrops not Puddles!). We try to set the children up for a challenge - but not so hard that they get frustrated and give up.

We have created a slideshow of our pumpkins on our Google Classroom. They look fantastic when they are all together! 

On Friday. everyone had awesome costumes on! We are going to make a book (an actual printed book) for our classroom next week.

Fall and Leaves

 We have been learning a lot about Autumn! 

We have read many books, and have been observing the changes from summer to fall outside, in person.

We have collected leaves in our school yard, and have been learning about the letters and words that describe fall. L is for Leaf. M is for Maple, O is for Oak. 

 

 We are continuing to observe and learn about leaves!

 

Lines and Roads

 We've been learning so much about lines!

We have read many books about lines.

We practiced drawing some lines - straight lines, curved lines, zig zags, wavy lines ....
 

 We read Along a Long Road.

We talked about where we would go if we traveled along a long road. 

We each chose different media to draw our roads. We chose from india ink, markers, crayons or oil pastels. We each chose the size and shape of paper that we wanted.

Our finished roads look amazing on the wall in our classroom! The wall that they are on is about 4 m long. 

 

Close ups!

(The blank one is waiting for a student to return from a special trip - he will draw his road when he returns)

These are the destinations for the Room 9 students. Can you guess where your child's road goes?

 My road takes me to the cottage.

My road takes me to Swiss Chalet.

My road takes me to a dance party.

My road takes me to a birthday party.

My road takes me to a café.

My road takes me to a cottage.

My road takes me to my Oma and Opa’s.

My road takes me to the zoo.

My road takes me to a restaurant.

My road takes me to Monarch Park.

My road takes me to my Gigi’s house.

My road takes me to my family’s cottage.

My road takes me to my cottage.

My road takes me to a movie theatre. 

My road takes me to my mom’s house.

My road takes me to my home. 

My road takes me to grammy and grampa’s cabin.

My road takes me to Rouge Valley.

These were our Learning Goals and our Success Criteria for this project.

 

Pie Graph or a graph about pie

 We made a pictograph about the kinds of pie that we like.

Graphs help us see the answers to survey questions.

We ask a question to a group of people (take a survey).

We collect the data (the answers, or the information that we hear or write down)

We graph the data.

Then we look at the graph and we can answer questions about the data, using the words most, least and the same.  

We determined that most of the class liked chocolate pie and that the same amount of people liked pumpkin, apple, lime, lemon and grape. We did this by looking at the pictures. then we counted to check. We also counted that 3 people liked Strawberry best and 2 people liked Blueberry best. 

We are thankful for so much... including pie!

 We read many Thanksgiving books -- and focused on being thankful for important things. We talked about WHY we are thankful for things. 

 We talked about Thanksgiving and why it might be a little different this year (although, at age 3 or 4, the children don't really remember much about last Thanksgiving). We focused on family and talked about family traditions. We will talk about the food we eat at Thanksgiving more next week -- once we have more context for it (and for the students who don't celebrate Thanksgiving, we will talk about favourite family meals). We hope that you have a relaxing  weekend with family and food -- even if we are only able to talk to some of our family on the phone, or through Facetime, Skype or Zoom, we will still be together.

We found out that we ALL like pie! Some of us like chocolate pie best (10 students) (and I didn't even know that Chocolate pie was a thing). Some of us like Strawberry pie (2 students). some like blueberry pie (2 students). Some like pumpkin pie best (2 students) and 1 student liked grape pie, one liked apple, one liked lime and one liked lemon. Ms. Brown likes Cherry Pie the best, and Ms. Emerson likes Apple Pie. So we "baked" our favourite pies! And also graphed our favourites, and talked about the graph. 

 Look at these pies! YUM!