Baking Day

We had to change our baking day to tomorrow, Thursday December 18th. It turns out there were just too many classes trying to bake on Friday.

We will bake our cookies tomorrow and eat them on Friday.

Ms. Hammond

Snow Day

Last week when we had all that snowfall. The children and I headed outside first thing. We went to RV Burges park where we could find perfect snow. That means snow that no one else has stepped in. We found a great little spot and had so much fun.

One of the best parts was when a snow-plow began to clear a parking lot next to the fence. He waved at all the children and pushed the snow pile right up on the face. The children were laughing and cheering for the snow-plow. 

A wonderful winter wonderland day!

Ms. Hammond

Sorting Trays

At the math studio, we have a collection of beads and stones that the children use for early math skills. One of the activities they love to explore is the sorting tray. One person puts a selection of beads in the middle of the tray and then the other person has to sort all the beads into organized groups of colours. It's a great math game to play in groups.

You may notice, we put all clear beads to challenge the children to sort by size and shape instead of just colour.

Ms. Hammond

Marble Run

A new activity we have in the classroom is the marble run. This activity is amazing for building problem-solving strategies and co-operative play amongst children. They have to work together to design a ramp-race for their marbles.

They have to really consider balance, height and correct pathways for the marbles. Quickly, children learn to test, revise and re-test their marble runs.

At first, we helped the children build their marble runs. Now...only a few days later, they are creating complex marble runs without any help from their teachers. They help each other instead!

Ms. Hammond

Shapes inside Shapes

We challenged the students to discover different ways to "build" shapes using other shapes. We showed them how two trapezoids fit together to build a hexagon. Here are some photos of the shapes they were able to build.

The Tree Stump

On one of our community walks, we came across a tree that had been cut down. What was really interesting was all the bark that was on the ground. We brought some of the bark back to the classroom.

When the children observed the bark closely, they noticed that there were many tiny holes in the bark. For the past two weeks, we have been recording our theories about why the tree was cut down and why it had so many holes inside the bark.

Today on our classroom walk, we revisited the stump and found that a lot of the sticks and bark were gone. We came back with a part of the tree that had been cut off and had rings inside. (photo to follow soon)

The Window

We have a new centre in the classroom we call The Window. It has clipboards, paper and books about nature. We encourage the children to look out the window and record what they observe. Many have been drawing the bare trees outside. When it snowed, they were drawing the falling snow.

Ms. Hammond

Sudbury Trip

Prepare...I'm finally updating the blog with many posts in the next few days. I thought I'd start with some images from my trip up to Sudbury where I worked with fellow educators on Environmental Inquiry in Kindergarten. This was with Stan Kozak from Learning for a Sustainable Future, who I was introduced to when working with Natural
Curiosity out of the OISE Lab School.

It was a winter wonderland!

Ms. Hammond