November newsletter

Just noticed that there were some errors on the October calendar this week. I think I've checked this one properly, but do let me know if there are any points of confusion for November:


November Calendar

Water in the classroom

Dear Parents,

Last week we did a small art activity with eye droppers and food colouring using coffee filters and ending up using cotton balls and sponges to compare absorbency rates, because, frankly, those coffee filters were swimming.  Student interest has been considerable.

You can see the water pump in action, as well as the sieve. The two students in the foreground are playing with eye droppers

The student in the front is funnelling the water to make a wheel turn, while another is trying to figure out how the water pump works.

How many drops to fill up the graduated cylinder? At least 7, one student told me today.

Another favourite activity is fishing with the filters. Mostly they're catching eye droppers.

Mr. Alegria's influence in our classroom continues even after he's moved on:

Books on CD have made the listening centre a go-to hotspot in the classroom.

The doctor's kit has been a hit at the science centre. As the interest in the restaurant cools, we may transform it into a doctor's office. 

(Library tomorrow)

Look who's cooking!

First, your reminders:

1. Library is now on Wednesday, which is tomorrow.

2. Tomorrow is also the deadline for picture day monies.

3. This is Mr. Alegria's last week in our classroom. We'll be sad to see him go, but are grateful for the learning opportunities he's helped us take advantage of.

This past week's big adventure was baking apple crisp. Thank you to our parent volunteers!

Eating apple peels is a side benefit

There are two things in apple crisp: you've got the apple, then you've got the crisp.

Some people just want it to be cooked already.

But there's always side adventures:

Still sorting and counting bears

Still buying food at the store.

Still comparing the moose and the deer jaws.

This week we've extended our human body study into looking at the 5 senses:

Exploring the 5 senses, particularly touch.

Today we read a great book about finding letters in every day objects, inspiring us to look at the classroom in new ways.

Breaking out the old school technology: the listening centre has been a hit this week. Note also the stethescopes, to explore hearing.

 We've also been exploring the idea of a jack o'lantern and shapes:

Using actual pumpkins and pre-cut shapes

Using cut out pumpkin shapes and shapes. (The pumpkin counting also continues strong in the background)

Pumpkin faces using playdough

 

Bones

Tomorrow is library!
There was no apple crisp today despite best laid plans, but baking is on track for tomorrow morning with missing tools being sourced.

We got bones! There's a deer jaw, a moose jaw, a moose leg, and an indeterminate skull we'll have to do some inquiry about sitting on our science table.

A student overlays different systems on top of a human skeleton

Varying levels of detail on human skeletons

 We looked at the different kinds of teeth that animals have and thought about why some have sharp teeth and some have more wide, flat teeth.

Hello? Actually this student is measuring the moose jaw against his own.

We measured the bones against our own bodies and using the metre stick.

Making a wooden skeleton with the blocks

 Of course, some students are interested in other things as well. Here's the wooden skeleton from another angle. You can see there's also a ramp being built, a robot in the foreground and some geometric art off to the right.

 Here's the grocery store. One student makes change for another. Note the price signs, the open and closed sign, and the store name: Mongen Grocery (not sure where that name came from). Many students practiced their writing today making grocery lists.

Requests and photos

We are working on bones, inspired by the use of x-rays in our light cube. If parents have bones or fossils they'd like to send in (with instructions for care), we'd love to learn more about them. Given that we were looking at Alligator teeth last week, a jawbone from a herbivore would be lovely for comparison.

We are starting our cooking program on Tuesday next week. I've tapped a couple of parents for this week, but if you'd like to be involved, perhaps we could set up a rotating schedule? We're making apple crisp this time. Future recommendations for healthy recipes are eagerly requested as well.

I'm also hoping to get a rotating schedule of play doh makers. If a couple of parents can make a batch a month for the class, we would be very grateful.

Thursdays seem to be particularly great days in the classroom. Here are some of the things we learned about today:

Our student teacher, Mr. Alegria, facilitates discussion at the light cube about the different bones in your body.

This is your skeleton in Kindergarten

We're counting from 1 to 10 and putting the right number of pumpkin seeds on each pumpkin. 

Jack O'lanterns at the play doh centre. Students also made "pumpkins with seeds inside" and a skeleton out of sticks.. Emma noted that the more seeds inside, the bigger the pumpkin.

The sandtable changed. There's all sorts of shells, coral and a 3-D wooden dinosaur skeleton to explore.

Using paintbrushes like archeologists to clean the sand off of the artefacts

Some of this food is pretty expensive.

Ms. Moniz reads to a captive audience

Writing 101

 First: Tomorrow is both Library and Picture Day.

This is probably what you expect when you think about writing in the classroom:

 

And we do the writing as part of our work:

Every student signs in by writing their name on a daily basis.

Every student writes their own name on their art. 

We write a letter of the day together, filling in letter sounds (e.g. __ctober).

Students write a weekly journal entry, where they draw, then write at their ability level with teacher support. 

But we explore writing in a variety of ways through play as well:

Playing Teacher:

Sensory activities with sand:

Play dough:

Labelling diagrams:

Next Steps: We've just placed a cash register in the kitchen, so I'm hoping to do some grocery lists and sale signs. However, students are still deciding whether it will become a store or a restaurant, so perhaps it will be menus instead.

Bonus post

Today felt like a particularly great day with lots of learning.

Fall: I made the letter outlines, students cut out the shapes and together we decorated them with tissue paper roses.  Students painted the pictures, Ms. Moniz designed the display

Using the light cube to make patterns

Using the light cube to draw pictures and write words

The beginnings of a collective art project. Love this face. 

The teddy bear army convenes upon the barn

The good bears must organize to defend themselves. 

After we completed the letters for the fall display, some students wanted to work on their own initials and designs. 

Rolling letters vs. Stamping letters.

The kitchen became a store today. It was very busy.