Welcome Back!

Here's your January Newsletter. If you look carefully, you'll see some new activities we've introduced just since being back. A paper copy of the January 2016 newsletter will go home tonight.

Here's a bit more detail about those pictures:
I bought some bags of plastic animals over the break. We spent Monday sorting them alphabetically.

We encouraged the JKs in particular

but some SKs took leadership roles. 

And Tuesday sorting them into groups of vertebrates:

Lots of questions to answer. What kind of animal is a turtle?

We brought in the snow and watched it melt. We also used eye droppers to play with colour mixing (a fine motor activity blended into a science one) and salt to change how the melting happened.

I also brought in a snake skin, but the snow has been the real draw.

That's a boa constrictor's skin in the corner

I brought in a bowling set with numbers and we made a game where one person tried to hit a higher number than the other. 

Playdough also has numbers this week. 

Yesterday, when discussing our drama centre, students' brought up changing it to a dentist's office. So I brought out the dental kit and students have also been making purple teeth out of playdough, drilling and pulling them. (As always, I need to remember to take more photos)

Students also brought up the idea of an amusement park, so I brought out a new construction toy and we had many merry-go-rounds and ferris wheels by the end of the day.

They spin!

I'm hoping that students will be encouraged to explore and experiment further in these veins as a big part of my role is facilitating their experiments and interests. Let me know what questions are coming home as well and come back next week to see what we'll actually turn our drama centre into next.

Sincerely, 

Lisa Goegan