Talking about your learning

Explaining what you've learned and how you know it is an important life skill and the top reason parents say they enjoy reading this blog: they want to know what's going on in the classroom and find it hard to get their child to communicate in any detail.

This is a skill we work on in the classroom too. Sharing with the class not only builds oral communication skills, it allows students to scaffold each other's learning and provides positive reinforcement for their accomplishments. Recently, I asked students to bring an object that showed their learning to our end of the day circle.

Here are the activities students highlighted:

First, a large number really enjoyed our art activity. These mittens are created by using oil pastels to create a base pattern and painting over that with a watercolour wash. We asked students to create a repeating pattern.

 

 

Next, we have the products of our workshop.

This is a garbage compactor, and the gears on the outside turn in tandem with each other.

The next chunk talked about having worked on their journal that day. Here you can see some examples of students pictures and writing. 

Finally, here were two I found interesting because they didn't quite fit into the broader categories. 

This student chose to talk about the book he'd brought in for show and share. 

This student was fascinated by the water clock we have at the science table.

There are some limitations to an activity like this. For example, students had also made an interesting tunnel system in the sand table that day, which was more challenging to bring to the carpet, so they chose something else. And, too, you get the sense of the made objects, but they're less interesting outside the context of imaginative play.

Next week, I'll post a little more about the maps students have been working on. I feel like it's the first inquiry that's really caught the popular imagination since our Doctor's Office.

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan

P.S. Library is on Monday. The circulation computer is back in full functioning mode, so make sure you return your book!

Magnets: How do they work?

Friday, we had a scientist come in to work with us on Magnets. It was a great morning with lots of student excitement and parent involvement.

Here students test the ability of different magnets to work through different materials, like fabric, paper, foam, and wood.

Here you see students decorating their fish. At the end of the day, each student got a magnetic fishing rod made with popsicle sticks and string so they could catch their fish. 

Here students test the ability of magnets to attract and repel. The magnets on the poles bounce like yo-yos when placed +/+ instead of +/-. Students also used magnets to push or pull toy cars. 

Students are testing their magnets through board. In the background you can see the magnetic fishing pond.

At this station, students tested the magnetic attraction of different materials. 

Thanks again to those parents who came in to work with students. Making memories like this helps foster positive school experiences and engagement in learning. 

Two side notes regarding programming: 

1. The circulation computer has been fixed. I will remind you when Day 1 rolls around again in order to return books. 

2. The first Kindergarten Pizza day is coming up very soon. We need 2 parent volunteers per kinder class to make it work. If you're available on a Friday, please consider volunteering and let me know you're available as soon as possible.

Regards, 

Lisa Goegan

Welcome back to the classroom.

Dear Parents,

It was a busy first week back!  Some notes:

1. I could still use two more parent volunteers for next Friday morning. We'll be working with Scientists in Schools that day, so it should be both fun and educational.

2. The circulation computer is still down. This is why you haven't seen library books coming home. Unfortunately, I don't have a timeline on its recovery, but in the meantime, we've introduced students to the library computers.

Starfall is an excellent program you can use at home, especially while learning ABC's. If you're interested in RAZ kids, which works better once you've got the letter-sound combos down pat, please talk to me about getting access through one of the school's subscriptions.

In our classroom, focus has returned to reading and writing. Here are some of the ways that looked last week:

Free form writing on the white board

Writing words from our poem

Practicing the alphabet

Writing out the new month.

Journals in the foreground

 Just like every other week, there was lots of other learning going on around these moments. Here are two other things making life exciting in our class:

We made a volcano experiment using food colouring, baking soda and vinegar

The new sand in the sandtable holds shapes really well. This is a tunnel through the sand.

Our students seem to love experimenting with different materials and seeing the ways they interact. Look for more experiments using ice and snow in the next couple of weeks. 

Scientists in Schools next Friday.

We've confirmed the date: We'll be having a Magnets workshop on the morning of Friday, January 16th. The presenter has asked for several parent volunteers. If you're available on this day, we'd love to have you come in.

Welcome back!

Dear Parents,

Sorry for the lateness of this update; the vacation was a much needed break, but I'm looking forward to the first day back tomorrow. December was such a busy month that it was hard to catalogue all the events properly, but if you look carefully at the newsletter, you'll see some reminders of the fun I missed showing you in the blog.

Here's your January Newsletter:

January 2015 Newsletter

In the second week, we have Scientists in Schools coming to visit for more about Magnets. This was a fascination of ours in December, so the visit couldn't be more timely. All four kinder classes will have this event in their class on either Tuesday or Thursday, for either the morning or afternoon. At this point, I suspect Tuesday morning, but will update you once we've confirmed.

Here's a student showing you that batteries are magnetic

Hope you also had a lovely winter break!

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan

This week got away from me.

It's ironic after last week's whirlwind, but this week was the one that finally got away.

Jeff comes to our class every Day 3 to sing with the students.

The classroom is always busy: the doctor's office was getting a bit stale, so we've turned it into a Santa's Workshop at the students' request. It's a bit much for just a week or so, but I'm hopeful that we'll continue to use our beautiful fireplace and a few of the other bits going into January. Students seem very into using tools to pretend to hammer and drill and a few are excited about making a machine to create toys.

Sponge printing bricks

Tissue paper flames

Some students have also been very focused on making amusement park rides: there have been some Ferris Wheels and this week, a number of students collaborated on making a carousel. Of course, the next job was to figure out how to make it turn. There was some jerryrigging to attach it to a motor and battery.

Horses for the Carousel

It turns!

And then that has led to some interest in magnets and batteries. Some other students then spent an afternoon finding all the magnetic objects in our classroom and we read a book about how magnets work. I've placed an old fashioned flashlight with big D cell batteries in it that students can pull apart and reattach to figure out positive and negative poles at the science centre, along with some other things to play with.

We've also reviewed some basic safety precautions when dealing with electricity: touch only the plastic covered parts of any wires, don't put things in your mouth, and keep away from water and wet hands. In January, we've got a Scientist in Schools workshop based on magnets so this interest is timely.

We also have the Kinder concert and the Holiday Sing-a-long next week. As always, we do our best to be inclusive of everyone's celebrations: there are songs about Eid, Hannukah and Christmas, as well as more general Winter themed songs and poems. We've been busily rehearsing for our concert this Tuesday and students have been singing at the drop of a hat: mention pancakes and we're singing the Hannukah songs.

Making lanterns to decorate the gym for the concert.

In other festive news, I've just finished making a quadruple batch of dough at home that we'll supplement to make gingerbread cookies on Wednesday morning. I think I have two parents confirmed, but please let me know if you're available to help roll out dough and make gingerbread people. I'd like to have maybe one more? Thursday is decorating, and I have another parent who's able to help with that. Thank you for all your support in the classroom! It really does help us when we decide to do something more involved.

A final note about books:

Unfortunately, the circulation computer is still out of commission, so new books and information about overdue books has been delayed until that gets fixed. The Librarian is working to fix the problem, but it seems likely new books will be delayed until after the holiday.

I hope to see many of you next week at the concert, but am not certain whether I'll have time again to blog until January. Have a lovely holiday in the break and I'll be back fresh for the new year.

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

Awesome week of special events

It's been an awesome week to be in Room 202:

First, we had Milo's dad come in and introduce us to a variety of new instruments last Friday. Students were especially riveted when they got to play pieces of songs from Star Wars with them.

Next, we had our belated November cooking session on Tuesday. I'm trying to alternate between savoury and sweet. Last month, we made Apple Crumble. This time, we made pizza. 

First we kneaded the dough.

Then we rolled it out, and grated cheese.

Some students helped shred kale, slice peppers and cut fresh basil

We spread olive oil and tomato sauce

Added some cheese

And all the fresh veggies. 

Eating together as a group.

I was surprised at how many students ate all the veggies on the finished pizza, perhaps because they'd put so much work into it. My camera was having issues this day, but all the students participated and enjoyed their hard work.

Thanks go out to Olivia and Cheryl and especially Diane, who organized it all, brought in all the ingredients, AND picked out two pizza themed books. Pete's a Pizza is a newfound favourite! (The parents decide to turn their child into a pizza in order to cheer him up! So perfect for this age where everything is about the power of the imagination.)

And then, today, we had a Radiologist (Julia's grandmother) come in to talk about Bones. She brought some actual human bones, a light box and many sample X-rays to share. Students were fascinated:

Looking at all the bones in the foot

Leg bones

Noticing the spongy structures where blood used to flow.

Hipbone connects to the leg bone: ball and socket joints

Some students continued to ask questions: 
Others reflected in their own ways: 

Drawing skeletons

Making a leg bone

Measuring was a favourite activity. Students compared the weights of different bones and also measured their length or compared them to their own bodies.

The Radiologist visit was especially relevant because we've been thinking about the human body for so long and many students are still interested in this inquiry. The Grade 5's are also looking at the Human Body right now, we were able to share the Radiologist and hope to visit their classroom in order to learn more about different systems in the body. 

The only challenge with all of this awesomeness is maintaining a sense of routine for the students. Several of them have complained that they didn't get enough time to play, or they haven't finished their journals yet this week. 

Here's what's going on between times: 

Building using triangles, the strongest shape.

Mixing colours

Shared writing

And lots of silly fun. 

Tomorrow is Library. There has been recent issues with the circulation computer, so if books are not sent home tomorrow, the library may still be working to resolve this issue.

Yours in learning,

Ms. Goegan