Skip to main content

November 16, 2011

Today I shared my prairie heritage with the children.  My maternal and paternal grandparents came from different parts of Europe and settled on the prairies in the early 1900's.  I chose to share a wheat ornament made of glass.  This ornament was given to me by my parents so I will always remember my prairie roots and my family that is still there.  (I really wanted to share the Saskatchewan Riders' logo)

Lots of giggles erupted when I told the children I was from Saskatchewan.  There was even more laughter as the children all tried to say Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We read the book "If you're not from the prairie...." by David Bouchard.  I shared my stories of growing up in Saskatchewan, the land of endless sky and very cold winters.I asked the children to make a decoration of their choice using dough as the medium.    When the decorations dry, they will be painted and brought home to share.

Comments

  1. KateNovember 16, 2011 at 1:42 PM

    Hi Deb,
    I bet the children were brought closer to understanding who you are. We sometimes forget how important it is for us to help children know who we are as people with a history. We can do this best by sharing our stories with them and I was delighted to see you doing this and even more delighted to see how the children were captivated by the story. I could almost see the pictures they were creating in their heads as they asked questions and giggled. I hope this inspires them to find things about themselves that are used as decorations in their own homes. This is helping them develop their awareness and observation skills while also helping them weave together the stories of our communities both big and small.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Similarities and Differences Between Friends

We are nearing the end of this unit of inquiry.  Next week is already our summative week. Our focus this week was likes/dislikes: do we have to like the same things as our friends?  I asked this question to the children.  All of the children said yes except Rocco. Rocco said "friends don't have to do the same things." "Do we have to like the same things as our friends?" Using the book, Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley (the story of two great friends), we listed the traits of each character.. The children found out that Pearl and Charlie were complete opposites yet were the best of friends. I asked the question again.  Esme and Simone changed their response. Simone replied that "that friends don't have to do the same things but sometimes we do." We wrapped up by making "Wanted: Friends" posters.  Some of the qualities listed on the posters were: Rocco: caring Simone: someone who is nice Alfie: play with me Bela: someone wi...
4 comments
Read more

Storm Drains: How we impact water.

The car wash The clean creek Today we explored where water goes when it enters a storm drain and the impact we have on what flows into these drains. The children experimented with different types of utensils at the water table. The children were able to see how water passes freely through the different openings and how other items can also pass through.  We used these utensils to recreate how storm drains work. We created a creek and watched what happened to the creek when different types of pollutants pass through the storm drain. We also simulated washing cars.  The children noted that the soap goes down the drain with the water. "Oh no, are fish will be sick!" commented Sofia.  Simone thought we could give the fish medicine to get better. This started a conversation on how difficult it would be to give medicine to all of the fish in all of the creeks!! The children noticed how dirty the water was and that living things would not survive in our p...
3 comments
Read more

Helping Hands

Through different stories, we have been discussing the qualities of a friend.  The one quality that the children unanimously agreed upon is that friends help one another.  In the story, The Little Red Hen, the Hen did all of the work by herself.  The children thought that the Dog, Cat and Goose were not good friends because every time the Hen asked for help, they refused.  Before we reached the end of the story, I asked the children if Hen should share her bread.  There were mixed responses however, the majority of the children thought Hen should share.  Louis' first response was to not share but he quickly changed his mind and said "sharing is caring!" This coming week, the children have asked to make bread and share it with the entire class. "I hug my friend when he is sad." "I blow up a balloon for my friend, Amalia, when she pops her." "I help my friends when they fall." "I help carry stuff for my friends." ...
3 comments
Read more