Weekly Activities

 We have continued our discussion of the qualities found in a friend.  Through different stories and our conversations together, the children have identified the friendship qualities they find important. We made "friendship" play dough together using these qualities. 5 cups of caring 1 tablespoon of kindness 1 cup of sharing 1 cup of helping While making the play dough, the children were able to practice these qualities as well as patience and taking turns.  This is the actual play dough recipe: 2 tsp cream of tartar 1 cup salt 2 cups flour 4 tbsp oil 2 cups boiling water Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl Add boiling water and mix well Once blended, roll onto table and knead until smooth. Very easy to make and lots of fun to play with!

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." ...

The children of the Earth Group are learning how seeds grow into plants. Getting a closer look. We began by looking at different types of seeds comparing shape, size and colour.  The children found it very difficult to open the seeds. We soaked some beans in water overnight. This allowed the children to easily open the bean and discover what was inside.   To grow our bean plants, we germinated the beans by wrapping them in paper towel and placing it inside a Ziploc back.   Very quickly the beans began to grow and within a few days, the children could see roots and the beginnings of the plants.   The children were excited to share their knowledge of what a plant needs in order to grow: ·        Soil ·        Water ·        Sun ·        Love ·        Caring   ...

  When gathering information during our formative week, the children made an observation that "animals eat plants and hide in them, too."   Why do animals hide in plants? -" to be safe" - "to hide so they don’t get eaten by other animals" - "to be sneaky." To help the children understand the concept of camouflage, we read Leon the Chameleon by Melanie Watt.  In the story, Leon has a problem.  He can’t play camouflage and seek with the other chameleons because Leon does not blend in with his surroundings. It does not matter what Leon does, he always turns the opposite colour.  Last week in the forest, Keira was wearing brown clothing and was trying to camouflage as she played. Inspired by Keira's play, we brought different types of materials to the forest to play our own game of "camouflage and seek.”

This week, we further explored occupations   in our community.  Each group chose an  occupation and prepared a dramatization. The Fire Group Two barbers opened up a shop. They offered a shave and a haircut. They were so good at their job that customers needed to take a number and wait in line for their turn. Would you like a shave or haircut? The Wind Group The Wind Group children chose to dramatize the importance of construction workers in our community.  They were able to recognize and talk about their appreciation towards the people that build our homes.  It would be a world without buildings without them. Ready to build. The Water Group There were three athletes training for the Olympics.  The athletes won many races and were awarded prize money. As they spent all of their time training, they did not have time to look after their yards.  They called the local gardeners and hired them to tend to their yards....

The Earth Group's interest in what pioneer children did for fun led us to explore toys and games.  Having no toy store to shop at, pioneers were resourceful and made their own toys.  We made button whirligigs by threading string through one button hole and then through the hole across.  As simple as the whirligig sounds, using it was a bit more difficult. Concentrating Here are pictures of some of the other activities we had fun exploring. Handkerchief doll Tin cans and string make great stilts! Marble games! Who can keep a feather in the air the longest?

The central idea of this unit is  that there are similarities and differences between the way people lived long ago and the way people live today. The Earth Group is exploring the life of a pioneer and these are the two short videos we watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=D59cCTmur_g https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=YkZyejHU5Aw The children noticed how different life was for children in the pioneer times. Sasha said "they had no time to play."  Life was not only different in day to day living but also in the houses they lived in.  We compared our houses to the one room pioneer home.  "There's no toy room" remarked Kamy.  The children were in disbelief when we talked about not having an indoor bathroom or electricity. Our conversation of having no electricity led us to look at how pioneers preserved their food.   One method of preservation was hanging fruit to dry.  The Earth Group has hung apples and are patiently waiting to eat t...