Weekly Activities

This week was filled with different experiments to help the children understand the water cycle. Our first experiment was to find out what condensation is.  We filled a glass with ice cubes and covered it.  By the end of group time, condensation formed on the outside of the glass!  Sofia exclaimed, "the glass is wet on the outside!"  Her enthusiastic comment had all the children wanting to touch the glass and feel the condensation. The second experiment was a little more complex.  Warm water was placed in a bowl, with an empty bowl placed inside of that.  The bowls were covered with plastic wrap and ice cubes were placed on top of the wrap.  The idea was for condensation to hit the wrap and drop into our empty bowl. It worked!!!! Precipitation was collected.  Here is a link to the experiment if you would like to try it at home.  http://www.shoalwater.nsw.gov.au/education/watercycle_experiment.htm The final experiment was to simulate ...

Which side will evaporate first: sun or shade? Bela watched his painting disappear. "Mine isn't evaporating." Simon: "Evaporation is about the water cycle."   We combined with the Wind Group on Wednesday to learn about evaporation.  The children painted outside with water. They were amazed that their artwork would disappear before their eyes! Before we began the activity, the children predicted if the water would evaporate faster in the sun or the shade.  Three children chose the shade and four children chose the sunny side.  After lunch we checked on our water paintings.  The paintings on the sunny side were gone. The children concluded that the sun had a part in the water evaporating.  We will continue to explore the water cycle.

Showing where litter  goes. Making the poster A proud group! Today the Fire Group made 2 posters about storm drains and the importance of keeping them clean. The children wanted to share their knowledge so they made a presentation to each of the other groups.  Some of the important information the Fire Group shared: Julia and Simone: Please keep the storm drains neat and tidy so the garbage doesn't go into the creeks. Bela added that there are "drains on the playground." Grace is concerned about the beavers in the creek so she asked the children to keep garbage away from the drains because "it will hurt the beavers".  Roy told the children "Not to drink the water."  Alfie added that if we litter "the water won't come out (into the creek) if the drain plugs."  The children were incredibly confident when they approached each group. They are "storm drain experts" and want to clean the playground today.  Ho...

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...

Next week is the summative week for our generosity unit.  We are having a potlatch for our summative activity.  A potlatch is a traditional First Nations gathering used to celebrate, commemorate, communicate and acknowledge specific events such as naming ceremonies, weddings, memorials and others.  Guests at these events offer gifts to the host family to support their event recognizing that these offerings will be returned at a later date.  The host family will redistribute the wealth they accumulated along with the new gifts received to those invited to the potlatch. In preparation for our potlatch, we started to prepare gifts for give away. The children wanted to make  "friendship decoration macaroni bracelets".  The children didn't want just plain macaroni, they wanted colourful macaroni!  We used vinegar and food colouring to dye the pasta.  We were limited in our choice of colours having only blue, orange, yellow and red food colouring. ...

The composting does not smell very good We are learning that not only can we be generous to others but we can also be generous to the earth.  This idea came about from 2 separate events.  The first event was when  we were eating apples after discussing The Giving Tree.  When the children were finished eating the apples, they knew to put them into the compost.  This led to me explaining why we compost and how composting is a way to be generous and caring to the earth.  The second event stems from playing at the playground.  Sofia G. began to clean up garbage at the playground.  In our group, we talked about Sofia's act of generosity.  These discussions led us to begin looking at the ways in which we can be kind and generous to our environment and that we have a responsibility to take care of it. Sorting the garbage   We looked at pictures of landfills. The children were absolutely amazed at the size of the landfil...

Giving Tree art What is generosity? We read "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein to gain further understanding of what generosity is.  A small boy develops a friendship with a tree.  The Giving Tree tells the story of this relationship as the boy grows into a man. After reading the story, the children made a web as to indicate the ways tree was generous to the boy. How was the tree generous?  Esme : The tree let the boy play with her leaves. Sofia : The tree gave her branches to the boy to build a house.  I would be generous to the tree, I would hug the tree. Alfie :  The tree gave the boy apples. Simone : The tree let the boy swing on her branches.  He didn't say thank you.  I would. Bela : The tree let the boy sit down on it. Julia: The tree let the boy climb her trunk. Simone asked if the children could write his/her own Giving Tree book.  All of the children thought it was a great idea and they began the books t...