Weekly Activities

While walking on the trails with my daughter, she noticed some egg sacs in the creek.  At first glance, we thought they were frog eggs but after some more research we are wondering if they are salamander or newt egg masses.  We spent group time this week walking to the creek to see the egg masses and monitor any change.The children counted 4 egg masses. We also took this opportunity to learn about the frog life cycle.  We will continue to monitor the eggs. Time will tell us what they are!

During our forest walk last week, one of the conversations we had was about rain. The children named a number of things that need rain: plants, animals, fish, and oceans. We have begun learning about rain and the water cycle by conducting some experiments.  Prior to the experiments, some of the children shared their knowledge: Sofia - when the water disappears, it is called evaporation. Tyreese - rain comes from the clouds. Bela - the sun dries up the puddles. William - rain makes puddles. Precipitation: simulating rain when clouds get heavy. How long will it take the water to evaporate? How much precipitation will we collect? When our experiments were completed, we began painting a large water cycle mural.

Our new unit has begun: The Wonders of Water Transdisciplinary Theme: How we Share the Planet Central Idea: The decisions people make about water affects the whole world. The teacher questions that will drive the inquiry are: Why are local waterways important to Coast Salish people? (Connection) How is water used? (Function) How do people impact water sources ? (Responsiblity) On Wednesday, the entire class went on a walk through the forest in search of water. Prior to the walk the children made a list of what they might see along the way. The list included turtles, crocodiles, jellyfish, puddlles, a pond, a river and a stream. During the walk the children asked questions such as:  Where does the stream go? How do fish get in the stream? What are the big pipes on the ground for? Over the next 7 weeks we will explore this inquiry and the children's questions.

The children had a wonderful time at the potlatch sharing food, gifts and their thoughts of what generosity means to them. The children found the food delicious and in all the excitement we forgot to take pictures of the food. Our next unit of inquiry will be "How We Share the Planet: The Wonders of Water." Sharing our thoughts Giving gifts

Next week is our summative week for this unit.  For the summative activity, the children are hosting a potlatch. A potlatch is a traditional ceremony that some First Nations host to commemorate, acknowledge and communicate specific events such as naming ceremonies, weddings, and memorials. At a potlatch, a feast is shared and gifts are given. Each group is preparing food and gifts to share with the other children.  The Fire Group has been busy painting decorations and making bracelets as their gifts to share.  The children have chosen to make pizza as the food they are contributing to the feast.

This week, the children worked on a project together. The project was to create dioramas that depicted scenarios from the book "One of Each" by Mary Ann Hoberman.  In this story, Oliver Tolliver lives alone and is quite content having only one of each until he invites a friend over. His friend, Peggoty Small doesn't agree with his one of each home. Oliver comes to realize that he enjoys the company of friends and goes to find a pair for everything in his house. Even after having two of everything, his greatest joy was sharing a plate of food with his friends. Painting the dioramas The "one of each" and "two of each" cupboards Proud of his work Making puppets This group effort had the children compromise and problem solve as they made the decisions as to who did what job and what scenes they would create. Once the dioramas were complete, the children made puppets so they could re-enact the story with each other. The finished proje...

Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham Making origami boats Mr. Gumpy goes for a boat ride and along the way a number of animals ask if they can join him. He allows them but he has rules to his generosity. If the rabbit joins, he cannot hop.  If the cat comes aboard, he cannot chase the rabbit and on it goes. Mr. Gumpy has a condition for each animal.  The trip goes smoothly until one at a time each animal breaks his/her rule and they all capsize.  Still being generous, Mr. Gumpy asks the animals back to his house to share a meal.     I wondered aloud if Mr. Gumpy was too generous and that is why they fell into the water. Sofia said, "No, you can't be too generous because that is what it is all about." William thought that maybe only 4 animal should be on the boat then they wouldn't tip. Tyreese agreed that not all of the animals should go at once. Coming onto the boat Testing the boats Sofia's comment had us thinking: if Mr. Gumpy...