Weekly Activities

The past few group times, we have been learning about song games and their form. Recognizing Aston and Andy's love of trains we started with the song game Clickety Clack.  Learning the song together was so much fun. Using their fingers as trains, the children sang the song as their train traveled over their bodies.  As the children became more confident with the song, they began to tap the rhythm with their fingers progressing to using rhythm sticks. It was amazing at how well the children could tap out the song, stopping on the rest notes and ending when the song ended. From there, we made song maps. A song map illustrates the movement of the song. The task for the children was to start drawing at the beginning of the song and and to stop when the song ended. After using markers to draw the maps, Sasha suggested we use trains to make our song maps.  It was a bit trickier using a train as the trains tended to run out out of paint before the song ended....

Lines We will be exploring art during Friday's group time.  We have begun with the introduction of lines: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved and zigzag.   The children were each given a piece of string to make the different types of lines before moving to paint and paper.  The zigzag line was a little tricky for many.  The children were eager to try painting the lines.  As you can tell by the pictures, the children were committed to practicing painting different forms of lines. We will continue to build on this concept.

How We Express Ourselves: Sound Travels An inquiry into how people use sound to express feelings and thoughts. The lines of inquiry that will guide the scope of our inquiry are: ·        Folk song games have specific forms ·        How sounds ar e experienced ·        Environmental sounds cause certain feelings to arise ·        How music and sound are used to express feelings. We begin the unit with a formative week to gather information on what the children’s prior knowledge and current understanding of how people use sound to express feelings and thoughts. Some of the children's thoughts: Aston: Trains make loud noises. Sasha: I do not like the sound of coyotes. Olivia: A lion makes a big roar sound. Andy: Mommy and Daddy talk.  Kamryn: I love the sound of Mommy’s voice. Howling like a coyote! Sound recognition: pla...

One of the “not a stick” ideas was the use of sticks as instruments.   Stemming from this idea, the children collected sticks to make into rhythm sticks. We have begun to explore how to play rhythm sticks and how music is a form of expression.   .

One of the favourite stories of the children is "Not a Stick" by  Antoinette Portis.  In this story, a stick becomes more than a stick through the character's imagination and play.  Inspired by the story, we went to the forest to find our own "not a stick." Looking for sticks excited the children and brought their creativity to life.   Their imagination transformed the ordinary stick into musical instruments, a walking stick, a  hammer, paintbrushes, and a pen to name just a few.  Showing the many uses of a "not a stick", the children expressed their talents for making the ordinary into extraordinary. Walking sticks, a pen and microphone. Keira suggested using a stick for a paintbrush so we tried it out!

This slideshow began as a photography project. I wanted the children to express their interest in the forest by taking photographs. It soon became evident that playing in the forest was what the children were interested in doing. While engrossed in play, I began taking pictures of the children expressing themselves.  Back in the classroom, the children viewed the pictures and enthusiastically shared the stories of their play. This led to more pictures being captured in the classroom and the playground.  The slideshow reflects how the children express themselves on a daily basis through their play and interactions with one another.

The children are exploring different ways to express their knowledge about trees.  Painting was the first method of expression.  Prior to painting, the children viewed a slideshow of different artists and their painting perspective of trees. We talked about the mood each painting evoked in each of us. To my surprise, all of the children preferred a realistic painting of a tree. Chloe - The Chicken and The Tree Keira - The Dying Tree Nico - Raindrop Tree Ryleigh - The Rainforest Sofia - .Donut Dot  Sofia said her painting is Russian. Tyreese - The Lollipop Forest William - Untitled