Tuesday 22 November 2016

Letter A Day

Letter A Building

Painting with Artichokes

Alligator Art

Uppercase and Lowercase Apple Sorting

A Word Matching

Astronaut Puzzle

Astronaut and Alien Space Bin

Apple Water Table Colour Sorting

Sensory Finemotor Sand Writing
Circles and Lines

Ants on a Log
Celery, WOW Butter, and Raisins

Tangram Letter A

Orca Astronaut Centre

Arctic Light Table

Monday 21 November 2016

New Explorations

On our last professional development day we took time, as we always do, to reflect upon what the students in each room have been showing interest in.  We discussed conversations that the students had with staff, as well as with peers, and discussed the materials which the children were drawn to and which ones they engaged with the most.

In the Orca room, some of the children were interested in the Robert Munsch book, Moose, and the teachers observed that many of the students were spending a lot of time exploring puddles, mud, leaves, sticks, and the outdoor, natural elements in general.  We decided to delve into the learning area of Canadian woodland animals such as moose, deer, owls, salmon, etc.  The teachers also discussed the Outdoor School philosophy and activities that Miss.Harp learned during a two day outdoor workshop, and agreed that bringing these into our program these next few weeks would be incredibly relevant to the children.  As our discussion evolved, we quickly realized that our own First Nations highly value our connection to animals and nature, and adding this element to our explorations would be essential in creating a well balanced curicculum.
Over the next few weeks, you may hear about activities such as weaving, totem pole building, drumming, clay work, and outdoor mud kitchens!

In the Unicorn room, we have noticed a great deal of play in the block corner and  some buildings with amazing attention to detail.  It has also been observed that students have been gathering many types of materials, not usually associated with building, for their designs.  Rather than move forward with a traditional "construction" type theme, we have chosen to explore the Reggio Emilia philosophy of the 100 Languages and incorporate a 3D visual arts aspect into our activities.  Each week will be dedicated to a different material such as wood, paper, or natural elements like mud.  Within the week, the students will interact with and manipulate these in new and different ways.  For example, during Wood Week the students will not only build with blocks but use them to paint within trace them for "blueprints.  They will lace wooden beads, utilize wooden rhythm sticks for music during circle time, and build geometric shapes with wooden clothespins.  Throughout the next few weeks, we will also be introducing art concepts to the children (i.e. primary colours for the 3 year olds, and basic colour theory- think colour wheel- for the 4 year olds) with the anticipation of using our new knowledge of manipulating different materials to explore artists and their art styles in the new year.  This, of course, will be dependant on whether or not the children show interest in moving in this direction.

Given the fact that these areas of exploration are not necessarily winter or holiday themed, our Winter Celebration will reflect this.  More information about times and schedule will come out soon; however, we do hope that you will join us on Friday, December 16th for our renamed Winter Woodland Celebration!  The children will perform songs that will highlight a woodland theme, and the gymnasium will be turned into a gallery to showcase the collaborative efforts of the students in each class!

For this gallery, we have been busy photographically documenting the process and will have photos with the displays.  Therefore, we won't be posting as many weekly activity photos on our blog for you to see.  We want to keep you in suspense!  A few "sneak peeks" will be posted here each week, but significantly fewer than usual.












Monday 14 November 2016

Unicorn Pets, Orca Dinosaurs, and Remembrance Day!

Duplo Horse Puzzle







Orcas built a paper mache volcano...

...now it is time to try it out!


Success!

Dino Counting
Unicorn Pet Tangrams

Hamster Art
Paint and Toothbrushes

Saying hello to our class pet fish, Blooblah.
Open ended observations.


Pet Vocabulary

Letter H
Build-a-Horse


Felt horse painting
Tie Dye Art
Markers on coffee filter, then diffused with sprayed water 
Tie Dye finished product
Peace Signs







Remembrance Day easel art
Bingo dabbers and peace stencil


Remembrance Day Group Art
Working collaboratively on a hand print peace sign

Cupcake Liner Poppies
Balloon Print Poppy Painting



Letter Writing Station
Soldiers Writing Home







Monday 7 November 2016

Orca Room Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Puzzles

Fine Motor Prewriting Dinosaur Paths

Dinosaur Math: Puzzles
1-to-1 Correspondence

Roller Painting
Dinosaur Paws


Dinosaur Sand
Open ended exploration

Invitation to build miniature
dinosaur landscapes

Solitary Play is still imaginative play! 

Dinosaur landscape fun



Dinosaur Science: Paleontology 


Dinosaur Easel Painting

Dinosaurs and alphabet rocks at the light table

A prehistoric water table

Dinosaur Math: Graphing
Roll the dice and match the dinosaurs.
See which Dinosaur you roll the most!

Our Dramatic Play Corner
Caveman Fire and Drums with Bones for Drumsticks

Dinosaur Sensory Play Bin

Dinosaur Math: Geometric Tangrams

Group Project: Paper Mache Volcano building

Colour Matching

Fossil Imprints on Clay
Dramatic Play Area
Chalk wall colouring

Fine motor light table