Pattern Block creations

Planet Moon

This month we have been looking for various shapes we see in structures we are making. One of the favourite activities the kiddos enjoy are creating figures with the pattern blocks. We are seeing lots of detail going into these creations and stories are beginning to emerge.

Rocketship

Transformer

Transformer

One day we set out paints to see if the children would like to draw and paint their creations using a "looking closely" lens to reproduce their ideas into a water colour piece.

The transformer is battling in the night.

Here is what we have.

Ninjas.

So beautiful.

This is Christmas morning and we are getting lots of presents that are under the tree.

The flower.

A full week at the Bakery

Well a few weeks back we saw the opening of the Bakery.

After careful planning of the sign, several students took part in creating a beautiful sign to be posted above the Bakery Store.

Creating our Sign for the Bakery

The Bakery all set up for customers.

Several more students continued to bake cupcakes. Learning about the oven and safety was a priority. Even though this is a pretend oven, we took the opportunity to work with the students to engage in conversations around the safety of hot elements. We never open the oven doors without a parent or teacher with us - IT IS HOT. We always use oven mitts to take out hot items.

Be careful it's HOT!

Another area of learning occurred around the area of social skills. We needed one of the educators to sit with the students in order to model respectful standing in line waiting for our turn at the counter, the server had to engage the customer with a question "What would you like to buy?", and the customer needed to reply with oral language to describe the type of cupcake they wanted.

Creating menus for the Bakery.

We had lots of practice using the Bakery these past few weeks and have added menus and more types of money.



This was a very popular centre, encouraging learning experiences in oral language: many of our kiddos are now confidently ordering cupcakes and paying for their purchases. Other kiddos have learned how to work as a server and cashier using specialized vocabulary in all areas.

The Cupcake Bakery

One of our students came to us with an idea to change the house centre into a bakery. We questioned her about what she thought we should bake and she excitedly explained her idea about cupcakes.
Her enthusiasm was so contagious that more kiddos joined in the conversation and it got myself so excited to begin the process.

We decided that we would need to make the cupcakes first for sale, before even laying out the storefront. I may have had a little input into this first, as I love the idea of making cupcakes and all the art possibilities for this. I also didn't want the kiddos to lose interest in not having the opportunity to make the cupcakes right away.

Our first step was to make the playdoh together in order to review the concept of a recipe. Everyone enjoyed getting their hands sticky with the mixture before it formed the dough to become our playdoh with various colours. Wow - I went back through all my pictures and can't believe we were having so much fun and had such sticky hands that I forgot to take pictures - Sorry!

Our next step, once I had searched out some of the key materials for baking the cupcakes, was to form them and decorate them. All the kiddos in the class want to take a turn at this centre. Too bad we don't have enough time in a day for everyone to get through, however it is teaching them how to be patient and take turns. Great Kindergarten skills.

And the cupcakes are taking shape. Love the decorations. One of the kiddos said "so delicious!" Great word.

While some kiddos are continuing to make more cupcakes, we have a few friends working on the sign for the bakery. We are planning and practicing what we want it to look like before creating the good copy on the Bristolboard for hanging. This is helping us with team work and cooperation making sure everyone is included in the poster creation.

Planning and practicing for the real sign.

While making the cupcakes, this is a good chance for us to ask math questions relating to how many cupcakes each of us can make if we have 12 wrappers? We are getting lots of talk with numbers, using one-to-one correspondence, counting by 2s and making groups of 6.

Meanwhile, other kiddos have been busy at work making a cupcake factory to speed the process along. They have created a machine that started out as making cupcakes, however has since expanded into making several other things. Good time to introduce making a list.

Our cupcake machine.

What else can we make in our factory?

Our plan for next week will be to set up the bakery. Please stay tuned for the Grande Opening.

An Update on our Bunny

In these past two weeks we have seen an increased interest again in the bunny. Is it perhaps because the documentation is visible on the wall at all times, rather than in a document binder?

Several students last week began asking what Hop does on the weekends while we are at home. I asked them what they do while they are away for the weekend and several kiddos replied with the things they do.
Played with my sister.
Played dolls.
Played outside in the snow.

We brainstormed some ideas of what they thought Hop might like to do for fun. Then I encouraged several kiddos to draw their ideas onto a large piece of paper.

Planning Hop's Park

This friend loves Hop so much!

This is what her house should look like.

This week we have taken the inquiry into another venue, where several different kiddos have been creating house, parks and zoos for Hop to visit.

Hop's Zoo

I hope you enjoy watching the video of Hop exploring some of the constructions the kiddos have made for her. We are continuing to create more play places this week.

Dumplings for the New Year

Last Thursday, our school hosted Our Chinese New Year celebrations. As the actual Chinese New Year fell on Friday, we decided to hold our celebration the day before. Many of our students stay home on the actual day as they little ones often stay up last on the eve of New Year's and this is the day to begin fresh and new.

To begin, several students from the older grades have been practicing a dragon dance. For a few weeks now we have glimpsed them creating the movements for their dance and practicing the drums. As they made their way down our hallway, the students became very excited clapping and dancing with the dragon.

In preparation for our classroom celebration, we have created a poster for the New Year. Several students were engaged in slowing the process down. Before picking up the paint brushes to add colour to the poster, we had them brainstorm what they wanted it to look like first. More students joined in and too were encouraged to think before painting.

Inside the classroom, several kiddos were engaged in drawing the many icons related to Chinese New Year. We had one boy teaching the other how to draw a dragon.

Many students enjoyed practicing their lantern drawings. While others continued with on-going learning in other areas with our ECE student teacher making Chinese Drums.

Returning to the classroom, we were fortunate to have several community members and family join us in making dumplings. Prior to making the dumplings, our class made an anchor chart for the steps involved in dumpling making. This was a great way to reinforce procedural writing using an authentic activity.

All the students and family members were involved in the dumpling process. We had wraps to roll, wraps to fill, wraps to fold and pinch, and dumplings to cook. Lastly, we had dumplings to taste! Yum!!!

It was a great day having our families so involved in the learning process and teaching the K teachers a little bit of Chinese.

Thank you to everyone who participated.

We are looking forward to having our first Family Friday this week.

Chinese New Year

Many of the students in room 109 will celebrate the Chinese New Year on January 31st this year.  We have started an inquiry into what this celebration means and how different parts of China celebrate this day.

To begin our inquiry we brainstormed things the children know about this day and the traditions associated with it. Many of the students talked about the special lanterns hung everywhere. We did a little research to find that these lanterns have several mythical stories behind there meaning.

Lanterns, Fans, and a Dragon.

Another popular icon of the Chinese New Year is the Dragon Dance. Upon further examining the Chinese have 2 dances - one for the dragon where several people help to make the dragon dance using poles to move the dragon to the music, and the second is the Lion Dance where 2 people are the lion (inside the head) and they create a very artistic and acrobatic dance. We decided to create our own version of the dragon and lion to put on our January tree. The students take pride in showing this to their parents and grandparents at the end of the day during pick up time.

The Lion's head is complete. Love all the textures. 

Many of the students associate the red fans with Chinese New Year. After some research the teachers realized that the fans aren't really associated with New Year's, however the children love making them so we included them as part of our decorations.

We have talked about the different kinds of foods found at the Chinese New Year table. This will surely lead to dumpling making next week.

As many celebrations vary throughout the different parts of China, over the next week we will try to find out the exact locations our students come from. Stay tuned for more discoveries.

The Gingerbread Girl

Last year many of our kiddos experienced the Gingerbread Man running away from our students after we baked him.

Again this year, we read several of the "Gingerbread" character stories and chanted the various refrain during the rereading of each book.

As we read, some of our Butterfly kiddos questioned whether this year's cookie would also run away to the library as in the past year. This sparked several stories amoung  the kiddos during playtime.

On the Wednesday before the holiday break, I brought in all the ingredients needed to make a gingerbread cookie. The kiddos were intrigued by the various ingredients and several of the measuring tools needed to create our cookie mixture.

Ingredients to make a Gingerbread Cookie.

Mixing the butter, sugar, eggs.

Molasses.

We had lots of oral talk around words like: dough, mixing, stirring, teaspoon and tablespoon, cup and 1/2 cup. Many of the kiddos were really intrigued by the molasses. (Honey from black bees????)

First we washed our hands
and talked about the ingredients.

Adding the eggs.

 Together we took turns adding ingredients, and mixing the dough. Finally it was time to shape the gingerbread cookie. After a brief conversation, it was decided that we should make a Gingerbread Girl as the Man ran away last year and maybe if we made a Girl she wouldn't run.

Mixing the flour to make dough.

Using the teaspoon to add the
baking powder.

Adding the candy decorations.

She tasted good!

In she went, and to our surprise, she too ran away. Many of the kiddos, thought to check out the library where the Man had run last year. No such luck - she wasn't there. We searched and searched the school and asked several teachers to no avail. Then upon entering the office to talk to the Principal, low and behold there she was reading the book about the Gingerbread Girl.

We took her back to our classroom and each had a piece to taste. YUM! She was delicious.