Loose Parts Art

With an inspiration from my Kinder PLN today; at recess many of the kiddos were enjoying all the natural environment around us. We decided to bring in some grasses, dandelions, and clover. With this we added our rock collection and wood pieces to see what kind of art we could create using loose Pieces.

Not surprisingly, the art is stunning. Please enjoy their beautiful art. I'm sure there's more to come :-)

A beautiful butterfly

A picture in a frame.

A plate of food.

Insect art and more

Wow! What a busy week in room 109.

We have been learning a lot about insects. We have read many non-fiction as well as fiction books to learn about bugs and create our own diagrams with labels, class Bug Book, insect shape art, and many free form bugs crafts.

Our daily sign-in told us that many of the kiddos think bugs are cool and not creepy, if we had to choose to be an ant or a spider; more of us would be a spider.

Insect Shape Art.
All the kiddos are continuing to have a chance to show us their creative side with pattern blocks. They are creating very cool insects and talking about the different shapes they have used.

The kiddos also continued to build bridges and roads for cars as well as people too this week.

Other friends were intent on building houses, complete with all the interior rooms and outdoor spaces we all enjoy. These two kiddos did a great job of working together and sharing their ideas to create one space for all to enjoy.

And finally, we had a group of JKs working at the carpet playing with the animals. When I suggested they build a fence to keep the animals from escaping the three kiddos quickly got out some wooden pieces for the  fencing. I left them to it, however just before tidy up time I took a peek at what they had done and was surprised at the construction they had made. There are three distinct sections for the animals and the JKs told me that each had taken ownership of one space. We took a picture and labelled the three sections. I am so proud of these three ELL learners, as they communicated with me their thinking and we created the English labels together.

Well our week was full of learning. I hope all the parents enjoy looking at some of our activities and continue to talk to their children about what they are doing at school every day.

Enjoy this beautiful Victoria Day Monday!

Nature Walk around the school

This week we went for a walk around the park near the school.

It was so much fun looking for beautiful things that surround us in nature.

We met many of the people who live in our neighbourhood, and they all thought it was great to see us outside enjoying our surroundings.

Here is our movie to share with you. If you have any comments or questions please leave them for us to respond to.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=camSqBx6CoI

Ms. Clark

Outside play, postcards, and drawing

Here is a weekly update with some of the things we accomplished in room 109 this week!

We began the week by putting out the mailbox. The kiddos were encouraged to write postcards to their friends. We explained that postcards always have a picture on one side and a quick story about what we are up to on the other side. We reminded the kiddos of the importance for addressing a postcard to someone and to include our own name in the "from" spot. This week Ms Blundell and I were the mail carriers, but next week the kiddos will be taking on that role.

This week we also had lots of outside time. With the warmer weather it is so nice to bring our learning outside. Today the kiddos had a blast with sidewalk chalk. Many wrote their names, while others coloured in the shapes.

Finally, we did another drawing lesson. After reading Pete the Cat "I love my white shoes" the kiddos followed the step by step instructions to draw a cat. Once we had finished the drawing the kiddos were then encouraged to add details they could remember from the story. For example, if they liked the brown shoes; they added brown shoes as well as other things that would be brown, for example hot chocolate in a mug, a puddle of mud, etc...

The kiddos did such a good job!

Looking forward to what next week brings.

Construction

We have had quite a bit of construction going on in room 109. Today I went around the room and gathered evidence of student learning. Here are some of the great things being built, both individually and collaboratively.

Two of our students, just beginning to expressive themselves in English, were hard at work creating gardens and homes. When I asked them what they had built they replied using complete sentences in English. I am beeming because these kiddos felt confident enough to converse with me in English.

E. I made a garden. I have a tree. Look at light.

F. I see a tree. Lots of trees in garden. Look a Christmas tree. I made a house.

I am so proud of these two kiddos!

At the carpet area, we have had a few boys very engaged in building roads for the cars to race along. Although I am often reminding them to not throw the cars, their enthusiasm is very engaging. Over the past few weeks they have become quite adept at building roads with edges - so the cars continue along the path to the drop off zone.

Today, we saw an extention to their basic construction with the addition of cans at intervals past the end of the ramp. When asked what they were for, one of the boys said: for the garage at the end. Next they began talking about having to pay $2 million dollars for the garage - I think I will need to collect some money and car magazines and have a mini-lesson on the value of car repairs.

Thanks for the intro into learning about money, boys!

Our last construction site began underway a few days ago. With plans created first, and then the construction, our LegoLand is coming along nicely.

Although originally starting off with some houses, it has rapidly grown to include several boats.

In the past I have always had some of the Lego characters in with the little lego pieces, however this time I informed the kiddos that I had removed all those pieces and they needed to use their imaginations. At first we had one little guy who couldn't get past the idea of not figurines and was ready to start another activity, but we sat and talked about perseverance. Soon enough, with the coaxing of his firends, he began to dig into his imagination to create his own people.

I love watching the collaboration at this centre. The sharing of Lego pieces, the sharing of ideas, and the collaboration to build a complete town/waterfront together with all the components.

Again, I am a very proud K teacher!

We would love to hear what our parents think of our construction!!!