Ocean Inquiry

A few weeks back we had one of our students come into our morning meeting wanting to share his experience of visiting Ripley's Aquarium. He described many of the ocean animals he saw and talked about petting the ray fish.

He had so much excitement, that we immediately pulled out some mural paper for him to draw some of the ocean animals he saw. Many others students joined him to draw other ocean animals they knew about too. This mural paper was laid out for many to work on over several days. The children started off using just pencils to draw their images, but soon wanted to add colour so we gave them oil pastels to add the bright colours they would see in these real animals.

Beginning with pencil drawings.

Looking in books to help draw ocean animals.

More kiddos joining and adding to the mural.

An interest started to grow amoung a group of kiddos to draw colourful fish. We pulled out the I-Pads and looked at various pictures of fish. Every time they saw a brightly coloured fish "so beautiful" were many on the comments. A group of three girls began to look closely at photos on the I-Pads and draw what they saw. We helped them to write a sentence about their fish, trying to encourage descriptive words other than pretty and beautiful. Looking at the fish we see "spots", "lines", "hearts". These girls created their own Fish Book.

Looking at pictures in books to help us draw.

Writing sentences to go with the pictures.

We read the story Rainbow Fish to the class several times. I have found through some action research, that rereading a story at least three times, and allowing the students to think about a question and share with a partner prior to the whole class, encourages more purposeful talk. We have been asking questions of the students to see their understanding of the meaning of Friendship. Friendship has many meanings to the kiddos. We sat in small groups and used the Think-Share model to share our ideas and thoughts. This allowed for the students to use purposeful talk to build on each others ideas in a meaningful way. Each child shared a shiny scale with our class friend to show how they can talk about friendship.

Writing our names on in shiny scale to share.

Lots of great ideas about
being a good friend.

I can be a good friend.

During the final read aloud of Rainbow Fish, one of the students commented "Why Rainbow fish not give the Starfish a shiny scale - he don't have any friends too." This lead the students to become interested in Starfish. "Can they walk? How can they find a friend?" "Can Starfish talk?" "What do Starfish eat?" Some other students have been interested in researching various ocean animals. This new venue for the inquiry has lead a few children to want to research Starfish and other ocean animals. They have drawn pictures of what the animals look like, they are using authentic writing to label and describe their pictures.

Looking at Starfish. What do we wonder?

Several kiddos have participated in various art activities to communicate about what the see in these ocean creatures. It is wonderful to see the animals come to life through art.

Adding blue watercolour
to imitate the ocean feel.

Using pastels to show
the beautiful colours of the fish.

Working with different art mediums to create Seahorses.

We will continue to inquire about ocean animals and keep you informed of our process.

What will we research next?

Octopus, Sharks
Shark Labeling.

The Cool Coconut Octopus.

Ms. Li our student ECE

This term we again have had a student ECE participating in our classroom.

She has taken on a project of introducing our kiddos to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have read the fairy tale in a whole group setting several times. Then the kiddos who were interested helped to create masks for all the characters and retell the story at the puppet theatre. Other kiddos were involved in the creation of stick puppets for retelling as well.

Practicing drawing pictures and writing words.

Once the children became very familiar with the story, Ms. Li has lead them through the process of creating their own Class Big Book of the story. Our own students are the writers and illustrators of this particular book. It is coming along nicely.

Writing the words for all the characters and props.

Using our anchor chart to help create the Big Book

Paying attention to detail to illustrate our Big Book.

Creating the pictures for our Big Book

To wrap up the project, we watched the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (not animated) and the kiddos were encouraged to bring in their favourite stuffy. To introduce their stuffy to the class, each kiddo used descriptive words to talk about their animal. Great oral language skills are being developed. Some kiddos even drew pictures of themselves and their stuffy.

We would like to thank Ms. Li for all she has done with our class this term and are looking forward to helping her complete her projects with us.

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.