Week 7: Admiring Fall Leaves


Posted by Admin on October 25, 2017 at 3:16 PM

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It was a wonderful week in the Early Learning classroom. We noticed that the colours of the trees are finally changing - a sign of fall. The girls were excited to collect leaves from the park and bring them back to the classroom to incorporate in our learning (and to play in them once we had collected enough). The girls seem settled in the classroom, independently carrying out many routines and taking charge of their learning. Building autonomy around the learners allows them to find value and importance in what they are doing, slow down while they work, and take pride in the effort they put into both the process and product. Enjoy the photos!

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K is excited about her mama's upcoming birthday and chooses to go to the Art Centre and paint her a card. 

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A explores painting with acrylic paints this morning. The colours spread and mix a bit differently than tempera paints.

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P and G are working in the principal's office today. They have a lot of calls to make to families about the "fire at school".

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P spreads out a variety of gems on the Light Table. They all glow slightly differently. 

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G is making a birthday card for her auntie. She mentions that she has a lot of family birthdays coming up, so she will be busy making cards this week.

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A loves tracing the letter stencils once she has finished her writing during Writer's Workshop. It only makes sense to start with 'A', the first letter in the alphabet and the first letter in her name!

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G is incredibly focused while she is working at the Discovery Centre. She has chosen a beautiful leaf from our park collection, and uses our "special markers" to add colour and detail. G knows that when we work with these markers, we work slowly and try our best not to rush our work.

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A types away on the keyboard at Drama. She tells me that she has lots of work to do.

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P is also working with leaves today, but at the Art Centre. First, she used black sharpie to draw the outline of the leaf she chose, and now she is using watercolour paints to add in colour. P looks closely at the leaf to see which colours she sees before painting.

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A and K watch as the pepper bounces on the drum's surface. Beth teaches them that the elasticity in the drum helps to make the noise they hear. 

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P and K have an imaginative exchange over the cash register. I believe that P is purchasing fruit from K, who is pretending to be the "bad bunny".

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K builds a snare drum with elastics and extra noise-makers during CERES class. The grade 1/2s are also in CERES with the Early Learners, which allows for teamwork and collaborative problem solving.

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A is spending time reviewing the sounds that we have been learning during literacy time. She practices forming each letter using the bingo stamper. 

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During literacy centres, K sorts the pictures by their syllables. We learned about syllables today and how you can clap the beats in words and count them to find out how many syllables a word has.

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A has chosen to learn at the Art Centre this morning and wants to recreate the brown leaf. I am so impressed with all of the details she added to her leaf before using the watercolours. 

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After watching all of the other girls take their turns working with the leaves at a centre or two this week, K wants to try it out. She tells me, "my leaf looks like a flower", but pushes onward to find ways to make her leaf look more realistic. Carefully, she adds the little lines (or veins) that she notices in the leaf she is observing.

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P spends time at Math working on her numbers. Earlier this week we read "Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3" and counted from zero to twenty together (even though all of the girls can continue counting beyond twenty). P uses the math materials to practice writing and recognizing numbers.

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K in grade 6 brought her guinea pigs in for a visit. The girls were thrilled to watch them eat, and they were very gentle when they pet the guinea pigs.

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A happily reads a story this morning with K while we wait for all of the girls to arrive. It's fun to change up where we are reading.

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A explains that she is building a tower of love at the Building Centre. Certain parts of her tower keep falling off, but she doesn't let up, and finds new ways to adjust the blocks like a true engineer. 

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A, K and M spend time sketching the trees at the park. We were planning on sketching down in the ravine, but were so amazed at the fall colours when we walked across the park that we had to stop and sketch there instead.

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Thanks for joining us on our hike Nancy!