Week Six: Fall Leaves and Turtle Shells


Posted by Savannah Barker on October 17, 2018 at 4:08 PM

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It has been another fun and learning-filled week in the Early Learning class. Returning from the long weekend and many Thanksgiving celebrations with families and friends, it started to feel like fall and the girls were inspired by different leaf colours we were able to see in and out of the classroom. As well, the girls' interests in turtles came to life this week as they began to make observational sketches of different types of turtles, create prototypes of turtle shells using tessellating shapes in CERES, and research some of their burning questions using non-fiction books. Take a look at all of the wonderful learning and growing that happened this week!

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O traces one of the leaves that I brought back from Georgian Bay. She notices that there is yellow and orange in the leaf and then chooses to use these same coloured chalk pastels to fill in her work.

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After experimenting with different patterns last week, A is determined to create a colourful pattern at the Math centre. She is incredibly focused as she refers back to the core of the pattern as she adds each additional piece. 

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O works with tessellating shapes during CERES to create a turtle shell design. It is evident that O understands that the shapes need to line up and fit together perfectly to successfully tessellate. 

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A is also working on her turtle shell design, and she has chosen a different set of shapes than O (above). 

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AK and AB play "Fill the Chutes" this afternoon. The goal is to fill up each of the chutes by rolling the dice and adding that amount of counters to the chute. The game gets tricky when there are not many spaces left in a chute and you are trying to roll and exact amount. 

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A is excited to spend time at the Discovery centre this morning so that she can practice drawing a turtle. 

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A and K (grade 2) spend time together during morning recess drawing chalk houses on the roof. 

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O and A work on creating different colour patterns based on the pattern sequence that is indicated on the sheet. O prefers to use green and blue in her patterns, whereas A prefers patterns made up of purple and pink. Both girls are comfortable using the pattern labels (A, B, C) to create their colour patterns.

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A notices a diagram of the life cycle of a turtle while she is researching using the non-fiction books. She decides to document her learning about turtles by sketching her own life cycle diagram.

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A asks if she can work on this morning's question and requests that I write it down for her to copy. She carefully tracks each letter and word as she writes them on the board. When she's done, A is excited to read her question to the rest of the girls.

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N uses her patterning skills to make a very long colour pattern. She explains that it goes "blue, green, blue, green, blue, green...". 

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Inspired by A's work earlier in the week, O wants to sketch another life cycle when she comes across this diagram in the book she is researching with. Her first step: the arrows that go around the circle. 

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AB and AK work together on a structure at the Building centre. AB is attempting to slant the magnatiles to create a tunnel while AK is trying to figure out how they are going to support the tunnel so it doesn't collapse.

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O chooses to work at the Discovery centre and gets right into sketching a turtle. First she tries to determine what shapes the turtle's body is made up of, and then she starts with the round shell. While she works, O keeps calling us over to see her progress. 

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This morning a couple grade 6 girls brought down a "dead bee" from the roof because they thought that the Early Learners would be curious to see her up close. The bee was not moving but AK was convinced that she was injured or sleeping, not dead. After observing her for the duration of snack, the girls started to get ready for recess and then we noticed that the bee was walking around in the cup we put her in. The girls were so excited that she wasn't dead after all, and they returned her to the roof safely.

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The girls are having a ton of fun running around during recess. 

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AK came to school today as a unicorn.

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N practices writing her friends' names during literacy centres. She is working slowly to trace each letter in the names.

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O is working on writing short words using the "s-a-t-i-p-n" sounds. She is doing a fantastic job segmenting each word into the different sounds that she is able to hear. 

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N worked with AK (not pictured) to match all of the rhyming word pairs together. 

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AB has found such a beautiful, red leaf on our Friday ravine walk. The colours around us were incredible!

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N and A watch as the leaves that they dropped from the bridge travel down the creek.