Week Seven: Fall Colours


Posted by Admin on October 24, 2016 at 4:47 PM

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Hello families! It has been a fall-inspired couple of weeks in the Early Learning class. As you saw last week the girls were inspired by leaves and photos to create landscapes and sketches. This week you will notice more artwork inspired by colourful leaves. As well, we enjoyed exploring how marbles travel down different length/height ramps, and how to keep them from rolling too far away. The girls continue to work on their letters and numbers, and are all working as mathematicians as we gear up for Social Justice Data Fair next week. Take a look at a snapshot of our week together:

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In French, the girls have been working on learning the names of different body parts, and absolutely love learning this through "tête, épaules, genoux, et pieds" (head, shoulders, knees and toes). Here they are drawing, and then erasing different body parts, and Elizabeth prompts them to use the strategy of signing the song to help them recall each part.  

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G traces the letter "l" in our phonics book to help her learn the shape, as well as the sound, that the letter makes. We have been reviewing and practicing letter sounds for the past few weeks, all with different actions. "L" looks like you are licking a lollypop!

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M and G collaboratively try out the chalkboard on the backside of our easel. After some time drawing at the same height, they choose to work at different heights so they both get to use a large space on the chalkboard.

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G explores how marbles move through ramps in the Building Centre. She has created a wall surrounding the initial ramp structure to help keep in stray marbles.

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The 4 girls play "unicorn/reindeer" and move around the roof together. This is a good time for them to practice smooth movements as well as cooperation and teamwork.

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G is using our new letter practice folders after she has finished her writing during writer's workshop. She takes her time to keep on the lines while tracing, and then tries her best to copy the letters in the empty space.

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G uses her sight-word "the" to help her get the letters for the "th" sound. Different strategies like this one help support the girls in writing the sounds they hear in their stories.

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M works as a mathematician to create a graph about how the Grade 7 students get to school. She is using the information (data) that we collected last week in our survey. 

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Z is using the Andy Goldsworthy book to create a design using some of the gems. G is intrigued and watches as Z completes the inside of the spiral. 

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G sketches the tree that she chose in the park in September. She is noticing how the upper branches no longer have many leaves, but there are still a number of leaves in the lower ones. As well, the leaves have changed from lime green to orange - it must be fall!

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Z collects the sight-word that she is searching for in our weekly poem. Having the sight-words easily accessible is important for the girls to access them at any point of the day, for whatever task they are working on.

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Z continues to work on sorting words based on their starting sound. Here she is really challenging herself and trying to sort all of the pictures that we have so far - way to go!

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M observes G as she carves lines into her plasticine leaf with the carving tool. She is being careful to only use the tip of the tool, and also to notice where the lines are on the real leaf before carving them into her own version.

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G has learned where we keep our non-fiction "science" books. She has also found a way to independently access them, and to do this safely (taking her time and balancing).

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We had our first session in the computer lab this week. You can see G and M spending time on Microsoft Word practicing typing their names, as well as the names of classmates, using our name cards. They were so proud of their accomplishments, and are already looking forward to the next computer class this week.

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The Early Learners pair up with students in Grade 5 during an exciting game of Blokus during All School. The Grade 5s were excellent leaders, supporting G and Z in turn-taking, strategy, and general game rules.

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M teaches two Grade 5 girls how to play "Roll the Dice". The girls enjoyed rolling the dice, colouring in the boxes, and racing to the top. It was also good practice as we prepare for Social Justice Data Fair.

 

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M watches as Z answers our survey question, How do you get to school?. After surveying all of the other students and adults at Linden, we forgot to survey our own class (or at least get the information down on paper).

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Z, M and G experiment with KidK'nex one afternoon. Z is showing me how long of a creation she has made.

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Together, G and Z browse through a book called The Human Body. This is one of the books that came off of our non-fiction shelf this week. They are especially interested in the plastic pages that overlay paper pages, giving them a more detailed understanding of the body systems.