Week Twenty Seven: Flowers and Figures

It has been another fantastic week in the Early Learning room. The girls have been busy observing growing/blooming plants, testing out robots, and building 3D figures. We are excited to welcome Ellen, who will be teaching music, French, and Phys. Ed. when Elizabeth goes on her maternity leave. As you can see throughout the pictures, the girls are filled with creative ideas as they continue to be engaged in new learning opportunities. Enjoy!

My mom found my dog, Roxie's, x-rays from a visit to the vet many years ago. The girls were so interested in trying to figure out what the x-rays were of, and then once we figured out that it was a dog, looking at her teeth, spinal cord, and ribs. Here G decorates one x-ray with gems. S has moved on from embellishing the other x-ray to writing about it. 

S is focused on recreating a cube using only play dough and toothpicks. We are learning about 3D figures, and exploring their corners, edges, and shapes.

S carefully carries her baby around the classroom. 

M and K work together to create more 3D figures. There is a lot of math talk happening between them, as they name the different figures and discuss why theirs are falling apart - theories of size, weight, and form.

K spends some time at the Nature Centre observing the bulb plants we have. One is a hyacinth and the other is a daffodil. Both started blooming this week in the classroom, and the girls are keeping track of their growth. K tells me that she loves flowers and plants.

S is creating our April calendar. She uses one of the magnet numbers to see the way a 2 is formed. It is important that we correct our number orientation early on, and she is keen to learn!

Z (and M, not pictured) work together at the Light Table to add materials to the x-rays. I am intrigued by the way they have lined up the gems along Roxie's spinal cord; they almost look like vertebrae. 

Beth comes into our classroom for a quick visit and brings a robot with her! The girls ask questions about how it works, what it's made of, and what it can do. They even try pressing a button or two and letting it drive across the table (making sure to catch it at the edge). We discuss that the coding work we are doing is preparing them to code different things, like robots.

K is very careful as she examines the robot up close. 

Inspired by a classmate, G wants to create a box. She works on cutting out the cube net, before decorating it and eventually folding it into a cube. Math and art are a natural connection in the classroom.

Welcome to Ellen, our new music/French/physical education teacher. She will be teaching the girls throughout the spring because Elizabeth is going on her maternity leave. She brings tons of energy and a love of teaching to the Early Learners' classes.

G is hard at work writing a caption to the picture of the girls having hands-on time with Beth's robot. Confident with her words, she remembers to add a finger space so that the words can be read easily.

Z and M have concocted different drinks using our materials. They are happy to share with their friends as well. I love that they are using a paint pallet as their serving tray.

This morning we are germinating seeds. The first step is to wet a paper towel, and then we carefully sprinkle the seeds from our packet onto half of the paper towel. Once all the seeds are down, we fold the paper towel in half and put it in a ziplock bag. We are excited to see what might happen!

M tells me that she is at work. She is looking at the map book and typing up the information that she needs to remember from it.

The marble works continue to be a favourite in the Building Centre, because they offer opportunities to explore stability, balance, ramps, speed, and dimensions. Z tries to figure out where the end piece should go so it can catch the marbles. 

Look at how quickly our flowers have bloomed! M is curious about the shape of the flowers - she notices that the petals aren't only small and round like she initially drew. She goes back and takes a closer look at the details to learn more about them.

All smiles from these Early Learners as we take a Friday walk through the ravine. We love being outdoors, especially when the sun is shining. On our walk we saw tons of robins, heard the birds chirping, and even spotted a few black and white woodpeckers!