Week Ten: Thinking Outside of the Box

This past week a lot of our learning was collaborative, hands-on, and looked different than what we'd done already this year. The girls used their bodies in art and in the ravine, used matching and sorting strategies with literacy and math, and also began thinking about our world on a larger scale. We especially enjoyed learning a little bit about the organization "Action Against Hunger / Action Contre la Faim" and drawing pictures about what malnutrition and being hungry meant to us. Take a look below at our week through pictures: 

G and Z bring in new materials to their learning at the Building Centre. They explore whether or not the marbles will be able to roll through these tubes (both predict that they will). They also create a “wall” at the end of the tubes to try to keep the marbles contained.

M works at the Math Centre to count up how many seeds were inside the small and medium pumpkins. She uses the hundreds charts to help her keep track of the number of seeds that she counts, which she realizes also helps save time when she gets distracted by everything else that is happening in the classroom and forgets the number she is at. She is proud because she also learned how to correctly write numbers above 100 in print.

Brie works with the girls to create full-body art, inspired by Keith Haring. Each one gets a turn posing on the large paper, having her body traced, and then working collaboratively to paint it. The final masterpieces will be displayed around the school!

The girls work together to paint in the outlined body shape. This one is G’s, and she curled up nice and small for a different kind of shape.

M sorts words based on their spelling pattern, which are all based on phonics that we have been working on. She attends carefully to the letter patterns she sees, and is able to read each word correctly knowing how each letter pattern should sound.

G is working on painting the pumpkins and gourds that we have been inspecting for the past couple of weeks. She chooses to create a piece of art that includes multiple gourds. G thinks carefully about the colours that she needs to represent what she sees, and then requests those colours.

G draws out the shape that she wants her handmade poppy to be. I help her cut out the felt, and then we attach a black middle and a safety pin to the back so she can wear it on her clothing.

Z and G discuss where North America is on the map, and also get into a discussion about Antarctica and the North Pole / Arctic. They have become interested in where different cities and countries are, and later use this map as part of their building set-up.

G chooses to create a drawing book while she is at the Art Centre. Earlier this week, Z brought in a book that she had made at “art-school” to share with the girls. This has inspired interest in many of them to do some hands-on designing. G can’t wait until the glitter glue dries to be able to assemble the book.

M and Z incorporate non-traditional materials into the building centre. Here, they pretend that the mirror is a computer, and role play video calling different family members. They have conversations with moms, dads, grandparents, sisters and brothers.

As a class we explored the number of sides that a shape has, and worked together to sort them into groups. M was curious about the red pieces, which we have named “quarter circles”, and noticed that they also have 3 sides (even though they are not triangles).

Z smiles as she works at Math to count up the pumpkin seeds. She also chooses to use the hundreds chart, but tracks the numbers she counts in writing on the clipboard. She is working hard on forming her numbers neatly, and making sure that she writes down each number that she covers on the hundreds chart.

The girls all sit on a log in the ravine and sketch a “tree tent” that we came across a couple of weeks ago. They even revisited the tree tent earlier in the week when they were on a hike with the Grade 11s and 12s during phys. ed. We love to observe the beauty that nature holds.

G and G lead the group as we attempt to climb the hill ahead of us. This was G’s suggestion, and all girls agreed that they wanted to try, so we went for it. After making it to the top and back down, the first question was “can we do it again?!” I continue to be amazed at the perseverance and willingness to take risks that these girls show every day.

G enjoys balancing while walking along the cement beams though the ravine. We enjoy the peacefulness that the ravine allows.

M and Z show me their silly faces on our walk back to school. They don’t stop giggling during our walks outside, reinforcing my belief that children need to spend time outside. I love the sides of the girls that I see when we go to the ravine, and can see how much they enjoy it as well.