Week 17: New Year New Explorations


Posted by Admin on January 15, 2018 at 9:27 PM

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The first week of 2018 was a fantastic one in the Early Learning class. Coming back to school after a holiday is always exciting, and it was even better this year because we were welcoming N to the class. The girls were all eager to see each other, share stories about their winter breaks, and get back into the swing of things at school. We were right back into routines on Tuesday, and the girls couldn't wait to return to some of their favourite activities in the classroom. Some highlights of our week together were exploring "energy" in CERES, finding new ways to use familiar materials, and playing in all of the snow on the roof. Enjoy the photos from the week.

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K spends time carefully laying out the different gems on the Light Table. She has added a frame around "the water", and can't wait to share her creation with her peers. 

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G has a new location for painting this morning - on the easel. Slowly, she works on painting a castle, and seeks out inspiration from different classroom materials once she is ready to add some details to her painting. 

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N's quick comfort in the classroom is apparent as she performs a puppet show for the class. In her show, N is the puppet, and does a silly wiggle using her body. It is amazing how easily young children are able to adjust to new environments.

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After performing the first show for her classmates, N arranges some of the class stuffies for a second viewing. They are quite the attentive audience.

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P combines two favourite materials, the magnatiles and marble run tracks, to create her structure. She demonstrates how she's able to send the marbles down the ramp and have the magnatiles catch them at the end.

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In CERES today, we are beginning to explore "energy". The girls know that we have energy in our bodies, but are also learning that other things can have energy too, which might help them move. Here, G holds tightly onto the string as a balloon uses wind energy to propel itself forward. There is lots of excitement as it shoots right off of the string/straw and flies around the lab. 

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A loves playing in the snow on the roof, especially when the sun is shining like it is this morning at recess.

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P uses her breath to create wind power to propel her boat forward. As you can see, her boat is buoyant and does not sink in the water.

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During Literacy Centres this afternoon, N works on lining up the magnetic letters. It is clear that she knows that letters, words, and writing often appear in a linear way.

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K quickly matches all of the starting sounds to the corresponding images, and she is eager to take on a writing challenge once this task is complete.

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A has set up a store at the Math Centre this morning, filled with "measures", "calculators" and "lots of money". She invites N to purchase something from the store and even is generous enough to give N some money to make the purchase. N decides to buy the colourful counters and hands A the appropriate amount of money. 

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N and A (and P, not pictured) play "The Hexagon Card Game" as a group. One by one they pick up a card that indicates which pattern blocks they get to put on the game board. As a group, their goal is to fill up all of the hexagons with pattern blocks. Not only is this a wonderful geometry game that helps the girls with their spatial skills, but also a good exercise for turn taking.

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G and M (grade 1) are also playing The Hexagon Card Game together. G explains that she likes getting the hexagon pieces because they fill the hexagons on the board up the fastest, whereas M prefers to get the triangles because they fill up the hexagons the slowest and she does not want the game to end.

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G and K collaborate at the Building Centre this morning. They design an incredible marble pathway that the marbles successfully travel all the way through. The girls explain to me that the marble is able to make it up the shorter tube because there is a much longer tube that it has to go down first. They also point out that they are building a wall at the very end to control the marbles that fly out of the pathway. Way to go engineers!

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A does some important research on dinosaurs at the Discovery Centre. She finds the pop-up books fascinating, and eagerly relays all of the information that she is learning to me, as well as to her classmates.