Week 3: Parachutes and Sunflowers
We can't believe that the warm weather is still with us as we move into the third week of school (but we aren't complaining). This week was a great one. The girls had a chance do dive into learning about bees, start experimenting with observational art with sunflowers as our inspiration, exploring how different materials fall to the ground and designing parachutes, and getting more comfortable working in the learning centres. A highlight was definitely when the girls tried out different instruments at recess on Friday and our end of day ravine walk. Take a look at our week in pictures.
G explores the large scale and tries to balances different materials. As soon as one side becomes heavier and drops down, G quickly adds more materials to the other bucket to even them out again.
K creates an abstract design using the gems on the light table.
During our morning literacy lesson, we learn about the letter T and the sound /t/ that it makes. K takes her turn to help make a rainbow letter.
P is testing out how quickly the plastic spring / slinky falls when she drops it from a height in the CERES lab. We are learning about how materials fall differently.
A practices matching the lowercase letters to their uppercase pairs. This activity during literacy centres not only requires good letter recognition, but also works on the girls' fine motor skills.
P tries to find the matches of all of the alphabet letters. She realizes that she can do this by matching up the picture halves.
After noticing that a flat piece of paper falls much slower than a small, round or heavy object, Beth introduces the girls to parachutes. They carefully observe the parachute carrying the clothespin to the ground, and are eager to share what they notice about how the air fills the parachute.
K explores different types of lines at the Math Centre. Adding gems to them helps her see the differences in each line - some are dashed, some are curly, and some are straight. After finishing with this she decides to practice drawing them on a practice board.
Inspired by the sunflowers that are in the classroom this week, G uses her cutting skills to recreate a sunflower. After cutting out all of the different components, G lays them down to make sure she likes the design, and when she is ready she glues them down.
This morning during math lesson time, we are making sticker patterns. A's first pattern is "penguin head - penguin" and her second is "sliding penguin - heart - penguin head". It is clear that she understands that patterns repeat in the same order each time.
At the Building Centre, G sets up a space where the cars stay overnight. This is just outside of the gate that surrounds four pools: a cold pool, a hot pool, a medium pool, and a long pool.
A displays one of many cards that her friends made for her after her fall yesterday at lunch. They were worried about her, but we are all happy to see that she is cheerful and curious as always.
For All School today, we had a shared learning centres with the grade 1-2 class. K and A were excited to work with the LEGO with G, a grade 2 student.
Our grade 4-5 reading buddies came to see us again this week. M (grade 5) brought a stack of her favourite Dr. Seuss books to read with K, and A (grade 5) let G choose her own books to listen to. We are thankful that these girls are able to read with us because we love stories!
Inspired by K's line-work earlier in the week, P experiments with embellishing the lines with her choice of gems.
K and A work diligently at the Art and Light Centre to design sunflowers using only paper. I love watching their creativity come out during activities like these.
The classroom is a hive of activity this morning with the girls all working in different places around the room. It is amazing how comfortable they can get at school in only a few weeks.
A finds a harmonica in the instrument bin and enjoys testing out the sounds it makes.
K is proud to be playing three instruments at once - a one-girl band!
We learn about observation drawing this afternoon. We test out the sharpie markers, thick tip and fine tip, to represent what we see in front of us. It is important to work slowly and carefully as an observer.
K, Z, and M lead us back up the stairs in the ravine, confident and comfortable in this space as ever.
Thanks to our visiting photographer, Justin Briginshaw, for capturing one of many magical moments in the ravine this week!