Week 18: Portraits and Pentominoes
This week it was nice for the girls to feel back at home in the classroom, and their comfort was apparent in their learning. As a part of a new project exploring identity, the girls each painted a self-portrait. As well, as we continue to gear up for science fair, the girls explored sound energy in CERES throughout the week. We were so excited to have some beautiful, sunny weather on Friday for our ravine walk. Take look at all of the experiences that the Early Learners had this week!
P tries to match a paint colour to her skin colour. She has already sketched and traced all of the important details in her face.
A has set up a candy store at the Math Centre. She is selling bubblegum, candies, and other colourful treats. Her shop even has a wall down the side to show you where it starts and ends.
N fills up the buckets before she tries to build them into a "snow castle". She realizes that she has packed the snow in too tightly and it does not come out.
K and G work together to finish painting their self-portraits. I am so impressed by the care each of them has taken while completing their portraits.
A asks me to put out my hands and then tips a yogurt container filled with snow onto them. Slowly, she raises the container off of the snow and leaves behind a perfectly created snow tower.
In CERES this morning, Beth introduces the girls to sound energy. They watch the sugar bounce as she bangs on the plastic container. The girls notice that the sugar bounces higher when the bangs are louder.
G test how much sound energy the wooden clothespins produce when she hits them together. She watches for a consistent number on the sound meter (on Beth's phone).
P is also testing how much sound energy the balloon produces as she tries to blow it up. We are all surprised at how loud her squeaks are.
K decides to build on a past creation at the Light Table this morning. She explains that some of the bears are riding the subway, and the others are walking off of it and toward the CN Tower.
During some free time this morning, G designs a card for her family.
N watches as A checks out the "lines on her tongue". We've been enjoying having a mirror around this week to look even closer at our incredible bodies.
As a class, we are working on creating a letters and sounds book using words that we brainstormed when learning each letter sound. A and G work on cutting out the pictures, glueing them down, and tracing the printed words. The "A" page is almost done and looking fantastic.
In French this week, the girls are learning the names of the months. P looks for where in the month order "Mai" is to help her group put all of the months in the correct order.
K, G and M also work on ordering the months of the year. These girls have the colours of the rainbow to help hint them toward the correct order.
During our morning check-in, A asks to use the new alphabet book to help her write "I like airplanes". I am impressed by her resourcefulness, especially because our alphabet book is brand new.
This morning's math lesson is a number sequencing challenge. P has no problem sequencing the numbers from 1 to 10 in the appropriate order, and she is keen to help her friends finish theirs as well.
G and K work collaboratively at the Discovery Centre this morning to write a research book about dinosaurs and the Earth. The girls take turns narrating content based on the non-fiction books they are looking through and writing the content down for others to learn about.
After successfully balancing 9 blocks, P challenges herself to build a tower with 10 blocks. She makes it halfway up the second tower and the first tower falls.
Today's All School is focused on the Northern Birthday Box Project. The Project was created to help in bringing birthday fun (and supplies) to those in need within remote Northern Canada. The school learned more about the high cost of food in Northern communities, and the fact that these high costs limit birthday celebrations for many families. Ellen has organized for the entire Linden community to send birthday supplies (cake mix, icing, decorations, cards, etc.) to Lily, who is turning 1 and lives in Nunavut. Here, K works on a card for Lily's birthday that she is hoping to include in the box.
The girls enjoy a story read aloud by Soteira while they have their afternoon snack. They learn all about William Kamkwamba, a young boy from Malawi, who finds a way to use wind energy to power his family home and then his community.
P and A work together to figure out how they can arrange the specific pentominoes to cover the shape in front of them. They spend a lot of time rotating, flipping and sliding the pentominoes before finally solving the puzzle.
G is eager to help me put together the "NASA Women in Space" Lego set that A gave me in December. She has no problem following the instructions step-by-step as she puts the pieces together.
A loves sliding down the hills at the park on our way to the ravine and doesn't mind getting some snow in her face in the process.
The girls notice that we can see right across to the other side of the ravine today because all of the leaves are off of the trees. They realize there is a road with cars driving at the top of the hill across from us, as well as a couple of adults cross-country skiing down below.
K uses her best expression while she reads the Elephant and Piggie book aloud to herself. Her favourite parts are the ones in all-caps because she gets to read loud.