Weeks Thirty-Four and Thirty-Five: That's a Wrap!


Posted by Savannah Barker on July 31, 2019 at 12:52 PM

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A long overdue end-of-school post to the Early Learning blog - what a wonderful year it's been with these incredible young learners. I am so incredibly proud of each and every one of the girls, and I cannot wait to see them continue to grow!

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A (grade 1), A, and Z (grade 2) race around the roof on the tricycle at recess.

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A uses the watercolour paints made from recycled markers to paint a picture to give her family. 

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N is documenting the play that her stuffies are doing while they're at school. It looks like my assessment practices are rubbing off on her.

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Happy 5th birthday O! She spends her morning painting her birthday lantern instead of participating in our daily morning journal routine.

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S loves building different structures and exploring the properties of the variety of building materials we have. Blocks are good for balance whereas magnatiles connect to each other.

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The Early Learners and grade 1-2s have a special snack for O's birthday. The girls all take turns singing her their family birthday songs (that differ from "Happy Birthday").

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I spends time with us today before starting as an Early Learner in September. M (grade 6) is happy to read with her during reading buddies. 

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Today's math problem-solving challenge is to figure out how many ways they can build a hexagon using their "math kits" (i.e., one hexagon, two trapezoids, three rhombi, and six triangles). It's just as exciting to replicate a pattern that a friend found as it is to find a new way that no one has discovered yet.

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A is proud to share her pattern block design.

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The girls incorporate their umbrellas into their imaginary play during a rainy morning recess. I believe they are keeping their stuffies sheltered from the rain.

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H is spending the day with us in preparation for her transition to Linden's Early Learning class in September. H loves drawing pictures with bright colours. 

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N has built a really interesting structure at the Building Centre this morning. First, she constructed the exterior walls, and then carefully balanced wooden blocks inside the walls to create towers. 

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S demonstrates her knowledge of "petit", "moyen" and "gros" (small, medium, and large) in French class using the magnatiles.

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O also uses the magnatiles to show her understanding of "petit", "moyen", and "gros", and constructs different 3D figures from S.

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A deeply enjoys working with the magnatiles when she is at the Building centre. Each time, she finds new ways to connect them, building on structures she has made in the past. 

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V is visiting today and is eagerly exploring the different Learning Centres that we have in our classroom. She asks to paint at the easel, and then invites A to join her. Together, the girls communicate to create artwork that they are both happy with.

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V adds the final brushstrokes to her and A's collaborative painting.

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S embraces the beauty of dandelions in the springtime and sets the seeds free to find new homes.

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During our final day, the Early Learners find themselves on a quest to find the hidden treasure. To find it, they are instructed to solve a chain of clues that will lead them there. Here, they work together to reorder the numbers in the correct order to put the clue words (inside the cards) back in order. 

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Look, they did it!

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The girls work together to read out the words that are inside the number cards to find out where to go next.

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Their next task is to create a pattern using favourite materials and share it with a friend before they can receive the next clue.

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Now the girls are on to deciphering the code using the code-to-alphabet decoder. This task takes teamwork, cooperation, and patience, but they managed to finish it. The code tells them that the treasure is hidden where the teachers do their work...

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O loved exploring, moving her body, and taking risks in the Treetop Village and Discovery Centre. What a fantastic Community Day to end off the school year together!

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Some final reflections and words of advice from A. 

Have a wonderful summer!