Monday 29 October 2012

All ramped up

Many of the boys in our class are condicting an inquiry about ramps and pathways.

They were at first engaged by this big block, which they lifted up onto another.


Krista asked "I wonder why you're doing that?"

"To make the cars go fast!" one replied.

"I wonder if you could change the ramp to make them even faster?"

"To go faster you have to go fast and let go."
"I put the end on the shelf to make the car go fast."

To test this hypothesis, the boys experimented with different angles, using the shelf to add height. They found that eventually, the ramp became too steep and it just led to crashes. Even putting a blue block at the end couldn't prevent this from happening. They reflected that the third shelf was too high. Our next step will be to use longer pieces of wood to see if that makes a difference.


From there, the boys experiemented and tested double ramps, going both up and down, and with double level ramps. "It's like a waterfall!"

"I wonder if the cars could jump!"

A few days later, we borrowed some marble tracks from another class and the ramp inquiry took on a new angle. The marbles we highly engaging, and despite only having a few the children did well at sharing them.

" I wonder why it keeps falling off right there?"
"I fix it!" (adjusts alignment). "See, it's magic!"


Some children built marble ramps through other blocks...


...and discovered how to make the marble curve around a corner.


Problems were identified and fixed. Experiments were tested and refined.

"Why did it fall off right there?"
"There's a big hole. Let's fix it! Maybe we can put a little piece of paper to fill up the spot?"


Stay tuned for more scientists at work in the construction centre!

Tuesday 23 October 2012

What is this thing?

 The ELK program is based on inquiries...wondering about something, exploring it, asking questions, testing ideas, and refining hypotheses. 

There was lots of wondering about this:


Jaxin:                 I wonder if this is a machine for putting holes in the apples.
Cameron Hu:     I think it's a jail for apples!
Cameron Hat:    It squishes it into applesauce.
Sarah:                It squeezes it into the pot.



The children were fascinated by all the moving parts. They discovered you could turn the crank, pull levers, and move the arm on the suction cup.

After sorting....

 And washing....

The teachers helped load the machine and operate it.



Springs!

 Many children helped chop the apples up, with a little guidance.

 Cinnamon and sugar into the pot.

 After 4 hours in the slow cooker, we had a tasty snack.


Jaxin discovered that the discarded cores had seeds. He's planning on planting them and seeing what happens.


The wondering continues!

Wednesday 17 October 2012

The Pumpkin Patch

Today's post is brought to you by Reid, Ayden, Aidan, Cameron Ha., Kristien, Sarah and Keegan. Miss Russell helped do the typing.



We had fun at the pumpkin patch.

Sarah and Faith on the bus. We got to sit on the seats on the bus while the bus drove past the homes and to the pumpkin patch.

We looked at the animals in the barn and the corn outside.

The little chicks were in the cages away from the bigger ones cause they were there to be safe. Then we got to pet them.


A rooster was sitting on the hay. And it lays eggs. The chickens were in their nests. (note from Miss Russell - only the hens lay eggs!)

We saw the show cows with yellow things on their ears. They are earrings. How can cows wear earrings??

She was eating some salt.

We were in the corn maze. We had fun running around. My pants got dirty. Lots of kids fell down, but it was fun! When Ryan was at the back of the maze, he fell. And Aidan. And Reid.


Then we did the pumpkin patch. We learned how to grow seeds and we picked a pumpkin each. We carried the pumpkins back to the bus. They were heavy...and light. A little bit heavy.

Then we waited for the bus and we drove back to our school. And we said thank you to the farmers who helped us walk around.

It was really nice and fun. Some of us went before but we still liked it.

Thank you to the moms and dads who came with us: Ms Lindsey, Ms Lisa, Ms Michelle, Ms Joselyn, Mr. Justin, and Ms Carrie.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Intentions, and letting go

Last Thursday at the art studio, we discovered first hand the emergent nature of the Early Years Curriculum.

At its best, the kindergarten program should flow from the students' interests, with very little activities initiated by the teachers. It should grow organically and change as the children inquire into a subject. For example, we started with a dot a few weeks ago, which led to lots of dots, then to mixing colours, then to mixing light colours, then to shadows and light.

As part of our fall inquiry, we started with a leaf, then collected lots of leaves, and made collages, drawings, and leaf prints. Hoping to continue the excitement about using leaves as an art medium, we put out paint, paper, leaves and some sponge brushes. The children used their new knowledge of colour theory to create all sorts of shades from the primary colours.


We were expecting the children to interact and explore the leaves together, to produce something like this:

 Or this:



But as the project progressed, it became clear that what the children were actively engaged in was not the leaves, but the sponge brushes. At first, we tried to steer them back to the leaves, but once we gave them "leave" (pun intended) to follow their interests, this is what happened:






The children used the new brushes to create bold, colourful, and striking designs. They were very proud of their abstract art, and used lots of oral language to explaing their creative process and their reasoning behind artistic choices.

We learned that what the teachers have in mind might not be the lesson a student needs. The students themselves can initiate their own learning and create their own exploration opportunities. Our job as teachers is to recognize this when this organic learning is happening and to ask questions that challenge children to think more deeply and to engage on a higher level.

Friday 5 October 2012

We made soup


This post is brought to you by Aidan, Owen, Payton, Ty, Rachel, Sarah, Lily, Jaxin, Keegan and Kristien, who picked the pictures and told Miss Russell what to type.


We drew pictures of all the food we're gonna bring for our soup.

We are sharing.

We are putting all our vegetables in the pot.

We're giving the vegetables to the stone soup.

Carrots into the pot.

We're mixing it. We were careful.

Reid is careful with the pot. It's soup.

We're helping by putting napkins out and spoons and soup and crackers and strawberries.

This table was all set for Sarah, for me (Aidan) and for Ryan and for Payton.

They're holding hands. They're being nice. They said thank you.

We are holding hands. We said thank you for our strawberries and soup and crackers. And thank you for our family of friends.

She liked her soup. She loved it.

They liked their food all the time. They eated it until they were done. Awesome!

They were putting the soup in the white bucket.
After they put the soup in the white bucket we played at the carpet centre and the quiet centre. We had fun making the soup and eating the soup. We were sharing and we each got one turn to put food in the pot. We are learning to get along and to control our excitement.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Nature + glue = art

Our fall food display inspired some beautiful still life drawings. This one in the frame is by Ella, and it encouraged other artists to emulate her style.



It was busy in the art studio today. Children were working on collages made from the materials we've collected this week. Thank you to the families who helped us out!

"I'm making a flower garden."


"I like how she's putting them all together in the middle." - Lily, to Faith


"I made a bunch of dots."


The children learned how to use a gluestick properly, how to sort items by shape, colour, type and even smell, and how to share limited resources. They did a great job getting along and at building oral language and fine motor skills.

Meanwhile, over at the paint easel.....



Keegan started working on a still life of a bouquet he created. What an exciting bunch of artists!