When I grow up...

Today is the day that Katy and I say goodbye to our lovely charges and send them out into the world. We have been so lucky to spend the last 10 months with these children!

In honour of the last day of school, we asked the children what they will be when they grow up:

This collage is also printed in our class photo book, which is available here.

Pizza Picnic at the Park

We had a fabulous time at the splash pad yesterday. Despite having to pack up in a rush when thunder rolled, we had a nice long visit. Thank you to the parents who came to help out and who brought treats! Special thanks to Troy for bringing over the shade shelter.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Water water everywhere

We had a fantastic visit from Scientists in the School on Monday. Scientist Tracy brought some highly engaging activities, and it was great to see our little scientists in full swing. Thank you to Lisa, Lindsey, Troy and Andrea for giving up part of their day to make this possible!

~This post is written by the children as a self-reflection and a documentation of their learning.~

This is Scientist Tracy and she is showing us the water cycle. It is a circle that goes around. The water goes down to the ground, then into the lake. Then it goes up to the clouds and it rains back the ground.

At the sailboat centre, we made sails and flags.

We coloured the bowl for the bottom of the boat.

Then we added a straw and made a boat.

They floated. It was a race!

We were trying to see what was floating and what was sinking.

The boat floated and the astronaut guy did too. The Lego sinked and floated. If it was full of air bubbles, it floated. 

We made reports about what floated.

We were talking about water with Scientist Andrea. We learned about way to use water.

We made a list: fishing, watering the garden, cooking macaroni, washing the car, washing ourselves, floating boats.

At Scientist Nancy's centre we learned about sucking up stuff. Some stuff was good at soaking up water, like the sponges and the cloths. We squeezed them and the water came out.

Some stuff was not good at sucking it up, like waxed paper. The water just sat on it like a bubble. When you wiggle the paper, it squiggled like jello.

The best centre was the water play centre.

You could make the boats move by turning the turbines.

You could fill up the locks with a pump and make the boats go up and down.

You could use the crane to lift packages on to the boat.

At the end, we made the sounds of a rainstorm with our bodies. We sounded like thunder and rain. It was cool.

Today we learned all about water. We learned what water was for and how it holds things up. We learned how to be scientists!

Speckeld frogs and Mr. Suns

In the "green room", waiting in the wings....

 Show time:

Click here for a video.

Happy Father's Day

Last week we made a gift for dads - a meat rub to use on the BBQ.

The children enjoyed the different textures and smells of the various spices.

They had a great time measuring the ingredients...and making a spicy mess while they were at it!

The finished product, before shaking:

Here's the recipe we used:

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp black pepper

2 tbsp kosher salt

2 tbsp parsley

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Thank you to all the dads in our class. You do such an amazing job each and every day!

Scooping sunshine

As teachers, a big part of our job is to plan learning activities and opportunities. In the old fashioned way of teaching, I would plan out a unit of study weeks in advance. I'd make up some worksheets and cute crafts for the children to assemble, and maybe teach them a game or song. In short, I was directing the learning on my terms...I was the expert and the children just had to do what I said to learn something.

But it's all different now. Katy and I have spent the last two years learning how to let go of this teacher-directed model and to embrace the children as active participants in the learning process. We are no longer fountains of wisdom. The children's learning happens from each other.

Our role is now as a facilitator and guide. We plan "provocations" - an object that is new and exciting that will spark curiosity- and introduce them to the class. Then we carefully watch and listen to see how the children interact with the provocation, and follow their lead. Sometimes this can take us in unexpected places! We learned this first hand back in the fall (click here), but it was illustrated for us again more recently.

Last week, I brought in some tadpoles that had just hatched at my local pond. I expected all sorts of joyful curiosity, such as we had with the butterflies and crickets. I expected them to spend hours watching, observing, recording.

 And they did. Many children went straight to the clipboards to write down what they saw.

But then serendipity struck. It was a glorious sunny day and the light was hitting the water in the tank just right. Someone noticed a shimmering on the ceiling. After some discussion they decided it was coming from the tadpoles.

Gavin: "Look it's a shadow! On the ceiling!"

Me: "Hmmm. Are you sure? Most shadows I've seen are black. That one is white"

Faith: "No, it's a reflection! A reflection from the water!"

What followed next was a flurry of excitement about the reflections. The children scrambled to find items in the room that would capture the sunlight and shine it on the ceiling or each other.

They taught each other how to harness the sunshine and direct it.

They even started recording their findings. They are such fantastic scientists!

In the afternoon, the children were disappointed to find the sunlight had disappeared. Even though the sun was shining outside, the earth had moved and the sun no longer shone in the window enough to make reflections. 

At that point, we brought out the overhead projector to continue the investigation.

They found that the mirror blocks we used for reflections couldn't catch the light on the overhead.

 It lead to some discussions about shadows and reflections, and the differences between them.

For the teachers, it is so very satisfying to watch these self-directed learners create their own opportunities. The learning was meaningful, in context, dynamic, and socially constructed. There is no substitute for this kind of learning!