Tuesday 16 December 2014

Festive Feast

There's something about sharing a meal together. Every culture in the world has important feasts. Eating together is what binds us together as a family, a community, a culture, and as fellow humans. 

Today was one of those days for our family of friends at school. The children waited patienty in line, comparing the plates they brought from home. 


On the menu: turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, stuffing, a buttered roll, and cranberry sauce. We even had milk to drink. 



It was delicious!



It was finished off with a bowl of cookie dough ice cream. 


This is what the holidays are about- good company, good food, and good cheer!

Monday 15 December 2014

Party time!

After two weeks of planning, co-operating, and creating, the day of our party arrived!

The children were responsible for planning the entire event. The adults acted in a support role, and the children made decisions about decorations, invitations, food, and music. 

Today we put the finishing touches on the project just before our guests arrived. 

Our doorway welcomed guests, and balloons provided the universal "party over here!" signal. 


Our garland was up and the cubbies decorated with streamers. 


A festive sign was in place. 


And the tree was trimmed. 


Our snacks, made on Friday and frozen for the weekend, were laid out invitingly. 


The box for the food bank was in place, and hopes were high that we could fill it!


Once the party began, the children (and guests!) were a little nervous about the special event, but we soon shifted into party mode and things came alive!

The snacks were a hit. 


It was lovely to see the children sharing their learning with their loved ones. 





We even broke into a few games of Pin the Nose on Rudolph and balloon volleyball!


It was a wonderful event, and we hope it helped to foster a sense of community among our class families. I was so happy to see parents mingling and making connections with each other! 

Even more importantly, the children learned to plan for a purpose, co-operate towards a common goal, and solve problems collaboratively. These skills from a foundation that they can build on for decades to come. 

Wednesday 10 December 2014

O Christmas Tree

A disassembled Christmas tree showed up in our room. First order of business was to determine if it was a real one or not. 

After careful observation and a discussion, Ross determined it was artificial because it "smelled like plastic and not like a real one". It also "looked and felt softer than a real one".

Next up was reading the instructions. Isabelle read the pictures and offered guidance. 


How do these things go together?


Like this?


Or this?


Oh, that's it!


The rest was easy. 



How tall is it?


Ta da!

It was amazing to watch the children puzzle out the configuration of the tree. They had rich discussions with each other, read pictures, learned to sequence, and co-operated to solve a problem. They had to transfer the not-so-good 2 dimensional diagrams into a 3 dimensional puzzle. Their spatial awareness grew and their confidence did as well. 

You're invited!

Our invitation commitee worked hard to get their contributions to our party done. 



Mrs Woodbeck helped us photocopy them. 


How does a copier do its job? Let's investigate!


The children carefully folded each invitation. 



Then they inserted the RSVP card and packed them into mailbags. 


Well done, invitation commitee!

Thursday 4 December 2014

In their own words: The Trip to The Library

We walked in partners to the library. Kathleen was waiting for us.

We were very quiet in the library. Kathleen read a story with animals and winter and snow. It was really wonderful!


There were lots of animals. We said the names of the animals and guessed what they were. The pages popped up. Pop pop pop....kind of like popcorn and Peter Puppy.

We picked out some books.


Some of us did some playing. So we picked out one or two or three books. We made a pile of books to take to our class.

Some of us were reading lots of cool books. We picked lots of exciting books! My mom (Jacob's) helped Evan find his book.


That's Isabelle reading a book on the carpet. There was lovely things in the library.


Kathleen signed our books out and we got a blue paper with Christmas activities at the library.


We put our coats and boots and maybe hats on and we took our books. Jacob's Mommy was there.


In their words: Going to the Pet Shop

Today's post about our trip to the pet shop is brought to you by Jaydyn, Ethan and Liam K, who told Miss Russell what to type.

We walked past all the stores on the way to the pet shop. They don't sell dogs but they had a bunny. And they had fish.


Joe is looking for food for the animals.

They have toys for pets. The toys squeaked!

The bunny was in the cage.

Ryan and Ross are looking at the pet toys.
 These are betta fish.

We are looking at all the pets.

We bought some bugs for our bug tank. They are crickets.