Moments of interest...

September 27, 2012, 11:57 AM

There was a lot of productive play today as children explored a few new materials. We had two clear bins filled with gigantic multi- coloured pom poms and two bowls. This new activity was captivating for many children and I sat back and watched Colin and Cash for quite a while as they interacted with the pom poms. They initially began their play by sorting the pom poms by colour. Then Cash started to count the pom poms but quickly moved onto hiding them underneath the big container. He then turned the container over and declared that he was "The pom pom delivery man." and walked towards Colin. Cash dumped them out and Colin exclaimed "The pom poms are jumping out." They continued to play with the idea of the pom poms "jumping" out for a long time, at times spilling them all over their heads and then frantically picking them up and putting them back into the container. Soon, the two of them were holding one lid on top of the other and hiding them. Then the idea of hiding took on a new form as they transferred the pom poms to the small bowl and again inverted one on top of the other. This action was done repeatedly and I wondered about what they think about the idea of concealing something. What it means to conceal something tangible, like a pom pom. Also, what it means to conceal something more abstruse, like information. I wonder if these concepts could be explored in class. Children, from a young age, enjoy the game of hiding objects so how can we build on this idea?

There were straws and connectors on the large carpet and this area was very busy with children coming and going. Many children played with making abstract designs while others made a shape of something they knew.

Bryn said " I am making a sun. It has to be a circle and have spikes."

Other things made:

Wayne: a fan

Zev: a helicopter ( he then said to me " Can you write that down?" Interesting that he wanted me to write it down- validation?)

Niko: a bicycle pedal

Cole: the letter "X"

Loreli: a rainbow stick

Emily

WRCC

Comments

Garden Trip #2

September 21, 2012, 04:49 PM

We were all excited to go back to the farm today to pick a few vegetables and explore the landscape. We knew there was a large group going to volunteer at the Sharing Farm today so we parked in the first parking lot which led to a discussion on road safety since it would require a short walk along the road. We talked about the dangers of running into the middle of the road and then Colin said "If you run into the road you might get run over and then you would be flat like Flat Stanley". Then someone else said "You wouldn't be living". We stopped there before the graphics became too much for us to bear!

We started at our garden plot and picked our beautiful kohlrabi, graciously donated to me as a small seedling from a friendly garden neighbour. We picked a few precious tomatoes and checked out our pumpkins. We then peeked into our slug traps (a sugary-yeast mixture) and found 3 slugs. This was both fascinating and gross for the children.

We had discussed this veggie prior to heading to the farm so the children were familiar with the name-we repeated it several times to make sure we knew what it was. When eating it later at our picnic, we had many favourable comments about the kohlrabi like "It's delicious and I like it more than anything." (Chloe), "I love kohlrabi." (Cole), "Could I have more kohlrabi please?" (Cyanna), "Me, too." (Brooke). We also heard "I don't like it. I only like the dip." (Bryn). Yes, the dip.... we all loved the dip. A mixture of vanilla Greek yogurt ( read 10 % mf), cream cheese and icing sugar. Of course, we liked the dip!

We wandered down the path to go check out the new playground construction. We discussed the fact that the playground is not built yet and it will be manymanymanymanymanymanymanymany sleeps until it is ready! The slide was put in just yesterday!

We then had a crazy picnic on the grass. Crazy because we were on the "prickly" grass and the children didn't quite know how to react. We brought the pears we had picked last week and cut them up to slather in "THE dip". Honestly we could not cut fast enough-children were begging for pears and kohlrabi. Then, a hill was found ( running up and down at very fast speeds-I am happy to report there were no falls), blackberries picked and a meander down a lovely path where Chloe made leaves into "fairy wings" and Lukas said he smelled "a hyena and a rattlesnake." Suddenly, a quick look at the time and we realized we had parked in the far parking lot and we really needed to use our "very very fast walking feet"- maybe that might suggest running?

so so so much fun!

Emily

WRCC

Comments (1)

A Day with Potatoes

September 19, 2012, 03:41 PM

Mon, Sept 17

During our first circle, we poured our potatoes onto a huge sheet in the middle of our carpet. We were amazed at the amount of potatoes, the shapes, the colours and the markings. We heard many "ahhhhs" and shrieks of excitement. We then decided to categorize them according to variety - Yukon Gold, Red Pontiac and Russet.

Our Estimates

We all tried our hands at guessing the total number of potatoes. The children were very interested in numbers and presented some very interesting estimates. We had a huge range, from 2 to 6000. My favourite guesses were "six five teen" and "13 to 11 to 21".

We peeled and cut. Pieces of potato were flying everywhere. I heard "It's wet", "These are too hard", and " I like cutting this". "Potato juice" as titled by one child, threw a few children into a laughing fit.

We mashed- even with our superhero costume gloves.

We ate and ate and ate until we could not eat anymore!

Other fascinating ideas throughout the day:

"The worm is good because it goes into the seed, the water makes the plant grow really fast. If the soil is really dry, water it. Sunlight is really good for the plant.The sunlight goes into the seed and makes energy for the plant to grow" ( Loreli)

"Plants need sun" (Brooke)

"Rain is good for the plant" (Sidney)

"(Bees) collect nectar to make honey" (Loreli)

"Honey, honey, honey" (Little Emily)

Amazing children!

Emily

WRCC

Comments

September 14, 2012, 03:25 PM

Four Hour Class: Our First Day at the Garden @ Terra Nova

We had a most amazing day at the farm. We harvested our potatoes, picked our tri-coloured beans, ate lemon balm, blackberries, apples, and plums. We ran, we walked, we skipped, we dragged our feet when we were tired and we drew pictures in our journals.

Emily

WRCC

Comments (1)

September 12, 2012, 03:24 PM

Is it really only the second day of school? The children seem so happy, confident and comfortable within the classroom. Friendships formed in last year's classes remain solid and already we can see new relationships forming. We started out our day making our pizza dough. I was surprised to discover the children really did not know what made dough so I was happy to have the opportunity to share the ingredient list with them ( flour, water, yeast, salt, sugar, and olive oil). We looked at each ingredient separately and talked about the role of each one. Each child came over to the cooking station during free play to roll out their dough and put on their toppings. Needless to say there was lots of cheese sprinkled on and I saw several children stuffing shreds into their mouth as quickly as they could! We ate outside in the sunshine and felt the chilly wind on our backs. We spent lots of time at the playground and then rushed to come in to eat lunch- a fabulous day!