We had a very interesting yet relaxed day. Right away the children were so completely engaged with the materials in the classroom that we decided not to do our typical morning circle so that they could continue to build on the play that was already established. We had a lot of activities on the go today: making cauliflower soup for our upcoming dinner (cauliflower from our garden), making centrepiece for our Farm to Table dinner,  play dough, 2 types of building, drawing and cutting, a play arc with scarves and alphabet bean bags. Since we just got all new books from the library, the children were really immersed in the literature area. Luca had chosen a book on penguins because he has a stuffed animal at home named Penguino that he adores and speaks of with great frequency and fondness. This book sparked an amazing conversation later during our circle.  The book talked about how penguins use the sound of eachother's cries to recognise family members. We discussed hearing and sound recognition in humans too, which developed into a game about recognising the voices in our classroom. This game prompted lots of laughter! And questions..."What if the other penguin's babies all sound the same? How will they know who is their baby?" (Chloe).  Cole said " I don't sound the same as Nico". How do children process sound? How do sounds make them feel? What sounds do they like? What sounds bother their ears? I think further investigation is in order!

Later in the book, we learnt that the daddy penguins look after the eggs. This discovery then lead to questions on which animals lay eggs. We asked the children what animals lay eggs. The responses were interesting:


Chloe: Giraffe
Emily: Zebra
Bryn: Elephant
Sidney: Chicken
Cole: Rooster
Luca: Penguin
Cyanna: Hen
Cash: Dog
Alexa: Crocodile & Dinosaur
Loreli: Turtle
Brooke: Cat
Zev: Shark
Niko: Shark

It seems like this might be a good area to study further. The children were very interested in this discussion and then proceeded to wonder about humans. It was time to say goodbye so we got cut off from our conversation...cannot wait to continue!

Several children wanted to help make the soup.  Some worked long and hard (Alexa- to the bitter end!) and others picked apart only a couple of florets and then went back to building. But, together we got the job done!



 As it was cooking Luca said " I love the smell of onion". I must agree with him; the room smelled delicious!

Almost everyone helped make the centrepieces and Sidney said " This is going to be the best dinner ever" and Alexa said " We have to leave space for the candle". Bryn informed me that you have to break the stick before you are able to glue it onto the plate.

We played outside for a long time- sunshine, warm weather in November! How lucky. The sandbox has been stellar for building as the water makes the sand very malleable and easy to work with to create structures. Cyanna played a lot with her brother Koltyn as she was instructing him on how to pull the upside down bucket off the castle. With a firm but gentle tone she repeatedly said " Slowly and gently". He listened and was thrilled with his creation.


While in line to wash hands for lunch ( which was quite late since we played outside for so long) I heard the following conversation, which I am sure you will agree, is a gem.

Bryn: "That's a beautiful shirt"
Little Emily: " It's not a shirt, it's a dress."
Bryn: "That's a beautiful dress."

At lunch today, the children began calling out, with no prompting whatsoever, about their packaging. Alexa began this conversation by exclaiming with pride " I have no garbage today!". Cyanna then said " I have no garbage too.". Niko said  "I only have one garbage." Zev said " Nico has a plastic spoon and that is garbage". Niko responded quickly with " But I am going to keep it!.  Are these children ready for tiffins or what? I am so proud of them for thinking about their snack containers and becoming aware of reducing their garbage. And, thank you parents for your support! Soon we will get our worm compost going again.

As you can tell, I marvelled at the children today. What a fun and rewarding day!

Emily

A simple concept but one that needs to be repeated and reinforced with our preschoolers. We believe in teaching our children good manners and a sense of appreciation. Our hope is that they will look at life and its multitude of moments as gifts, not entitlements. Relish the moment, enjoy interactions with people, places and things and life will be sweet.

So...here are our thank you cards for Farmer Emily (from The Sharing Farm) . They drew owls, coyotes, veggies and Farmer Emily herself.

Bryn drew owl wings and feathers.

Luca was impressed by the "fat" carrots!

Brooke wrote the "thank you".

 Our card for our Burnett buddies

Loreli: It's a design! Niko's cool wiggly lines Chloe: I love you big buddy!

Today was the big day. We were finally going to pick our pumpkins albeit they were still a little green (ok, a LOT green). So green that for a while I wondered if they were in fact not pumpkins but squash. But, lo and behold, they are pumpkins, just not super mature due to our less than perfectly sunny spot. I thought "Great, I can use this opportunity to teach them about the power of sun in ripening fruits and vegetables". Will they be upset that they are not green, I wondered. Well, when we gathered around to pick the pumpkins off the vine,  not one, not one single child said anything negative about their colour. I love these kids! They just went with it and were so excited to be picking them they really did not judge the colour at all. Truly, there is a deep lesson in this story. For all of us.

I also was entirely impressed by their uncanny ability to ignore the rain. The huge drops of rain that landed on us as we ran on the pathways, looked for coyotes  (not today), looked at leaf mulching on the Sharing Farms garden beds and played games on the many benches at Terra Nova. If it sounds like we had a lot of fun, we did!



While we were in the garden, Sidney looked up and said " It's a robin". Actually, it was an owl. Wow! What a gift! We watched the owl for quite a few minutes. I was happy to see the children did not get too impatient since it wasn't really doing anything. We talked about it's colours, camouflage and being nocturnal.

Off to the picnic table to cut the pumpkins open and get down to business. We scooped, sorted seeds from pumpkin flesh, whined about sticky hands and talked about cooking the seeds for our upcoming dinner.


Luckily we had delicious (and big!) cookies for Loreli's birthday and some chopped egg pitas from Nicolas's mom (yum!) so we were ok for a while but then... "I am getting hungry" started so we headed back to school for lunch.

More...pumpkin fun, playing, reading stories and then a circle about... you guessed it, the life cycle of a pumpkin!


What will the children most remember about today? Ask them tomorrow at breakfast and share your child's comments with us. Is it the owl? The pumpkins? The rain? Let me know.

Emily

Starting last week, we waited for our buddies with great anticipation. Prior to their arrival, we discussed what it means to be a "fun" little buddy - listening, talking, sharing thoughts and ideas, being gentle and smiling.  Since this teacher and this class were new to us, we did not know what to expect. I wondered if our children would feel shy or nervous. Would some need a lot of support from us teachers? Would they need support to help them feel comfortable? Would they feel intimidated by the teacher? Alas, none of these concerns came to a head as the class is filled with gentle, kind and caring grade 6 & 7 students and the teacher is calm, humble and exudes kindness. How lucky we are! Our little buddies seemed comfortable immediately and had no hesitation in engaging with their big buddies. It was fascinating to watch them pair off with such confidence and ease.We discussed the outline of the day which included an art project, shelling beans and threshing wheat, circle, snack and outdoor time.

We introduced ourselves and we were happy to discover that about 1/2 dozen of them had been either to our preschool program or our OSC program; it is always a warming feeling to see them grow up. It is rewarding and affirming to see them turn into kind and considerate people. We then divided into pairs and began to get to know each other. The students worked together at an imagination market station to create some interesting pieces of artwork. The children were very engaged and the big buddies found a good balance between helping the younger buddies but at the same time allowing them to create their own piece.

We then switched gears into a new project. In our initial circle I showed the students our wheat and beans that we grew at our garden and then I proceeded to describe how we would process these grains. The idea of getting the big buddies to help us with the threshing (separating the grain from the chaff) came to me on a walk this morning and I am so very glad it did! Without their help, threshing the wheat would have taken an awfully long time and could have lacked the same precision. The buddies worked so well together and it was a joy to see all the children interacting with these natural elements with such interest. Many of the Dixon students told me they had gardens at home and were growing tomatoes, zucchinis and other vegetables.  One student commented that "they never knew where wheat came from"- a good learning experience for all. I invited the older students to think about the food system and how much food it takes to feed a school, a community, a city, a province, a country. I hope we can take this discussion further next time we meet. I would like to hear their ideas on food security.

Threshing the wheat

All our wheat and some of our dried beans Everyone was excited to go outside to the playground on this chilly, crisp, autumn day. The little buddies were thrilled and felt privileged to go to the "other" side of the park with their buddies. There were lots of games of tag, hide n' go seek and twirling in the dizzy saucers  (my nickname).  The time passed far too quickly, as it has a tendency to do when one is enjoying themselves, and it was time to say goodbye to our Dixon buddies. Until next time... Emily

Before we went to Courtyard Gardens Senior Home, we went for a run around Minoru track. The kids loved it- lots of bragging about their speed and agility. I know many of our children play soccer so we tried to make a connection about cardio and soccer. The other people on the track were totally in awe of our children and judging by their exclamations, found them to be most adorable!






We arrived at the Senior's home to find a very good turn out of "Grandmas" and "Grandpas". Right away, the Seniors and Charlene, the Recreation Coordinator, made our children feel welcome. We sang a welcome song and then everyone did name introductions. I was surprised at how comfortable all the children seemed, as if they had been there before. What makes a child feel comfortable in a new situation? I imagine it is many interconnecting attributes- their peers, the staff, the room, the new people- very interesting.

We brough a small, easy to clean up and portable art project on sharks. Each child teamed up with a senior to create an ocean picture. We saw waves, sharks, seaweed, algae, coral, black ocean (because it is night) and yellow oceans ( because it was day).


Helping hands...










We got to know eachother, just a little bit...





After songs, an animated story, juice and cookies, we said our goodbyes until next month. Then off for some outdoor playtime at Thompson Community Centre playground.






We rolled down a hill! It was a blast. There was so much learning...how far can I extend my body? How fast do I roll from half way? From the top? How can I make sure I don't get bumped or bump into my friends? How can I stop my body? How does it make my head feel?

So glad we found a hill!

Emily