I am in awe of these children. They have retained so much information about pollination, the mason bee life cycle and their homes. They have many answers and even more questions. They have requested to make a bee book project, which we will begin next week. Many children put in their thoughts on how the book should be compiled, what information should be in the book and how it should look. I am thrilled they are designing their own art projects now!

Below are a few examples of their replications of how mason bee tubes are filled. Look for nectar/pollen balls, eggs and mud walls. They know the terminology and understand the sequencing-yes, math is in everything!

It all started with the amaryllis. Without exaggeration, each child has found a connection to this plant and it has become a huge part of our daily class life. Discussions took place about its size, observations made, rules followed... it has had a huge impact.

Last week, we dissected the flower, looked at the parts and learnt their names. The children were absolutely fascinated and proceeded to ask questions. They naturally started to discuss pollination. I cannot begin to express how overjoyed I was that this field of inquiry emerged. We had planned to make mason bee house this Wednesday with the Hugh Boyd woodworking students. So, the fact that the children were leading themselves down this learning path could not have been more timely. After class we had a staff discussion about taking the conversation further from the parts of the flower to pollination to mason bees. I am a big mason bee fan so I was really looking forward to starting this unit.

During our first group discussion today we went over the parts of the flower because we were making #3D plants in class, complete with all their parts. I was impressed at the amount of factual information the children had retained since last week. They enjoyed making their plants and I believe they really understand the function of each part.

I had put out a mason bee house, cocoons and a book on a table during free play. Many children went over to the table, investigated the house ( and stuffed the cocoons into the tubes!) and began to ask questions about the bees. Yvette had brought in some very good pictures, which also sparked their curiosity.

At our second discussion of the day, I thought it might be interesting to gather their ideas before I give them information on mason bees so I asked them what mason bees are, why they thought it might be good to increase the mason bees population and why are mason bees healthy for our environment. These are some of the answers they came up with:

Brooke: They make fruits and vegetables from wax.
Luca: They go around to get nectar to make honey.
Nico: They kill bees that sting.
Zev: They collect pollen from the flowers and they drop it on the ground and make more flowers.
Cyanna: Bees live in a bee hive.
Sidney: Bees are good because they give you lots of honey.
Cash: When bees fly and something bites them they bite back.
Chloe: Bees don't feel well when they sting you.
Alexa: They hibernate in the winter and summer.
Bryn: They give us honey.

I am glad I asked them this question because it helped to guide our discussion. Clearly we needed to talk about the difference between mason and honey bees. We also needed to talk about pollination, stinging, hibernating and many other topics around bees. We briefly addressed the fact that mason bees do not make honey- we will continue this conversation as there are many differences between these bees. We then acted out a mason bee visiting flowers to collect pollen and nectar. Many children wanted to be the bee but we ran out of time so this game will be played again!

I am excited for Wednesday's class- to hear more questions and answers from the children.

Emily

Chloe: I like Dustin so much I just want to hug him and hug him.

Brooke: Wow, nice drawing Emily! ( Little Emily)

Sidney: Where is Nicolas? Hmmm... I guess he went on a trip.

Loreli: Brooke, will you measure me?

Colin: I falled off my bike. I falled right in the dirt and got this ( the smallest  little cut ) when I was playing with my neighbour.

Cash: I can practice my name.

Little Emily: I like Archie books. And princess ones.

Alexa: Dustin, can we play something?

Luca: Penguins get camouflaged because the fish see them.  That whale tried to eat the baby penguins. That's bad for the penguins. ( he was looking at a penguin book)

Zev: Excuse me ( listening to Luca's conversation), whales don't eat penguins. Catfish eat penguins. I saw it in a movie.

Sidney: First it is just a seed. And then the stem starts growing. And then the flower opens and a little bit first and then it opens up bigger and bigger until it stops growing ( talking about our plant)

Cyanna: I am helping Bryn.

A brief conversation at the snack table:
Kayla: Daddy likes candy mint.
Colin: Grandpa Barry always gives me mint and Grandpa George does not even have any mint.

A brief conversation while building:
Nico:Do it like this.
Bryn: Thank you Nico.
Nico: Your welcome.
Cole: I need one of these pieces (no answer) I need one of these pieces PLEASE Nico!

A brief conversation after learning about parts of a plant:
Bryn: Honey bees like pollen.
Chloe: Butterflies go and get the pollen from the middle.
Zev: Bees drink pollen and they drop it to the ground and pollen makes flowers.


Wow- need I say more? What intelligent, thoughtful children.

Emily

We had a lot of things to get done today- group discussion, painting our papier mache eels, decorating our Valentine bags, exchanging our homemade Valentine cards, playing outside and of course, our party. As a team we discussed how the day should look and kind of mapped out some sort of reasonable schedule. I wanted to have a group discussion at first circle about a topic that has come up several times with various groups of children in the class. I know this is going to sound rather odd but there seems to be an interest in "poor people" (this is a quote from a child). Why are they poor? Where do they live? How do they live? What does it mean? Wow, pretty deep for four year olds! You can see why I was eager to engage the children further and expand on this idea. However, this discussion was not to be today BECAUSE one of our students knocked out their front tooth  at home yesterday and he was quite concerned about how his friends would react. So, upon arrival, he, his mom and I had a discussion about how he wanted to handle this in class today. I asked him if he preferred not to say anything and have children ask him about it (which we know they will!) or would he rather him and I address it in our opening greeting and get it out in the open. He decided on the group discussion idea. So, he sat on my lap, he shared his story, the children looked at the new gap and then the flood gates opened. Hands shot up, accidents shared, stories recounted. Needless to say, our discussion was long and there was no way we could then move into my "planned" conversation on poverty and cultures.  Oh well.... this is how it goes and it was a very interesting and amusing topic.


After our dialogue we all did our own thing... some children painted their eels...




Many children measured our Amaryllis...


 Some children played our harp...


Some children designed a castle and made stories with gnomes and castle figurines...


Some children did math...



Some children used arches and watched cars fly off of them as they rocked back and forth...



and ALL children made a Valentine bag to hold their special cards...



We were all impressed with the cards and other creative Valentine gifts that came in. We love that the children make homemade cards and each one is so unique. Check out this card... a message in a bottle.


Homemade items are so personal and the idea of giving something that you have put effort into is truly an act of friendship. Sharing a part of yourself, giving time and energy to others, and giving to ourselves....we all must do this each day. And with that, I am signing off, to give energy first to my family by cooking dinner. Then to others while I cheer on a high school basketball team and then to myself  with a knitting project.

Emily

Our childcare dept is supporting Anti-Bullying day by holding conversations in our programs, and selling t-shirts (proceeds go to the Variety Club). The t-shirts are hot pink and are cool because they have a blank line for the children to write in how they will stand up against bullying. Our preschoolers were tasked with brainstorming ideas about bullying. We then filled out a paper t-shirt to post downstairs in the community centre. Check them out- they are taped to the glass of the fitness centre,

We opened up a discussion around bullying. I wasn't sure if the children were even familiar with this term, let alone understanding its complex undertones. As usual, they surprised me.

Here are a  few of the comments we heard when asked what they thought about bullying:

Chloe: Being bad, being mean.
Zev: Bad means being a bully, someone who is not nice.
Emily: Somebody tells you bad stuff.
Luca: Someone who points and laughs at the person.
Sidney: Makes people sad, when you say bad things about them.
Cash: If somebody hits somebody and makes them cry.
Alexa: Somebody points and laughs at me.
Loreli: When someone hits you, other people will feel sad.
Colin: If someone pushes you to the ground, that's bullying.
Brooke: Pushed on purpose.
Emily: When they say no boys allowed.
Zev: If someone pushes you off the swing.

I was so proud of our children- deeply thinking about others and how to be a good friend. Their ideas are simple and yet they really encompass all we need to know ( that reminds me of the book "Everything I needed to Know I learnt in Kindergarten"- so true!). I hope that these dialogues and opportunities to express our feelings will lead to peaceful relationships. Relationships based on respect and concern for humanity as a whole.These are good concepts for us all to think about. What will you do to stand up to bullying? How can you help your children deal with issues around bullying?