4 Year Old Class - Jess & Barbi

November 26, 2014, 03:23 PM

Our First visit to Maple Lane Senior Centre /Turning a Plastic Sheet into a “Beading Sheet”

The children were very excited to be taking the transit to visit with the Seniors. At the bus stop a discussion began about going on the bus for the first time. Here is some of the comments they made to each other.

Lily - My mom and I always take the bus I know what to do.

Aleah - I have never taken the bus.

Mia - I think maybe I have been inside the bus before.

Anthony – Where is the bus? We are waiting.

Once we got to the Senior's centre, the children acted out their own version of the story, "The Big Pumpkin" for the Seniors.

The Seniors were happy to have grilled cheese sandwiches and yummy vegetables that the chef had prepared for everyone.

Back at the classroom, we hung a plastic sheet with beads in a bowl. The children began to drop the beads through the clear plastic.

Samuel placing a bead into the plastic sheet.

The children made quite a few rows of beads in an hour. Some of the children were curious to see how many beads were in each row. Part of the learning outcome of dropping beads into a plastic sheet as measuring tallest to shortest and then counting. What a fun way to learn math.

Jess

WRCC

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Exploring with Colours that Surround Us - Fine Arts/Science & Nature Class

November 24, 2014, 09:58 AM

Over the past two weeks, the children have noticed that colours were pouring into the classroom especially when it was a sunny day. We have since been exploring with colours through different methods of play.

First, children began to notice colours through coloured glass panels placed next to the windowsills. When the children looked through the coloured glasses, they were amazed at what we discovered. Through the coloured glass panels, the trees changed colours.

We then took the exploration further by using crystal blocks to play with colours. For example, as we placed the primary colours red and blue together, we discovered the combination of colours changed to purple.

Since we were all curious about the colours, we used paints to see if we could achieve the same effect as the crystal blocks. We then experimented with different colours of paint by mixing and blending colours.

We were still curious! Therefore, the children began with colour mixing for some experimentation fun. Using the primary colours, we were able to mix colours and see the results of the mixture.

We used eye droppers and glass bottles for our colour mixing.

The children were so careful with the glassware and took responsibility in washing the glassware for friends who were waiting for a turn.

Exploring is exciting and fun!

Until next time,

Karen

WRCC

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4 Hour Class - The Story of our Week

November 18, 2014, 01:23 AM

Once upon a time there was a group of friends who loved to go on adventures together.

Chapter 1: Fire Truck Park

They loved to go to "Fire Truck" park to run,

climb,

and use their imaginations!

They saw their old friend, the pig, enjoying a relaxing moment in the sun,

And found a dirty carrot on the ground -

which Patricia reminded them not to eat!!

This week they had a chance to explore uncharted territory as they went past the playground and into the garden...

There they discovered what looked to them like a "beehive"

They examined it as closely as they could.

It was interesting that there were no bees around. Perhaps it was too cold...?

They also discovered a tree stump and learned that the rings of the tree also had a story to tell. The rings could tell you how many years the tree had lived.

While they loved to be active, sometimes they needed to take a break. Weston and Ella figured out a great way to keep their bums dry when they sat on the wet ground -

Sitting on their Backpacks!

Chapter 2: In the Classroom

When spending time in their classroom, this group of friends loved to play with a wide variety of toys.

Adam spent some time playing with the magnetic animals.

And this car track was a huge hit - even if it was a toy that most of them said they played with when they were two :)

Noa counted and sorted beads,

Adam played with Mr. Potato Head,

and Clayten tried out our new Pond Life set.

Nicole introduced a new game called "What's That Sound?"

They listened to sounds and matched them to the pictures.

And of course, they used their imaginations and creativity!

Ashton built a graveyard,

Erik built a gun,

and Clayten drew a rainbow.

Everyone helped to colour this '$20 Bill' thank you card,

that Michelle took to their friends at CIBC.

The free art table got alot of them excited!

There were lots of different materials to use.

Here's Clayten's turtle,

and a few other amazing creations!

And this is a machine that Weston built.

It brought garbage to the garbage can.

Chapter 3: Burkeville and Airport Park

At Burkeville they climbed,

and climbed,

and climbed some more!

They even tried to climb this tree,

and this one!

They also practiced safe balancing!

They took a 15 minute walk to Airport Park

where they spent some time playing on the large globe.

This globe presented for them a wonderful opportunity to develop their balance

as they cautiously figured out how fast, or slow,

they needed to move in order to feel safe.

Ashton and Justin found some ice

So did Ella!

Then they played in the field.

And watched airplanes taking off!

Chapter 4: The Turf Field at West

Weston and Nicole played with their shadows.

Clayten figured out how to free the trapped ball.

And Adam invented his own challenge...

Which involed belly crawling to get the ball!

Chapter 5: Story Time

Story time came to our friends in a variety of ways this week...

They read books,

they went to story time at Ironwood library,

and they wrote their very own stories!!!

Noa and Justin wrote a story called:

This intrigued the others

and a much larger group came together

to work on "Star Wars of the Galaxy"

Here's a few excerpts from the story:

Here they are on display:

And our friends in the 4 hour class lived happily ever after!

The End.

WRCC

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4 Hour Class - Taking it to the bank!

November 10, 2014, 01:45 AM

First thing is first - This week we welcomed a new member to our family: Erik!

Erik is showing me his new Ninja Turtle water bottle

Welcome Erik! It's wonderful to have you join our classroom family!

We also had the privilege of visiting the CIBC Banking Centre at Seafair. We got to see the vault which had a large safe inside and alot of Safe Deposit boxes. We learned that people can keep valuable things in a safe deposit box and that the bank has a key and so do they. For security reasons I was unable to take many pictures on this field trip. But here are a few that I did manage to take:

Lining up to get a chance to put some bills through the money counter

Ashton points out a brochure on "money cards"

Walking back to school...

...with our new...

...pens!

Thanks CIBC!!

Next week we will be making a Thank You card. I asked the children what they wanted the card to look like, and it was agreed - we will have a card that looks like money! A bill to be exact - denomination to be decided. Look for a picture in next week's blog!

The Kitchen

The kichen area was a popular place to be this week

Many cookies were baked...

...And eaten!

Mayu uses an oven mit to take hot things out of the oven

Weston makes cookies

Clayten prepares a tray of food

Patricia and I wait for the lunch that Weston has made for us...

...Weston serves us our lunch!

Magnetic Blocks

Another popular toy this week: the magnetic blocks

Everyone rallied around these toys to play with them

Cooperation, creativity and alot of comprimse ensued

The children waited patiently to get the blocks they wanted

And came up with many, really cool creations!

Here are a few of them:

Foody-Doody

Weston: "I'm making cat cookies"

Me: "What makes them a cat?"

Weston: "The knife."

At the Snack Table

Domenic and Noa both had hard boiled eggs for snack

The Letter 'G'

Adam practices writing the letter 'G'

The list of 'G' words we generated

Who Am Eye?

Noa and Mayu can tell you exactly who each of these sets of eyes belong to!

Can you?

Come on in to our classroom and try for yourself sometime!

The Playground

Playing in the sandbox - everyone takes turns with the big shovels

We didn't have to dig very deep to find water this time!

This old container came in handy!

And speaking of 'HANDy' -

Ashton made some hand prints!

Our play in the sand was briefly interrupted to watch

the garbage truck empty the garbage bin

Erik expertly crosses the monkey bars

We all line up to go in for lunch

A moth took a rest on my hoodie.

When we went to Terra Nova there was a dead seagull in the parking lot. The children wanted to take a closer look. We talked about the fact that birds can carry germs that are dangerous for humans and that we shouldn't touch them - not even with our feet. We also talked about the fact that there were flies on it because flies eat parts of dead animals. The children thought of ways that the bird may have died: hit by a car, fell from the sky, it got shot, it wasn't very good at flying yet... here is a picture:

Once our curiosity had been satisfied, we headed to the park where, of course, a zombie attacked:

Running away from the Zombie

THE ZIP LINE

This week on the zip line the children were taking turns pulling their friends

And a few brave children tried it for the first time!

Safe Deposit Boxes

For art we made our own safe deposit boxes

Check them out on the documentation board!

We also asked everyone what they would put in their own safe deposit boxes, and here's what they had to say:

Ella: Fairy dust

Erik: A spiderman toy

Clayten: Pokemon cards

Dominic: People - doors people

Domenic: Little cars

Noa: Money

Mayu: Box

Adam: A batman toy

Ashton: Worms and bugs

Weston: Fire truck

Matthew: Mail box

Justin: Turtles

Once again, it has been a delightful week - and we can BANK on another one next week :)

Thanks,

Nicole

WRCC

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Fine Arts and Science class - October

November 4, 2014, 11:15 AM

It’s the best time of the year- it’s the month of Halloween! In October, we continue teaching the children about Autumn, getting ourselves ready for Halloween by going to the pumpkin patch, and carving them into Jack-O-Lanterns!

Learning the life cycle of pumpkins

The children are having fun drawing the different types of pumpkins and gourds!

Getting the seeds out of the pumpkin

Some of the children were having fun touching the pumpkin guts and seeds and each of their reactions were different. Some thought it was yucky, some thought it felt strange, but they were all very excited to be carving pumpkin

A finished Jack-o-Lantern!
When we lit the Jack-O-Lantern up in a dark room, it felt like Halloween was finally here!!!!

On the day of the Halloween party, we had lots of activities planned out for the children such as decorating the pumpkins and counting how many spiders fit on the spider web!