3 and 4 Year Old Classes - Learning about Colour

February 4, 2015, 05:25 PM

Colour is everywhere. Even if not expressing it, when children look out a window they notice all the colours they possibly can. Recognizing their colours helps them learn to categorize the world around them.

Our Preschoolers experimented in class and learnt about colours using different mediums. They poured, stirred, squirted, glued, manipulated and splashed!

Children learnt about shading and hues using little more than tissue paper, cooking oil and wax paper. They further explored comparing the various shades on colour palettes.

The preschoolers were asked what their thoughts were when shown a specific colour. Some

of the responses were:

Red

Cade :“I think of strawberries. Mmmm, I love strawberries.”
Kris: “Red is a red fire.”
Chelsea: “Red makes purple. I mean red and blue make purple.”

Blue

Ava: “The blue is the colour of Ryleigh's eyes.”
Lily: “Blue makes me think of blue whales, the moon also, and the sky.”
Mia: “Blue is the rain I think. Is it blue? I think so.”

Green

Chelsea: “Frogs are green and snakes in the grass are green.”
Lily: “I think of the trees and leaves and a green caterpillar.”

Yellow

Emma: “A yellow sun is for the beach.”

Purple

Chelsea: “Eggplant is purple. That's all I think. Oh, wait... my shirt is purple.”

Orange

Lily: “Carrots are orange.”
Emma: “An orange is what you eat.”
Kai: “Fishy Crackers”
Matthew: “Yeah, Fishy Crackers”

While manipulating liquid paint in a sealed ziplock, the children explored the primary colours. They were excited to note that blending red, yellow and blue creates orange, green and purple.

The children were intrigued when they mixed the primary colours by simply squirting food colouring onto paper towels. Much time was spent at this table. The children excitedly shared when the colours seeped together, and a new colour was created. “I made green, I made orange, red and blue made purple...” The end result was a vibrant display of bursting colour.

Taylor, Sophia and Claire helped in preparing the table for the above activity, displaying much patience, and the ability to work cooperatively together.

Colour layering was created using water and food colouring, oil and corn syrup. The children poured, mixed and mixed some more, each time intently watching the colours settle back into layers.

When allowed to experiment and explore, children become increasingly curious. The world around them expands and many basic concepts are ultimately learnt and skills developed, resulting in a naturally beautiful consequence.

~Barbi

WRCC

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4 Year Old Class - Water

January 30, 2015, 08:43 AM

Welcome back! We hope you’ve had a restful winter break and spent some quality time with family and friends. The children are much more confident after returning from winter break, and were eager see their friends again.

We began the week talking about what causes things to sink or float, and the children then went into a conversation about water. I then asked the question, “Where does water come from?” Here is what the children said:

Lily - Hose
Taya - Fountain
Ava – Whale
Chelsea – Water Table
Ryleigh – Sink
Kai – Sea
Aleah – Fridge
Emma – In the Tub
Cade – Glass
Anthony – Water Bottle
Mia – A Well and Ice
Matthew – Spouting Shark
Kris – Big Water Table

We did an experiment to see if an orange would sink or float, and then what would happen if we peeled the orange.

We did another experiment to see what dissolves in water.

Taya is mixing oil into the water. When I asked her “What happened?” She said “The water now has bubbles in it.”

We filled the water table with gel water crystals. Mia asked Taya, “Is it real water?” Taya replies “No, its jello.” Mia says “I like squeezing jello in my fingers.”

Ryleigh spends most of free play at the water table, discovering what items float or sink.

At the end of the first week back to school, it was great to watch the children’s team work. When cleaning up the blocks, Aleah, Taya, Tiffany and Cade found a solution. They made a line, passing the blocks down the line in order to put the blocks back on the block shelf.

Taya passes the block to Tiffany, who then passes to Cade, who will put the block on shelf. The children were able to independently clean up blocks without instructions from teachers

To end the morning free play, Taya reads her friends a story after singing the welcome song altogether.

Until next time!

~Jess

WRCC

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Fine Arts & Science Class - Africa

January 28, 2015, 04:39 PM

Before we left on our winter break, our kids started talking about Africa, and when we came back to class in January, we began exploring the topic from different angles.

Our journey began during a circle time where I asked the kids what they knew about Africa. We looked at an illustrated map, books and photographs together and the kids shared their thoughts on a variety of topics:

The shape of the African continent
Village life
Animals

The Shape

We looked at different maps of Africa.

We drew the continent shape and other shapes in sand.

We did pin pricking of the shape of the African continent caption.

Look! I have TWO Africas!

What did the kids think the shape of the African continent looks like?

Madeleine: “When I turn it upside down it looks like the letter ‘J’”
William: “It looks like a fish!”
Kieri: “It looks like an octopus to me!”
Elisia: “It looks like there’s lots of sea there…”

Village Life

The kids created a village like they saw in pictures.

Some kids built a hut out of wooden arches and brown paper.

Although the kids focused on recreating traditional village life, we also looked at modern-day living in Africa. Kai W. also made a connection between life in Africa and in Canada when he commented: “The hut looks like my home!”

The Animals

Our group spent the biggest chunk of time around the topic of animals. Through play, art and reading activities, we explored the African animal kingdom of lions, zebras, elephants, monkeys and more!

The lion was clearly the king of the jungle in this play!

Others preferred to play with the various snakes.

During play with the animal figures the kids talked about why they did or didn’t like lions:

Kai S: “I like lions because they eat meat like me.”
Jun: “I don’t like lions because they are not pretty.”
Regina: “I don’t like them because they have big teeth and small teeth.”
Jaylen: “I like the big lion because he can give me a ride!”
Ella: “I don’t like them because they eat zebras… yuck!”

Art Activities

Art activities revolved around the making of various animals:

Creating zebras with yarn and glue.

Making lions with feathers.

Painting handprint elephants.

…MANY elephants!

Reading

…Last but not least, we read The Lion and the Mouse, which our group loved and requested that we read the book again.

What did the kids say about the book?

Elisia: “The mouse helped the lion get out of the cage”
Noa: “You can help your sister.”
Sahara: “I help my daddy, although I’m small.”

I really enjoyed exploring the continent of Africa with your children and learned new and interesting facts with them!

-Michelle

WRCC

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4 Hour Class - In & Out

January 28, 2015, 12:41 AM

This week our class had one full day inside, one full day outside and one day with a bit of both! While we were indoors we:

Made some new space mud - yellow, with silver glitter

We used rollers, moulds, a masher, duplo

and our imaginations, of course!

We did art with paint and yarn

We put the paint covered yarn on the paper...

...folded the paper in half...

...and pulled the string out!

It made really beautiful designs on the paper.

They will be hanging on the wall in the classroom - if you'd like to check them out!

In the kitchen area we pretended to have a restaurant

Adam did some cooking and also organized a

group of friends to straighten up the kitchen -

It was very neat and tidy afterward!

We built marble tracks

We played with the straws

And the Duplo

Matthew worked on a puzzle

And, of course we did some reading!

Taking a moment for himself, Adam reads this book about the Human Body

We also did some art with chalk and water

It was interesting to see how the chalk looked different when it was wet

Noa is making a page for her book

Ashton shows the book that he made

Clayten showed us a magic trick at circle time

And on Friday, we played "limbo!":

OUTSIDE -

We spent some time in our own sandbox

where we found this big puddle

We had alot of fun digging in it, jumping over it,

And throwing things in it!

Ella found this lady bug on the slide - we took turns holding it gently until it flew away

Since the room was needed for the painters to finish, we went to Queen's Park in New Westminster

Where Weston was excited to see that there was a Fire Truck on the playground!

We had fun climbing on it and pretending to be firefighters

There were also some diggers

They were heavy

But that didn't stop us from trying them out!

In the forest we got to explore - there were lots of logs of various sizes

Clayten found this "dinosaur bone"

They're difficult to see, but there are lots of mushrooms under this log.

We talked about the fact that you should never eat mushrooms that you find outside -

They might be poisonous!

Then we decided to make a house, so we collected some large branches...

...and worked together to build this nifty shelter!

Unfortunately it was time to go before we could finish it!

We've been very lucky to get to do some really amazing out trips over the last few weeks, and now the teachers are excited to think up some more crazy adventures for the class to go on! It has been wonderful getting to explore new places and to witness each of the children react to them! Already we have been asked "when are we going to go back to the beach?" Soon. Very soon!

Excited to go on some new adventures,

Nicole

WRCC

Comments

Fine Arts & Science Class - Light and Shadow

January 21, 2015, 10:02 AM

The Provocation: A projector was set up on the floor of the classroom. Fabrics, objects, markers, paper and music were provided.

The Purpose: - To inspire, explore and encourage experimentation with light, objects and color
- To create awareness of reflection, light and shadow

The Observation: The children eagerly tried out their ideas with movement of their own bodies and shadows, which progressed to other solids. They noted that light did go through glass, plastic and cellophane but not their bodies, pencils or markers. They observed the changes in the shadows when objects were moved either closer to or further away from the light. Conversation abounded with “Watch this,” “It’s really big now!” and “I think I can draw this.” The light was turned and patterns appeared on the ceiling and then progressed to the floor.

Conclusion and Reflection: A very successful activity for both children and teachers. The children collaborated with each other in experimenting, drawing, adding materials and working with the objects and colors in different ways. Perhaps the next steps are outdoor shadows and discovering what happens in the sunshine?