Beginning Our Beautiful Stuff Exploration

     Our E.C.E. student Fatema and I both shared our beautiful stuff with the students at the beginning of March. The students were very eager to also share their own beautiful materials and have been collecting their own beautiful stuff and storing their bags in our classroom. As our collection began to grow the students' anticipation of opening their bags also grew. 

Yesterday we began our journey discovering our materials. When sharing our beautiful stuff, one student at a time takes each material from their bag out and displays it on the mat until all the materials are presented. 

 More and more materials are take out of the bag and the children eagerly watch and discuss the different materials that they see. 

As a class we look at the materials and see how we are able to group the materials into smaller categories. As we sorted our first bag yesterday we grouped the beautiful stuff into four groups: 

- Things with stones

- Circles

- Peacock feathers, and 

- Foam stickers. 

 The materials are being displayed at the Discovery centre in order for the children to explore and watch our collection grow. We are looking forward to seeing where our beautiful stuff exploration is going to take us. 

If you have not had a chance to collect your child's beautiful stuff and bring it into the classroom please feel free to send it into the classroom at any time. 

Visiting the Thorncliffe Park Public Library

We recently visited the Thorncliffe Park Public Library with Ms. Olah's class to learn more about the library and where to find different books based on our interests. We were greeted at the library by the librarian Christine who read us the book Boo Hoo Bird by Jeremy Tankard. 

We thought that this book was very funny! We then got to go on a tour of the library to see where all the different types of books were kept. We really liked seeing where the fairy tales, animals, and story books could be found in the library. 

The best part of our trip was when the students got to take out their own self selected library book. Each child who returned the library form or brought in their library card was able to take out a book. The student's selected comics, picture books, animal books, and books about different types of dinosaurs. 

Each child who took out a book had the opportunity to independently sign out their own book. Each child placed their book on the glass scanner, used the computer to start the process and scanned their card under the red scanner. 

Once the book was checked out each student printed out their receipt which helps to tell parents and students when their books needs to be returned to the public library. The books taken out by the morning class will need to be returned to the public library by March 19th, 2013 in order to not receive any fines. 

Thank you Christine and all the librarians at Thorncliffe Park Public Library, we had a great time. We are looking forward to coming back another time to take more books home to enjoy reading with our families. 

Growing bulbs

 In the middle of January a variety of large and small bulbs were given to our classroom by our vice principal Mrs. Green-Brown. The students were excited to see what we had been given and were able to make a variety of observations about the bulbs. 

           

            Together as a class, each student sketched and painted their own representations of a bulb. Once the bulbs had been sketched and painted, the students decided that it was time to plant the bulbs.

            During our Knowledge Building Circle the children discussed that the bulbs would need in order to grow. Many students discussed the importance of soil, water and sunlight in order for the plant to get the food that it needed. 

When we plant it will grow into a plum or strawberry. - H. Z.

It's not a seed it's a plant. - H. A. 

We can put it in the ground and the bulbs go down and then the bulbs come back and it grows flowers. - Z. F. 

You will need to put soil and water and give it sun and it will grow into a flower. - I. M. 

It  might grow into a shiny flower because it is a lot golden. - B. A. M. 

It is going to turn into a flower. - A. Q. 

It is going to be bigger. The colour is going to change. This one will be white. - T. S. 

It turn into flower, then pumpkin. - Z. I. 

This going turn biggest one. This part going to turn real big. It will be food, we eat it. - A. M. 

If you put some dirt and a lot of water and then it will grow into a plant and we will plant it outside. It will grow into tasty foods.  - H. R. 

            In small groups, each student got the opportunity to plant a bulb and predict what it is going to grow into.

            The bulbs have been growing for two weeks and are beginning to take shape. The students are looking forward to seeing what the bulbs will grow into as well as are enjoying observing the bulbs grow. 

New Year's Resolutions

Parents and Kindergarten Students,

I am the first to admit that I am new to blogging. It is not something that I am very comfortable with and it has already slid by the wayside. My New Year’s resolution this year is to become a better blogger. Before I begin the New Year with a variety of different blog posts about what is happening in the classroom, I wanted to give parents and guardians the opportunity to share what they would like to see on the blog. Later this week I will be sending home a parent survey about the blog in order to use it to best inform you what is happening within our classroom. Thank you again for being patient with me as I begin to better understand blogging and what is means to me as an educator.

Sincerely,

Lindsay Keith

Decomposing Pumpkin Inquiry

     Although the month of October has past our class has been observing and exploring the slow decay of our pumpkins. The students have been observing the pumpkins to see what is happening to them. Our inquiry has gone in many directions and has taken a new turn. This week the children watched a video about decaying pumpkins and learned that pumpkins grow mold. Early in our inquiry the children believed that the pumpkin had snow and sofa cotton on it. The students developed an inquiry about the pumpkins that entailed them observing a pumpkin that was left to decay inside and a pumpkin that was left to decay outside. After watching the video on Tuesday the students have created a new experiment. 

Our outside pumpkin.

Our inside pumpkin. 

     The students spoke about other fruits and vegetables and what would happen to them if they were left to decay. We took some fruit from the classroom and put it in the aquarium with the pumpkins and the students made predictions about what would happen next. 

The students added oranges to the aquarium to see what changes are going to occur.

Prediction: "In 5 days it will get dark and grow mold." 

Today when we observed the pumpkin and oranges we found some interesting changes had already occurred in just a day. 

Our pumpkins and oranges after one day of observations. 

The students observed that, "The orange peel is turning black." We are looking forward to what is going to happen over the next four days to see if all of our predictions come true.

Welcome to Our New Classroom Blog

I am very excited to share Room 156's new classroom blog. This is where I will be posting student learning and inquiry, information for parents, and happenings from our classroom. I am excited and nervous at the same time! Please feel free to leave comments, ask questions and share your thoughts about our learning. Thank you so much for your patience and I am looking forward to taking this journey with you and the children from Room 156's morning class.

Lindsay Keith