Dancing for DPA (Daily Physical Activity)

Today we joined the other two JK/SK classes for some dancing for DPA.  The children enjoyed following the dance moves on the Smartboard.  Even if you don't have a gaming system that plays "Just Dance" you can play videos on You Tube, here's a link to one that the children really enjoyed:

Just Dance--One Direction

In the Classroom!

Some of our friends were cutting up fruit and creating their own fruit salad at the play dough!

Some of our friends were painting pictures of fruit at the painting centre. Chase painted a banana and Ava was busy painting an apple.

Our Friendship Fruit Salad!

Today we had our "Friendship Fruit Salad".  Thank you to everyone who sent fruit in for this.  We discussed the fact that having one piece of fruit is a nice snack, but when we combine our fruit and share it among everyone, it is extra special.  The children enjoyed trying some new fruits.  We also watched a Wiggles music video, "Fruit Salad", the children sang along and did the actions of the song. Below is a link to the video.

The Wiggles--Fruit Salad

We Continue to Talk about Sound!

Today we were making loud and quieter sounds. We started by saying some of our friends names. We said them louder and then quieter. We practised with instruments too! We played them louder and then quieter! We noticed how the movement was greater and harder when we played an instrument louder. In the picture below, the children are partnered up and they are guessing if their partner is playing the instrument louder or softer.

Guess the Smell??

In our story, "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear", we learned that bears can smell strawberries from far away. We discussed our sense of smell and decided to smell some different things to see if we could tell what the scents were.  The children were able to identify all of the scents that were provided.  Then, today we collected data about what everyone's favourite scent was.  We worked together to create a graph.  We were surprised that mint was the favourite, and chocolated did not get one vote! 

Our Favourite Scent Graph

The children sniffed the scent containers and matched

them to the the pictures that were provided.

Sound!

We are just beginning to discuss sound. Yesterday we discussed common sounds in our environment. They listened to a tape of sounds from around the house and had the children had to guess what they thought they were. Everyone laughed at the sound of a toilet flushing and knew immediately what it was. Other sounds were a bit trickier. Only a few recognized a blender and a blow dryer. Today we introduced a new word..." Vibrate". We tried to make observations about how sound is made. We gently pressed our hands on our throats as we sang a song. Many felt our vocal cords moving or vibrating! They were moving back and forth quickly. Here is a song we learned today:

When things vibrate,
They wiggle back and forth,
They wiggle back and forth,
They wiggle back and forth,
When things vibrate,
They wiggle back and forth,
That's how sounds are made.

We watched an elastic vibrate!

Experiments!

Our dissolving experiments continue. We left the marshmallows in the water for 3 days now and they still did not dissolve. Conclusion: our marshmallows did not dissolve in the water. The rice did not dissolve but we did notice how the rice sunk to the bottom. Only a few we're floating. Some of the flour did dissolve but some of the flour sat at the bottom of the pail.

Our Dissolving Experiment Continues!

Today we are finding out if marshmallows dissolve in water. Many friends thought that they would dissolve. After stirring for a few minutes we discovered that the marshmallows did not dissolve. We will continue watching and stirring all day to see what happens.

The Guessing Jar!

What's in the Guessing Jar? The children feel inside the jar and record their answer on their picture. They can draw or print their answer on a sticky note. Many think that there is a circle inside. We will find out at the end of the day!

Puppets!

Some friends have been making puppets at school lately. We have provided lots of materials for them to be creative. Rhiannon created a vampire puppet. Her puppet makes a hissing sound! Cole created Popcorn the Puppet. He likes crickets!

Math Lesson!

Mrs. Hawkins read the story The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear written by Don and Audrey Wood. In the story the mouse tries to save the strawberry from the hungry bear but in the end he cuts the strawberry in half. We brought in strawberries and we had to cut them in half so everyone was able to have one. We also discussed the importance of being friends and sharing. Next week we are asking for everyone to bring in one fruit and we are going to put all of the fruit together to make a "Friendship Fruit Salad."

Does Sugar Dissolve in Water?

Our survey question this morning asked about if they thought sugar would dissolve in water. We discussed dissolving last week with the candy hearts. Many thought that yes the sugar would dissolve and we discovered that they were right!

Nice Job!

We decorated the front window of our school. Take a peek if you visit the school in the near future!

Our Winter Tree!

Our winter tree is hanging in the hallway. Maddy added a winter tree that she made to add beside it. The children are already beginning to say that the trees will get buds soon.

Dissolving Experiment

Today the children took part in making a prediction about which type of water a candy heart will dissolve in faster.  They learned that the word dissolve means to break apart into tiny pieces.  The candy hearts were placed in hot, room temperature and cold water.  The children checked on the experiment periodically through the afternoon to see how if the candies were dissolved yet. About half of the children predicted the candy would dissolve in hot water and they were right. 

Exploring Sound

On Thursday, for show and tell,  Ashley made a picture of a bat.  The children became interested in finding out more about bats. Mrs. Shepley read some things about bats to the students. They found out that bats use "echolocation" to locate food and other items.  Mrs. Shepley helped the children explore different sounds by filling jars to different levels and then tapping on them.  The children learned that the sounds were higher or lower depending on how much water was in the jar. 

Sharing Time

Jack shared that he was being a dog at the block centre and we wrote words about it. Ava said she knew how to draw a dog and she showed the class on Jacks story. Other friends wanted to try to draw a dog too. Thanks for sharing this with us Ava! What a great teacher!

Sand!

Zander and Chayse built a factory and roads today at the sand centre.

Playdough Fun!

Nathan made a boy and Braelin made shapes today at the play dough centre!

Increasing Phonological Awareness and Letter Recognition

Our students, especially our JK students, continue to work on letter recognition and phonological awareness (knowing the sound a letter makes).  One of the many learning tools we use is the Jolly Phonics program.  This program matches hand signals with the letter sound.  This helps the children remember the sound that goes with the letter.  If you follow the link below you will find a YouTube video that goes through all of the letter sounds and shows the hand actions.  Play this for your child and see if they can do the hand actions! Have fun!

Jolly Phonics

Doctors in the House!

We have had a lot of kids away over the last 2 weeks because of illness. Don't worry! The doctors are taking care of it right in our own classroom. Today we discussed the importance of washing your hands. We practised singing the abc song or counting to 20 when we wash our hands. Also we discussed covering our mouth when coughing or sneezing. Mrs. Hawkins demonstrated how germs spread all over when they cough or sneeze using a handful of pom-poms. Germs went everywhere!

Magnetic Power!

The children are experimenting with magnets at the science area. Carter is looking at how one little magnet is holding all the other magnets and Nathan is discovering how the little magnets are picking up magnetic objects in the jar. Nathan is discussing how the N (north) sticks to the S ( south). But the two N's won't stick together. We talked about the word repell!

Our Winter Tree Is in Progress!

Story Time!

Mrs. Hawkins was reading the story I Wish I Was a Butterfly written by James Howe. It's a story about a cricket who was very envious of the butterfly and wanted to be a butterfly. But the cricket started to chirp and realized how special he is too. He can make beautiful music! We discussed the word envious!
We have been discussing how we can make and keep friends. Yesterday we had to say one nice thing about everyone in our class. Many said that someone is nice because they like to play or they are nice. We will continue to work on this to see if the children can see special qualities about each one of us. We will be creating a book about this. We will post it so stay tuned!