Weekly News May 31st
Monday morning we gathered ourselves as quickly as we could and headed for the beach! Before we left we sang Happy Birthday to Brodie and enjoyed the cupcakes he provided for us - he said it doesn't feel a lot different to be six. On the way to the beach we practiced our road safety skills and worked on walking and talking at the same time! Our class has had lots of practice keeping ourselves safe when walking and it really shows! As we arrived at the beach we noticed a blue heron fishing - it didn't seem particularly concerned about us and hung out for quite a while. After a quick review of the rules (knees must stay dry) students scattered and delved into their areas of interest. We had crab finders, habitat builders, engineers, experimenters and a variety of other pursuits! Students were reminded to eat snack and then everyone was required to sit and eat lunch, but otherwise it was a day of freedom! We only had a couple of people who needed a reminder to keep their knees dry, and there were very few incidents that required teacher intervention at all! Around lunch time we saw two deer come down into the water near the campground to cool off. It was a lovely day! We managed to stop for a quick play at the park on our way back and still made it back to the school just in time for the dismissal bell.
Tuesday we did a quick calendar before Ms. Wood came in for Fine Arts. She has been working on an Around the World theme and this week students worked on something from Mexico. After fine arts we went outside for some time on the upper playground. Just before we came in for snack we practiced listening for sounds around us - like last week in the woods. We closed our eyes and pointed in the direction of the sounds we heard and then tried to identify them. Our work time after snack was to draw a new self portrait. We talked about what a year of growth it has been and how amazing it is that we have changed since we did our first portraits. Everyone took their time and did their very best drawing. In the afternoon Ms. Mousseau's class joined us for our library time since we were all at the beach during their time on Monday. Miss Julie showed us a world map and some students were able to identify where Africa is - because that is where our story (Anansi the Spider) came from. We enjoyed the story very much and then everyone picked their last new book for this school year. In June Miss Julie has to do an inventory of the collection so we will not be able to take out any new books.
We made plans to head out for a picnic lunch and play in the afternoon centres time on Wednesday - to make things less intimidating for the new Kindies coming to the Ready Set Go event in the afternoon. It's never fun to miss centres so we chose to get our work done right away in the morning and then have centres before lunch. Mrs Scargill was the guest teacher with us for the day while Ms. Mousseau got ready for the kindergarten event. For our work time she led us in a directed drawing of a flower and a bee. They're up in the classroom now and look awesome! After we finished the drawings and our BFF's we moved right into centres play. Before going outside for lunchtime we made sure that our lunches were ready to go for the afternoon and then we just grabbed them and headed to the Queen Street park for rest of the day. It was fun to have a picnic and a long playtime! It was a bit disappointing not to be able to connect with the new kindergarten students, but probably much less overwhelming for them since it was much quieter at our and of the school.
Thursday morning we were all very excited to see the chicken trailer at the front of the school. We needed to be patient for our turn so after calendar we headed out for a walk in the woods. We had snack and some play time and then we started to get ready to go back to the school. Unfortunately, we needed to spend some extra time cleaning up because several people left their snack garbage behind! We talked about making sure we remember our garbage next time. We came back to the school just in time for our turn to visit the chickens! Poultry in Motion brought their display for the day and we impressed the farmers with how much we knew about the life cycle of a chicken! We did learn a lot by hatching the eggs this year. Afterwards we looked at the story / colouring book that the chicken lady gave us and then Melvin came to visit. He brought a new book about feeling scared. Everyone brought home the paperwork on Thursday. The children are all very interested in the Enchanted Wood book we have been reading. This week the children in the story got caught in Rocking Land and then were invited by Silky and Moonface for a visit to the Land of Take What You Want. I find sometimes that this novel inspires more imaginative play but this group of students was already very imaginative in their play so it's difficult to say if it is inspiring them. During centres I brought out a storage unit that is full of a variety of hardware. Some people were very intrigued and dove right in to sorting and organizing the drawers. Others joined me in pulling nails from the tree stump.
Friday was 80's day and I was very impressed by the efforts that were made! Being a teenager in the 80's I can confidently say that everyone "totally rocked it!" After calendar and Fine Arts we went down to play under the trees at the back of the property. There was lots of limb-swinging and "lets pretend"ing! We took a little extra time at the end for playing on the lower playground all by ourselves. Every time we do this I see more growth and confidence being displayed than the time before! Our work time on Friday was colouring in the self portraits. We used flesh toned markers for the skin and oil pastels for the rest. Everyone had to decide for themselves which flesh tone best suited them, by holding their arm up to a colour sample. We talked a lot about using realistic colours for our parts - i.e. no green hair :P Before afternoon centres everyone was finished - and even before they are mounted on backgrounds and hung I can see tremendous growth and development in everyone! Centres was fairly noisy and busy but we still managed to get it cleaned up in an appropriate length of time.
Next week looks to be a little cooler but still nice. We will be taking the learning outside as much as possible so please continue to encourage your child to dress for the weather.
NEXT WEEK - June 3rd - 7th
Monday - Walk Day
Tuesday - Library Day
- Parent-Child Mother Goose - preschool program in the library from 9am - 10am
Wednesday - Walk day
Thursday - Walk day
- hot lunch orders are due
Friday -
Tuesday we did a quick calendar before Ms. Wood came in for Fine Arts. She has been working on an Around the World theme and this week students worked on something from Mexico. After fine arts we went outside for some time on the upper playground. Just before we came in for snack we practiced listening for sounds around us - like last week in the woods. We closed our eyes and pointed in the direction of the sounds we heard and then tried to identify them. Our work time after snack was to draw a new self portrait. We talked about what a year of growth it has been and how amazing it is that we have changed since we did our first portraits. Everyone took their time and did their very best drawing. In the afternoon Ms. Mousseau's class joined us for our library time since we were all at the beach during their time on Monday. Miss Julie showed us a world map and some students were able to identify where Africa is - because that is where our story (Anansi the Spider) came from. We enjoyed the story very much and then everyone picked their last new book for this school year. In June Miss Julie has to do an inventory of the collection so we will not be able to take out any new books.
We made plans to head out for a picnic lunch and play in the afternoon centres time on Wednesday - to make things less intimidating for the new Kindies coming to the Ready Set Go event in the afternoon. It's never fun to miss centres so we chose to get our work done right away in the morning and then have centres before lunch. Mrs Scargill was the guest teacher with us for the day while Ms. Mousseau got ready for the kindergarten event. For our work time she led us in a directed drawing of a flower and a bee. They're up in the classroom now and look awesome! After we finished the drawings and our BFF's we moved right into centres play. Before going outside for lunchtime we made sure that our lunches were ready to go for the afternoon and then we just grabbed them and headed to the Queen Street park for rest of the day. It was fun to have a picnic and a long playtime! It was a bit disappointing not to be able to connect with the new kindergarten students, but probably much less overwhelming for them since it was much quieter at our and of the school.
Thursday morning we were all very excited to see the chicken trailer at the front of the school. We needed to be patient for our turn so after calendar we headed out for a walk in the woods. We had snack and some play time and then we started to get ready to go back to the school. Unfortunately, we needed to spend some extra time cleaning up because several people left their snack garbage behind! We talked about making sure we remember our garbage next time. We came back to the school just in time for our turn to visit the chickens! Poultry in Motion brought their display for the day and we impressed the farmers with how much we knew about the life cycle of a chicken! We did learn a lot by hatching the eggs this year. Afterwards we looked at the story / colouring book that the chicken lady gave us and then Melvin came to visit. He brought a new book about feeling scared. Everyone brought home the paperwork on Thursday. The children are all very interested in the Enchanted Wood book we have been reading. This week the children in the story got caught in Rocking Land and then were invited by Silky and Moonface for a visit to the Land of Take What You Want. I find sometimes that this novel inspires more imaginative play but this group of students was already very imaginative in their play so it's difficult to say if it is inspiring them. During centres I brought out a storage unit that is full of a variety of hardware. Some people were very intrigued and dove right in to sorting and organizing the drawers. Others joined me in pulling nails from the tree stump.
Friday was 80's day and I was very impressed by the efforts that were made! Being a teenager in the 80's I can confidently say that everyone "totally rocked it!" After calendar and Fine Arts we went down to play under the trees at the back of the property. There was lots of limb-swinging and "lets pretend"ing! We took a little extra time at the end for playing on the lower playground all by ourselves. Every time we do this I see more growth and confidence being displayed than the time before! Our work time on Friday was colouring in the self portraits. We used flesh toned markers for the skin and oil pastels for the rest. Everyone had to decide for themselves which flesh tone best suited them, by holding their arm up to a colour sample. We talked a lot about using realistic colours for our parts - i.e. no green hair :P Before afternoon centres everyone was finished - and even before they are mounted on backgrounds and hung I can see tremendous growth and development in everyone! Centres was fairly noisy and busy but we still managed to get it cleaned up in an appropriate length of time.
Next week looks to be a little cooler but still nice. We will be taking the learning outside as much as possible so please continue to encourage your child to dress for the weather.
NEXT WEEK - June 3rd - 7th
Monday - Walk Day
Tuesday - Library Day
- Parent-Child Mother Goose - preschool program in the library from 9am - 10am
Wednesday - Walk day
Thursday - Walk day
- hot lunch orders are due
Friday -