Chickpea...brownies?

Rolling Rolling

Rollers are such a fun, big movement way to paint because the nature of the tool encourages children to reach back and forth and stretch with their art making. Many of our children were eager to use these tools because they had observed adults in their lives using them to paint walls around the house. We offered complimentary colours of paint so that way the art would look lovely no matter how many times the paper was rolled.

 

 

Mindfulness through Music

Our children love music. It's calming and inspiring and something they ask for on a regular basis. We love any song by Charlotte Diamond and asked the children to close their eyes and get comfortable in a relaxed position while listening to the whimsical, magical song 'Spider's Web'. 

Many were very eager to share the ideas that emerged for them while listening to the music. Our conversation evolved to include our collective ideas about mindfulness and many connections were made to the books we've read.

Today we played the music again and invited the children to draw what the music made them see and feel. They showed such focus and interest in this and it was fascinating to discuss the art that emerged from their state of relaxation. 

Music is powerful. We have discussed with the children how we can use it to help soothe and relax our bodies and minds and use it to ready ourselves for learning. 

Exploring Chemical Reactions

The children have been very interested in dropping coloured water and making their own mixtures and potions. Today we offered white vinegar coloured with food colouring and trays of baking soda. The children used the droppers to drop vinegar onto the baking soda. 

They were surprised to notice an immediate chemical reaction as the two substances interacted. They observed the changes with their eyes, smelled the reaction with their noses, and heard the bubbling and fizzing with their ears. We discussed how scientists can make observations in many different ways and by using all their senses. 

As more colour was dropped the baking soda bubbled and fizzed together mixing the colours into interesting swirls and shades. 

Any activity using droppers also strengthens fine motor control and perseverance as the droppers take practice to manipulate. 

We look forward to trying this again with the primary colours!

Sewing our own Owls

Last Thursday our children were treated to a creative activity that encouraged them to create their own stuffed owls while learning about sewing machines and the way things work. We were fortunate that one of our mothers was able to bring in many different pieces of fabric and buttons so the children could choose how to assemble their very own unique owls!

 

Watching the sewing machine work and the craftsmanship that goes into producing something like a stuffed owl was very interesting to our children. Many had never observed a sewing machine up close and found the entire process to be fascinating!

 

We also were very lucky that another one of our mothers volunteered to assist with the creation of the owls. Seeing the difference between a sewing machine working, and a thread and needle hand sewing, showed the children that machines can make our life easier and that different machines perform different jobs.

 

 

Many children were quite content to spend their entire playtime watching the owls be created. They commented on how their friends' owls were similar and different from their own.

A big thank you to Mrs. Montcalm and Mrs. Melanson for helping put a smile on our children's faces with some colourful, happy owls! We welcome and encourage any family member who would like to share a special talent and interest with our children to contact us about coming into the classroom! We love to learn from you and you help make our classroom an even better place to be!