Delicate Branch Still Life

Our children are very interested in art and drawing. We introduced artist sketchbooks today and invited the children to contribute a piece of art to these communal collections. We considered providing one book per child but liked the sense of community and respect for one another's work that might be created if we used shared books. 

The children carefully noted what they saw - delicate, deep red buds, emerging leaves, and gentle branches. 

The children worked in quiet consideration and each drew a unique representation of their interpretation of the branches. 

Tomorrow we will offer the children a new artifact to observe and draw. 

Building Area

QR codes and Documentation

We blog a lot in our classroom and have wanted to link our digital documentation to learning centres. This weekend I created mini pages to post on the wall next to centres containing some information about the center subject and a few photos. Included in each is also a QR code that when scanned will link the user to all blog posts tagged with that subject (e.g., math, science). This way a student, parent, teacher or visitor to our room can quickly and easily access the digital documentation archived and see the history of what has happened at the center throughout the year(s)! 

Our Garden

Our children were so excited to plant their own seeds today. Thank you to those families who sent in donations. 

Children took total responsibility for this experience today - filling their pots with dirt, choosing their own seeds, planting the seeds, writing the name of their seeds on a stick and watering the seeds. 

We included art and literacy in our planting area to help showcase what we planted and share our ideas with others. 

Planting

Families we are planting Monday and would appreciate donations of seeds and any small recycled pots you might have. Thank you for your support of our children and program!

Sketching Trees

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We celebrated Earth Day by spending time in our beautiful school yard sketching trees. We found a variety (large trunk, tall branches, blossoms) and the children chose to study and represent the tree they liked best using pencils as the art medium. It is always interesting to see the different interpretations and representations children have of the same object.

 

What we especially loved about this activity was the quiet, careful observation required by the children in order to notice the delicate details of the trees - the shape of the branches, the delicate blossoms, the emerging leaves - and the challenge of just using pencil to draw.

 

 

Reflecting upon the quote above by Emerson is quite fitting in the context of this experience; our children are referred to as 'little acorns' at our school who will grow into Mighty Oaks. Encouraging activities immersed in nature - appreciating the beauty and life in the world around us - will hopefully instill a love and appreciation for nature that will last a child's lifetime. 

Math Documentation

The fluttering of transparent photos on overhead branches caught many children's attention. "Look up there...it's me!" We took some of our favourite photos of math experiences and copied them onto transparencies. We wanted to create a display that children would notice and also hoped that they might be interested in the transparent material or way in which the photos floated in the breeze. On Monday we will ask them to use the transparencies and markers to record some of their feelings and ideas about math. 

Art and Science Areas

We replenished and tidied our art and science area this week and they look so inviting! We will be planting seeds Monday. 

Families we are always looking for art and science donations. Thank you for your support of our children and program!

Individuality and Identity

"Be yourself.  Everyone else is already taken." Oscar Wilde

Wanting to continue to encourage and explore our how our individuality makes us special (related to our work on growth mindset), we asked the children to tell us something they loved about themselves. 

We used black and white photos to highlight the children's strengths and displayed these together in a collage to represent the idea that together we are a strong and capable group. We value each other's individuality and recognize how these strengths make us collectively better. 

Nature Play

The Art Center

Honouring Children's Questions

We often spend sunny days exploring our beautiful yard. There is a rock garden on the side of the school that the children love. The rocks are challenging to walk through as you need to balance and climb on parts of the path, and there is interesting landscaping that is awaking from its slumber now that the days are turning warm.

 

In one of the bushes we noticed a peculiar object - it reminded the children of our Painted Lady cocoons we observed last year.

 

 During circle we invited the children to guess what the object might be. They had some excellent connections to past experiences that were shared to support their opinions. We created an idea web to organize our thoughts.

One of the children suggested we tweet our followers the picture to see if any other class or teacher knew what this object was...

  

...and immediately 10 of our followers shared their opinion that it was a preying mantis egg sac! We researched this to confirm and then explored how to keep the sac safe in our room for further exploration. We gently removed a branch from the bush with one sac and placed it in an aquarium for observation. Stay tuned!