Exploring Fall

The students have been noticing the fall changes outside by observing the trees in our yard. Many, many leaves have found their way into the classroom over the past few weeks!
We decided we should follow this interest and do some investigating about fall. The students have begun to share their wonders about fall.

M.W- I wonder how they change colour?

P.D- I wonder why they change colour?

A.R- I wonder when it’s fall they change to another colour?

A.A.- I wonder why the leaves turn different colours?

N.M- I wonder why the leaves is turning a yellow, and red and orange and I saw blue on my coat?

E.K.- I wonder why there are different colours of leaves and they are turning to colours, they fall on lots of leaves and they change different colours?

I.S- I wonder why there’s yellow?

M.P- I see red leaves , I wonder why they are red?

A.Ah.- I see a little bit of brown on that leaf and a little bit of yellow on it, I wonder why they have lots of brown?

B.G- I wonder why the leaves turn different colours?

A.H- I wonder why the stem parts is sometimes different colours ?

P.D- I wonder why some stems are big and some are small?

A.K- I wonder why some are two different colours?

M.W- I wonder why there are lots of veins in leaves?

We will continue to investigate these wonders in order to learn new information.

To encourage the students to use their observation skills we have had many opportunities to observe leaves using more than just our eyes. We have been using our hands to feel leaves and our noses to smell them. 

The students shared their observations:

A.K.- I smell it’s salad

A.R- it feels like salad

M.P- I see a red stem with little bit red and there is lots of green on my leaf 

A.Ah- I see small dot 

M.W- I see the veins and I see dots and I feel the line veins  

E.K- I got a lines on the leaf and they have a cross and they have lines

M.F- I see some dots, yellow

A.P- green

I.S- red

N.M- I have a pink and little bit of green and brown 

A.C- I got a little bit of green and I got 4 dots, and its red 

D.M- there’s a little bit of pink and it has some stripes on it

M.A- small yellow leaf

A.A- red and black and green and white  

H.W- red 

S.C- I feel a raised line on the back

R.H- my leaf is green and big green because part of it broke 

Y.M- green and blue 

J.A- green 

P.D- I have a little black on my stem 

Ms. Tompkins- why do leaves have a stem?

D.A- because you can hold it

N.M- you can hold it with the stem when you find a leaf

M.W- I think it’s to hold it on the tree

We also wanted to use our observation skills to find out what leaves we had. We set up a provocation to encourage the students to explore and observe the leaves we had (the students brought in all these leaves!).

They began to sort the leaves as a way to find out what leaves we had

They sorted the maple leaves 

Working together to sort by colour

The final product, they chose to sort our leaves by colour

 We set up a provocation to encourage the students to paint the leaves.

Their paintings turned out fabulous and we have them displayed in the classroom around the list the students brainstormed about fall colours.

Our First Month

Wow! What a whirl wind of a month! We have been very busy in Room 122. Let me take some time to update you on some of the learning we have done in September.

Our school is focusing on the 'Habits of Mind', which help develop a community of thinkers. We have been learning about how to listen with our whole body (Habit of Mind: Listening with Empathy) to show our teachers and friends we are listening and understanding respectfully. We watched a video called 'Biscotti Kid' and learned about how we can effectively listen with our whole bodies.

Click here for the link.

We have also been learning how to work cooperatively in all areas of our classroom. 

Writing together on the white boards

Working together on daily writing 

Adding details to their structure 

Building

During 'Thinking and Learning Time', students are working on doing their personal best daily writing. We have talked about how we can show our best and what that would look like. We used the concept of ice cream scoops to explain that more is better (in regards to details, colour, words, etc.). 

Students have been working really hard to create 'four scoop' writing and we have seen lots of improvement in the quality of their writing and drawings. Each student hangs their work on the daily writing wall.

The students have been writing all around the room!

D.S. Drawing what he created in the science area 

M.W. writing about her observations of the scale she created

Using the book to assist with labelling his picture

Sketching her observations

Sketching her building

Each month we are going to highlight the student's personal best writing on our 'Personal Best' wall.

We have been doing a lot of counting in the class. We are working on one-to-one correspondence, recognizing amounts, and counting in stable order! Here are a few of the songs we have been singing to build counting skills:

• Count to 10
• Count to 20

We have been learning how to use 5 frames and 10 frames.

Created by I.S., counting one to 13 

Creating patterns on the light table

A.R Showing different ways to make 5

One thing the educator team has been really excited about is that our students LOVE to read! We find them reading everywhere!

As you can see, we have had a busy month! It has been so wonderful to get to know each one of our students and we look forward to continuing to do so!

A New Year in Room 122!

Welcome to our new students and a welcome back to all our returning students! 

We are excited for a new year. It has been wonderful to get to know our students over the course of our first few days together.

Allow me to give you a tour of our classroom and a little explanation about why we have chosen to set it up this way. We have worked to create a space that is inviting and challenging. We hope it inspires the students to ask questions, take chances, collaborate, think critically and explore the world around them.

This is our building and construction centre. We provide many open-ended materials to encourage students to be creative in their structures. Using open-ended materials allows students to 'think outside the box' and change their creations everyday, it doesn't limit or prescribe what they can do with the materials. 

"Children can learn literacy, science, and

mathematics joyfully through active play

with diverse, open-ended materials."

- Walter F. Drew and Baji Rankin

This is our drama centre. Right now it is set up as a house, which is something familiar for all students. Throughout the year, this area will change depending on what the students want. We look forward to seeing what this will turn into! Not only do students get to use their imaginations in this area, but they get to work on social skills as well, such as sharing, taking turns, and collaboration.

This is our writing and creative arts area. While writing happens in all areas in the classroom, this table will be dedicated to encouraging our students to become writers. There are many different supplies to allow their creativity to flourish! We have letter rings, word rings and sentence starters available. I was excited to find '101 First Word' books at Chapters to encourage students to write independently. Students will have the opportunity to write in a variety of authentic ways including making lists, writing books, sending letters, writing cards and documenting what they observe in the world around them.

We have organized all of our supplies by colour to encourage students to make choices when writing and drawing. This also encourages our students to work on their sorting skills (by colour and type).

This is our math area. We have put out a variety of manipulatives to allow our students to explore counting and patterning. We have math tools (5 frames, 10 frames)  that will be out to encourage students to explore numbers.

A 'provocation' (an invitation for learning) set up to allow the students to explore numbers.

This is our science/discovery table. Right now it is set up with our light pad and some natural materials. There are a variety of materials to allow us an opportunity to learn what the students are interested in. This table will usually be a provocation that is related to our classroom inquiry.

This is our snack table. Students are able to go to eat their snack when they are hungry. We track who has eaten (the students clip their name on the sign to show they have eaten).

Here you can see our cubbies and another table for writing. This shelf houses our inquiry binders from last year and books at varying levels for our students. We have clip boards, white boards and magnet letters available to encourage writing throughout the classroom.

As our students work to become familiar with the letters and their sounds as well as, words and stories, we have created a few provocations relating to the alphabet. Above we have letter rocks and below we have a sensory bin with letters and objects that start with each letter. It has been great to see how our students know their letters!

 We can't wait to see how the classroom will transform as the students begin to add their own touch to the walls and space.

We Are Getting Excited...

We can't believe it is that time of year again! 

Our team has been busy transforming our classroom into an environment that provokes curiosity, challenges students to think deeper and promotes a sense of collaboration between students, teachers and materials. 

We are really excited for this room to be full of students. We are truly looking forward to the incredible thinking and learning that will happen this year!