tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90438225997321285122024-03-05T00:56:16.793-08:00Inquisitive ChildrenThe Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-3740060586162452072016-05-20T10:54:00.004-07:002016-05-20T10:57:17.160-07:00the easy thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The easy thing would be to give them a set of rules to follow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The easy thing would be to write out a step-by-step procedure or to walk them through the process by modelling it for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The easy thing would be to give up when the first attempt fails. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The easy thing would be to only show them one way, the right way, so that as soon as they have a finished product, they move on to something else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>I've never been much into the easy thing.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I provided the materials and a very brief explanation of <a href="http://discoverexplorelearn.com/make-your-own-straw-plane/">a picture I saw of an airplane made from circles and straws</a>. They got to work, asking for help to hold materials in place while they taped. We agreed that the hall was a good place to test our first planes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The first planes flew a short distance but didn't produce a "Wow!" from any of the engineers. We gathered and discussed what we might change. One student thought the first ones were too big, using a full length straw and paper that was cut into 2" strips.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We discussed how we might downsize the first design. We cut straws in half and used narrower strips of paper. We also made the circles smaller. The second prototype didn't produce a "Wow!" either.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We talked about the variables. Yes, that's a big name for a little dog, as my Grandma used to say. But children ages 4-6 are much smarter than most people think. We realised that one variable we hadn't changed was the thickness of the paper. I cut up some old file folders and the young engineers sat down to build again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We took these planes outside to test. This time, they flew! Some flew really well, and some just, well, flew. A few children ran back into the classroom to add wings, and even tiny straw rocket boosters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then I noticed that one JK student had taped her circles onto her straw a bit crookedly. One was pointing up and the other was pointing down. THIS plane flew in a perfect spiral, covering more distance than the others. This was one variable even I hadn't considered!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We then had the opportunity to talk about science, and life, and the mistakes we make that teach us more than the successes. Deep stuff for Kindergarten! But they are ready to come back to the creation station to build again, this time following the design of another student's "mistake".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'm glad I didn't do the easy thing. Our whole day was full of statements liked:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Can you help me?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I can help you.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I can do it!</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I did it!</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And the very best statement of all:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">I wonder...</span></i></div>
The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-73121807684779402582016-05-12T12:58:00.002-07:002016-05-12T12:59:41.543-07:00Orca Beans and Math<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bobble, our classroom "pet" (<a href="http://www.folkmanis.com/prod-67-1-52-1/rabbit-in-hat.htm">a rabbit in a hat puppet</a>!) had a little surprise for us this morning: a small cup filled to the brim with beautiful black and white beans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We've been knee-deep in seeds and planting so the children guessed right away that they were seeds. I gave them the hint that the beans were named after a black and white animal. A zebra bean? A skunk bean? A cow bean? A panda bean?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I asked them if they had ever heard of an orca. A few students knew that this was a name for what is more commonly known as the Killer Whale. I explained that these beans were called orca beans because of their shine and their black and white pattern. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Our sensory table has been filled with a variety of dried beans and seeds for a few weeks. The children sort the beans into cups, use their construction vehicles to scoop and dump, explore capacity, and just enjoy the sensory experience of running their fingers through the beans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Today I offered them the provocation of finding 25 orca beans in the sensory table! I showed them the 10 frame tracking sheet that would be nearby and we talked about how we'd know we had found all the beans. I was surprised at how hard it was to spot the orca beans among the black beans, navy beans, yellow and green split peas, and kidney beans!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We started with a huge group of children surrounding the table but as the interest wore off there was a core group left. I loved seeing how they worked together and hearing their conversations about how many more they needed to find (by counting the blank squares on the 10 frames). Their approach shifted from carefully sifting to scooping up handfuls and letting the beans drift slowly as they watched for the orca beans. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This exploration was a popular centre all day long. Sometimes the same children would find all of the beans only to pour them back in again and start all over! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When we weave math instruction into play we see students who are usually less engaged (during formal instruction) diving in, asking questions, sharing their ideas, and growing their understanding. They <i>choose</i> to think mathematically and learn as they play. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>This is the beauty of play-based learning!</i></span></div>
<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-15906065798291046172016-04-15T12:01:00.002-07:002016-04-15T12:01:38.881-07:00Let's Go Outside and Play!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px; text-align: start;">The sun is shining, birds are singing.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px; text-align: start;">The sounds of laughter, children playing.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px; text-align: start;">C'mon kids, it's a beautiful morning.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px; text-align: start;">Let's go outside and play.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px; text-align: start;">~Deborah Ashdown</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today we had a much-anticipated nature walk. We are fortunate to have a beautiful, natural outdoor space a short walk away from our school. The children haven't been here yet and felt they were in a wonderland of investigation!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A lot of their attention was drawn by the wide creek that runs through this bush, and we found a shallow area that was safe for play. Everyone found a stick and fished up leaves, to be hung on nearby trees. They were drying their fish! I think if we'd left them uninterrupted they'd have played at this all day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The textures of tree bark and lichen sparked many "why" questions and we explored a dead tree that was crumbling back into the soil. We remembered the saying, "Leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but photos". It can be hard for little hands not to pick at, break, or in other ways alter their landscape. But they were very respectful, touching gently and using their eyes and other senses to learn about the world around them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We found a narrow passageway across the water and ice and found ourselves in a cedar grove. The children noticed lots of deer droppings, and a parent who is knowledgeable about such things shared her thoughts on why: deer eat cedar! This glade seemed like a perfect spot for deer, quiet and close to the water as it was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Free from the bounds of chain-link fencing and play-structure rules, the children ran free, closely supervised by parent and grandparent volunteers. We all came back to school tired in that satisfying way, hungry, and full of words to describe how we felt in our outdoor playground:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Excited.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Curious.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Happy.</i></span></div>
<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-16897501169471805062016-02-10T10:53:00.000-08:002016-02-10T10:53:20.800-08:00Learning Letters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On Monday the children are always excited to see Bobble, our classroom "pet". He's a rabbit in a hat, and although he doesn't speak, he always has lots to share by whispering in my ear. He also has a letter in his paws each week to add to the bank of letters the children have learned so far!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once we've used our "magic pencils" (our fingers) to draw the letter in the air, we watch two videos on YouTube that feature the letter and its sound: the first by ABC Mouse, and the second by Bounce Patrol. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We work together to co-create a list of words that begin with the letter of the week, and the children like to challenge my drawing skills!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The classroom ECE (Early Childhood Educator) sets up a centre where the children can join her to create letter sound charts. The children search through old books to find pictures of things that start with the letter sound. These are then displayed for easy reference, and are used at the play dough centre where the children can create the letters with play dough "snakes"!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In addition to learning the look and sound of the new letter, I spend time with the children modelling and practising how the letter is formed. For our younger students, this might be their first time printing the letter. For the older students, this extends into "slow as a snail" printing, where I give them a word that features the sound, and they do their best to represent each individual sound (phoneme) with a letter or a combination of letters! The children are very proud to show off their wonderful printing skills and we often see the letter popping up here and their in their play and work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We reinforce the letter learning throughout the week. The children love to go on "letter hunts" by taking a walk through the school and finding the letter of the week in environmental print (on posters, signs, etc.). They also enjoy finding the letter in texts in the classroom. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is amazing how quickly the children learn and retain these individual sounds, and before we know it, they are combining the sounds to print and read simple words!</span></div>
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-33326091163881373352016-02-01T10:42:00.000-08:002016-02-01T10:42:05.871-08:00Art Matters: Exploring Art in Three Dimensions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Art projects in our classroom are always offered as a voluntary choice among our centres. Some children come to explore every single offering, while others need encouragement to try new techniques and projects. I rarely offer a sample of a "finished product" to encourage an open-minded approach to art, and an understanding that there is no "right way" to create. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I invited the children to explore 3D art in our Creative Centre by providing the children with lots of pieces of cardboard cut in different shapes, bits of cardboard tubes, and larger pieces to act as backdrops. Using wood-glue (because it has a stronger hold than white glue), the children got busy creating 3D art. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With no example provided of a final product, the focus was on the <i>process </i>of artistic creation. Some of the children chose not to use any circular shapes, and others followed my example (because I always sit and create alongside them) of gluing some pieces vertically. The children's conversations revolved around what their artwork "looked like": "This is a fence", "This is a mountain", "This is the dish for the cat". We also chatted about how 2D art is different from 3D creations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Creating art for art's sake is not a new concept for children, but as they get older they become more focused on creating art that<i> looks like something</i>. It was freeing for them to just glue pieces on wherever they wanted without any pressure to have their art represent a concrete scene or image.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When the glue was dry, the children were invited to add colour using craft paint. Once again, <i>the focus was on the children's choices</i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">whether or not to add colour, and what colours to add.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some of the children have asked to go back and add more details to their work in the form of textures and patterns painted on top of the original colours. We'll get to that this week!</span></div>
The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-2026971211641852892015-06-18T10:19:00.002-07:002015-06-18T10:19:29.466-07:00Class Trip to Red Wolf Retreat<br />
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We couldn't have ordered better weather for our class trip last week! The occasional cloud cover discouraged sunburns and the breeze kept the bugs away. In keeping with our mantra of "take learning outside", we visited Red Wolf Retreat with our JK/SK class. With an army of parents to help us keep track of everyone, we boarded the bus with excitement. Many of the children are brought to school by parents or are picked up by small vans, so the experience of getting a ride on the BIG YELLOW BUS was a good start to the day!<br />
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Upon our arrival, we visited the herd of goats that live at Red Wolf Retreat. The children were allowed to pet a small kid and marvelled at the size of the billy goat. We learned about predators in the area and how the owners protect the goats.<br />
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Next we headed to a small pond where the small trout live, and enjoyed watching Bill (our host) feeding the fish. The water "boiled" with splashing fish as they vied for food. Many of the children got splashed in the face which caused lots of giggling! The children got a close look at a beautiful speckled trout when Bill fished it out of the pond in a net. We learned about what fish need to live, and about how Bill and his family keep them and their environment healthy.<br />
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We wandered down a path to the lake where we would catch our own trout. The children took turns using the fishing rods, and it didn't take long for them to get lots of bites! The incredulous looks on their faces was worth the trip as they proudly showed off their catch! Every child got to practise their patience and eventually, everyone caught a fish. They were taken to be cleaned and bagged, so we went to have our lunch.<br />
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A basketball net, soccer ball, and old canoe kept everyone entertained while we ate, then it was time to catch some pond creatures. The children were given nets and instructions about not touching frogs or turtles with their bare hands (because of the possibility of salmonella and other bacteria). We spied a nest in some cattails, containing four red-winged blackbird chicks. Mama and Papa Bird were not thrilled at our presence, so we tried to give them adequate space.<br />
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As the children scooped their nets through the water they brought their catches back to Bill for identification. He placed them in a shallow tub of water so everyone could observe the many kids of critters that live in pond. They got to see tadpoles in various forms of metamorphosis, and heard the frogs singing. Dragonfly nymphs, caddisfly cases, a water strider, and so many other creatures gathered in the tub as the children excitedly gathered around.<br />
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Another tub contained some little minnows. The children were allowed to gently scoop them up in their hands to feel them wiggling. This kind of hands-on experience is so rich for small children.<br />
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If you live in the Eganville area, I highly recommend a school trip to Red Wolf Retreat! Respect for living things and the natural world as well as a safety around water were focuses of the day, and everything was very well organized. The children LOVED catching a fish and proudly brought their trout home to share with their families for dinner. Everyone found something to enjoy on our trip and everyone was well tuckered out on the drive home!<br />
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-2397471693787008502015-05-21T12:48:00.000-07:002015-05-22T06:05:42.464-07:00Take Learning Outside<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As the weather warms up, we find ourselves gravitating to our outdoor space. There is always a free-style flow from indoors to out, with one adult in each space to </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.5714282989502px;">supervise,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.5714282989502px;"> foster learning, and nurture the children's natural curiosity! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.5714282989502px;">As a teaching team, we alternate weeks outside, and plan engaging invitations to play. A child who is less enthusiastic about choosing the outdoor centre might be enticed outside by a chance to explore some slime, and a child who usually wants to play hockey outside might be drawn in by a fun math game in the classroom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.5714282989502px;">Sensory and art activities work equally well inside or out. Literacy and numeracy opportunities arise organically when children are provided with enticing materials (seeds, soil, measurement tools, chalk, paint, and so on). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.5714282989502px;">We're always interested to note that there is a fairly consistent balance in the numbers of children inside and out. Instead of having a "schedule" of who goes in and who goes out, we encourage self-regulation by encouraging the children to make this choice based on how they are feeling each day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.5714282989502px;">Whether inside or outside we ensure that there are plenty of choices for all kinds of play (social/emotional, gross motor, fine motor, dramatic). We also support different groupings (solo play, or in pairs, or in small groups), and marvel at the beautiful flow that takes place as the children drift in and out of play groups.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By taking learning outside (reading under the trees, for example), <b>we easily engage our young learners.</b> They are eager to pack their backpack with a snack and some "just right" stories that they can enjoy all by themselves in a shady place of their choosing. Changing the setting gives children (and teachers!) a new perspective, and offers many opportunities for spontaneous learning (and teaching).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Providing a variety of materials <b>supports the growth of the many different learning styles.</b> Art supplies blend as easily into our outdoor space as does sports equipment. There is truly something for everyone, and every learning style is considered valuable and relevant. Loose parts such as log slices, thick branches, and smooth stones offer limitless opportunities for open-ended play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Being outside nurtures a child's imagination</b>. Today a Year One student found a big branch and declared it a dinosaur bone. His friend found a smaller stick, craggy and twisted, and they worked to piece together their fossil skeleton. This led to a "tall tale" about how the first boy came across the bones, complete with dramatic pauses and shifts in volume. A plain old branch inspired this young child to create a story full of drama on the spot, and he clearly demonstrated his developing adeptness with oral language while sharing his growing awareness of the structure of a story. Each time I watch the video I took of his retell, I notice more and more (e.g. his use of connecting words like "so", "then", and "next").</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Through experimentation and exploration,<b> the children learn about their world</b>. One day while we walked in the wooded area of our schoolyard, I came across some berries. I pretended that I was going to pick them and eat them. "Wow, look! Delicious berries! I'm going to eat some because I'm really hungry!" "No, Mrs. Pinkerton!" came the cries of my vigilant charges. "Those are Mother Nature's berries!" Another student corrected, "You shouldn't eat them because they might be poisonous". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Al fresco</i> learning <b>reduces behavioural issues</b>. Children who need a lot of movement and space get the physical activity they require to help them settle later in the day. Splitting the students into smaller groups reduces crowding in the classroom. We educators enjoy more rich time with individual children when we are supervising less students, and are able to engage more deeply with learning explorations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Being outside <b>offers a sensory experience. </b>Today we found Lily of the Valley blooming in our wooded area, and lay right down on our bellies to look closely at their tiny bell shapes. The children thought they looked like fairy hats, or fairy tea cups. My fairy-loving daughters will notice some of their fairy storybooks missing next week when I bring them in for the children to explore!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They were enchanted by the scent and sight of these beautiful little flowers. The apple blossoms that are in bloom perfume the paths we travel, and we listen to the bugs, birds, wind, and frogs that surround us. I suspect that these early experiences with the wonders of the outdoors will influence these children as they grow; I hope they will always seek the outdoors as a place of interest, exercise, and peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've noticed <b>an improvement in the overall physical health</b> of the children in our class, in terms of their stamina, coordination, and endurance. There is also much less whining when one gets a little scrape or scratch! They are learning the limits of their bodies and what kinds of risks are reasonable. They are learning to pick themselves up when they fall down, assess what caused the fall, and try again. In addition to improving their physical health, I notice their emotional development: <b>they are more confident, resilient, and calm </b>when they have plenty of time to explore and play outdoors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Any learning experience can be brought outside! We've done Circle Time, Math/Numeracy, Literacy, Art, Physical Education, Science, and Snack Time outside. The sky is literally the limit. Take your class outside and see what benefits you can add to this list! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.5714282989502px;"><i>Please share your thoughts in the comments below!</i></span></div>
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The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-18313518205886095052015-05-11T12:12:00.001-07:002015-05-11T12:12:15.930-07:00Rainy Day Fun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some days fly by in a flurry of fun. We had one of those days today, where the rain kept us inside and made us get creative about setting up a few centers to provoke the children's interest and curiosity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our ECE noticed the Year One children showing a great interest in rocks they found in the school yard. On Friday they filled a bucket and enjoyed washing all the rocks. One of their ideas involved painting the rocks and selling them (for forty-one cents). My team partner set up a table with their rocks, paint, and some "rock" labels. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I took the opportunity to work on the "ock" word family with the Year Two students! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">During our long inquiry block in the morning, I set up a fun chemistry experience after having observed the children creating "potions" in our creative center by cutting up bits of paper and fabric. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I made the Borax solution ahead of time, and found this experiment really quick and satisfying because of the ease of the steps and the level of involvement I could give the children. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can find a run-down of the process<a href="http://theknittygrittyhomestead.blogspot.ca/2012/08/slime.html"> here (on my personal blog</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finally, I pulled out a bag of elastics I had from last year when the children went through a rainbow-loom phase. I'd learned how to create simple bracelets using only our fingers (no looms needed) and it sparked all kinds of wonderful engagement: measurement, patterning, counting, oral communication, procedural writing, and so on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Basically, you create a figure-8 with an elastic on two fingers of one hand. The second (and all subsequent elastics) go on just in a circle (no twist). Pull the first (bottom) elastic up and over the second one, allowing it to slip in between the fingers. Then repeat by putting on another elastic and pulling the bottom one up and over. Secure with a c-clip to create a bracelet, or make it longer to create a necklace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was great to see the Year Twos (who found this too hard last year) teaching the Year Ones how to do this! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What tricks do you have to get you through those rainy, indoor-recess days?</span></div>
The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-12948252286795943922015-04-21T12:33:00.001-07:002015-04-21T12:33:49.203-07:00free to take risks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DDi-HgjZt_FjPydEdvK-3P3pvyE9kt-KmqWVMLOCopvQdrDSDxo06rCT3ww56mkSkMYJjIiAj2fIO5mN8fg_GCNkT0_NqWChrBQ7M2OJsUv5hakYoQ3XtkW-ZK4zirUmRzfb3jqZcLw/s1600/April+2015+075.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DDi-HgjZt_FjPydEdvK-3P3pvyE9kt-KmqWVMLOCopvQdrDSDxo06rCT3ww56mkSkMYJjIiAj2fIO5mN8fg_GCNkT0_NqWChrBQ7M2OJsUv5hakYoQ3XtkW-ZK4zirUmRzfb3jqZcLw/s1600/April+2015+075.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When the weather is fine they choose to spend our gym period outside. We race to the back corner of the school yard where the trees grow wild and there are so many hiding places.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5zLMajvm5-fCrLEP0t7DPSSeiC8DTDL9_Hl2JLgTvJuL4AqueJwiWf1B-wUvC7KhUQwvy0AAhEStEYrQU99w4nvfpivEAY8Uvp89yyVBBnTyn8swylykESnN1-a_ZI0l0owUm7wphWDE/s1600/April+2015+154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5zLMajvm5-fCrLEP0t7DPSSeiC8DTDL9_Hl2JLgTvJuL4AqueJwiWf1B-wUvC7KhUQwvy0AAhEStEYrQU99w4nvfpivEAY8Uvp89yyVBBnTyn8swylykESnN1-a_ZI0l0owUm7wphWDE/s1600/April+2015+154.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> I've learned to relax about <i>rules</i>, and to deal with making them <i>with the children when the need arises.</i> When a child asks me to boost them up into the tree higher than they can climb on their own, I kindly decline. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Upon reflection, the children agree that getting up and down safely, confidently, and independently is more important than getting higher up with help (and possibly being afraid or getting hurt).</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheY-ANnJ69DieolXPZDqX_UEgL7ORo-chKerJXEPXicnq_U0YJebmfiloZPRed3T9RMFPC4a-YNiP33IGe2IvfwM0Za37WTcUVlYT6jo0fZ_GfqjKfSNOS_IIkrTUUB0MGhIssMLx3bd4/s1600/April+2015+093.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheY-ANnJ69DieolXPZDqX_UEgL7ORo-chKerJXEPXicnq_U0YJebmfiloZPRed3T9RMFPC4a-YNiP33IGe2IvfwM0Za37WTcUVlYT6jo0fZ_GfqjKfSNOS_IIkrTUUB0MGhIssMLx3bd4/s1600/April+2015+093.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They express their personal experiences of the outdoors by pretending to camp or hunt. Stories are told around these camp fires, and hearts pound in a game of chase-and-find.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LJiYPaIuo9KyN6uw5juB_0GXMK1_GcmYcefXEUaHcSRLHaF5sw92FjFxP0LNWd_5uXED9PFnjFVf5W92aQHVc9e5w5KzCBfOkmspisb_tQ9AIYTTQdDeZyJehzUAd6FwqbT_Vl8ItgI/s1600/April+2015+149.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LJiYPaIuo9KyN6uw5juB_0GXMK1_GcmYcefXEUaHcSRLHaF5sw92FjFxP0LNWd_5uXED9PFnjFVf5W92aQHVc9e5w5KzCBfOkmspisb_tQ9AIYTTQdDeZyJehzUAd6FwqbT_Vl8ItgI/s1600/April+2015+149.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They experiment with the spring of a low branch, and only go as far as they can reach without falling or breaking the branch. This they do without instruction or warning. By taking risks, they learn to assess the ways they might damage themselves or their environment. Their confidence and coordination grows, and they file away this experience for future use.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2crzWGWD7a9STPW84fS-DZinwiZ63mxIdPJ3xSx6pdL3-H4y5J8uM3yWZHefMMJnkZsUvPaLIR0yMZpo4_doTQYIgbB2JrvUjeeiF-BmPwd2NojT81z-wQW8HLIclFqKZptAS1nvo7SA/s1600/April+2015+092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2crzWGWD7a9STPW84fS-DZinwiZ63mxIdPJ3xSx6pdL3-H4y5J8uM3yWZHefMMJnkZsUvPaLIR0yMZpo4_doTQYIgbB2JrvUjeeiF-BmPwd2NojT81z-wQW8HLIclFqKZptAS1nvo7SA/s1600/April+2015+092.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes they want to just gather and chat in small groups.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP_UETVDg8-juFzaiCYtOpIB8aluL1ZjAyd1nAlSCxtiFSrneiIR1oxGvoEEwwy5oqiqMwamjHkjql8t7iODcVBYXrx6o5Be8mb8e-er6umapHpBBN9lFtm4_xLH7C5Zb5SPo-2ZpZq6c/s1600/April+2015+091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP_UETVDg8-juFzaiCYtOpIB8aluL1ZjAyd1nAlSCxtiFSrneiIR1oxGvoEEwwy5oqiqMwamjHkjql8t7iODcVBYXrx6o5Be8mb8e-er6umapHpBBN9lFtm4_xLH7C5Zb5SPo-2ZpZq6c/s1600/April+2015+091.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes they find a place to hang out all alone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One little hand explores the marks left behind by tiny creatures and wonder at the paths she finds there.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdbYvJopyrH1u-oIxBXKsOXlFwv7DcF_oxXnlESyhFDBn7AabraA8H7-Du4y5z5JXRvtzU6xYeJYRlICmwIa4fyzc-ZoLnm-DnPZ9B3LFzJa_qKU0E3aUG_YBLd5j0fpD0j3HsPsc1USI/s1600/April+2015+082.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdbYvJopyrH1u-oIxBXKsOXlFwv7DcF_oxXnlESyhFDBn7AabraA8H7-Du4y5z5JXRvtzU6xYeJYRlICmwIa4fyzc-ZoLnm-DnPZ9B3LFzJa_qKU0E3aUG_YBLd5j0fpD0j3HsPsc1USI/s1600/April+2015+082.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A huge boulder just outside the boundaries of the school yard, combined with a part of the fence where they can squeeze through invites them (with permission) to scale its side and pose for some artsy photos. I wish all children could experience the sheer freedom of a play space without boundaries!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW6rlFMhISiOebX24ozaTZ6jK604PON4MlkOkGUgwyXVY7Kx_eovdh29UyptfQMDqhAcWa2Ct-3ord9c3uxxxFrLjs0aQ785YNTK2jJ_yourbZs2FdZBjoo8NlMBBdeVQsUVPajLA2oKs/s1600/April+2015+096.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW6rlFMhISiOebX24ozaTZ6jK604PON4MlkOkGUgwyXVY7Kx_eovdh29UyptfQMDqhAcWa2Ct-3ord9c3uxxxFrLjs0aQ785YNTK2jJ_yourbZs2FdZBjoo8NlMBBdeVQsUVPajLA2oKs/s1600/April+2015+096.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Suddenly, a hand-full of leaves tossed into the air is plastered to the fence by the wind. "The fence is magnetic!" The cry goes up and several run to join in covering as much of the fence with leaves as possible before the wind dies down. They marvel at how they can defy gravity with the help of the wind!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjsw_zTvgz16uINNOxw-f0xODJCWqRTWrxDQtdW1at4W5peGEh6gzMTXaOa5bcMCpH8fvJWFao8IbUf6i3xEj-0em3kxRr5I-LSIoYmyt0AYHi_Ejhj1e3ceLRepzHLiDi_p-h7ZbffU/s1600/April+2015+148.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjsw_zTvgz16uINNOxw-f0xODJCWqRTWrxDQtdW1at4W5peGEh6gzMTXaOa5bcMCpH8fvJWFao8IbUf6i3xEj-0em3kxRr5I-LSIoYmyt0AYHi_Ejhj1e3ceLRepzHLiDi_p-h7ZbffU/s1600/April+2015+148.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another rule arises when the girls decide to create a shelter. Long limbs pivot and fall heavily, and one ill-timed swivel results in one of the boys being "clotheslined" at full speed. We discuss the use of long branches and decide that it might be safer to limit ourselves to only using branches that are the same height as the children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They work hard and play hard, and I'm always reluctant to tell them that it's time to return to the four walls of our classroom. They are growing right before my eyes, in their strength, coordination, endurance, confidence, and ability to set safe boundaries for themselves. </span></div>
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-31746822552065602072015-04-14T12:21:00.000-07:002015-04-14T12:21:02.736-07:00Shadows: An Inquiry Begins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXka_QyBk0aZ6VVUnFa4GjIgh3QBG3ZGlrqDIkDUMzc1EEAGD4h4Vs4N1XIfoz8oqLGkB27vnwUNH2y2Pb43eeg6zNk_MkN9UKLISGtGY1au36jAc5ro8HRwcfYrBlSWrDsH4psj7sHLA/s1600/April+2015+111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXka_QyBk0aZ6VVUnFa4GjIgh3QBG3ZGlrqDIkDUMzc1EEAGD4h4Vs4N1XIfoz8oqLGkB27vnwUNH2y2Pb43eeg6zNk_MkN9UKLISGtGY1au36jAc5ro8HRwcfYrBlSWrDsH4psj7sHLA/s1600/April+2015+111.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This morning during our play and inquiry time, many of the children chose to play outside. I noticed one girl up on the hill, dancing slowly and concentrating carefully. It soon became clear that she was watching the movements of her shadow, so long and clear in the bright morning sun. I quickly shot a brief video of her, along with a boy who had joined her to squirt water from a bottle. His shadowed wiggled and shifted with his enjoyment of his play, but did not draw his attention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As soon as the children returned to the classroom I shared the video on our screen. I asked them what they thought M was doing. "dancing", "karate kicks", "ballet", and "wiggling" were some of their responses. I asked them to watch the video again, this time noticing what was happening around the girl and boy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Right away someone called out, "Shadows!", so we watched the video one more time with the shadows as a focus. The children noticed how the shadow was long, dark, and imitated the movements of the students.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We generated a list of their thoughts and ideas about shadows:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Shadows are bigger than we are</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes they go away when the clouds come</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The clouds block the sun and it has to be half clouds and half sun. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My shadow does whatever I'm doing. It's like a video outside but it's not on a screen.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The sun is very bright and the back of you reflects the sun.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It makes the same shape as you.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The sun shines down on your back but not in front of you so that's why your shadow is in front of you.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are all different shapes of shadows.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When you're driving, the car has a shadow too. When I stuck my hand out of the car I saw its shadow!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The sun shines on your belly and the shadow is on your back.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We explored our knowledge of shadows by using the bright sunlight that pours into our classroom! Someone just donated a box of dinosaurs to our class so we used these to create shadows, and traced them. This was challenging because the children had to work around their art without blocking the sunlight!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When they finished, they filled their shapes with black paint. Some chose to cut their shapes out. Later in the day we went outside and two of the children noticed that their shadows were holding hands! We observed that our shadows looked smaller than the one from this morning had. Tomorrow I think we'll trace our shadows through the day to make some conclusions about how they change according to the sun's position in the sky.</span></div>
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-45532674548598018582015-03-26T10:52:00.001-07:002015-03-26T10:52:06.665-07:00Learning About Mammals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Our ECE gets some Goat Love.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_1bN-IJzGvDYWghJb5K4sK9rDBEUY1zhNfSfBtIHfJjFK2pYnRFoRJEEmXZ_JlMVp0AVmGJ3aSafR5U-OjgT7Thmy6nMCl_05AiH6HfrbU8aCrTh2xAWbZnmM6p1szas-Tm3_7Me0mk/s1600/March+2015+415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_1bN-IJzGvDYWghJb5K4sK9rDBEUY1zhNfSfBtIHfJjFK2pYnRFoRJEEmXZ_JlMVp0AVmGJ3aSafR5U-OjgT7Thmy6nMCl_05AiH6HfrbU8aCrTh2xAWbZnmM6p1szas-Tm3_7Me0mk/s1600/March+2015+415.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Action shot...I get nibbled on the chin by a loveable goat baby!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Each child got a goat high-five when it was time to say goodbye.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One of the benefits of teaching at a rural school (and of living on a hobby farm) is that there are always so many creatures at hand to be brought in to the classroom. My principal once joked that she was going to have to start patting me down at the door because of my habit of bringing animals into the classroom. Chicks, ducklings, and baby bunnies are just the start of the list.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Children are naturally curious about living things, and I have always felt that modelling the gentle and compassionate treatment of animals while sparking the children's sense of connection with other living things is an essential component of what we teach in Kindergarten.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This morning<a href="http://opeongo.com/"> a goat-farming, soap-making friend </a>was gracious enough to bring her baby goats in for a visit! Before they arrived, we had a discussion about goats as mammals, in comparison with humans. With a few "leading" questions, the children were able to deduce from their previous knowledge that mammals:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">have fur or hair</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">give birth to live babies</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">are warm-blooded</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">make milk to feed their babies</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many of the children have baby siblings and were able to relate to the notion that baby mammals nurse from their mothers. One of the children said, "Even YOU, Mrs. Pinkerton?" (they know I have a toddler) and they took it in stride that I also make milk to feed my baby! I also mentioned that many farm babies as well as human babies are bottle-fed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We discussed the uses of goats: for meat, for milk, and as pets. We talked about what can be made from goat milk. One of the children brought up the fact that there are also wild goats who can climb mountains. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We were asked to create a "play structure" for the goats as it would encourage them to stay in one place. We had generated a list of ideas last week (one of which was that we should put the goats in buckets and pull them up into the loft using rope). We settled for some large cardboard pallets leaned on our upturned recycling box. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The children did so well containing their excitement in order to be calm and quiet when the goats were with us! The little fur babies pranced from child to child, wagging their little tails, nibbling on ears and fingers, and trying to climb on everything and everyone. They were certainly adorable! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When it came time to write in our journals, every child wrote about our visit from the baby goats. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tonight we'll be getting our piglets to be raised as meat. I suspect I may be bringing one (or two) of them in for a visit soon! I also have a tame chicken but my principal has asked me to draw the line at bringing our ponies to school. Too bad, isn't it? :)</span></div>
The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-23656197142944237462015-03-11T09:16:00.000-07:002015-03-11T09:16:15.904-07:00Have You Seen Birds?<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Inquiry can be a funny thing. Like a flock of birds, it can start off in one direction but before you know where it might be going, it changes direction. Some of the birds go one way, while others go another way. It can be challenging to keep track of them all, but exciting to witness!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our students had so many questions and conversations about birds. We always start our inquiries with some little activity or book to spark the children's interest, followed by co-creating an "I think I know" chart. We call it this because it allows the children to "change their thinking" if the knowledge they gather through the inquiry contradicts a preconception they may have had. It also allows us to get an idea of the children's background knowledge and previous experience with the topic we are exploring. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivqZAxi2GjkchH8VpIvXrjmn-PO_2aFAw5EuVJN7Jx8kWCS5JVygzOVwa-Cov4bTRaabZu3brLs88zLR0DK-VaXWzMhaI6eBE_a2-0lpF3pRgw8dG30bgZc830dLbLUB2HP72MDu0MVyk/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivqZAxi2GjkchH8VpIvXrjmn-PO_2aFAw5EuVJN7Jx8kWCS5JVygzOVwa-Cov4bTRaabZu3brLs88zLR0DK-VaXWzMhaI6eBE_a2-0lpF3pRgw8dG30bgZc830dLbLUB2HP72MDu0MVyk/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+049.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once we have an idea of the kinds of questions the children have (by creating an "I wonder" chart), we create a "map" for ourselves of ideas for discussions we might have, resources we can gather, and ways to link their explorations to the Kindergarten Document. This is an exciting task, revealing the vast possibilities presented by following the children's interests. We don't write anything in stone, because as I mentioned, the direction can change quickly (and often in ways that we can't anticipate!). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJk8NzxAJHQ6Lqpsh8Zzj5aiyDo3XWSdTZiNg_NmsvEotVI-xoenTYGW0dlhoJI3vQ3jPf6MIb0Wb-4PxGy3dGLwhlNmT1bJValSAgVyvQ8EZsbDK1ZsyTlYOYupuve17zhOMhAJ0vtkE/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJk8NzxAJHQ6Lqpsh8Zzj5aiyDo3XWSdTZiNg_NmsvEotVI-xoenTYGW0dlhoJI3vQ3jPf6MIb0Wb-4PxGy3dGLwhlNmT1bJValSAgVyvQ8EZsbDK1ZsyTlYOYupuve17zhOMhAJ0vtkE/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+048.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">A combination of books from our classroom, school, and community libraries ensures that the children have many resources to explore!</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The books we gather inform much of our inquiry, and inspire the children to ask deeper questions. Themes of diversity, compassion, healing after loss, caring for the environment, and the connection between humans and animals flow through the rich literature we read aloud to our students, and we're continually amazed at the children's ability to grasp of deep topics.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1cpdMl2JBohkrPyvC8Wj7Mvtcin2_l5jbJnSQIyPgpiJpO2WQKOXE_04f639oinpXAlfuVAcsCxTbnu6imRAHhzTaZEmcZ2AVRCanN33e68NCF1-I6_erxojPoDuGn12p3QFrmcYLXzE/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1cpdMl2JBohkrPyvC8Wj7Mvtcin2_l5jbJnSQIyPgpiJpO2WQKOXE_04f639oinpXAlfuVAcsCxTbnu6imRAHhzTaZEmcZ2AVRCanN33e68NCF1-I6_erxojPoDuGn12p3QFrmcYLXzE/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+050.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Activating prior knowledge is a powerful tool before we read a rich text.</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIaxUnsNfbVF9x-4oE8n8CbweyYseKTdADoRD8jrjI33Ok_Y0MWnB7s88Y39WSdZ3Bfr41166Nu02yF6ZV6hwPCJGR0b3ilEL28-q2GAC9XV5u0qZj7rRMnxPJgxIAjRopk7BbKrUDrec/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+051.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIaxUnsNfbVF9x-4oE8n8CbweyYseKTdADoRD8jrjI33Ok_Y0MWnB7s88Y39WSdZ3Bfr41166Nu02yF6ZV6hwPCJGR0b3ilEL28-q2GAC9XV5u0qZj7rRMnxPJgxIAjRopk7BbKrUDrec/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+051.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Soon, the exploration spills into other centres around the room, particularly the creative centres. Without prompting, the children create play dough birds complete with feathers, eggs in nests, and mama birds to sit on them. As they create, we circulate and discuss their work with them to learn more about their understanding of the topic of inquiry.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscHGXL5oHOKO5MwnTr2qPp0JMJTknWJf8yOc3QStLm5k-ZjIwcPLWTjwNMn1_hUpSFdBXFImoOMrHIhOAJwCnk62P0sAhLTlKdA1W-_dmAdKDdGUq2GlSQ2iPixQzo7latNCMvCKUBLI/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscHGXL5oHOKO5MwnTr2qPp0JMJTknWJf8yOc3QStLm5k-ZjIwcPLWTjwNMn1_hUpSFdBXFImoOMrHIhOAJwCnk62P0sAhLTlKdA1W-_dmAdKDdGUq2GlSQ2iPixQzo7latNCMvCKUBLI/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+001.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>"Why do you think the mother sit on the eggs? How long do you think it takes for the eggs to hatch? Do you think the father bird help? Is the baby bird in the egg when the mother bird lays it, or does it grow?"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>A key component of inquiry is that we do not GIVE answers to the children, but discuss questions with them and help them find information they need. The end result is not necessarily the RIGHT answer, but a deepening of their ability to ask questions about the world around them.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbPDxk0Yi8Y8J5dVOpdyRX0dH6f9FH1Gyx8b2x600evolnk2VfqUNGENTtMriouxEewp_elQf58ZYmFuAqkzS1_5KSBZEKzAQ-ymfQ4x3gvoUxhPVoOwfBPY1T7IoJvVrE96St_l1bjDM/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbPDxk0Yi8Y8J5dVOpdyRX0dH6f9FH1Gyx8b2x600evolnk2VfqUNGENTtMriouxEewp_elQf58ZYmFuAqkzS1_5KSBZEKzAQ-ymfQ4x3gvoUxhPVoOwfBPY1T7IoJvVrE96St_l1bjDM/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+002.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As the days and weeks pass, the children widen their exploration into dramatic play (by building nests with blocks and flying in search of food), science (by observing the birds that visit our feeders, studying our field guide, and enjoying non-fiction texts and videos), language arts (through read-alouds, poems, and fingerplays), and mathematics (keeping track of bird visitors on a tally chart, graphing types of birds we've seen, and learning about egg sizes). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv712KO6sd_dcHCtWeVC9jxoJqGruWuy04rcgocYCcFXNWRdDjFcneC52J41piVQl14AFV4nkWECNcv2Jr_G3T6vMHctl6q6x8-VYTdzpGAe6HO3kCVi_mXm1AUAbsxxSnap1IvC12ZFs/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv712KO6sd_dcHCtWeVC9jxoJqGruWuy04rcgocYCcFXNWRdDjFcneC52J41piVQl14AFV4nkWECNcv2Jr_G3T6vMHctl6q6x8-VYTdzpGAe6HO3kCVi_mXm1AUAbsxxSnap1IvC12ZFs/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+003.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>The word family list on the right arose spontaneously as the children noticed the rhyming words in this poem. They were very excited to think of lots of "est" words!</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbYDPLhtVne0WcPC69p678WblVSszExn2ek-eEuxNBHxBLxibiM_mvvDdsiQshr6EvR3wjFlflysUz_MTNUZRqZg2odv6nNEOifm0Yc3J4n2VpCGoQDAgI38Oku5mXWADCUhL2QaM8_4/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbYDPLhtVne0WcPC69p678WblVSszExn2ek-eEuxNBHxBLxibiM_mvvDdsiQshr6EvR3wjFlflysUz_MTNUZRqZg2odv6nNEOifm0Yc3J4n2VpCGoQDAgI38Oku5mXWADCUhL2QaM8_4/s1600/feb+and+march+2015+004.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">We investigated bird behaviour through the seasons when we read this beautifully illustrated fiction text while learning about how a bird-loving boy takes care of the wildlife in his backyard. We also enjoyed reading Riki's Science Journal as we read the story.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With the warm weather, we've observed the return of the Canada Geese, and are starting to hear a greater variety of birdsong! This is an exciting time of year to delve into the feathery world of birds!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-61961258445189684342015-02-24T11:03:00.002-08:002015-02-24T11:03:29.641-08:00Helping Out Our Feathered Friends<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the early winter we talked a lot with our students about how animals survive the Canadian winter. We read many fiction and non-fiction texts on the topics of migration and hibernation, created charts of who does what, had a classroom visitor from the Ministry of Natural Resources who shared migration route maps with us (and even had a taxidermied Gray Owl to show us!), and explored hibernation through writing and art.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At this late moment of winter, however, it is time to consider the scarcity of food many animals face as the season continues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today we created birdseed ornaments to support our feathered friends through the remainder of the winter! I started with a modelled writing session, showing the children how to write, read, and follow a procedure. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ5EYgO4MNFSb_oP1lASd04d9-cyyQR1vtN_FfClkZ7U2TDF0erc-JY3C8A7kY8d6c5HKUorDXH06qqWzExxno80O7hMzpIvZT4glHPwTwM4tLrtm6YpEwJWT0aPl-64WsW9VbcOIc7O8/s1600/late+february+2015+050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ5EYgO4MNFSb_oP1lASd04d9-cyyQR1vtN_FfClkZ7U2TDF0erc-JY3C8A7kY8d6c5HKUorDXH06qqWzExxno80O7hMzpIvZT4glHPwTwM4tLrtm6YpEwJWT0aPl-64WsW9VbcOIc7O8/s1600/late+february+2015+050.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then we broke up into smaller groups and got to work (or play, depending on how you see it) to create our ornaments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><u>Birdseed Ornaments</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>You will need:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3/4 cup flour</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1/2 cup water</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3 Tbsp. corn syrup</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 envelope gelatin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4 cups birdseed</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>To create the ornaments:</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrJEHNyzmU2qPKQ7mTqGn_I-wnn3nMr4Gco1aWNdFmES-H7JphOGIMU6zdA0gdkwploPIaiFyiASFs8Y7PNZdU23pS-_Yo6pdjQxvzcFeGdOTpqZv5TweXqjJYEu_XCPqGpMTwrZhQFyk/s1600/late+february+2015+037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrJEHNyzmU2qPKQ7mTqGn_I-wnn3nMr4Gco1aWNdFmES-H7JphOGIMU6zdA0gdkwploPIaiFyiASFs8Y7PNZdU23pS-_Yo6pdjQxvzcFeGdOTpqZv5TweXqjJYEu_XCPqGpMTwrZhQFyk/s1600/late+february+2015+037.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. Mix the flour, water, corn syrup, and gelatin in a medium bowl. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7J_ZLUREx27-9t79cN0qns5WxwEaDxYKj-T2YceRuhvUeggKhXBTNLiN7A8XbFd-OUrkNd8xQhckD10F6ZfYVArghIYiVWX9mvfBOwuprZT7TU-3vOblG0j7jNR-2SWyLJ-9-Fwz2KfA/s1600/late+february+2015+042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7J_ZLUREx27-9t79cN0qns5WxwEaDxYKj-T2YceRuhvUeggKhXBTNLiN7A8XbFd-OUrkNd8xQhckD10F6ZfYVArghIYiVWX9mvfBOwuprZT7TU-3vOblG0j7jNR-2SWyLJ-9-Fwz2KfA/s1600/late+february+2015+042.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Add the birdseed and mix well till all the seed is coated in the mixture.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho4NmgU1XvYYBKg-izf9F8zgVEG0tL9u1sHfkoOFCtTDyAixPB4oVWa3tnY3hgzIdzzObd44jN2U5wckk9gln-FnCQokGfZZPO7NlV6h0aXQGtARWo64Ew2tH9GbjqzXKA7tMhoV3mTI4/s1600/late+february+2015+047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho4NmgU1XvYYBKg-izf9F8zgVEG0tL9u1sHfkoOFCtTDyAixPB4oVWa3tnY3hgzIdzzObd44jN2U5wckk9gln-FnCQokGfZZPO7NlV6h0aXQGtARWo64Ew2tH9GbjqzXKA7tMhoV3mTI4/s1600/late+february+2015+047.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. Firmly press the mixture either into an oiled muffin tin, or into cookie cutter shapes set on an oiled pan.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz5IvO7XlJNE-kfWceVtsez-PZ08Vqh3e0EifpBIhAYm7UPdx7E1ePWyUnv8BQ9OITaDP1JMPwtwPKTEYzzqAVCsCGQCChDtUaCWf-bXmXHa_k7FpeHP65gQm636LR2lyMdJyBsxQzT68/s1600/late+february+2015+036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz5IvO7XlJNE-kfWceVtsez-PZ08Vqh3e0EifpBIhAYm7UPdx7E1ePWyUnv8BQ9OITaDP1JMPwtwPKTEYzzqAVCsCGQCChDtUaCWf-bXmXHa_k7FpeHP65gQm636LR2lyMdJyBsxQzT68/s1600/late+february+2015+036.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4. Insert a piece of straw into the ornament to create a hole (for inserting a string for hanging).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIBMB-JpBK43N8At4abXOZX8lWY4X1Geq_PcxpGKVjnf0uncO4L4TMk8u-svXTLuyc5cojC0_opz8EKdkVLHcW0m8r9z-m7DaftMQrFggS_adxEWf6e8gLc9iQ2mLEWXWQXBNq4DQsss/s1600/late+february+2015+049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIBMB-JpBK43N8At4abXOZX8lWY4X1Geq_PcxpGKVjnf0uncO4L4TMk8u-svXTLuyc5cojC0_opz8EKdkVLHcW0m8r9z-m7DaftMQrFggS_adxEWf6e8gLc9iQ2mLEWXWQXBNq4DQsss/s1600/late+february+2015+049.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5.Allow to dry for 2-3 hours, then carefully remove from tins or cutters and turn over. Allow the other side to dry for 2-3 hours.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6. Insert a string, and hang for the birds to enjoy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We will hang our ornaments on the big pine tree outside our classroom window. We will leave a clipboard by the window with some binoculars and a bird identification guide so we can keep track of the kinds of birds that visit.</span><br />
<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-80059020880491699382015-01-21T11:35:00.005-08:002015-01-21T11:35:59.735-08:00January Ramblings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzwsBKJmKQ6YyC6iHQ0LhK9i5yroZoyaBwu314d4TdiFOW1KEHvgy1cVuBC3eRbhXRLVR5Euc79S5b_yJttiIagTShVEc8TE22DBMaZvKQh9xt5etRuz3QXB3zpA_g5LORHIYAmQffbw/s1600/january+2015+014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzwsBKJmKQ6YyC6iHQ0LhK9i5yroZoyaBwu314d4TdiFOW1KEHvgy1cVuBC3eRbhXRLVR5Euc79S5b_yJttiIagTShVEc8TE22DBMaZvKQh9xt5etRuz3QXB3zpA_g5LORHIYAmQffbw/s1600/january+2015+014.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>A bear den...lift the lid to see the bear sleeping inside!</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sxGoDA2MJmUE9ase3N16-cSI2YVCb62OPF54idRL4AkPVea7nPpWDEIMTD-IIGQ0cUkTCDamJsdCv2CF2MaUrJPkWzJdp5mapxE6ykqO2xFn2FJH3zci4GeP_Plo0z3v5nTM908VyOY/s1600/january+2015+017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sxGoDA2MJmUE9ase3N16-cSI2YVCb62OPF54idRL4AkPVea7nPpWDEIMTD-IIGQ0cUkTCDamJsdCv2CF2MaUrJPkWzJdp5mapxE6ykqO2xFn2FJH3zci4GeP_Plo0z3v5nTM908VyOY/s1600/january+2015+017.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Labelling an illustration of an animal that survives the winter outside.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Y43D8Rn1JT_YLqwHR1nc0RK8lNfNzWHlekrGm3ZqWjNo7Ng34DkShA-qXp0F6kbXIiyTv5a-d3gB7iZdsl-Jh4Xn8YYuohk97UJx1zjUifm9pgYw42tefPoOBcE1TvKZpD7MlNEmHZM/s1600/january+2015+019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Y43D8Rn1JT_YLqwHR1nc0RK8lNfNzWHlekrGm3ZqWjNo7Ng34DkShA-qXp0F6kbXIiyTv5a-d3gB7iZdsl-Jh4Xn8YYuohk97UJx1zjUifm9pgYw42tefPoOBcE1TvKZpD7MlNEmHZM/s1600/january+2015+019.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Winter animals celebrate Christmas in the sensory bin filled with Epsom salts.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0P-KjCCQUerNzRWCmuLrU_4G9eRs9OLr0-WHGe6hCHmh5w7o7MwHP8yWEVRe1gq8AhC5k3P_CtuT7eNFwcP_iKPE6zSNGoRh1lYUmTxh5Wh0gg16UdcHNTqBCOW8GWHGOyR42mtb4MGk/s1600/january+2015+021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0P-KjCCQUerNzRWCmuLrU_4G9eRs9OLr0-WHGe6hCHmh5w7o7MwHP8yWEVRe1gq8AhC5k3P_CtuT7eNFwcP_iKPE6zSNGoRh1lYUmTxh5Wh0gg16UdcHNTqBCOW8GWHGOyR42mtb4MGk/s1600/january+2015+021.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>A beaver!</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMpW3eY13s7t0ozi6rgOLzzzQ95w8QEnuq0lcHxdM4TzYvweXDpQ3D8QUdV31QAjbIUA44hBiG0ZuM5Wm4i-Uplk__CV3JIMMZIgZSPMiJvqjCJrVkF-amqAmpPWFhkzjXgmCUfl0eTRk/s1600/january+2015+030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMpW3eY13s7t0ozi6rgOLzzzQ95w8QEnuq0lcHxdM4TzYvweXDpQ3D8QUdV31QAjbIUA44hBiG0ZuM5Wm4i-Uplk__CV3JIMMZIgZSPMiJvqjCJrVkF-amqAmpPWFhkzjXgmCUfl0eTRk/s1600/january+2015+030.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZmPdoiWSXz_MtanThNiNFycDW2VvYh88YMIw7Pkb-0Hg0Dl1Bd9j2HV9nau0zaIF1fkO92pM4XhDi8nsEaou7O3-Qe-s0heoSkpHmeQ8QmsXzubStEDao1Q_a4ERJNlwMr0EqmDT7nI/s1600/january+2015+056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyZmPdoiWSXz_MtanThNiNFycDW2VvYh88YMIw7Pkb-0Hg0Dl1Bd9j2HV9nau0zaIF1fkO92pM4XhDi8nsEaou7O3-Qe-s0heoSkpHmeQ8QmsXzubStEDao1Q_a4ERJNlwMr0EqmDT7nI/s1600/january+2015+056.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Tracing, painting, and cutting out numbers.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRiJINiOcuIhmOHyQZRAa4eTeEgP5zvHKSHYoWatBLx4qkdpbQQFg4y9MKPitDwpCObosfz4sd3QqPSeSS3Kds6HRfBXQYqjdRQM5YEo40T8LNa35rlrcIWYSg5Mk0zzZMGRia1Gio7b0/s1600/january+2015+057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRiJINiOcuIhmOHyQZRAa4eTeEgP5zvHKSHYoWatBLx4qkdpbQQFg4y9MKPitDwpCObosfz4sd3QqPSeSS3Kds6HRfBXQYqjdRQM5YEo40T8LNa35rlrcIWYSg5Mk0zzZMGRia1Gio7b0/s1600/january+2015+057.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Creating art based on Ezra Jack Keats' "The Snowy Day".</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKso3GBX2Q13Loa-T-vuPplMqUITIIaeASqABQz6DHS4AkApkY0ZN2s4fBcMoMoYDyfi2EZe4vDdIZUpYxgiIZSjf_ec4j_7yVOED9rnDSIOeQmUtfQJ9YNaiWA9YrIJrepdxxMIRTCBE/s1600/january+2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKso3GBX2Q13Loa-T-vuPplMqUITIIaeASqABQz6DHS4AkApkY0ZN2s4fBcMoMoYDyfi2EZe4vDdIZUpYxgiIZSjf_ec4j_7yVOED9rnDSIOeQmUtfQJ9YNaiWA9YrIJrepdxxMIRTCBE/s1600/january+2015.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Co-created number anchor charts in the works.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes it feels like we're doing everything but just<i> being in the now</i> of teaching Kindergarten. From November's progress reports to Decembers concerts and open-houses, into January's cold-weather warnings and February's report cards, there are so many places for our attention to be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This has been a busy year so far! Extreme cold weather has forces many indoor recesses on us which do take their toll after several days in a row. My teaching partner and I were busy preparing a presentation to other Kindergarten educators in our board when I came down with the flu. Close on its heels was bronchitis, which flattened me and kept me from work for a week. Add to that the inevitable illnesses of my toddler, husband, and older children, and you can understand how grateful I am to just BE here today, focused on the children in our class.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since our return after Christmas holidays, we've been exploring ideas around how animals survive the harsh winter. As a rural school, many of the children have experiences of seeing animals like wild turkeys, deer, porcupines, and birds outside in the snow. Through rich read alouds, we have come up with many questions and answered most of them! The children loved creating charts of animal behaviours in winter (hibernate? migrate? stay here?), and were very diligent about recording all the animals they could think of. Their interest in animals spilled over into the sensory bin, art centre, and creative centre where one little girl in particular loved sculpting Canadian animals that we had discussed during our circle times.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've been wanting to get the children working on a number wall since early fall, but the interest didn't seem to be there. Today the conditions were perfect somehow, and some of the Year 2s got busy tracing our number lacing shapes. I asked them to paint them then wondered aloud how else we could show the numbers we'd created. Different students contributed their fingers for photographing, or glued pompoms on ten frames.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm enjoying just being here in each moment of the day, observing the children, and making plans to extend their learning and understanding. We've had some great discussions about maps and globes and I sense a new inquiry blossoming. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Stay tuned for a "teacher tutorial" for a beautiful art project we created last week!</i></span><br />
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-29093288713761630972014-12-05T10:45:00.000-08:002014-12-05T10:45:01.364-08:00A Little Bit of Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In FDK we are encouraged to steer away from teacher-selected "themes", and to favour the inquiries and interests of the children. But when December arrives, it is hard to resist the attraction of Christmas! We are busily preparing for our Christmas Open House, and while all centres are open, we have added a bit of sparkle here and some glitter there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We plan our week(s) using a template that includes all the various centres in the classroom, and link our ideas back to the children's interests and questions, any inquiry that has arisen through play, and the many expectations laid out in the Ontario FDK Document. As with so much of what we do, there are many layers of learning happening while the children explore and play with new materials. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some of the week's Christmas centres include:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>MATH EXPLORATION</b>: rolling a number cube and placing the corresponding number of sparkly pompoms on a five- or ten-frame. We sit nearby and ask questions such as, how many more do you need to fill your ten-frame? Who has more? Can you fit six more on there? We make observations about the child's ability to recognize dot patterns on a number cube, count with one-to-one correspondence, represent numbers in various ways, compare quantities, and explore simple addition. If the children choose to play in pairs, we also observe their play and social skills. Can the child take turns? Do they use questions and statements effectively? How do they solve problems that arise?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>SENSORY EXPLORATION</b>: I brought in some whole spices, as well as some ground spices. The children have been invited to "sniff-and-match" the whole spice with its ground counterpart. The children come to me full of excitement..."I matched these ones!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>WRITING:</b> We co-created a cloze-passage letter to Santa, focusing on sight words we've touched on this year. The Year Two group was then invited to write their own letter to Santa. I always photo-copy these to send home to parents, as some children can be hush-hush about their Christmas wishes! I have a modified version ready to write with the Year One students, and next week we'll walk to the post office to send them all to the North Pole!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>SENSORY TABLE:</b> I created a <a href="http://theimaginationtree.com/2012/11/golden-cinnamon-sensory-tub.html">Golden Cinnamon Sensory</a> experience for the children. A big bag of rice, cinnamon, glitter, and lots of golden trinkets from Dollarama were the raw materials. The children have loved exploring these items, using them to make "cakes", picking through to find the treasures, sorting them, and so on. It is very calming to let rice trickle down between your fingers! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>SAND TABLE: </b>As we move through Advent with a focus on the Nativity Story, we are adding items to the room to encourage the children to draw on their previous knowledge and to retell the Christmas story. We have durable Nativity figures in our sand table and it's been wonderful to see the children sharing this timeless story with one another time after time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Please check in next week for some Nativity Art!</i></span></div>
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The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-24662762864697739572014-12-02T10:56:00.002-08:002014-12-02T10:56:50.797-08:00Gingerbread Time!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The play dough centre is a hot spot in our classroom all year round. We make a new batch every Monday, incorporating reading, measuring, and forms of writing (procedure) into the process. The children roll balls, flatten it with a rolling pin, create snakes, pat it, squish it, cut shapes out of it, decorate their creations with sequins, toothpicks, glitter, and googly eyes. One of us usually sits at the table to demonstrate new techniques for manipulating play dough, while listening in on the spontaneous conversations that arise. These conversations between the children offer so many insights into their understanding of the world around them. We take photos of the children and make notes that will help us in future planning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today at our Welcome Circle (first thing in the morning) we passed around a small cup containing a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. They each took a sniff and we marvelled at the range of their experiences of scent: "It smells like...hot jelly beans...cinnamon hearts...cookies...spicy stuff...GINGERBREAD!" We read "Maisy Makes Gingerbread" by Lucy Cousins and everyone seems keen to make REAL gingerbread cookies before Christmas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We talked about where spices come from and they were astounded when I mentioned that cinnamon comes from the bark of a tree. I made a mental note to bring in the "raw materials" that are used to create dried spices: a ginger root, some whole cloves, a whole nutmeg, and some cinnamon sticks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When we sent them out into the classroom to play, I gathered a small group in the play dough centre, and we went through the steps of creating play dough. This recipe was different as it required us to cook the dough, and the children were very interested in the way the mixture changed as it cooked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In no time at all, we had a beautiful batch of <a href="http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2011/12/gingerbread-playdough/">Gingerbread Playdough</a>, and we set the children loose with rolling pins, cutters, and lots of sparkly sequins with which to decorate their cookie creations! The dough turned out beautifully and as the site suggests, it would make wonderful homemade Christmas gifts. Enjoy!</span>The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-61190135104597196612014-11-27T11:05:00.001-08:002014-11-27T11:05:45.086-08:00Inquiry Never Ends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In a FDK classroom, interests may shift, questions may arise that have nothing to do with the current inquiry, or the children may suddenly stop playing at a centre that up until now has been the most popular hangout.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes it feels as if there's just no inquiry happening! This feeling usually arises when the teaching team feels that there is nothing "formal" going on (e.g., I haven't gone to find fifteen books about spiders/airplanes/castles in the library, and the children just aren't biting when I offer an enticing activity to extend their understanding of something they seemed interested in yesterday). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We've learned to just ride this out. When our <a href="http://www.inquisitivechildren.blogspot.ca/2014/10/an-inquiry-into-hunting-culture.html">hunting inquiry</a> drew to a natural close, we observed and listened carefully to see what other interests might arise. For a few days, a few of the children were interested in tying and taping string all over the classroom like webs. When this evolved into chasing and "webbing each other" like Spiderman, we tried to shift their focus towards learning more about spiders and how they spin webs. No bites. It felt like pulling teeth to generate an "I wonder" chart. The interest just wasn't there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We decided to change some of our centres up, leaving them open-ended enough so that the children had choice. We decided to focus on sorting, as many of the children were naturally doing this anyway during our tidy-up times. We created a planning template to see how many areas of the program document we could touch on with various centres. The children explored many new materials in new ways, and we were able to document all kinds of learning and discoveries as the children tried different ways of sorting various materials.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kindergarten is like that. You might think the children are<i> just playing </i>(or in this case, just sorting), when in fact they are honing their fine motor skills by cutting with scissors, comparing and contrasting facial expressions, classifying living and non-living objects, and engaging in all sorts of complex conversations. The squirrel's tail and the piece of washed sheep's wool I added to our discovery centre sparked long discussions about where wool comes from, and why squirrels' fur is lots of colours. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My enthusiasm for wool almost led me to believe that these questions meant that an inquiry into sheep and wool was in the works. I resisted that hope, because the questions ended with that one discussion. Perhaps this interest will arise again, but for now it is just that: an interest. In the Spring I'll bring in a raw fleece and we can <a href="http://www.theknittygrittyhomestead.blogspot.ca/2014/07/shepherdess-dreams.html">work through the process together</a>. Perhaps I'll have some spinning enthusiasts among my class. Time will tell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The bottom line is, inquiry never stops. Sometimes inquiries last two minutes while we have a conversation, or just the length of time it takes to read a story. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yesterday we read a story about hibernation, not because I want to start a hibernation inquiry, but because someone picked it from the shelf and asked me to read it. The children's interest was piqued: they wanted to know how the animals know when it is time to come back to Canada, how the butterflies know the way to Mexico, and what a bear's snore sounds like. I wrote their questions down and will revisit them in the coming weeks and we'll see what happens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'll set that squirrel's tail and piece of wool aside in case a discussion about how animals stay warm in winter comes out of that read aloud!</span></div>
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-3870150207837848472014-10-27T12:24:00.002-07:002014-10-27T18:01:06.319-07:00An Inquiry into Hunting Culture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten (FDELK) program document, one of the expectations under Social Development is that children will <i>talk about events or retell stories that reflect their own heritage and cultural background. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In a rural setting, there is not as much cultural diversity as one might find in an urban school. However, the traditions we celebrate here in Eastern Ontario run deep, and are a very rich part of the children's experiences. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In late September when we were creating a list of "signs of fall", a point that came up several times was that "Daddy is getting ready to go hunting". The boys started pretending to hunt, and it is a credit to the learning journey I am on that I didn't immediately shut down the shooting of pretend guns. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I gathered the boys together and saw their faces fall when I reminded them of our "no guns in school" rule. Then their faces visibly brightened when I asked if they thought it was time to change things up in our dramatic play area. "Do you think you could help me create a hunting centre in our classroom?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Immediately, they were engaged. They gave me many ideas of items we'd need, which I recorded as a list (modeled writing): camo and orange clothing, hats, stuffed animals to represent local prey, hunting licenses, and guns. The last item had a big question mark after it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We didn't want to encourage gun play in our classroom or in the school yard, but it was clear to me that these children understand deeply what guns are truly for: protecting livestock from pests, and hunting to provide for their families. We agreed that they could build guns from wooden blocks (with the permission of our administrator), but that they would lose their hunting licenses if they engaged in gun play at recess.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We used camouflage wrapping paper and real tree branches to turn our play loft into a tree stand. The children have really enjoyed pretending that they are quietly watching for prey. They were thrilled with their personalized Ontario Outdoor Cards, and have put a lot of attention into packing their supplies for a trip to the hunt camp. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One day a student offered me some of the moose he'd caught; I asked him if you can eat it right away or if there were steps that needed to be taken before eating our catch. I invited the little hunters to help me create a step-by-step procedure (modeled writing) detailing how to process an animal we've shot. Their prior knowledge runs deep!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of my students was picked up one afternoon to go see the moose his dad's hunting group had shot. The next day he arrived with a photo of himself standing beside the two moose, suspended from tractor buckets, with their bellies cut. I'll admit, this sounds gruesome. I gave the children the choice of whether or not the wanted to see the picture and they all chose to look. No one said, "Ew!" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The girls have been less enthused about this inquiry, and it has been interesting to observe the preconceptions the children have about who goes hunting. One day, one of the boys said, "The girls can be the moms". We discussed what that means in hunting families; in general, the moms stay home with the children while dad goes to the hunt camp! Some of the children mentioned that their moms engage in turkey or partridge hunting, and a few of the girls have donned the orange vests and hats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With Halloween just around the corner, we started to pack up the hunting gear. This worked well with the inquiry; I just told the children that this year's hunting season was over! We clarified that there would be no more shooting guns in the classroom and so far, this has worked wonderfully. We are now investigating pumpkins and measurement! More on that in an upcoming post!</span></div>
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<br>The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-13742778702232588422014-10-14T09:38:00.000-07:002014-10-14T09:38:21.611-07:00Math is All Around Us<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the early months of school, we present the children with many opportunities to play with many different materials. We create invitations to explore mathematical concepts, without explicitly teaching "the right way". A basket full of mixed rocks placed in the middle of a table with two smaller, empty baskets invites a child to sit down and sort the rocks. She is in JK, and does this quickly and efficiently. The teaching team takes note of this, knowing that she may benefit from more challenging sorting provocations in the future (e.g. buttons of many kinds). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another very young JK child plays with a set of farm animals. I approach him and tell him about our farm and how we keep the same types of animals together. The chickens are in the coop, the ducks are at the pond, and the ponies are in the barn together. He absorbs this for a moment, then finds some long blocks. He creates stalls, and begins to sort the animals by type. He pauses when he picks up the spotted pig. He sets it with the Holstein cows, looks at it for a moment, then places it with the other pig. Once again, I take note and marvel at the knowledge this young child brings with him to Kindergarten. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Patterning emerges in many areas of the classroom in these early weeks of school. I hear the SK students saying, "Look at the pattern I made!", and a few days later, I hear a JK student use the same words. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> I confess, in my first years as a Kindergarten teacher, I "covered" curriculum in a way that made sense to me. I explicitly taught the children about patterns and sorting, spending lots of time creating "activities" for them to do to "prove" to me that they could do it, and checking this off my list of expectations as each child "performed" the task I'd set for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It turns out you <i>can</i> teach an old(er) teacher new tricks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As we set out enticing, open-ended materials with no real expectation of what will be "covered", we <i>uncover</i> what the children already know. We keep note of children who are <i>not yet </i>sorting and patterning, and make a point of sitting down with them wherever they play to introduce the concepts to them in a playful, informal way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Without teaching the whole group at the same time, we meet each child's needs in a way that respects their previous mathematical understanding and provides "next steps" to deepen their understanding.</span></div>
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-90247417999300481722014-10-02T10:47:00.000-07:002014-10-02T10:47:52.406-07:00The Outdoor Classroom, Part Two: Crossing the Creek<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The children took water from our outdoor water table and poured it on the ground. They watched it pool into a small depression along the cinder block wall, and got some more water. I sat to the side and watched for the next 40 minutes as they played with no adult intervention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Let's make a creek!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"We need more water."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Without asking for permission, she took this problem unto herself and went inside to fill her bucket.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All of the children excitedly grabbed the log slices from the old milk crate by the door, and placed them across the big puddle they'd created. They added some taller log pieces as well as piles of rocks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They immediately and peacefully lined up to cross the creek. Some balanced themselves with one hand on the wall, others hopped as if they were playing hopscotch. They waited patiently while each person crossed in his/her own way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One very quiet child observed the play from a distance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Other children continued filling buckets to add to their creek. One in particular was very interested in creating an island using poplar branches we'd gathered after a windy day, and a pile of rocks. He was very interested in how the water flow changed as he added materials to block it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wondered how long the children would play with the same layout, as their first path was "easy" (in that the log pieces travelled in a line, closely spaced). It didn't take long till they began to relish the physical challenge of moving the log pieces around to make new and more challenging paths.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Look...here's the problem...this is the tricky part!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I can't believe it! This way is even harder!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Hey! I have an idea! Let's put a boat in the water!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The next day, a few children played the creek game, but gradually faded away to kick the soccer ball or paint on the chalk lines they'd drawn on the cinder block wall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The last child to cross the creek was the shy observer from the day before, who was waiting till the crowd dispersed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what was I doing all this time? I sat and marvelled as they shouted, balanced, challenged themselves physically, solved problems, collaborated, took risks, discussed their findings, used the materials they found around them, and had more fun than any adult-initiated, pre-organized game could ever offer. I took photos and detailed notes to document their play, and thought ahead to new challenges I could present to deepen their play and understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next week I think we'll take a walk to the creek down the road and I'll wait and see what happens.</span></div>
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-28111204169217238042014-09-26T10:50:00.000-07:002015-05-22T06:12:13.523-07:00The Outdoor Classroom: Part One<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We are fortunate that our classroom has a back door that opens out to a paved alley. On one side is our classroom wall and windows, and on the other is a cinder block retaining wall, just tall enough for me to peek over. Beyond the wall is a grassy rise with spruce trees growing on it, and just behind the trees is the fence that borders the cemetery.</span><br />
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It sounds like a bleak setting for outdoor play, but with the creative thinking and openness to diverse play materials that are inherent to children at play, it has become one of our most used centres.</span><br />
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Some of the items at the children's disposal are:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">slices of log</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">river rocks of various sizes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">a small water table (but a bin filled with water would work just as well)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">lots of buckets</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">paintbrushes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">construction trucks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">baskets and beanbags</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">soccer balls</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">sidewalk chalk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">magnetic fishing poles</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">fish and insects with magnets glued on to them</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">hula hoops</span><br />
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Most of the items were gathered here and there, and the cost has been minimal to set this centre up.</span><br />
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Every day during our open-choice centre time, one of the teaching team members supervises outside while the other stays inside. It has created a beautiful balance for the many kinds of learners in our room. Many of the children want to be using large muscles throughout the day, so having the option to get outside to kick a ball, run races, climb the hill, balance on logs, bend to push a truck, or lift up stones prevents many of the behaviours one might expect from a child who would otherwise have the wiggles. There is a flow between the outdoors and indoors, and many children float between the two.</span><br />
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Some of the children organize games like creating a caterpillar by attaching themselves together with hula hoops. Another group draws symbols on the wall and has a contest of who can hit each target with a bean bag. Another trio surrounds the water table and giggles as they catch fish. The children use chalk to create hopscotch games, to trace log shapes on the pavement, and to practise letters and numbers in meaningful ways (e.g. one child wrote "$300" beside the beanbag game to indicate the price of playing!).</span><br />
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The children who prefer to be alone blow bubbles, draw and print on the cinderblock wall, collect pine cones, or balance rocks.</span><br />
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There is something for everyone in the outdoor classroom. There are so many opportunities for so many skills to be built. The children think they're just playing and having fun. We adults know, of course, that we are growing whole, healthy children by giving them the tools to:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*engage in rich multisensory experiences</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*shout and be boisterous</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*be physically active</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*collaborate and create games</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*take challenges and risks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*develop strength, balance, and physical coordination</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*explore natural objects, and adapt them to their own purposes</span><br />
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We are amazed ever day to see the creative play, deep conversation, and physical competence we observe when outside with the children. We often just watch, and record what's happening by taking notes, videos, or photographs. The children's capacity for using open-ended materials in new ways knows no bounds.</span><br />
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Recently, I observed that some of the children were using our inside blocks to build catapults, teeter totters, and something that resembled a jet ski. Because these blocks are not built to hold the weight of a child, some of them were getting damaged </span><br />
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I sat with them and shared my observation with them (that they were wanting to build bigger "real" things that they could sit or stand on). I asked if they thought we could use some big log pieces and some sturdy planks in our outdoor centre. Their eyes went wide as they nodded, and immediately broke into excited discussion of what they might do with these materials.</span><br />
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I'll be setting my husband to work with the chainsaw this weekend, and raiding our old drive shed for some wide barn board planks! I can't wait to see what the children create.</span><br />
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The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-32929059959270100472014-09-05T10:56:00.000-07:002014-09-05T10:56:15.083-07:00The Third Teacher and Fine Motor Development<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They come in with smiles, loud greetings, eyes bright and taking in all there is to see in their new classroom. Some cling to their parents, others can hardly wait to be set loose on all the beautiful materials they see before them. They leave their shoes and lunchbags in strange places, and forget to tidy up the messes they make. They cry at quiet time, because they are tired and they miss their mommies. They sometimes pinch or slap when they don't yet have the words to say, "No", "Stop", or "I don't like that!". They snuggle in to the adults that now care for them, so willing to trust us with our gentle voices and complete engagement in their play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first week of school is massive in its transition, for children and teachers, out of the relaxed zone of summer holidays. We are getting to know one another, and we take copious notes on the interactions we see. <i>D brought S a baby doll when he noticed she felt sad. R invited A to play a game he made up with the school buses, called "Crash Fall Down". B pinched K because he knocked down her tower.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We gently redirect and remind, guide them through conflicts with a firm but gentle voice, and teach them how to care for the materials in our classroom. We pay attention to the energy in the room and find ways to calm things down or ramp things up (although the latter is rarely needed at this time of year).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our classroom is the Third Teacher. We spent the summer cleaning, sorting, purging, and carefully presenting the materials we've collected and purchased to offer invitations to the children. We intentionally create many opportunities for the children to develop their fine motor control before we ever put a pencil in their hands. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Drawing, painting, rolling and cutting playdough snakes, moving beads on a wire caterpillar, filling small bottles with dried beans then screwing on the top, spinning their homemade tops, building cars, lining up blocks, and hammering nails all lead to improved control of the small muscles in their hands. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Printing will come, but not just yet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>We have much playing to do first. </i></span></div>
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-74495125136640097602014-06-24T08:27:00.000-07:002014-06-24T08:27:05.147-07:00Field Trip: The Bonnechere Caves!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_961496535"></span>The Bonnechere Caves <span id="goog_961496536"></span></a>provide inspiration for budding geologists, paleontologists, and artists alike! The natural curves and contours carved by water over ten thousand years offer much to the reflective soul. The invitation to brush one's hand across the fluting and scalloping patterns of water over rock is irresistible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Layers and layers of sea mud, sand, and long-deceased marine creatures create the layers of limestone, and only the power of water and time could reveal such beauty: a cephalopod shell forever encased in its sea bed, stalactites formed patiently by the eternal drip-drip-drip that is a cave's nature, and a passage curving ahead to unknown mysteries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My Kindergarten students were completely awed by the experience of walking so far under the earth. When I suggested that a deer or a person might be walking over our heads at that very moment, their eyes grew wide with wonder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As a teacher, I highly recommend the Bonnechere Caves as a field-trip destination, either in the Spring or the Fall. There are so many inquiries waiting to spring up from this experience! </span></div>
<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-77293624349896616872014-06-20T12:01:00.000-07:002014-06-20T12:01:29.082-07:00Fossils and Seashells<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like <a href="http://www.inquisitivechildren.blogspot.ca/2014/05/inquiry-based-learning-flying-things.html">things that fly</a> and all <a href="http://www.inquisitivechildren.blogspot.ca/2014/06/medieval-times-in-kindergarten.html">things medieval</a>, fossils have the power to capture children's imaginations in an instant. The beauty of a long extinct life-form transformed into rock is a mystery that most children are eager to investigate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Combine the wonder of fossils with a walk through a real, naturally-made limestone cave and you have a recipe for inquiry that might last for weeks. Alas, we only have a week of school left, so we're delving into fossils without getting too deep (no pun intended!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: start;">In preparation for our upcoming class trip to the amazing </span><a href="http://www.bonnecherecaves.com/" style="text-align: start;">Bonnechere Caves,</a><span style="text-align: start;"> we've been learning about geology and fossils. The Caves are our local geological wonder. 500 million year-old fossils embedded in the mud and sand layers of an ancient sea have created a limestone bed on which much of our present-day farmland sits. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: start;">About 10 000 year ago when the last of the Ice Age's glaciers were receding, the run-off eroded the cracks that naturally occurred in this ancient limestone. As limestone is a relatively soft rock, the crack widened over time, eventually forming a beautiful series of subterranean caverns.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: start;">Now a popular tourist destination, the Caves staff offer guided tours throughout the summer and fall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: start;">I wanted to give my class some background in hopes that they would have lots of questions by the time we take our tour at the Caves next week. Having been a tour guide at the Caves in my late teens and early twenties, I gave them the short version using chart paper to draw ancient sea creatures! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: start;">We watched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQeyieeRlZU">this Bill Nye video about fossils</a>, and in it we saw some children making fossils using shells, plasticine, and plaster of Paris. When the questions arose: <i>could we do that?</i>, all I could do was what I always <i>try </i> to say: I said, YES!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: start;">I found a carton of plaster that I'd seen sitting in the supply cupboard for years. It didn't take much to organize small groups to knead their plasticine, squish a shell into it to create an imprint, then carefully pour or spoon some plaster of Paris into their mold. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: start;">Within an hour they were ready to pop out, and now they're curing on the sunny windowsill till Monday. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: start;">It was quick, it was messy, it was hands-on, and it was fun! The children were very excited to see their "fossils", and I know they'll have lots to think about as we embark on our subterranean adventure next week!</span></div>
The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043822599732128512.post-15506692682034349812014-06-09T07:18:00.003-07:002014-06-09T07:19:36.546-07:00We Build Castles in Kindergarten!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The children worked with Miss Sue to plan and design their castles. They generated ideas of what tools and materials we'd need, and what parts of the castle we could include in our designs. It was exciting to hear their use of specialized vocabulary (moat, catapult, battlements, drawbridge, gatehouse, etc.), and to pick up on <i>their </i>excitement about this project. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I noticed that many of the girls were not as excited and engaged in our plans. I addressed this during a large-group circle time by bringing up other kinds of castles, namely fairy castles! Suddenly, I noticed the girls sitting up a little straighter and tuning in more carefully! I used a cone-shaped Culligan cup to show them how to create a turret if they chose to add towers to their castles, using purple paper. Then the questions started flowing! "Can we decorate our castles? Can we use glitter? Can we draw flowers on them?" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, I said yes!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We spent two afternoons with the children drawing their cut-lines with permanent marker on cardboard boxes, and us cutting with serrated knives. We followed the children's directions unless there was an obvious problem (e.g. if the door would cut right up through the top). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I involved the children in the mixing of paint colours. They were so engaged with this project that I barely had to supervise their use of the paint. We covered the tables in plastic and they worked for two days on painting their castles. We discussed painting a secondary coat to create a stone pattern, but they were so eager to play that they didn't want to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For a few days now, these handmade castles have been the most popular play things in our room. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The children are so proud of their creations and take such care to make sure they're put away carefully. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's got me thinking about other play things we can create!</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
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<br />The Knitty Gritty Homesteadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02890656094078973552noreply@blogger.com0