Wednesday 18 November 2015

Jackson Pollock

We studied Jackson Pollock and we were fascinated by the way he created his art. Did you know that Jackson Pollock drizzled, dripped and splattered paint on huge canvases? We couldn't let Mr. Pollock have all the fun...so we created a class masterpiece using the same methods as Jackson Pollock. We had so much fun!!!








Tuesday 17 November 2015

Math Games & Puzzle Day!!!

Today was math game and puzzle day. Games are excellent for teaching math skills. We learn to recognize numbers, count with one to one correspondence, subitize, use problem solving skills and best of all, games are fun! Puzzles are also great for spatial awareness and problem solving. We also get to practice turn taking skills and losing/winning graciously. Do you have a weekly game night at your house? If not, consider planning your first family game night this week. You will help your child with math skills and have fun together at the same time!

Thursday 5 November 2015

Learning in Kindergarten

Look! The students are making words they know! 

We look like professional sketch artists!

This is our new light table. 

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Discovery Bins

Halloween is fast approaching! We are loving our Halloween themed Discovery centres. 

Math: Halloween patterns

Artistic Exploration: Making monsters

Literacy: Stamping letters with Halloween stamps

Fine Motor: Cutting spider webs

Technology: WTK app on the iPad






Nature Alphabet & Playing in the Leaves

Last week we worked on our Nature Alphabet. We went outside and collected a variety of natural items; leaves, rocks, pine cones, etc. After collecting our items we played in the leaves. We had so much fun building leaf piles, rolling in the leaves and of course throwing the leaves in the air!





Thursday 8 October 2015

Emily Carr

In Kindergarten we learn how to cut and paste, draw and colour, paint and sculpt. But we also learn about famous artists and their craft. Recently we studied Emily Carr. After learning about Emily Carr, we created our own masterpieces using her favourite subject...trees!

Thursday 1 October 2015

Choice Time

In Kindergarten we have at least one hour of uninterrupted play time each day. The children learn so much about their world through play. They learn how to negotiate, problem solve, be kind, control emotions and calm their bodies. They manipulate objects, act out roles and experiment with different materials. Through play, children actively construct, challenge and expand their own understandings. They investigate, ask questions, and engage in critical thinking. Play is children's work!  

"Play expands intelligence, stimulates the imagination, encourages creative problem solving, and helps develop confidence, self-esteem, and a positive attitude toward learning." Dr. Fraser Mustard

Here are some pictures of our class hard at work!


Friday 25 September 2015

How to fill a bucket.



We read the book " Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" and then brainstormed ways that we could fill buckets. Here is what our class had to say

Haroon - Say "please".
Jeannie - Give kisses and hugs to mom and dad.
Mason - Help Abby go up the stairs.
Finn - Say that all the girls are pretty.
Keira - Say "I love you" to mom.
Kayla - Play with Sophie.
Adriana - Say "I love you. You look pretty" to mom.
Midknight - Kiss my mom and hug my mom.
Ruby - I will kiss my Grandma.
Felicity - Help mom clean up my toys.
Sophie - Help mom and kiss mom.
Gus - Clean up my room for mom.
Autumn - Clean downstairs for mom.
Malik - Give hugs and kisses to mom.

Tuesday 22 September 2015

Discovery Centres

Each day we have discovery centres. These centres are designed to target 4 learning areas: Literacy, Numeracy, Artistic Expression and Fine Motor. These are some examples of our centres.

 Lacing letters is great for fine motor development.

 We are using beautiful gems to create interesting designs and patterns.

 Matching letter gems to our names is fun! Using names to teach letters is meaningful to the children.

We are building numbers out of lego. This is our numeracy centre but it is also great for fine motor and spatial awareness. We are creating 3D numbers by looking at 2D pictures!

Friday 18 September 2015

First week of school

We had a great week in Kindergarten! The children are already following classroom routines and making friends. It is going to be a great year! Here are a few pictures from the week. 

Thursday 5 March 2015

Reflection

What do we know about reflection?
- We have a disco ball in our classroom. When the sun hits the disco ball, the sunlight bounces off the mirrors and makes dots all around our classroom.
- When light hits a mirror, it bounces off and makes a reflection.

What types of materials reflect light ?
- DVDs, mirrors, prism, glass, magnifying glasses





Tuesday 3 March 2015

Making Shadows

We love to make shadows.  You need light to make a shadow.
By Kindergarten Room 1

The blog post above was our shared writing for the day. The children decided what to say and helped me to spell the words. Before publishing we talked about how "kid spell" is perfect for us in kindergarten but if we are going to publish our writing, that means other people will be reading our writing. And that means that we have to use "book spell".

We spent time in the dark room again today making shadows. We learned that:
- you need light to make a shadow
- you need to be in front of the light to make a shadow
- our shadows got bigger the closer to the light we got
- in order to get rid of our shadows we had to go behind the light

After playing with shadows in the dark room, we tried making shadows using the projector and the Smart Board. I introduced two "Scientist" words to the children; opaque and transparent. We learned that a shadow is actually the absence of light. Things that are opaque make black shadows because the light cannot go through them. When light can travel through an object, it is called transparent. We noticed that some of the items we chose to experiment with were transparent but the white light from the projector went through the item (i.e. coloured cellophane) and that colour showed up on the screen. One student selected a mirror to experiment with. As predicted, the mirror was opaque and created a black shadow...but what an amazing discovery when we all noticed that the mirror reflected the light! Tomorrow we will play with reflection.









Monday 2 March 2015

Playing with Light

Our class has become interested in light and shadows thanks to our new overhead projector centre. The students love creating designs on the overhead and figuring out what will show up in colour and what will be black. Today we went into "the dark room" across the hallway that does not have any windows. We turned off the lights and used flashlights to explore light. Here are some things we noticed:
- I noticed that when I covered the light with my hand, my hand turned red!
- When you go close to the wall, the light gets smaller.
- When you go far away from the wall, the light gets bigger.
- When I put my hand in front of the light, I can make shadows.
- Light goes in a straight line.
- I wonder why I can see my blood when I put the flashlight on my hand?

This is what we look like with light from above.

Playing light tag.

Our red hands.

We look spooky when we are lit from below!


Friday 27 February 2015

Starry Night

We studied Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting, "Starry Night". The students noticed that the stars in the night sky are not actually star shaped. They are various colours of yellow all mixed together. They also noticed that the lines that Van Gogh used makes it look like it is windy in the picture. We painted our own version of "Starry Night" using white and yellow paint on blue paper. We used Q-tips to apply the paint. We used dots and lines just like Van Gogh to create our stars, moon and wind. We added white to the yellow paint to make different tints of yellow. After the paint dried we created our town silhouettes by cutting shapes out of black construction paper.



How to Catch a Star

After reading Oliver Jeffers' "How to Catch a Star" we created these beautiful watercolour paintings. First we painted the watercolour paper with water. Next we used an eye dropper to drip blue and turquoise liquid watercolour paint on the paper. The colours mixed and pooled together. Next we sprinkled some coarse salt on the paper. When the paint was dry we brushed the salt off and noticed that where the salt was, the colour is different. Finally we learned how to draw a star on yellow construction paper and then worked really hard to cut it out. We glued the star on our night sky. This art inspired us to write about how we would go about catching a star!