This week was filled with snow, science, storytelling and stuffies! We discovered about a zillion things that begin with the letter S and had so much fun exploring some new classroom centres. 

 

Ask your child about our new magical mystery cube! 

(we had so much fun coming up with stories about this)

 

We brought the outside in for an up-close and hands-on look at some snow. Children are continuing to learn how to closely observe the world around them and create their own discoveries and questions about what they see.

"I wonder how it sticks together."

 

We learned that each snow crystal begins as a speck of dirt, ash, pollen or even bacteria...but that didn't stop the kiddos from wanting to eat it 😂

 "I see sparkles!"

"I see water. It's melting! It's MAGIC!"

"I see the bacteria!"

 

 

We even made some mini snowmen...

"I turned the snow into ice! That's crazy!"

...and then we added some colour, just for fun :)

 

 "This is so cool!"

We're obsessed with stories at the moment and are learning how to retell some of the classics. This week we read different versions of The Three Little Pigs and practiced retelling it at centre time to work on our oral language skills. Children who are confidently able to tell a detailed story will be much more successful when they begin to explore story concepts through writing later on. You can practice this skill with your child by having them retell some of their favourite stories from home. 

The kiddos LOVED this story and were talking about it for days after we read it. Ask your child about the silly ending :)

 

Laser pig! 

We've started exploring some early gymnastics skills in gym this week! We start each class by working as a team to set up the mats and then get busy rolling, jumping, twisting and bouncing. From now until Christmas, please ensure your child comes to school in clothing that allows them to fully engage in these activities. We go to the gym every day except for Tuesday.

 

Stay warm out there this weekend! I'll leave you with a few more fun moments from our week together...

Miss Roberts :)

 

Filled with wonderment, our investigations this week led us to take an up-close look at some of our favourite animals, insects and plants. As I observe the children playing and listen to their conversations each day , I look for common interests and themes that arise. The kiddos are big into animals these days so I wanted to create some opportunities for the children to explore this interest through their play. 

 

 

We learned that both scientists and artists need to look closely and are practicing our observational, questioning, drawing and painting skills at this new centre. 

 

 

We put our fingers to work with an animal plasticine challenge. Plasticine is quite hard at first and is a great fine motor workout! There was so much creative problem solving going on as the children were trying to figure out how to make their animals stand up. Some children are still most comfortable creating 2 dimensional pictures with the plasticine. Others have progressed to making 3 dimensional objects. We're also learning to add details to our work.

 

 

 

 

 

I noticed that the play at the small world centre was lacking some structure. The children needed some support to create a story around what was happening for the animals. This led us to an introduction into storytelling! We learned that most fictional stories have some important things in common:

1. A main character

2. A setting where the story takes place

3. A problem that happens to the main character

4. A solution to the problem

After creating about a dozen silly stories about ourselves together, children were challenged to create a simple story of their own using materials in the classroom. When they felt ready, they shared their stories with their classmates and I recorded each one. This was so much fun! We will most definitely be diving deeper into this concept. They absolutely loved it and were so proud of their finished stories. I would encourage you to have your child start identifying the 4 main story elements in the books you read together at home :)

Inspired by a morning sign-in question about snow, one of our little geniuses decided to make a survey of his own. Within minutes, every single child wanted to create their own survey question and we spent the next 40 minutes exploring how to survey our friends! This was seriously magical. The way the children were communicating with each other, reading each other's names, counting their responses and analyzing the data...pure gold!

Do you like pugs? 

 

Do you like Komodo dragons?

 Do you like jets?

Do you like hugs?

 Do you like dinosaurs?

We ended our week together discussing what it means to be healthy. We learned about the importance of healthy foods and activities and had fun trying to increase our heart rates in the gym. Have your child show you how to find their pulse!

Have a fantastic weekend! See you all on Tuesday :)

Miss Roberts 💛