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 💛