We've been focusing on the changes that are occurring now in the season of Fall. We read the book "Leaf Man" with our Big Buddies. Then we all went outside and did a scavenger hunt to look for some things in nature. It was a beautiful day outside and we had lots of fun being "Nature Hunters" with our Big Buddies! The last part of our outdoor scavenger hunt was that the children had to create their own Leaf Men. Can you spot their Leaf Man creations?
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We read the book "Have You Filled A Bucket Today?" by Carol McCloud. The book explains that everyone carries an invisible bucket that contains our feelings. When our buckets are full, we feel great but when our buckets are empty, we feel sad. In the classroom we have been focusing on being "bucket fillers" - someone who says or does nice things for other people. By being bucket fillers, the children not only fill other people's buckets but also their own at the same time. We brainstormed a list of things that we could do to fill each others' buckets. We also talked about things that would fill their own bucket. We also learned about "bucket dippers". A bucket dipper says or does things to cause other people to feel bad. A bucket dipper empties their bucket when they say and do mean things. We are learning to be bucket fillers not dippers!! We read some scenarios and decided if they were "bucket fillers" or "bucket dippers". We decided that we want to be a bucket filling class, so we took the bucket filling pledge. We are working at trying to fill our class bucket - every time someone does something that fills our buckets and makes us feel good, we put a jewel into our bucket. Hopefully we can fill it by the end of the year!!
Together we made applesauce for snack. The children all cut and put an apple in the pot - including the core, the peel, the seeds, & the stems! We cooked it in a big pot on the stove for quite a while until it was soft. Then we used an apple press to strain all the things we don't want (seeds, stems, etc.) and to squeeze out the pulp of the apple to make applesauce. We added a bit of sugar and cinnamon. Even Mrs. Stainton (our school education assistant), Ms. Henry (our school aboriginal education worker), and I got a turn to use the press. It was a fun way to make our snack! We wondered that, too. So...we put it to the test. First we all got to hold our heavy pumpkin and then we made a guess whether we thought our heavy pumpkin would sink or float. Ask your child what happened. Did you guess right? We love our story "Five Little Pumpkins". We have re-told the story with our finger pumpkin mitt and with our flannel board. We've read it as a big book. But the best was when we dramatized it using our stick puppets. We've been talking a lot about 'being brave' - just like our friend Kerry Koala tells us. The children got to practice this by standing up in front of their classmates and saying their lines. A fantastic job by everyone!! It's always a bucket filler to hear your friends clap for you when you finish!
Our school took part in Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) day. We enjoyed looking at our class books during Book Time.
Kerry Koala has been talking to us about feelings and emotions. She came to our class but she was very nervous. We talked about being 'brave' and how that means sometimes we have to do things even if they are a bit scary. The children helped Kerry be brave by telling her some of the things that she needed to do to talk in front of the whole class. They told her to use a big voice, to stand tall, and to look them in the eye. It's important for children to be able to identify and express their emotions in appropriate ways. Kerry Koala used different pictures to talk to the children about their feelings. Then we made Kerry Koala stick puppets - happy, sad, scared, and mad. We used the stick puppets to show how we would feel during different scenarios: you fall down and scrape your knee - how do you feel?; your first day of kindergarten - how do you feel?; Mom and Dad take you for ice cream - how do you feel? etc.
We will be seeing Kerry Koala a number of times throughout the year to teach us about feelings, how to face fears, relax, solve problems, and set goals. We have been learning about the season of Fall and many of the changes that happen at this time of the year. As a part of science, our unit of study has been about the life cycle of the sockeye salmon. Barry the Brave Salmon has been teaching us all about his life as he went through his different stages of development. During his travel back, he begins to change and he notices lots of his other friends are beginning to change too. They are all changing to a bright red colour with green heads and green tails. Wow! And the male salmon are all getting big humps on their backs and their mouths are becoming more hooked with sharp teeth. What a transformation! Finally, back at his home, Barry the Brave Salmon finds a mate, his mate digs a redd and lays her eggs. Then Barry fertilizes the eggs with milt and then they carefully cover the eggs with small rocks by swishing their tails around. They don't want any predators - like birds or bigger fish - to eat the eggs. They want the life cycle to continue! Adams River Salmon Run What a fantastic day at the salmon run! It's always an excellent way to consolidate our learning by being able to see what we've been learning about in the classroom by going out and seeing things in our world around us. We had beautiful weather and a great opportunity to see many spawning salmon. Thanks to all our parent volunteers! Westmount Salmon Run We took our learning from our field trip to Adams River, and created our own salmon run mural in our classroom. All of the children made fingerprint salmon eggs for our redds. Then they cut out and painted their own salmon. Some decided to make males and others chose to make females. After we painted them, we added them to our mural. Our finished mural: Salmon Habitat A number of children have enjoyed exploring at our Discovery Table. Using "loose parts", the children had a chance to create salmon habitat and redds.
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AuthorI'm Mrs. MacDonald. Welcome to a window into our kindergarten classroom. My goal of this blog is to give you an opportunity to see some of the things that we are doing at school. Enjoy! Archives
March 2023
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