This was what greeted the students in preparation for Chinese New Year - our table of Chinese "artifacts". This is called provocation - a way to provoke the curiosity and interest of students. We opened the Westmount Chinese Restaurant in our Dramatic Play area. The children enjoyed serving the "food". We had "dine-in" or "take out" options. Our Chinese food at our playhouse was a great place to practice using chopsticks. What a challenge! The children practiced role-playing financial transactions using our play money and cash register. Our Chinese lanterns: Making our dragon crowns for our Lunar New Year lunch: Lunar New Year Lunch We finished off our Chinese New Year theme by joining our friends in Mrs. Zirnhelt's Grade Two class for a Chinese lunch. Following Chinese tradition we brought our friends a gift - an orange, which is a symbol of good luck and wealth. It was a great experience for the children to try foods that many had not tried before!
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It's a blizzard!Snowmen: Loose Parts - Snowflakes: Estimating 'Snowballs': As a part of math we have been practicing our estimating skills. The children had to guess how many 'snowballs' were in each jar. After counting the big jar, we knew that our guesses for the smaller jar had to be a smaller number. How many do you think there are? Here were the children's guesses. The actual number is in the black square. How did you do?
We made bows & bells to decorate our tree. We also made poinsettias, It made our classroom look so festive!
Our Christmas Playhouse has provided many opportunities for the students to imagine and dramatize their play. Dramatic play brings out the students' imagination as they come up with different ways to play together. Sharing materials and communicating politely with classmates are necessary with this kind of play. It also allows for the children to learn conflict resolution as the play doesn't always go their way! This helps them to learn creative problem-solving skills alongside their peers.
As a part of Math, we did some estimating. We had to guess how many jingle bells were in the two jars. We started with the big jar. Once we had estimated and then counted that one, we then guessed the number in the small jar. Once we knew how many bells were in the big jar, we knew that there must be fewer in the second jar because it was smaller. Our guesses are below. The students' initials are beside their guess. How many do YOU think there are? Here are our guesses...and the answers are the numbers in the black boxes. How did you do? As a part of Math, we created 'candy canes' patterns. The children did an awesome job of demonstrating their knowledge of patterning - and in such a fun way! Build a sleigh for Santa: This activity gives the children the chance to do some thinking about what would be needed for the sleigh and how to use the provided materials. Their construction has to be well thought out in order to not break. This fits nicely with our Applied Design, Skills, & Technologies curriculum. Christmas Pokey Pins: This activity provides the students with fine motor practice as they have to poke the pin through the holes to make the design. At the end - pull off the white stencil sheet, hold the coloured construction paper to the window for the light to shine through, and voila - you have the outline of your design. Holiday Word Books: This activity provides students with the opportunity to draw pictures and practice copying and printing words. To make it more fun, the booklet cover is a Christmas napkin! Decorate a Tree: I set out "loose parts" to provoke some learning. The focus was on the Core Competency of Creative Thinking. Loose parts allow for open-ended learning. Because they aren't "glued down" the children can adapt and manipulate the pieces in a variety of ways. Then it's easy for a child to change and re-design their creations, especially as their thinking changes. Watching and communicating with their peers also allowed for new inspirations and ideas. They were very excited to try many new creations with the same materials. Of course, all of these activities allow the students to practice sharing materials with their table group and to converse and get new ideas from those sitting around them!
As a part of our "Me; My Family; My Community" theme, the children had a chance to focus on themselves at the Discovery Centre. Using "loose parts" the children had a chance to create their faces. The idea behind loose parts is that you use different materials to explore, build, create, and design an infinite number of 'masterpieces'. This allows for the students to focus on the Core Competency of Creative Thinking. We then added using the Chatterpix app to bring our faces to life. The students got to say what makes them feel happy at school - and the app made our faces talk! It's very fun mixing technology with our learning! Check out some of our faces:
During our Social Studies theme on people who work in our communities, the children have been learning about different jobs that people do and talking about jobs that their parent do. Then they each thought about what they would like to do when they get older. |
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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