The weather has been working well with us lately, with the exception of running our school Winter Carnaval. We have been able to explore the forested area and track some deer without getting our snow gear on. It was delightful to watch the children challenge their bodies and crawl along tree trunks, or jump over narrow streams to get to the other side. Four former students, now in grade one, also joined us on our nature walk. We explored new areas and came across a herd of deer. Some of the students pointed out that the deers' tails were up, meaning they were warning others of danger and the need to run away.
Last weekend, I had made two mini indoor herb gardens, brought them into class, and placed them with our other plants. It did not take very long for one group to find these deliciously smelling plants and begin to immediately tend to them with spray bottles and watering cans. So we gathered up all of our plants and the seeds, that we had been trying to germinate, and brought them to the "tapis" (carpet) to discuss. This is what we love about kindergarten. The inquiries come directly from the children and what was planned out for the morning may quickly change into something a lot more meaningful for the children. It was not my plan to talk about plants that morning, but the children were so eager to smell, touch, and ask questions about them, that we decided to go in that direction.
We discussed what plants need to grow (soil, water, sun, earth) and that too much of any one will affect the plants ability to grow. We looked at our seeds and noticed that some of them had a lot of smelly water in them and some even had mould. We decided that these ones had too much water to grow. Another seed looked exactly the same as it did a few weeks ago. This one didn't have enough water. Our next steps will be to use what we learned and start to grow some vegetables in our classroom (e.g., lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, carrots). We will also use the herbs when we make more soup and bread!
Learning buddy time is always one of the weekly highlights! The children adore their grade 5/6 buddy and all of the awesome things they do together. This week the children discussed and researched their Australian animal. What a great way for students to learn with and from each other! Here are examples of some of the animals we are learning about: cassoway, gouldian finch, emu, frilled lizard, koala, blobfish, bandicoot, kangaroo.
The weather cooperated with us during our trip to Mountsberg! It was a great field trip where we had just the right amount of time to explore on our own, follow a well thought out maple syrup adventure tour, and play in a huge barn filled with sawdust and great climbing and hiding spots. Thanks to the great learning with Mme McMillan and Mme Reilly, the children we ready with all of the answers! A big THANK YOU to all of our parent volunteers! We could not do these outings without you! MERCI ! MERCI ! MERCI !
You may hear your child singing about vowels when they are at home. <<A, E, I, O, U, É, È, Ê !!! Voici les voyelles, voici les voyelles. A, E, I, O, U, É, È, Ê !!! Voici les voyelles, qu'elles sont belles !>> We continue to talk about the importance of these letters and how we will always find at least one in every word. We play various games to blend vowels with consonants, take the vowels out of our names to see how silly our names would sound without them, and on Friday we had some alphabet pretzel fun sorting our letters in a Venn diagram. The best part was eating them at the end!
Friday, March 10th, snow or not, we will have our FAH Outdoor Winter Carnaval. As always, thank you for ensuring that your child is dressed appropriately for the weather. Extra mittens and socks are especially important with these crazy fluctuating temperatures.
Have a wonderful Sunday!