“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.”   Joseph Chilton Pearce

    

     As we welcome our Year Two students back to a fun-filled year ahead, we would also like to extend a warm welcome to all our new little friends joining us on our journey. September has been a wonderful time spent getting to know all the new children and their families, as well as reconnecting with families from last year. The concept of play-based and inquiry-based learning may be new to some of our families, and our hope is that this newsletter will give parents and caregivers a glimpse into our classroom as we capture how the learning is taking place. Through these intentionally planned opportunities for learning, the children are beginning to effectively demonstrate the Ontario Catholic Graduate School Expectation of being reflective, creative and holistic thinkers who solve problems and make responsible decisions with an informed moral conscience for the common good.

To begin the year, the room was set up with an eclectic mix of materials, and toys. It was our intent to allow the children to take the lead to guide their play and learning. As educators, we understood the need at this time to get to know the children within our room, the need to build relationships with each child, each family, and between all the children in the room in hope of creating a stable, caring environment where each child feels valued and welcomed.

As we played and interacted with the children at each centre, a common interest in dinosaurs began to emerge. We decided to take this lead and provided various opportunities for the children to explore this play.

To further this learning experience, the children were provided with different sets of dinosaur kits allowing them to take on the role of paleontologists and dig for dinosaur bones and fossils. The children gathered from all over the room as they took turns digging and working together to unearth and put together each bone they discovered within the bricks. The discussions heard and observed by teachers were exciting and meaningful, for example:

Educator (While children begin chipping away at brick): What do you think you might find?

Little Mr C: “An animal!”

Little Miss A: “Bones….dinosaur bones, maybe a fossil?”

Little Miss S: “I see a black spot here!”

Little Miss A: “The sand is coming off…Oh something white!”

Little Mr C: “I see something white …look!” (as he holds it up for his friends to see)

Little Miss L: “It might be a dinosaur!”

Little Miss A (Leaves the group, and then returns): “Did you find it yet?”

Although there are always many opportunities still present within the room for individual play experiences and interests, another way we took this play a bit further was by providing hatching dinosaur eggs…but the children had no idea what was hiding inside. The moment the children walked into the room, curiosity set in! We could hear and see them using the knowledge they had obtained from various informational texts, and discussions arising from stories such as “How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?” written by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague.

As we reflect on all the learning that has occurred through this interest-led play, we are reminded how the students are effectively demonstrating the Ontario Catholic Graduate School Expectation of being reflective, creative and holistic thinkers who solve problems and make responsible decisions with an informed moral conscience for the common good.

We are off to a great start and thrilled to be able to share in this wonderful, exciting year ahead with all these little people as we watch them grow and develop to their fullest potential here in our Full Day Kindergarten Program!!

Blog written by:

Source: An Inquiry into Shadows

We hope everyone is looking forward to a brand new year with their team partner and co educator. The past few weeks educators everywhere have been connecting with their creative side to transform classrooms to reflect our Ministry’s vision for a child centered environment that represents an extension of home.  An environment that will help to make these little people feel welcome, valued and cared for… which in turn will promote optimal learning and development.

Just days away from welcoming 25 – 35 little people into our rooms from what we hope was a wonderful summer filled with family, fun, and laughter, lets put our focus on establishing rules and routines and building a safe, nurturing classroom community where everyone feels welcome and valued. Take the time to know your young learners through observation and connect with them in meaningful ways. We would like to offer to anyone interested, a peek into our first week centre plan and the list of expectations.  We begin the year by putting out an eclectic mix of materials and then listen to the interests of the children to gauge where we go next. Take a moment, look at each centre plan (keeping in mind the environment as the third educator) and take notice of how many expectations can be met through these centers. Then… let go a little, breathe, and smile:).

  
  
  

The boys!! The group of rough and tumble, high energy, super hero loving boys that keep us guessing.  Who are they? What do they want from us? How can we capture their attention and engage them?

Here’s an idea that came to me in the dark of the night and worked!!

A quest!

The next morning the boys were given their first quest, just before they began to play, an educator approached six boys gathering in the block area, the conversation began like this “…I have a quest for you! It’s a tricky one…and I think only the bravest children in our class could do it!! Do you think you can do it?”  the boys immediately stood up and surrounded the educator,

Jerome shouts “I’m brave!! I can do it!”

Joshua says “Ya me too! I’m brave!!”

The educator responds by saying “Ok, here is your quest, show me how you could move something without using your hands”

Just like that, they were on a mission.  One child ran over to the shelf and grabbed a blue plastic car and placed it on the carpet, he knelt down close to the ground and began to attempt blowing the car to move it with little success.  Another child stood and observed for a moment and then placed a red car on a flat surface and he too began to use air and blew the car forward-success.  As the educator observed two more boys had grabbed different cars and attempt another approach to move the cars.  They stacked long wooden blocks stacked on the surface of the carpet, and they added one additional long block to create a ramp.  They placed the car with their hands on the very top of the ramp, they put their hands down to the floor and blew the car until it began to roll all by itself down the ramp they created.  They also successfully completed this mission.

Literacy:

The children then had to draw, label and share with the rest of the class how they completed this mission.

 

 An inquiry into feelings and love emerged from Valentines Day this past February.  Our classroom participated in a door decorating challenge that prompted questions about “What is love?”.  As we asked each child this question, and took photos that captured how each child choose to show love, conversations over the next few weeks continued about feelings.  Recently we read the story “My Many Colored Days” and this was what the children had to share;

“My Many Colored Days”

We wonder how different colors make us feel?

Red

James: Red makes me feel angry

Taijah: “It makes me feel angry because its hot!”

Luna: “Red makes me happy cuz it’s my favourite color”

Tristan: “Very angry, it’s hot!”

Benjamin: “Angry….on the shows I watch that have bulls angry and their eyes are red”

Blue

Noah: “Blue makes me feel angry”

Taijah: “Different kinds of blue make me feel different, the light one makes me happy”

Kaldyn: “Blue makes me not happy”

Benjamin: “It feels happy like swimming in a pool”

Anaya: “It makes me happy too”

Gia: “It’s my favorite color, it makes me feel happy”

Jerome: “It makes me feel dark angry”

Alyssa: “It makes you feel angry”

 

Brown

Alyssa: “feels quiet with brown”

Luna: “Happy”

Yellow

Anaya: “It feels happy”

Taijah: “Happy because it’s a light color”

Benjamin: “It feels like a hot day, so it makes me happy!”

Alyssa: “EXCITED!!”

Victoria: “Happy”

Luna: “My favorite color just like a rainbow”

….we will continue this conversation throughout the next few weeks and see where this learning takes us, and for those who are curious….we did in fact win the “Valentine’s Day Door Challenge”!

Over the past couple weeks the children have been exploring shadows. This lead followed our exploration into rainbows and light. During our morning large group gathering time, educators decided to challenge the children to deepen thinking and learning (to “deficile”)

Educator: “What can you tell me about this picture?” 

Little Mr. M: “The person …the shadow is holding the flower for the girl…but The shadow can’t hold the flower” 

 Educator: “How can that be? You know so much about shadows…so what more can you tell me?” 

Little Mr. M: “If someone is walking and there is a little light reflecting…I think it’s someone’s shadow, it’s a boy” 

Educator: “Why do you think it’s a boy?” 

Little Mr. M: “..because it doesn’t have curly hair”

  

Little Mr. B: “I think it’s a picture of like a shadow of two people who are in love, the shadow is of a person behind the light”  

Little Mr. J: “The girl is holding something and wearing a hat…like a boy, the girl does not have the same hat, it looks different..the hat.  I don’t see the flower.  I don’t know who’s shadow it is, I think the person is behind the bricks”  

 

 Little Miss. T: “That’s a girl and that’s a guy.  It’s a guy because he has a hat, the shadow is giving a flower, I think she is holding the flower!  The shadow is invisible and he’s over there (points in front of picture) because the light is reflecting off the wall.  I think the guy is over there”

  

Little Mr. A: “It looks funny with the rose…cus of the face.  It’s the girls shadow…its her shadow because the legs are long”

  

Little Mr. L: “Well…the girl didn’t have a shadow.  The shadow doesn’t have the same…the legs are longer then the girl.  The flower is here and the shadow is not holding the flower because shadows can’t hold flowers…only the girl. That’s somebody else’s shadow, I think that the person is in front of the shadow”

While children were gathered for a story on the carpet two boys made an interesting discovery. The two boys attention is drawn from the story to the carpet and their shoes. They began pointing, shifting and quietly saying “look!” and “watch this”. The boys noticed a rainbow of colors  had appeared flickering and moving from their shoes to the carpet with just simple movements of their bodies. The educator  decides to take this opportunity to investigate their inquiry and find out the children’s thoughts. The first group conversation began like this;

Educator: “Wow! look at what C and J have found! Boys, why don’t you show your friends what you have discovered”

Little Mr. C: “Well…ummmm it’s a light on my shoe, look…see!”

Little Mr. J: “Ya…it’s colors and it goes on the carpet too”

Educator: “What do you think it might be?”

Little Mr. C: “It’s a rainbow!!”

Educator: “How do you know?”

Little Mr. M: “It’s a rainbow because it has red, orange, green yellow and indigo”

Educator: “Where do you think the rainbow is coming from?”

Little Mr. B: “Its coming from the frogs water see (child points our frog tank), the water is making the rainbow from outside”

Educator: “Those are some interesting thoughts and ideas, why don’t we find out!”

During the next few days small groups of interested children decide how they would like to research and find out more about rainbows. Some children choose to go to the library, while others decide to look on the internet. As more children begin to show an interested in rainbows, we decided to use this new inquiry/interest to plan and provide other learning experiences in the classroom over the next few weeks (careful not to mislead, this did not become a “theme” the classroom did at all times reflect other learning and play as well).

In our “Art Studio” opportunities to explore all painting tools and colors, crayons, and pastels are available for exploration. Sharing times are focused on various representations of rainbows created, as well as other learning. Children are encouraged to label colors, and print their name on their art work- based on their individual literacy skills to represent their learning.

 

The Light table becomes a place to build, create and pattern using different colored transparent blocks and color filter paddles. Crayons, paper and pencils are provided and children are encouraged to “make a plan” for their creations or record their patterns for sharing.

As the children continue gather their research into their inquiry, we were hoping the weather would co- operate and share a little sunlight that would allow for the children to play and experiment further, but no luck! The weather over the next few days was very cloudy, so we decided to use a science experiment found here- http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Rainbow (method 4- flashlight method) to help the children create their own rainbow!

The children loved the idea of making their own rainbow!! Each child participated and  took their turn using the flashlight to shine light into the water and create their own rainbow on the ground! Some children ran into the light to see how that would affect the experiment, other children gently tried to catch the light in their hands sharing smiles as the light of colours landed on in their palm.

As we gathered at the end of the week we asked the children to share their learning and research as a group. Little Mr. C shared with his friends “the sun makes the rainbow”, little Mr. B adds “it’s only when it has been raining, cause the sunlight reflects off the drops of rain and makes the colours”.

To extend this learning even further, during “Spirit Week” at our school each individual class was asked to choose a colour to wear that would represent their class on December 17th. Participants from Kindergarten to Grade 8 were asked to came together in our front foyer to reflect, and offer Prayers to those who might be struggling over the Christmas holidays. To honour our virtue of hope and our inquiry into Rainbows our school created a formation using the children and their class color to create our very own “Rainbow of Hope”.

As the Christmas holiday are upon us we will be curious to see when we return if the children continue their interest into rainbows, what their new questions and wonderings might be and where the learning and play will take us next!

Stay tuned to see how we used this inquiry to promote learning into math and data management….