Song of the Week: October 22

Here is a spooky song the children have had fun with this week.

Our Trip to the Valley: P.M. Class

Despite a light drizzle, the afternoon class made it down to the local valley to look for signs of fall. We enjoyed looking at the beautifully coloured trees on our hike up and down a large hill. While in the valley, we explored fall colours through a matching activity, ate snack, played some running games and discussed how our senses let us know it was fall.    

One of the most exciting parts of our trip was being visited by a deer!

On our way back to school we stopped to have a look at the Don River. 

We had a great time down in the valley. Thank you to our parent volunteers. We couldn't have done it without you! The morning class' trip to the valley has been rescheduled to Monday, October 29.

At Home: The valley is a great place in the immediate community to visit after school, on weekends and during school holidays. Talk to your child about what they are seeing and encourage them to ask questions about their observations and discuss their theories. (How did the leaves turn orange?) 

Our Trees

Using the "treasure" we found right outside our classroom, the children created their own representations of our trees; the trees directly outside our window. Using only natural materials (in this case twigs and leaves) we attached them to transparency paper using white glue.

They turned out beautifully, so we displayed them in the hallway for the whole school to see.

Feel free to pop in when you pick up your child and have a closer look!

Song of the Week: October 15

Drama Centre: Doctor's Office

A lot of the children have been to see the doctor or have visited someone in the hospital, so they decided to turn the drama centre into a doctor’s office.

We discussed what we needed to do in order to turn the existing home centre into a doctor's office. This meant removing certain furniture, food, pots and pans, etc.

At the centre, a variety of picture books have been incorporated into the setting to help the children learn more about doctors and what they do. 

At home: I anticipate our doctor's office being open for a couple more weeks. If there is anything you can contribute from work or home to make the setting more authentic it would be greatly appreciated. Donation ideas include, but are in no way limited to, eye exam charts, old x-rays, and lab coats.

Patterning

For the past few weeks, the children have been learning about patterns. They are working on extending and creating patterns using a variety of objects in the classroom, as well as identifying patterns around them (on clothing, in books, in architecture, in nature). 

At home: Patterns can be found everywhere and created anywhere. Encourage your child to identify patterns they see while walking to and from school (e.g. the layout of bricks, line patterns on leaves). 
Create patterns with your child at home using common objects (e.g. lay out forks and spoons in a variety of patterns: AB/fork spoon fork spoon, ABC/fork spoon plate fork spoon plate, AABB/fork fork spoon spoon, AAB/fork fork spoon, ABB/fork spoon spoon)

Song of the Week: October 1