Week of January 22nd

Ice Inquiry

Last week we did some wondering about what would happen when we put different sized containers filled with water outside. We checked the containers at the end of the day and learned that some of the water had frozen on the top, but underneath we could still see liquid water. The next day, some of the smaller containers had fully frozen, but the big white container only half froze.

Now the challenge was, how do we get all the numbers out of the frozen ice?! 

Mystery Boxes

A few weeks ago, 3 mysterious boxes arrived in our classroom! The class asked questions, made wonders and predictions and came up with ways that we could figure out what was inside without opening them. We opened the boxes over the past few weeks and learned that there were new puzzles and building materials inside!

 

Trinket and Sue

When Trinket came to visit with Sue this week, we decided to share some of the books we have been making during Learning Centres. Sue absolutely loved seeing all the hard work the students have been putting in to their books! 

 

Suzy Snowflake Loose Parts Play

Letter of the Week

To form the uppercase D:

- Start at the top

- Big line down

- Frog jump to the top

- Big curve to the bottom

To form the lowercase d:

- Start with a MAGIC C

- Up like a helicopter

- Back down and bump the line

* We do not lift our pencil up for this letter

 

Jolly Phonics

See me play on my drum,

playing drums is lots of fun,

with a /d/ /d/ /d/ /d/

/d/ /d/ /d/ /d/ /d/.

See me play upon my drum!

Australia Day

A big thank you to Christine for coming in to teach the class about Australia and some of the animals they have there!

Week of January 8th

Neighbourhood Walks

This week, we went on a few walks due to the very wet weather conditions in our playground. Student's noticed many things in the neighbourhood like houses that were under construction, the garbage and recycling bins were out and there were a lot of puddles we had to walk around! We ventured to Bayview for our next walk and discussed what kind of things we might buy at the different stores. Some even pointed out the stores where I get my coffee and scones from, they are very observant! :) 

Officer Manny

This week we had a visit from Toronto Police Services, Officer Manny. Students had the chance to ask him questions about his job after he discusses some safety rules with the classes. We learned the importance of wearing a helmet while biking or using a scooter, what to do if you get lost and he even showed us the different kinds of police cars we have in Toronto.

Letter of the Week

This week the letter was Mm. We went on an Mm picnic and brainstormed things we could bring such as melon, marshmallows, Mommy's, and mice.

To form the uppercase M:

- Start at the top

- Big line down

- Frog jump to the top

- Big line down on a diagonal

- Big line up on a diagonal

- Big line straight down

To form the lowercase m:

- Start at the top

- Dive down

- Swim up

- Add a hump

- Swim up (on the same line)

- Add another hump

*We do not lift our pencil up for this letter*

Jolly Phonics Song

The Mum and the Dad make many meals,

/mmm/

/mmm/.

The Mum and the Dad make many meals,

for their hungry children.

Trinket

Sue and Trinket came to visit and we were able to share with them some things we did over the break. Sue let us know that Trinket got some new toys and a new coat for Christmas!

Name Recognition

Students were challenged to make their names and their friends names using playdough and alphabet stamps. We noticed that some names needed more playdough then others and some names had the same letter more than once.

Sorting

After the class was read Sam Sorts by Marthe Jocelyn, we had the chance to come up with creative and challenging ways to sort a pile a different items from our classroom. Some ways we sorted were by size (big and small), colour, material (wood and plastic) and uses of the objects (things you write with and things you build with).