Kinderland Newsletter Oct 29

Fun Friday: Bat Bonanza with Learning Buddies

This past Friday in honour of Hallowe'en, but more importantly student interest, we held a Bat Bonanza with our Learning Buddies. We have one kinder who is especial interested in Batman. 'Interested' is not a strong enough word. This kinder's enthusiasm for Batman has stirred engagement and learning for many young kinders in Kinderland. Inspired by student interest, we created a Gotham City in our Small World play area complete with chalkboard buildings, co-created maps with literacy and numeracy, labelling, super hero designing, and using block play and loose parts to explained their thinking with plans.

We got Batty!

Kinders made Bat Flyers! They practiced different techniques similar to flying paper airplanes. 

Kinders painted negative space bats. 

Bat Hats

Echolocation Music Game: One kinder, the bat, stood blindfolded in the middle of a circle of kinders holding instruments. One kinder at a time played their instrument and the bat had to rely on the hearing and point to the direction they heard the music coming from. Just like how bats rely on their hearing to locate food.

One kinder explains: "Bats make a screech sound and the screech sound echoes of the bug, so they can hear where the bug is, and they can go eat them."

Toilet Paper Roll Bats

Researching bats on iPads and recording wonderings and learning on stickies displayed on a giant bat tree mural. This is what they found to be the largest bat in the world.

Bat measurement with non-standard units of measure. One kinder learned that a common bat in Ontario named the small brown bat has a wingspan of 22-27cm. So, we cut out cardboard bats of that length and kinders measured with a variety of materials.

Non-Fiction printable Bat Books from www.teacherspayteachers.com

See my Hallowe'en Pinterest page for many of these great ideas and more.

http://www.pinterest.com/smelmax/halloween-kindergarten/

Pumpkin Inquiry Part 1

We were excited to bring home our own pumpkins from our field trip last week to Morrison Meadows Farm in Bracebridge, ON. On our bus ride home we started our wondering about pumpkins. How do they grow? Do they grow in a field of grass? Our research began by cutting apart our pumpkins and making some observations.

Pumpkin Observations:

I see lots of seeds.

There is orange goo in the pumpkins.

The seeds are whitey and yellowey.

It's slimy.

It's cold and hard.

The pumpkin is orange and bumpy. 

There's 100 seeds.

The pumpkin is a circle.

The stem has lines.

We started documenting our findings right away. We decided that stems must be pretty important to help the pumpkins grow. So, we started investigating other stems that we found outside. 

We collected some stems for some further investigation. We asked questions like: What has stems? What is attached to stems? What do stems do? 

We opened apart some stems to see the inside. Some students noticed how some stems are white inside. Some stems have holes. 

More questions arose like, "how do we know the difference between a root and a stem?". Some kinders explained that roots are in the ground. Together we collaborated our ideas to determine roots are in the ground and stems are near the leaves. 

Stem Experiment

We wondered what stems were for so we tried an experiment with different plants and food colouring. 

Predictions:

The stems will be turn rainbow.

The stem will be a new colour then go back to its old colour.

The stems will die.

They will be different colours.

Observations:

The leaves turned blue. 

The purple is in the stem.

The lines are purple. 

Conclusions:

Stems help the leaves get water. New vocabulary: The stems absorb the water and help transport it to the leaves.

Child-led Exploration

Some kinders decided to try their own experiment inspired by the book, "The Runaway Pumpkin" by Kevin Lewis. They wanted to know if a small or big pumpkin would roll down the hill the fastest. One student timed it on the iPad while the other student did 3 tests. The results were the larger the pumpkin the farther and faster it would roll. 

Our pumpkin inquiry will continue 'student engagement' permitting.

Thanksgiving Art Fest with Learning Buddies

Last year we held the Turkey Olympics outside with our Learning Buddies. Unfortunately, the weather was too wet for all of those activities this year. Thanks to Pinterest for helping us easily plan a wide variety of Thanksgiving activities that assist in child development in fun and exciting ways! You can follow Mrs. Max on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/smelmax/. Some ideas are my own creativity, but one of the many things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving is being a connected educator.

Paper Bag Fall Trees with tissue paper leaves.

We rolled corn in paint and then on our paper husks.

Pin the Tail on the Turkey

Tree Paintings with Cork Prints

Paper Plate Turkeys

Pumpkin Playdough

Turkey Sponge Painting

We used rubber chickens with our Turkey Bowling Station.

Our kinders were once again encouraged and motivated by their Learning Buddies to try something new, take risks, and create. Fine motor abilities were a focus this week and the kinders thrived from the support they received from their buddies. The afternoon was filled with excitement, learning, and pride by all for the success of the kinders.

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action. - W. J. Cameron

Authentic Learning at Farm Grows Inquiry

This week both JK/SK classes from Pine Glen P.S. went to a wonderful farm run by Community Living called Morrison Meadows in Bracebridge, ON. They have lots of exciting fall outdoor activities for children to engage in. The rain held off and we had a great day together outdoors. We had 8 parent volunteers from our class alone. Our parents were generous with their time and provided support and care for all children. Thank you parents! It couldn't be done without you! Read more to find out about our inquiry that has spurred from our authentic learning experience at this farm.

The children counted the chickens, learned what chickens eat and where they sleep. 

The children counted eggs and wondered how many eggs chickens lay every day. 

Morrison Meadows has an outdoor track where children rode bikes. There is a giant sandpit in the middle of the track with many digging tools and toys for children to explore.

Lots of coordination require for these cool bikes! 

Children hiked around a large outdoor maze.

Children collected stamps at stations hidden all around the outdoor maze.

Tractor rides!

Hay Playground! 

Our kinders were very excited to leave the farm with a pumpkin. Questions arose on the bus trip back to school about how to grow a pumpkin. We're very excited that this authentic learning opportunity has enabled an inquiry to naturally unfold.

Thanks for a great day in the great outdoors Morrison Meadows!

“Teaching kids how to feed themselves and how to live in a community responsibly is the centre of an education.” ― Alice Waters

Fun Friday: "Leaf Festival" with Learning Buddies

Welcome to the Leaf Festival where our kinders led exploration about leaves facilitated by their Learning Buddies. 

We had a fantastic afternoon filled with fun, adventure and learning. We rotated through several stations about leaves that focused on art, reading, writing, physical activity, and inquiry.

This kinder's Learning Buddy held the leaf still on this windy day so they could paint the negative space of a leaf.

This kinder's Learning Buddy used words of encouragement and motivation inspiring confidence in their kinder to explore leaf shadows.

This kinder's Learning Buddy extended the learning in this activity to include name writing practice. 

This kinder's Learning Buddy read the experiment and asked questions to help their kinder make new discoveries about leaves changing colour in the fall.

This kinder's Learning Buddy lent a hand by tracing a hand. 

This kinder's Learning Buddy got messy and brought extra fun into a shaving cream tie-dye leaf activity.

This kinder's Learning Buddy asked questions to help them wonder. How many coins can rest on a leaf before it sinks? Can we put the coins on the leaf in a different way and get more coins on it?

These Learning Buddies and kinders played games with leaves on the parachute.  Some Learning Buddies even took initiative by trying new games with the kinders.

This kinder's Learning Buddy helped by cutting nature for their Leaf Face when their kinder felt sad.

The kinders had been longing for their Learning Buddies to come again. They had missed them. 

“Thoughts are roots; Words are leaves; Actions are fruits! Every success tree has all working normally!” 
― Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes

Fall Colours Art and Nature Inquiry

Our kinders have been creating and exploring the relationship between art and nature. Our colour palette is inspired by the fall season, but not restricted in any way. Kinders have used techniques taught and then given freedom to explore techniques and colour by their own choosing. 

This first collection is used by making apple prints on trees. The idea was shared with my on social media by a parent. Thanks Lisa!  We love when parents get involved! 

We placed a variety of materials out several times inviting kinders to explore line in leaves. They have used techniques such as leaf rubbing, tracing, and copying. Some examples of materials we've used are shaving cream with food colouring, paints, pastels, and coloured salt.

Paint with Qtips - Fall Trees

Paint with Qtips - Fall Trees at Night

Painting and Printing Leaves

 Leaf Outline Painting - Exploring Negative Space

Handprint Tree with Fall Leaves

Leaf Shadow Tracing with overhead projector.

Leaf Man narratives based on the book, "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert. Kinders created stories to go along with their nature photo.

Art takes nature as its model. - Aristotle