I Am Thankful Tree

Thanksgiving is this weekend and our school has been talking about gratitude.  I chose the book “Thanks for Thanksgiving” to start the children thinking about many things that people are thankful for.  The text is simple and to the point.
 

After reading the book the children picked a leaf shaped paper to print what they are thankful for.
             
                  We then added their leaves to this bulletin board.
              

          Today we shared the book and activity with our big buddies.
    
 
        
               
                  
I am thankful for you following along as I grow and learn with the children.

Watching a Tree Change

                        
We have a wonderful forest behind our school, it’s not school property but it has lots of easy trails to follow.  Since school started we have ventured out to the forest on Fridays. 
     
We’ve been learning what we can do and see in this forest.  The children are given lots of opportunities to use their bodies and take risks.
                     
We’ve listen to the sounds and spotted little creatures, like this slug sliding across our trail.
          
                
Our first walk in the forest our focus was to pick a tree that we could watch change throughout this school year.
 
We picked a maple tree, a large leaf maple.  I tied a green ribbon on it so we can find it each week.

Last Friday we used the school’s nature backpacks with a mission to find leaves from our tree and make rubbings.
                        
All the leaves on the ground were a yellowish-brown.  We wondered if they would work or would they crumble while we tried to rub?
              
Once they each had a leaf they took off their packs, first took out a sit-upon then their clipboard and paper.

They choose a couple of different colour of crayons and began their rubbing.
                   
The dried leaves worked fine.  We could see the different parts of the leaves, the ribs and the veins.
                    
We then packed up and headed back to school.  Next Friday we will be joined by a Science & Nature teacher and lead us through the forest using our animal senses.

Pirate Day 2015

We celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day down at the wrecks.
     
We pretended to sail our pirate ship, looking for other pirates and following a treasure map.
   

          Down on the beach was where the treasure was hidden.
    
They had to walk through ooey gooey sticky mud to find it.  If they stood in one place too long their boots became stuck.  It was an adventure.

We went on a StoryWalk.  The book was by Phoebe Gilman, Grandma and the Pirates.
         
                 And of course we shared a story altogether.
                        
     Other then Halloween this is my favourite get together.

Hammering Hazelnuts

                       
                  The children love to hammer, especially the boys.
         
    I brought in hazelnuts to see how well they would do cracking them.
          
By putting them on carpet squares it dampened the noise and how far the shells would fly.
               
Picking the shell apart to get to the meat of the nut worked those finger muscles.
                         
Safety first.  Goggles were to be worn at all times while hammering.  Fortunately we are able to use hazelnuts as we do not have anyone with allergy.