Valentine Decoration

I've been giving more and more thought into how to include the families 

as co-facilitators in the program.

For example; instead of decorating the room myself, how can I work it into our day.

The following is one way that we did this week.

 

My part involved getting some branches and setting it up.

The families did the rest.

It is a fun activity that involved art, the holiday, fine motor skills

and having fun.

One parent commented on the parts to make this

and how I put it together.

I wonder if she'll make one at home.

Now it's the centre piece for our next activity.
This piece could be changed throughout the school year.
Stay tuned.

What's Outside Our Window

On our last outdoor day the children were introduced to binoculars.

They were quite interested so I set them up on a table in front  

of our classroom window.

Each day I saw children looking out the window

and around the room,

trying to figure out how to use them.

They were encouraged to draw what they saw outside the window.

 

 

Our window looks out to our parking lot and I didn't think the children would see much 

other than cars and trucks.

But they noticed the trees and the roof tops across the street, the rain falling, 

a bird feeder, a flag pole and planes flying overhead.

Taking time to look will open our eyes.

Monet

Last week we had a closer look at a painting by Monet.

Various activities were set up throughout the program,

throughout the week focusing on shapes, colour and bridges.

We started the week painting with blocks.

Feeling the shapes in our hands.

Creating pictures, building on each shape, mixing colours.

We experimented building bridges using materials from our block corner.

Next we explored the colour purple.

How can we make purple by mixing colours?

Using plastic wrap gave us a different feel for the paint

and allowed some children, whom do not like their fingers dirty,

to paint.

And finally we spent a morning drawing Monet's Waterloo Bridge 

using chalk pastels.

Our student artists.

And our parent artists.

Which artist shall we discover next?

Predicting Flower Colours

Last week I brought in two pots of bulbs.

As a few children were having their snack I heard them talking about the flowers.

 It inspired me to ask them if they knew what colour the flowers will be?

I grabbed a piece of paper to record their colour guess.

As the week progressed more children recorded their colour.

Some noticed the tag that came with the plant and guessed a colour from the picture.

Others just guessed their favourite colour.

This week when we returned to school the flowers were blooming

and we had the answer, purple.

To me it doesn't matter what colour they guessed

or if they were right.

The process got them thinking about flowers, colours,

sharing their thoughts, gripping a pencil

and printing their names.

And now we have lovely centrepieces for our snack table.