Gardening with Grandfriends

Last week we spent some time out doors with our grand friends.

It was on their patio

and we planted seeds in some of their big pots.

Together they prepped the soil 

opened and shared the seeds,

then poked and spread the seeds in the soil.

Then the fun part was watering the seeds.

It took a lot of water and the children were up to the chore.

We slid all the tubs to a sunny spot

and placed a sign that we had made at school.

The looks of happiness shared between the grand friends

and the children, with few words spoken, was wonderful.

Sharing an experience that is common for some

and new for others

but 

pleasurable for all.

Reading Our Own StoryWalk

Yesterday we went outside with our Big Buddies to enjoy

the StoryWalk that the children created last week.

While I was busy putting the pages up around the playground,

Ms Seymour re -read the story "I Went Walking".

For such a simple story it amazes me how much the children enjoy it.

Then they were out and running around the school yard.

I loved how the little buddies challenged the big buddies to run

from page to page.

I think the best thing about writing our own StoryWalk, for this large of 

a group,

is that it doesn't matter where you start or which way you go.

Just pick a page and go from there.

We didn't have the congestion of waiting to read each page, in order, 

that we experienced on previous StoryWalks.

It was fun when they found their own page,

or when they tried to think of a sound for the new animal.

What kind of a sound would a Sneaver make?

To finish the fun they ran around once again to collect our pages.

What other story could we write?

Writing Our Own StoryWalk

Last week we got together with our big buddies and decided to 

write our own StoryWalk.

We started with this book.

The book is about a child that goes for a walk and sees different animals

that end up following her.

 Ms Seymour read the book to the buddies.

She's great at reading books.  She draws the children in with voices, sounds,

questions and asking for predictions.

I created a story page for the buddies to fill in together.

 They had to each think of an animal then combine it to make a 

new animal with a new name.

Some animal combinations that they created were...

cow + bunny = bow

snail + beaver = sneaver

giraffe + snail = gerfidale

elephant + pig = elipig

cow + horse = coworse

whale + pigeon = wigen

duck + cat+ butterfly = ducatfly

cat + monkey = catonkey

Next week we will do a StoryWalk and follow this story around the playground.

Ice Cream Shop

A little while ago I added planters to our cardboard house.

We started with flowers and pinwheels in them. 

 Then one of the children mentioned ice cream.

So I grabbed some small funnels and she collected pom poms from the art area.

And that was the beginning of our Ice Cream Shop

I'm always amazed how things show up when we need them before

we know we need them.

As we were playing with ice cream, a family asked if I wanted 

their lemonade stand.

I rarely say no to an offer and this was a perfect addition to our classroom.

I set it up beside our house so the children

could transfer from one box to the other.

A cash register was added as well as other ice cream props.

It was a busy shop.

With lots of customers

and hard workers.

StoryWalk at the Beach

First day back to school from my trip and I was able to spend it at the beach.

Love where I live!

The morning was spent with families from my StrongStart and Colleen's.

We set up a variety of activities and the families wondered,explored and played.

One of my favourite activities to set up when we are outside is a StoryWalk.

This time I chose the book, Down at the Seaweed Cafe

by Robert Perry.

As the families walked and read the story they started to find things.

Beautiful flowers.

A dead fish.

A live fish that we helped back in to the water.

A worm.

A shell with an interesting design inside.

Sea stars and a sea cucumber.

We continued walking and reading

until we arrived at our cafe.

So many dishes were prepared but what I enjoyed the most

was hearing the grown ups reminisce about

doing this as a child, either on the beach

or in the mud.