We’ve all leaped into the fall leaves this month, and made each seemingly gloomy day into a puddle-splashing good time for all the kids!
This month, Lindsay and I started the Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education online, and we are excited to bring what we learn back with us. Learn more about the program by clicking here. Filled with crafts and outdoor exploration, we won’t keep you from our favourite moments of October.
New Friend in the School-agers room!
The school-agers have been busy taking care of our new classroom pet! Introducing Princess Flakes Ragnarock!
We did some research on how to care for a Betta Fish and compiled a list of what we might need. We found out that Betta fish live in rice fields in the wild, in very shallow, standing water. That is why it is best to keep a Betta in a container, rather than in an aquarium with moving water.
We have been doing some investigations with our new friend, seeing what types of food she prefers – flakes vs pellets! So far, we have discovered that she seems to enjoy the flakes more. She eats them right away, and it only takes her about 3 minutes to eat them. Her pellets, she tends to leave for quite a while before she eats them, and she sometimes doesn’t finish them.
The children have been helping take care of her by feeding her, and changing her water each week. We look forward to more fun with Princess Flakes!
Pumpkins and Gourds in the Infant Room!
The past few weeks the infants have been exploring the pumpkin and gourds we have in our classroom. We’ve been using descriptive language such as “bumpy”, “roll”, “hard” and “soft” as we explore the different shapes of the gourds.
The infants have enjoyed rolling the pumpkin around the classroom, tapping the sides of it to see the sound it creates, and trying to pull the stem off! Today was finally the day when we opened up our pumpkin to discover what is inside!
Once the top of the pumpkin was open, Angela and Carly placed it on the table and took the top off. Right away we were able to see the stringy, seedy flesh of the inside of the pumpkin! G.C kept on commenting “Ohhhhh!” as he observed it very closely. R.K was so excited to look inside the pumpkin and made the most excited facial expressions to show his excitement!
The infants stuck their hands inside the pumpkin to help pull out the seeds too! They squished them in their fingers and waved their hands around as the pumpkin seeds stuck to their fingers. Carly held the pumpkin, so the infants could get a really close look! All of the children decided to collect all of the gourds and stuff them inside of the pumpkin!
We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
Potential of a Puddle
We have had a lot of fun with puddles the last little while in our Nature Classroom. Mud everywhere!
The preschoolers have been exploring the puddles, and love to jump in them. M.H. says “I made a big splash!” J.S. enjoyed scooping and pouring the water in a puddle over and over. J.S. and L.M. made a “bridge” to use to walk across and the children were balancing on it so they did not touch the water.
Some of the preschoolers also discovered a small puddle on the bottom of the slide. E.T. and O.T. were very excited about this particular puddle and started to add sand and grass to it and created mud pies and cakes.
Favourite comment: “I know whenever my toddler get to go in that yard to play she is always in those puddles lol.”
The Beauty of Autumn in the Kindergarten Room
We went for a walk through our forest this week and noticed so many changes happening, especially all the different colours!
Some of our friends started collecting leaves of different shapes, sizes, and colours on our walk. We brought them back to the centre and decided to do some gluing with them. We cut out a circle shape and some strips of paper. The Kinders started gluing all of the beautiful leaves they found onto the paper making a Fall wreath. They also glued leaves onto the strips of paper. We left them overnight to dry.
The next day, R.M. noticed them sitting on the table. He moved the wreath and one of the strips and made the letter p. He said “Lisa, look I made a “p”. We started talking about what other letters we could make. He moved the circle to the bottom of the strip making the letter “b”.
We also made the letter “d”. He said “D is for Daddy” When Chelsa came in, R.M. was excited to show her the letters he could make. She was delighted to see the letters he made. She asked him if he could make numbers with them. He thought for a minute, and with a little help they made the number 1 and 0. “What would happen if we put them side by side?” Chelsa asked him. They moved them together making the number 10.
The Kinders were excited to see all the letters and numbers they could make with a simple strip of paper and a circle. A fun gluing activity quickly became a great literacy and numeracy opportunity.
To end this spooktacular month… Happy Halloween!
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