Tuesday 28 October 2014

More Exploration Centres

Oil Pastel pumpkins
Most mornings we have exploration centres. This month we have been exploring pumpkins, gourds, corn, leaves and branches. We have been painting, drawing, building, cutting, measuring, and comparing.

Learners are weighing the white pumpkin and recording the results.

Creating more pastel pumpkins and reading a pumpkin book.

How many blocks tall is the pumpkin?

Using small pumpkins to figure out how tall the pumpkin is.

Creating stories with animals, wooden pieces, glass stones and wooden blocks.

Learner is weighing pumpkins and recording the results.

Learners are painting Autumn pictures.

Learners are looking closely at the gourds.

Learner is using yarn to measure the pumpkin.

Beautiful Things

This afternoon we started sorting our bags of beautiful things. These are things that we have collected at home and have brought them to share with the class. Today was our first sort. We sorted them with our table groups. Once we had sorted then we labelled the baskets. Next week we will sort them again. We have so many interesting objects: lots of shiny ribbons, big googly eyes, flowers, pine cones etc...






Wednesday 15 October 2014

Exploration Centers

Making designs on the light table.
Which rock is heavier?
This year we are trying something new in the mornings. We are starting most of our days with exploration centres. During this time we are focussing on looking closely at objects, questionning,
 wondering, connecting, and collaborating. We are learning to be scientists and mathematicians. We are also building our fine motor skills by drawing, cutting, building with plasticine and playdough,  tracing, and printing.
Do rocks float?

Building structures with toilet paper rolls.


Exploring dot making for BC Dot Day.

Working together to explore the sunflower using the Zoomy.

Making dot designs for BC Dot Day.

Using wikki stix to make words.

Building dots with plasticine.

Using mirrors and pastels to practise drawing self portraits.

Tracing and cutting circles to make dot designs for Dot Day.

Mirrors are great to use when drawing self portraits.

Using Q-Tips to paint dots.


Sorting buttons

Examining a seed from the sunflower.

Inventing a water run using pipes, planter and wooden pieces.

Friday 10 October 2014

Sunflower Inquiry


Using the Zoomy, hand held microscope, to look closely at the sunflower head.
This year we are focussing on inquiry. We are learning to question, investigate, collaborate, make connections, and experiment. We are looking closely at objects. Our first inquiry involved sunflowers. We examined the parts of the sunflower, measured stems, and created sunflowers with a variety of different materials: cubes, construction paper, stones, wikki stix, playdough and modeling clay. We built sunflowers on the light table. We drew and painted sunflowers using water colour paints, pastels, sharpies, and tempera paint. We also used magnifying glasses and a hand held microscope called a Zoomy to examine the parts of the sunflower. We used tweezers and pulled the sunflower apart. We took the seeds out of the sunflower head and measured, weighed, counted and examined them. Some of us even planted seeds in soil. While we were working collaboratively we came up with some questions.
Do seeds float?
Why are some seeds all black and some have stripes?
Do all sunflower seeds weigh the same?
How many seeds are in the sunflower head?
Which sunflower stem is the tallest?
Why are the leaves are all dried up now?
Why are the sunflower stems scratchy and have marks on them?
Will these sunflower seeds grow into sunflowers?



Examining sunflower seeds with the Zoomy.

Comparing the sunflower stems.  
Sunflower building on the light table.
Building sunflowers with play dough.



Looking at seeds.

Using sunflower seeds to make designs and then counting the seeds.

Examining and weighing sunflower seeds.

Painting sunflowers