Experimenting with Watercolours in JK

Due to the weather we had a small group on Thursday.  We decided it would be fun to experiment painting using watercolours.  The students learned how to hold the brush so they had control of it and how to make it dance on the paper and not scrub it too hard. We began with a small piece of watercolour paper that we soaked in water and blue watercolour paint.  They loved the wet-on-wet technique and how the paint spread and ran on the damp paper. 

For fun, we decided to sprinkle the wet paper with salt and see what happened.

This is what we learned:

Harmony: Looks like water.

Payton:  We learned how to hold the brush so we don't get paint on our fingers.

Lauryn:  When we put salt on our paper it did weird things.

Emma:  I made a blue sky and grass.

Tye:  The paper had to be wet.

James:  I learned we hold the brush by pinching it.

Lexi:  I used a paint stick to put on blue paint.

Lacey:  Looks like clouds.

 

 

We Wonder About...snow and ice

It appears that winter is really settling in.  We have decided to take advantage of the ice and snow to ask some questions and do some experiments with snow.  We have been bringing in snow each day to experiment with and watch what happens to it as the day progresses.  It's cold work and so the children need to wear their mittens while they are at the snow table.




Some of the questions we presently have on our "Wonder" board are:





"How come snow melts when you pour water on it?"- Evan
"Why is ice slippery?" - Griffin
"Why does the snow melt when the sun comes out?" - Cooper












"Why does ice melt?" - Julian
"Why does ice melt when snow and rain turn it to mush?"- Evey







Stay tuned to see what we discover.

Brrr...winter fun!

Both classes have been enjoying some of the winter themed activities during exploration time.

     Mitten Math


  Snow table






Winter sensory bin - it's messy.  Our apologies to our caretaker, April.

                          Sewing mittens

                                         Snowball counting



Winter houses

This week in SK we created winter houses.  Students had to include a number of different geometric shapes; rectangles, circles, squares and triangles to create a house.  They were encouraged to use as many different colours as possible in their art.  When they finished, they added some snow to add to the winter feel.  We decided to add some math recording to the mix.  Students had to count up the different shapes they used and then add them together for a total.  They also had to record the number of different colours they used in their art.

 

Thanks to Maro's Kindergarten for the colourful art idea!

Dress Up Revival

Thank you to Mrs. Phinney, our lunch hour supervisor for bringing in some new dresses for our dramatic play area.  They were a huge hit as you can see.

Thank You Gabi!

A huge thank you goes out to our co-op student from Beaver Brae School, Gabi.  She has been with our school in a number of primary classrooms for this semester.  We have been lucky to have her in Room 11 for the first block.  She has done everything and anything that needs to be done while she was here.  The kids have come to rely on her and look forward to her daily arrival. "Where's Gabi?" is heard from several students each morning until they see her walk through the door.  She helped us with literacy centres and activities, art and craft projects, making bread, bulletin boards, door and room decorations, class parties, you name it.  We will miss her terribly and hope that she comes back to visit us when she can.  I hope she continues to work with young children as she is a natural.  We all wish her the best of luck.

Learning Letters

 

The JK's have been working on learning their letters through a variety of activities at school.  We use the smartboard with starfall.com and iPads to focus on letter recognition and correct formation.  Letter School is a great app that introduces the letter name, sound and a word beginning with that letter.  Children learn to tap, trace and write the letter and it self corrects if they make a mistake. Another excellent app we use in the classroom is Super Why ABC Adventures by PBS Kids.  We also have sets of wooden pieces and puzzles so the children learn how to create letters. I am amazed at how much they have learned these past few months through books, play and songs.

January Newsletter

January Newsletter

Dancing Christmas Tree

Every day in class (usually more than once) we have action breaks where we move and dance together to music/video on the Smartboard.  This was the favourite pick by the students for the month of December.  It was called The Dancing Christmas Tree.  Have your own dance at home-check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlr4uXAz-JM

Christmas Crafts

December was a busy month with Christmas crafts.  Here are a few of the highlights...

Patterned pasta necklaces

 

                                                                        Christmas placemats

 

 

 

Edible Christmas trees

 

 

 

Christmas I Spy Bottles

 

 

Pipecleaner Trees

 

Fruit loop candy canes