Final visit to Garden View Village

The blue group had their last visit at Garden View Village today. We met up with Ms. Scott's Gr 2/3 class again, and they taught us all about seeds! We read a story about seeds, and then examined seeds at our tables with a partner. We then took our learning downstairs to share with our friends around the table. The kids said a big thank you to their Senior Friends for sharing this year with them!

A few highlights from the last week!

Last Friday, we had Claire's mom surprise us as our Mystery Reader. Claire was overjoyed, and the kids loved the story that her mom (and little brother, of course) shared with us. If there are any other parents who would still like to come in as a Mystery Reader this year, please let us know!

Mrs. Keiver came in on Tuesday with my absolute favourite story for the year, The Hungry Caterpillar. She does such an amazing job telling this story, involving all of the students in the story using materials that her mom created for her boys! The giddy reactions from the kids told me that they loved this story as much as I do! 

On Wednesday, we went to see an amazing performance at McKim by Rup Loops. Rup Sidhu provides an interactive, live looping show, using vocal percussion, rhythmic rhymes and eclectic instruments. He is a very talented musician, and we all had a lot of fun during his performance.  

Rup showed us this bumper sticker at the end of his performance, and I thought it was such a great message to share! 

If you find a rock (red group)



The red group had a lot of fun exploring rocks today! After reading the story, "If you find a rock", they explored the rocks and came up with great names! This list included: a stick rock, a music rock, a skinny rock, a bumpy rock, a circle rock, a small rock, a friend rock, a jewel rock, a triangle rock, a crystal rock, rainbow rocks, a heart rock, a smooth rock, a spinning rock, an ocean rock, a spot rock, a wishing rock, a fossil rock, a clock rock, a polished rock, a pearl rock, a jumping rock, a digging rock, a hiding rock, a happy rock, a love rock, a stone rock, and a silver rock.

We then played a game with the rocks where we hid our rock in a bin with other rocks and tried to see if we could find our rock with our eyes closed.

We also tried creating pictures and letters with the rocks.

To wrap things up, we brought one special rock to the carpet and shared what made that rock special to us. The reflection was beautiful, with varied, well thought out responses. Ask your child to describe the rock they chose!

 

Creating "petal potions"

We have a few additions to our fairy land!

As we learned about our new Humbugs, we sat near the fairy garden outside.

The kids then wanted to create petal potions outside!

The possibilities for fun out here are endless!

Igloo Visit

 

The blue group was able to go down to Mrs. Hammond's classroom to visit their igloo today! The whole group was able to fit inside, and we had fun making up a song about how much we love the igloo!

A big thank you to Mrs. Hammond and the grade 3's for letting us interrupt their Quiet Reading to check out their amazing creation!

Exploring Rocks at Garden View Village

The blue group had an amazing time at Garden View Village today! Our group was joined by Ms. Scott's grade 2/3 class, which was a lot of fun. We also had two new senior friends join us for our activities upstairs. We first listened to the story, "If You Find A Rock", where we learned about various types of rocks. Ask your child about the types of rocks they remember from the story!

 

We then went to the tables, where we were able to explore a variety of rocks. With the help of the grade 2/3's, we brainstormed words that came to mind when feeling and looking at our rocks. Some of the types of rocks they came up with were: candy rock, water rock, pigeon nose rock, miny rock, smiley rock, lava rock, caramel rock, watermelon rock, moon rock, cow rock, jewel rock, mystery rock, sock rock, and inuksuk.

 

 

After spending time examining our rocks, we chose a really special one to bring downstairs to share with our senior friends. We talked to them about our rocks, the words we chose to describe the rocks, and the types of rocks in the story. We asked our senior friends if they had played with rocks when they were younger, and many of them shared stories about special collections they had. We realized that rocks really brought us all together! The buzz of sharing and laughing filled the air around the coffee table.

 

As we were leaving the table, we overheard one of our senior friends say that she really enjoys seeing the kids and hearing their excitement downstairs.

 

We finished off with reading, "Everybody Needs a Rock", where we learned about the rules for choosing rocks. Ask your child about a rule they remember.

 

When we were about to head back upstairs, one of our senior friends stopped me and told me that he really enjoyed the smiles from the kids because he had had 6 kids himself. He said that he and his wife had decided to have many children because they found that where there was lots of children, there was a lot of happiness. I couldn't agree more!