Ornaments, naturally

We tried an experiment that was inspired by Mrs. Makeiv and her K class at Redfish Elementary School. We worked in small groups to collect items from nature and gathered these items on styrofoam trays. The collections were beautiful and fun to gather! We then added water and yarn to the trays and let them sit outside overnight.

When we went out to look at the trays today, we found that they were completely frozen! We dug our frozen treasures from the trays and hung them on our beloved learning tree. We marvelled at how beautiful they looked!

K's know how to have FUN!

I just wanted to post about some highlights...

We have been starting off many of our mornings recently with a dance party. I can't really think of a better way to start the day! Ms. Yu came in this week with the Grade 2's (who were on their way to library and couldn't resist the music) and we loved their dancing so much, we had to try it out ourselves. Lucky for us, Mrs. B loves dancing too, so she joined us during our Mindful Moment with her on Tuesday!

We also had a student who went on a trip to Mexico recently, and she did a great job telling us all about her trip. She brought us pictures to see, and even dressed up! We especially loved her stories about the monkeys and raccoons that were running around the resort, and her pictures of Mayan ruins!

After our skating party last week, we had a small group come back to the classroom. We used this time for free exploration, and the group worked hard to build an amazing tower together! This class really loves building!

Beautiful Stuff Gallery Exhibit- December 10, 2015

The artists in our classroom were very excited to put on a Gallery Exhibit for their families after our concert last week. They worked very hard on their Beautiful Stuff projects, and on the other projects around the classroom. They thoroughly enjoyed having their families through to talk about their art (and eat cookies!). Thank you to all who were able to come on very short notice!

Christmas Concert 2015

Our school put on another great play this year, and our class had so much fun learning and singing their song! They did a great job performing last week as little elves!

Guest teacher and a special trip!

We had a special Mystery Reader surprise today- Ella's mom popped out from a hiding spot today to share a book by one of our favourite authors, Robert Munsch!

She then taught us about a variety of local plants, including a variety of berries, lichen and trees! She brought a great selection for us to see and touch. A few favourites: rose hips, snowberries and witches hair. We also learned that there are different types of "cones" and everyone is now ready and waiting to correct me the next time I call a spruce cone a "pinecone"!

We used a variety of foliage collected locally to create our own beautiful collections in jars. The name Masterpiece Centrepiece totally stuck! 

Stunning!

We also did a little experimenting with pipe cleaners, borax, food colouring and hot water.  Students worked with parent volunteers to create snowflakes with the pipe cleaners, and hung them by a string in the hot water/borax mix. We will find out if anything changed tomorrow.

 In the afternoon, we took our journals to the old school house. Students are working hard to use their knowledge of letter sounds to label a few details in their pictures in order to help tell their story. It was incredible to look around and see students using the gestures and making sounds that correspond with our Sound Connections program!