Sit spots

Today we tried something new....  Sit Spots! Everyone found their own spot to sit in the yard, to just....BE. Be present. Listen. Look. Feel. Smell. It was lovely.  " I see ants" " I see birds" "I smell the air" "I feel the sun"

.... We reflected on how a sit spot might be different in a city place vs. a country place....

felted beads

Ash class worked really hard to make their felted beads and turn them into necklaces. The combination of the warm water, soap and the agitation from your hands is what turns the wool roving into the felted balls. It takes time and patience and is quite meditative. It would not seem that they would jump at doing an activity that would take so much staying power, but it was quite the opposite - they were asking to do it and couldn't wait for it to be their turn. We made them for Mother's Day, with the idea of giving them to an important woman in their life that they love, look up to, spend time with..... could be a mother, aunt, grandmother, special friend - And of course, if this is not possible, showing appreciation for anyone in your life and giving it to them is also special.

                                                                We hope you liked them!!

Welcome to our caterpillars!

Once again, Ash class will have an opportunity to watch caterpillars change into butterflies, a delight for all the children. It is a wonderful way to observe the changes happening right in front of them. They just came today and they are already very excited! Once they turn into butterflies, we will send them off with a wish!

Budding Poets

Ash class chants so many poems and rhymes, they wanted to have a go at making their own. Here are two poems that they wrote together as a class - 1 inspired by the emergence of Spring (finally) and the other inspired by a loose tooth in the class! Ask them to say them to you!

Scientists in the School

                                                                 Water Fun!

                                                     Making Boats and testing them out

                                                 The shape of Water............

                                                      Water Absorption..............

                                                      Volume of water..........

Row Row Row your boat....... in a wagon?

As the children play with OPAL (outdoor play and learning) materials, they learn to negotiate their social relationships with eachother,  develop problem solving skills and use their imagination. The children wanted to float down a lake so they turned the wagon into a canoe and used a shovel as an oar! One child was upset that they didn't have an oar too, so one of their peers had the idea of giving them a rake to use as another oar. And off they paddled!!!

What's in our community? What's in our yard?

As we learn about our community, we are also exploring our outdoor space. What can we find there? Everyone looked for an object: natural or human made. We brought it back to our meeting place and looked at all of them: tires, pebbles, rocks, pine needles, sticks, backpacks, woodchips..... We looked at them, described them and created movements for our describing words....It became a dance of our objects in our yard!