The Little Red Hen and so much more.....

We had such a full and enriching day today! We are continuing with telling our Little Red Hen story, which the children love! Today, Elizabeth came in and helped the children bake bread. As we sat around in the circle,  inquiry was working at its best....knowing, wondering, watching - what will happen to the yeast? The children made predictions, and made their observations as they watched the changes. "It's changing colour", "I can smell it", "It's getting bigger", "I see bubbles". Everyone had a hand at pouring and mixing, and to their delight, ended up with their very own bun at lunch time! Thank you Elizabeth for coming in and helping the children have that lovely experience. The past few days, we also have had a station set up with a mortar and pestle and wheat kernels and the children have tried coming to grind the wheat, just like the little red hen. They are seeing how difficult it is to do it by hand, and I think, would prefer to go to the mill! Today, I brought in my spice grinder from home and in small groups they each had a turn to press the button and grind! When they saw we made flour, there eyes lit up - Flour! they would exclaim - just like the one we used to make the bread (That was the a- ha moment!) They have seen the wheat stock, the kernels come out from inside, the bowl of kernels, and themselves turned it into flour. So the next time you ask them where flour comes from, hopefully they won't just say "Loblaws"! :). We also have a centre set up with a bin of wheat kernels, egg cups and spoons. The children are estimating how many scoops it takes to fill an egg cup, and then scooping the kernels into the cup. There are kernels everywhere! Hopefully they are not bringing them home in their bags. In the days to come, they will be dramatizing the Little Red Hen with lovely costumes made by Anne, as well as using a felt board to tell the story during free play. It has been a fun time in Ash Class.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Thank you everyone for taking the time to come and meet me for Parent Teacher Interviews. It was lovely to meet you all and discuss your child's progress.

Coming up

We will be reading the story the Little Red Hen, orally telling it and dramatizing it. Thanks Anne, for making us some lovely costumes! As we head into the winter months, we will be doing the story The Gingerbread Boy, as well as another version or two, and some Jan Brett stories, such as The Mitten and The Hat. We will start to use our felt board to tell the stories as well. The children did such a wonderful job on their diya pots and it was fun to learn about the Diwali festival of light. Another festival of light, Chanukah is also fast approaching  at the end of November and we will be looking at some books and symbols for this holiday.

What's in a name?

We are doing a lot of activities in class around the children's names. One activity that we are doing is looking at someone's name that has been cut up and mixed up and trying to put it in the right order! The children really enjoy doing this. I will be sending home your child's cut up name in an envelope for them to practise mixing it up and putting it back in the right order. If you are able, please guide them in doing this. You can extend this by also looking at other people's names in your family, and doing the same thing. This can lead to observations about letters and literacy in a fun and meaningful way. You can discuss how many letters or claps each name has, what their name start or ends with, or what shapes they see in their letters. I cannot tell you exactly when your child will get their name, but look out for it in their backpack within the next couple of months.

Oral Stories

I will be sending home  a hard copy of the oral stories I have done so far with Ash class. A copy of Stone Soup is not included as I only have the actual book. If you want to read the story, the public library usually has copies or you can purchase one at a book store. I repeat these stories to the children, as they love them and ask for them again and again. My hope is that they will start to tell them themselves! Please check your child's backpack for these stories, and if you are able, read them, and help your child tell them! You will see, they will probably chime in very quickly!

Lantern Walk

Our lantern walk is fast approaching! We will be making our lanterns this week to be ready for our walk on Thursday. We hope everyone can join us at Crocodile Island at 5:30. We will start our walk from there, an we will sing our lantern songs as we walk around the neighbourhood. We will be having hot chocolate and baked goods after we get back. If you are able, please being a small amount of finger foods/baked goods - savory or sweet - for everyone to enjoy.  We are looking forward to it!

Homes and Habitats

Thank you to Scientist Lindy and our parent volunteers, Lina, Marcelo and Lisa, for coming in to Ash Class for a wonderful session on Homes and Habitats. The children had a lot of fun and learned a lot about the habitats of different animals. It was a wonderful way to ignite curiosity about animals and their surroundings, which I am sure will fuel more learning to come.

The children have been watching our worms in their habitat and are asking a lot of questions about them, such as, "do they need water, or do they have enough food!?" They made predictions about what would happen to the leaves, and now they are making some conclusions as they observe them daily in our classroom.

High Park Nature Centre

Ash class will be visiting the High Park Nature Centre on Thursday Nov. 28 to study seasonal changes, particulary "Fall into Winter". This is a wonderful program, with a lot of time spent outdoors and enriching activities.  We will be leaving the school at 8:45 sharp in order to get there for a 9:30 a.m. start time. It will end at 11:30 and we will stay there to eat our lunch. We will be taking the street car. On Friday, I will be sending home the forms to sign. Please return them by Nov. 22. We will also be visiting the centre 2 more times this year - so the cost of $21 covers all three trips plus the cost of TTC for the children for this trip only. When it comes time to go on the next trips, I will collect money for TTC only. We are looking for volunteers to come on the trip with us, and especially help with the commute to the park. The volunteers will have to pay for their own bus fare. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering. We are lucky that this program is offered so close to us and we look forward to our trips there!

Decomposing pumpkin and Earth Creatures

The children were curious about our rotting pumpkin that was still hanging out in our class! We looked at it in our circle today and talked about our observations of the pumpkin and were trying to figure out what was happening to it! Our conversation led to wondering what would happen to other fruits or vegetables left for long time, so I will be bringing in a few different ones so we can observe the results! I was thinking I would just put them in different bowls and label them. However, as I was talking to Theo's mom Lisa about this, she was telling me about 'Change Jars" that she had in her Grade 3/4 class - where they watched things, such as vegetables and fruits, change. I thought that was a great idea for our class! If you have any extra Mason Jars with lids that you can send in that would be great - that way, we can observe the transformations under a closed lid!

Today we also looked at worms and set up our worm jar on the science table! We looked at the tunnels the worms made in the soil and watched the worms wiggle. Another day, the children can try and hold one if they wish. We fed the worms apple and carrot and talked about the types of food we can feed the worms. We added dead leaves from our sensory table into the jar and made predictions about what would happen to the leaves on the top of the soil. We are also encouraging the children to draw what they see!

Parent teacher interviews

I am sending home a letter regarding Parent/Teacher Interviews next week - from Nov. 11-15. Please check your child's backpack for the letter and send it back to me as soon as possible, so I can confirm a time with you. Reports only go out to SK students this term, but I will meet with both JK and SK students. If you find that you need a different time than the choices I have given, please let me know and we will try to arrange something that works.

the sniffles and snuffles

As the cold weather fast approaches, the sniffles are beginning. If everyone could donate one box of kleenex to Ash class, that would be very helpful!  I am also looking for a few large mason jars with lids. At the moment, we are set for other beautiful junk donations. We have quite a bit. As our stash gets lower, I will let you know.

Scientists in the Schools

Just as a reminder, Scientists in the Schools will be coming to Ash Class on Thursday Nov. 14! It is a wonderful hands on program that covers various science topics. We will be covering the topic of Habitats and Homes. Please remember to send in $11 by Nov. 8, to cover the cost of the program. I am still looking for one more volunteer. Please email me if you are interested.

Diwali

This week we will learn about Diwali and how it is celebrated.  We will make our own Diwali pots out of salt dough that the children will help make, as well as create pictures using chalk! Thank you Gita, Sahana's mom  for bringing in a book on Diwali as well as a little pot for us to enjoy!