Some new poems

Yellow
Yellow is a lemon
Yellow is a star
Yellow is the sun
in the sky so far

Winter
I like Winter
I like snow
I like icy winds that blow

Season's come
and season's go
But I like winter
I like snow!

Jack Frost
Where'd you get that little red nose
Jack Frost kissed it I suppose
Kissed it once, Kissed it twice
Little red nose as cold as ice

The North Wind Does Blow
The north wind does blow
And we shall have snow
And what will the robin do then, poor thing?
He'll hide in the barn
And keep himself warm
And tuck his head under his wing
Poor thing!

Stay tuned for more winter rhymes!

Numbers

Ash class does a lot of fun math activities and games, and recently we have been trying to match our numbers with the number of dots on another page. We will continue to do this in small groups, and make our own number/dot games to bring home. We have also been playing a variety of games with dominoes, which is another great game to play at home. It helps the children with a variety of number concepts, such as learning to recognize the number of dots without counting, learning about the stable order of numbers, more or less, composing numbers. As well, we have been using the hundreds carpet, which the children are enjoying. It is a big carpet with 100 squares, and they are playing games to find where the numbers are and they are learning to see the relationship between numbers. Samantha, our student, has done a great job at guiding the students at this centre!

Popcorn Words

Some of you have been asking about our popcorn words. Popcorn words are words that "pop out" at you everywhere! They are small words that you will find often in written text. Here are a list of the ones we have done so far:

to, the, and, no, yes, can, see, we, will, do, did, like, love, you, is

When you are reading to your child, you can ask them if they see any popcorn words in the story. It is always nice to strike a balance, so no need to do it every time you are reading. If they are showing interest, then go with it!

November

November has been a very busy time in Ash class, with so many inquisitive minds and lots of play and learning! After we carved our pumpkin on Halloween, we kept it in our classroom. After a few days, it started to change. One day, Nina said, "Ms. Smith, look what's happened to our pumpkin!" And the rest is history....Our inquiry started about our decomposing pumpkin. The children came up with so many interesting observations, predictions, and conclusions. They noticed the "colourful" parts, like red and black dots, and how slowly the face was falling apart! We wrote down everyone's remarks, and posted them, along with photos and their pictures of our decomposing pumpkin on our bulletin board.

November also brought with it an inquiry about ants. When playing outside, some children were interested in looking for ants, and building a home for them out of leaves and sticks. And hence, our ant inquiry began, guided by our student Samantha. There were about  students who were interested in learning more about ants, their habits and home. Through inquiry, they created and conducted an experiment, gathered ants, tried to create their own ant city, drew their thoughts and observations, and made their own ant homes out of clay and other materials. At the end of their inquiry, the group of children shared their observations and findings with the rest of the class!

Ash class also discussed what Peace meant to them. We talked about what peace might look, sound or feel like. The children shared their thoughtful responses with the class, such as Peace is.....being quiet, the sunset, sleeping, not fighting. If only, the whole world could take the advice of Ash class!

Ash class was lucky to go on a mini field trip to King Eddy, and watch the play The Nightingale. The set and costumes were well made and the children were very engaged. The following day, the children started drawing pictures and writing about their favourite part of the play.

Pink

Erato, our new poet, wrote a poem called Pink. She was inspired by the two other colour poems we have done so far - Red and Orange. Erato has inspired us to make our own poetry book of colours! We will start working on it and are excited to create a book for our class. Ask your child if they have any ideas for a colour poem. Feel free to jot their ideas down, even if it is not a finished poem - and send it in. It is not meant to be long - You can look at our Orange and Red poem as a reference - short and sweet! If there is anyone that would like to come in and help the children with their poems one morning, please let me know, and we can arrange a time!

Apple Harvest Feast Success!!

Thank you to all for a wonderful Apple Harvest Feast last Monday. It was a great success. The class was hustling and bustling with bakers and peelers and cutters and mashers and juicers!!! We enjoyed it all - I don't think we stopped for a moment. We all had so much fun and learned a lot! The children enjoyed the fresh apple juice and we have enjoyed apple sauce and crumble throughout the week. Autumn is such a wonderful time with all that we harvest! Thank you to all who were able to come in and volunteer your time. We could not have done it without you. We are following up with How to Make booklets, pictures, and graphs of all of our learning and our fun day! And Thank you to Bodhi for helping us learn our Apple Harvest Feast story. She did a great job retelling the story on her own, before our Apple day. Oral storytelling is a great way to spend a few moments with your child, and helps them learn to remember a story and tell it in sequence.