our new sand table

We decided that our sand table could use a little sprucing up. We brainstormed together what we could do. They came up with the idea of turning it into a restaurant! I found some boxes and other materials and they were busy as bees creating new props for the sand centre. It was so great to see such excitement buzzing all at once in the room! I can't wait to see what else they do!

making nests

The children have been so interested in birds and trees. Thank you to everyone who has brought in nest building materials! Children are creating their own versions of birds nests with all the materials. The children have enjoyed watching the morning doves make their nest in the mornings. It is so amazing what you can see in the city when you really pay attention!

Spring Poems

The Carpet

I'll show you a carpet
It looks good
It's not in the house
It's out in the wood.
walk with me, to have a surprise
A carpet of bluebells
Before your eyes.

Crocus, Crocus

Crocus, Crocus
Waken up
To catch a sunbeam
in your cup (x3)

A Robin

I wonder how a robin hears?
I never yet have seen his ears.
But I have seen him tip his head
And pull a worm
right out of bed.

What the Robin Told
The wind told the grasses
And the grasses told the trees
The trees told the bushes
And the bushes told the bees
The bees told the robin
And the robin sang out clear:
Wake Up!
Wake Up!
Spring is here!
Spring is here!

Some new rhymes

Good Morning

Good morning when it's morning
Goood night when it's night
Good evening when it's dark out
Good day when it is light
Good morning to the sunshine
Good evening to the sky
And when it's time to go away
Good-bye
Good-bye
Good-bye

To Market To Market

To market , to market
To buy a fat pig
Home again, Home again
Jiggety Jig

To market, To market
To buy a hot dog
Home again, Home again,
Jiggety Jog

To market To market
To buy a sweet bun
Home again, home again
Market is done!

Pancake

Mix a pancake, Stir a pancake
Pop it in the pan.
Fry the pancake. Toss the pancake.
Catch it if you can.

Mary lost her coat

Mary lost her coat
Mary lost her hat.
Mary lost her rubber boots.
What do you think of that?
Mary found her coat
Mary found her hat.
Mary found her rubber boots.
She left them on the mat.

The Cuckoo

The cuckoo came in April
And sung her song in May
Later in June, another tune
And then she flies away

Singing on the wall

Two little blackbirds singing in the sun
One flew away and there was one
One little blackbird very black and tall
He flew away, and then there was the wall
One little wall, sitting in the rain
Waiting for the blackbirds to come and sing again.

A Native American Legend about maple syrup

 This is a native american legend that we told in class.

The Legend

The Native Americans were the first people to make maple syrup, which can be expected, since they were the first inhabitants of North America, and this is the only part of the world in which maple syrup can be made. If you think about everything that is needed to make maple syrup, the proper season, the proper tree, all the boiling, it makes you wonder how anyone ever thought to try it.

Below is the Native American legend about how the first maple syrup was made.

One day in early spring, an Indian chief came home from a long day of hunting and stuck his tomahawk in one of the trees outside his longhouse, as he did every night. Now being that maple trees are very abundant in his area, this happened to be a maple.

The next morning the chief woke and left for another hunt, taking his tomahawk from the tree. It just happened that there was a bowl sitting at the base of this tree, directly under the gash made by the chief's tomahawk. As the warm spring sun shone on the maple tree, the sap began to run out of the gash, down the trunk, and dripped into the bowl. As evening approached, the chief's daughter began to prepare dinner. She needed a pail of water to boil dinner in though. As she walked past the tree on her way down to the creek, she noticed the bowl full of "water" sitting by the tree. Rather than walk all the way to the creek, the chief's daughter decided to use this "water." As the dinner boiled, the "water" boiled away, and by the time dinner was done, the "water", which was actually maple sap, had boiled down to the first maple syrup. With a little experimenting, the chief and his daughter discovered how and when to make this new all natural sweetener. From that point on, maple syrup became an important part of the Native American's diet.

Another Native American Legend

  This is the oral story we have been working on. The children also drew pictures as they were listening to it.

 Manabozho and the Maple Trees

A very long time ago, when the world was new,

Gitchee Manitou made things so that life was very easy for the people. There was plenty of game and the weather was always

good and the maple trees were filled with thick sweet syrup. Whenever anyone wanted to get maple syrup from the trees, all they had to do was break off a twig and collect it as

it dripped out. One day, Manabozho went walking around. "I think I'll go see how my friends the Anishinabe are doing," he said. So, he went to a village of Indian people. But, there was

no one around. So, Manbozho looked for the people. They were not fishing in the streams or the lake. They were not working in the fields hoeing their crops. They were not gathering berries. Finally, he found them. They were in the grove of maple trees near

the village. They were just lying on their backs with their mouths open, letting maple syrup drip into their mouths.

"This will NOT do!" Manabozho said. "My people are all going to be lazy if they keep on living this way."

So, Manabozho went down to the river. He took with him a big basket he had made of birch bark. With this basket, he brought back many buckets of water. He went to the top of the maple trees and poured water in, so that it thinned out the syrup. Now, thick maple

syrup no longer dripped out of the broken twigs. Now what came out was thin and watery and just barely sweet to the taste.

"This is how it will be from now on," Manabozho said. "No longer will syrup drip from the maple trees. Now there will only be this watery sap. When people want to make maple syrup they will have to gather many buckets full of the sap in a birch bark basket like mine. They will have to gather wood and make fires so they can heat stones to drop into the baskets. They will have to boil the water with the heated stones for a long time to make even a little maple syrup. Then my people will no longer grow lazy. Then they will appreciate this maple syrup Gitchee Manitou made available to them. Not

only that, this sap will drip only from the trees at a certain time of the year. Then it will not keep people from hunting and fishing and gathering and hoeing in the fields. This is how it is going to be," Manabozho said.

And, that is how it is to this day.