Outdoor Ed

Hello Families!
With the wintery months still going strong, we thought it might be nice to share with you a little bit of what happens during our daily Outdoor Education time! (Almost) Every day we bundle ourselves up to brave the snow and head over to the outdoor ed area of the school (if you are looking at the school from the front, it is the area on the right). Our wonderful outdoor ed teacher, as well as our friends in the office, have been working hard to fundraise money and apply to grants to help build up this area to include more activities and natural areas including gardens, planters, etc as well as a beautiful shed to store everything in. Of course, in the winter we haven't been doing too much gardening! Each week there are different centres for students to explore and engage with! There are literacy, numeracy, and science activities as well as lots of opportunities to explore with senses and get moving!
We love our time outdoors each day and miss it when the temperature drops too low for us to spend part of our morning out side!

Just hanging out with Mrs. Sulkowski

Working together to build with snow

Working on our oral language

Icy cold bubbles! We love watching what happens when the bubble solution freezes and seeing the bubbles that we can make

Using tools (and safety glasses) the chisel through the ice and save buried jewels and animals

Cooking up treats in the house centre

Chiseling away again

Pulling friends around on the sleds

 Building with snow and natural wood

 

Post Report Card Catch Up!

Hello Families!
We are so sorry for our distinct LACK of posts the last week and a half! Report cards were busily being completed and edited so there is definitely some catch up to do (especially with our special friend posts)! Thank you for your patience and we hope that we are back to a regular blogging schedule again!
In no particular order... here are our special friend posts!

Melek
What is your favourite colour? Orange
What is your favourite food? Oranges
What is your favourite centre at school? The light table
What do you want to be when you grow up? An Engineer
Anything else? No

Brooke
What is your favourite colour? Pink and purple
What is your favourite food? Potatoes
What is your favourite centre at school? Kitchen
What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher
Anything else?  No

 

 

 
 

 Jae-Lynn
What is your favourite colour? Pink
What is your favourite food? Fudge
What is your favourite centre at school? Blocks
What do you want to be when you grow up? To do chores by myself
Anything else?  I love my mommy









Marry
What is your favourite colour? Red
What is your favourite food? Oranges
What is your favourite centre at school? Colouring centre
What do you want to be when you grow up? To play with kids
Anything else?  No

Anas
What is your favourite colour? Red
What is your favourite food? Bananas
What is your favourite centre at school? Puppets
What do you want to be when you grow up? Teenager
Anything else?  I go to school

 

Dawer
What is your favourite colour? Red
What is your favourite food? "Muss"
What is your favourite centre at school? The cave
What do you want to be when you grow up? Policeman
Anything else?  I like playing Lego and big Lego

Around Our Room Today!





Check out two of our lovely friends playing in the cave! We have it set up with lights inside it now. The cave provides us with opportunities for talking about hibernation in the winter as well as a chance to talk about winter camping. Here two girls are enjoying a winter camp out inside some sleeping bags! Today we learned that frogs and groundhogs both hibernate in the winter! A groundhog only takes a breath every 6 minutes! We took about 15 breaths in one minute when we counted! We sure would have a hard time hibernating.




Mrs. Miazga was busy this weekend looking for new activities for our light table! Lots of beads and stones to count and mix together as well as some colourful cars that let the light shine through. Students were using the rulers to make ramps for the cars. We have moved the light table into the 'Quiet Area' of the classroom and students are enjoying the opportunity to take a break and enjoy the calming atmosphere! Great ideas, Mrs. Miazga!

 

Monday January 19, 2015

Today's Special Friend was Dayan!

What is your favourite colour? Black
What is your favourite food? Strawberries (we LOVE how everyone seems to be picking healthy foods lately!)
What is your favourite centre? The cave
What do you want to be when you grow up? A character from Mario or an actor that does all the Mario characters
Anything else? I like creating and colouring puppets. Nothing else



Check back later for a look at our cave centre and the new activities on our light table!

January 14 & 15, 2015

Today I am featuring our special friends from Wednesday and Thursday!
On Wednesday, Huzaifah was our special friend!

 What is your favourite colour? Green and purple
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A teenager
What is your favourite food? Grapes
What is your favourite centre? House
Anything else? "I'm just done" (He made me laugh!)

On Thursday, Erin was our special friend!
What is your favourite colour? Purple
What do you want to be when you grow up? A Doctor
What is your favourite food? Sandwiches
What is your favourite centre?  The house centre
Anything else? No











On Wednesday, we had our Forest of friends presentation by Meredith from the Children's museum. We talked about birds (and heard bird sounds), what things in our classroom were made of wood, did a craft as a gift to the birds, and even looked for birds outside with some binoculars! We really enjoyed sharing what we notice about the world around us and noticing the different materials that are in our classroom. This presentation tied in a lot of things that we have been learning during Outdoor Education. It was a great time. Here are a few pictures from our special presentation!

Tuesday January 13, 2015

Today's Special Friend is Ausha!

What is your favourite colour? Pink
What do you want to be when you grow up? A Doctor
What is your favourite food? Bananas
What is your favourite centre? Colouring
Anything else? I love my mom and I love my teachers.

 

We are looking at beginning a new inquiry! Yesterday during lunch, Mrs. Miazga overheard some students talking about camping! Brr wouldn't it be cold to go camping in the winter. We thought maybe it would be better to go camping in a cave! This might also get us thinking about hibernation which is a topic that our presenter tomorrow will likely touch on as she talks about animals in the winter! We are brainstorming ways to make our puppet centre (and former spaceship) look more and more like a cave (perhaps quite rocky with some stars...). If you have any camping materials that you would like to share with our class while we engage in this inquiry, please do not hesitate to send them in (labelled with your name to make sure they get back to you)!

 

Take a look at a few of the other activities happening around our classroom!

 

Telling stories using a BIG felt board we borrowed from another class!

 
 
 

 





Helping Mrs. Miazga with some painting to create a new toy! Rabia is using paints creatively and practicing her fine motor skills!

I can't figure out how to rotate this beautiful creation that two of our friends made! They were definitely demonstrating how to make and keep friends, work together, and solve problems. They were also experimenting with the properties of 3D figures! Great creation!

 

Creating in the art studio. Melek is looking forward to talking about her creation during sharing time at the end of the day! What a great opportunity to practice speaking in front of a group of her friends!

 

Monday January 12, 2015

 

 Welcome  our first special friend feature! We intended to begin last week but unfortunately Mrs. Mathers was having a hard time finding the cord to get the pictures from the iPad to the computer! Today our special friend is Misk. I have also included Logan's special friend entry as he was the first friend we were beginning with last week Thanks for being patient, Logan!
Mrs. Mathers interviewed each friend!



Misk:
What is your favourite colour? Pink
What do you want to be when you grow up? Like mommy: A Teacher
What is your favourite food? Apple
What is your favourite centre? Colouring
Anything else you'd like to share? I love mom and paint

Logan
What is your favourite colour?Blue
What do you want to be when you grow up? A Cop
What is your favourite food? Pogos
What is your favourite centre? Blocks
Anything else you'd like to share? No

















Check back daily to hear from each day's special friend!