Field Trip to the Zoo!

Last week we celebrated Earth week by visiting the zoo! During the week we discussed why it is important to keep the earth clean. We talked about the animals needing a safe environment to live in and learnt about different animal habitats around the world.  We saw animals from warm habitats; the Komodo dragon, kangaroos, and snakes. We saw animals from cold habitats; the polar bears. And we saw animals from Indo-Malaya region and African rainforest; orangutan, lions, and gorillas.  The children heard from many of the zookeepers and learnt a lot about the way the animals eat and behave. We enjoyed the sunshine while having a picnic snack and took home special sticker albums to help the children understand the various habitats where animals live. THanks for a great day at the Zoo!   

Draw and Write!

This week we talked about the earth and why we need to keep it clean. One of the students said we need to keep the world clean because we like to play outside! This is very true. We all imagined what our favourite activity to do outside was. Everybody had to use their imagination and think of something that nobody in the class had mentioned already. This encourages the children to think independently- not just repeat what the last person said. Next we transferred our thoughts onto paper! They drew themselves doing that activity and then practiced writing the activity in words. If the student couldn’t write the whole sentence, they chose a key word to write on their drawing. In the end, each of us had a unique drawing that we showed to the whole class!

Geography!

Today we talked about the world. First everyone told me what they knew about the world. By seeing the globe it helped us to comprehend that the world is round and spherical. We discussed that Earth is a planet in our solar system and also mentioned some of the other planets. We differentiated between water and land on the globe, and found where our country was located. We looked at all of the different continents and used the interactive function to repeat the names out loud. We had a great time learning with the globe and have started making a large hand-painting of the Earth! Throughout the entire week we made a large Earth display that we all worked on together!  

Earth Week!

Today was our first day back from spring break! Since yesterday was Earth Day we decided to celebrate saving the planet this week. We talked about why it is important to keep the earth clean; so that all of the plants, animals and humans can live in a safe place. We talked about habitats and that different plants and animals live in different habitats. Next, we discussed why it is important to throw out our garbage. We did a small science experiment to reinforce the importance of throwing out our garbage. We dug small holes outside in the dirt and buried a few things that would disintegrate- an apple core, and a few things that would not- a paper wrapper. We hypothesized what might happen to these items in a few weeks when we dig them up! This will teach the children that some things are ok to throw out and they will disintegrate, and other things need to go straight to the garbage to keep the earth clean!

Visual Arts!

To celebrate the beginning of spring we wanted to decorate our school with festive spring art pieces. Since we are planting flowers as a class, we each decided to make our own large flowers to display in the window. We developed our fine motor skills by grabbing small pieces of tissue paper and gluing them onto each peddle of the flower. Each child was able to make their flower unique by drawing a smiley face in the center of their flower. Every day we will see the colourful flowers and it will remind us about the beautiful spring weather that is on its’ way!

Growing Flowers!

Today we talked about how much we love and appreciate our moms. We looked on the calendar and saw that Mothers Day is quickly approaching. In the spirit of springtime, we thought it would be a great idea to plant some beautiful flowers and watch them grow over the next few weeks. First we watered the pods of soil and watched as the water absorbed, making them bigger. Next, we each got a few tiny seeds to place into the soil and covered them up with more soil. We left the planter in a dark space and will look at them every few days to chart their progress.

Easter/Passover Party!

Today we celebrated Easter and Passover by having a party! We did all sorts of fun activities throughout the day. All of the children got to pick special hats or bunny ears to wear for the easter egg hunt. 

We looked around the school and found almost 40 eggs that were hiding! We decided we would sit together and count all of the eggs that we found as a group. Then we decided to separate the eggs by colour and count how many of each colour egg we had. Next we played musical chairs and hopped to the music like bunnies. At the end of the day we had special treats that the children brought for their friends and we all enjoyed them together. Happy Easter!

Passover Cups!

Today we learnt all about what passover is and why we celebrate it. We talked about the two special dinners that we have called seders, and learnt about the special food called matzah that we eat for 8 whole days. The children loved the idea of decorating a special cup to put on our dinner table, so we used tissue paper and glue to create beautifully coloured cups that look like stained glass. This was a great exercise to work our fine motor skills and allowed each child to show their creativity in the colours and designs they made for their cup. Happy Passover! 

Science

After reading a book about a baby chick growing into a big chicken the class discussed how living things grow. We talked about how we used to be babies and now we are growing up; one day we will all be adults like our moms and dads. The life cycle is an important lesson for the children to grasp-- in order to help them visualize this concept we made an art project which depicts the life cycle of a chicken. First we talked about how the mommy chicken will sit on her egg to keep it safe and warm. Next, when the egg is ready it will hatch into a baby chicken. The children talked about which stage comes next and decided the baby will grow into a little chick before it is fully grown into a chicken.

Music Class

Today we had a special piano class from Ms. Lauren J. We sang songs around the piano and the children loved using their singing voices to sing “Down By The Bay”. We all tried to think of different rhyming words to put into the verses. We tried having everyone sing with the same rhythm and tempo. We also sang the ice cream song and everyone got to pick their favourite ice cream flavour. We ended off the day singing “When you’re happy and you know it.” We clapped our hands, stomped our feet, and shouted hurray!