Grouptime events

 Before we began our Yoga story of the day the children greeted the beautiful Spring sunshine with their gentle, yet energized breath. I find Sun Salutation poses are the best to revitalize and refresh the mind and body. These poses are dynamic yet focused so provide children the space to be actively engaged and be in their own space while doing the poses. Since it's Spring it also gives us the opportunity to pay gratitude to the morning sunshine and embrace its blessings as we think about the growing and changing that is happening around us Sun salutation and sky arrow poses To continue the theme of  Gratitude and Generosity, we acted the Lion and the Mouse fable using different yoga poses. The children enjoyed pretending to be the irritated Lion and the scared mouse. We discussed the lesson of the story: that each of us is important and helpful no matter what size. Then each child were given a task of helping me clean and organize the classroom.  Some spr

Olin reading the Idiograph "I can read all by myself"- Naomi Hot, cross buns Hot, cross buns One a penny Two a penny Hot, cross buns "It's like a pattern" - Eric "See, I can write my own name!" - Nicholas Emerson & Elliot working together to find the right keys for Hot cross buns During the Easter week the children learned about the song  Hot, Cross Buns.   After singing a few times the children worked on reading and writing the Ideograph for the song.  Ideographs are symbols in place of the song phrases.  This exercise helps children develop print  and phonological awareness ( sounds as symbols).  As we sang, some children chose to practice  the solfa (music hand signs) while the others played it on the piano. They each had a turn to track and draw their own Ideographs.  Did you know that Hot Cross Buns are traditionally baked and given as gifts around Eater Time in the earlier day

     In this part of the inquiry the children were drawn to a story about a Boy and  a stray puppy who developed friendship as they go through the feelings of sadness, loneliness and in search of a friend. The story lines were catchy and simple enough that children repeatedly said the lines over and over again in their play. "......sad, ... no fun....all alone....why am I the only one?"       They were so attuned to the sadness of the characters that they even created their own dramatic play on the ideas of feeling alone and what to do when no one wants to play with you.  The story "Say Hello" by Jack and Michael Foreman explores the concepts of care, inclusion and open-mindedness.   At the end of the story both the boy and the dog were connected by acknowledging the presence of the other through a simple "hello". It shows us that a warm greeting and a smile is all it takes for friendships to flourish.  Christina asked: " How do you

    September is a wonderful time to be experiencing new and exciting things.  As we continue to learn the new ropes and routine in school we also make new connections and build new friendships along the way.  This current Unit of Inquiry will explore Friendships.  The aim of this unit is to help children develop an understanding of: How do we develop friendly relationships, how to foster friendly relationships and the giving and receiving of friendship. Who is your friend and why?      We began the formative unit (first week) with a simple task of asking the children to tell us about one special friend.  They decorated a ginger bread person and used that to represent and talk about this friend.  It was interesting to hear their responses.  Of course, most children talked about who they played with while others talked about their family like their siblings and moms as their best friends.  However there were some disagreements in this because some children did not think that

Lina is telling the children about bugs as decomposers when they found a dead mole Let's investigate!! BUGS teeny tiny, itty-bitty, little crawling , slithering, jumping, swimming sometimes they fly  creature wood bugs living in the logs butterfly craft What are bugs? We found a log full of wood bugs and brought it inside to investigate further.  We noticed the bugs didn't come out as much and some children thought maybe they were scared or not happy that we brought them in.  The children also wondered about what bugs eat, the difference between bugs and insect and where they live.  As the day went by the children noticed that bugs love plants and dirt.   Some speculate they live in the forest because it has plenty of leaves to feast from.  The more we learned about how they move and live the more curious we've become.  We might bring in some stick bugs as pets for the summer time so we can continue to explore and learn more abo

It was a beautiful sunny day and we were all excited to get our hands dirty at the farm. The children learned about what makes a healthy soil for planting, the process of composting and the importance of bugs like worms and bees in breaking down nutrients and pollination. Lunchtime!! We got to see part of the garden and tried edible flowers and leaves. At first the children found it odd to be eating "leaves" right off the plants.  I suppose we've been so removed from knowing how we source our food that we think food grows and only comes from packages and the supermarket. It was an interesting experience for the children for sure. What's in dirt? edible kale flowers Fragrant lemon balm Trying the wheelborrow dirt turned into mud