Wonderful Discovery Time!

It really is impressive how quickly young children can learn the routines and expectations of their new school, and how soon they feel settled and comfortable in the space.  This week we had the chance to explore in the pod area, the outside (sand and water) area, the music room, and Ms. Zacs' classroom.  It was lovely to see the students giving many activities a try.  Now that they have been introduced to these places, we will begin Discovery Time in earnest, with all four K1 classrooms open to explore next week.  I think you will soon find that Tuesdays and Thursdays become your child's favourite days of the week!

This week in the classroom we tried more new activities.  We had the iPads out for the first time, and the students used the app, Drawing Pad.  Their creativity could be seen in their digital artwork.  Today we had some educators from Japan come to the classroom, and I know they were impressed to see our young learners confidently using the iPads.

This week we also watched a short video with different scenes of nature from around our beautiful planet, and one image in particular captured the imagination of some students.  They were so fascinated by a snow storm and avalanche that they tried reproducing it through some abstract art.

Lastly, one of the most popular classroom activities this week was making gingerbread cookies! After reading all those different versions of the story, how could we not try making our own?   

Making them was fun, but decorating and eating them were better!  The students also used some beginning ICT skills when they used an iPad to take a photograph of their finished cookie.

We threw in a little bit of science exploration to go along with our Gingerbread Man literacy work.  I pretended my gingerbread cookie had a secret he was thinking.  First the students tried to guess what it could be: 

• "He doesn't want us to eat him.  He doesn't want to break."
• "I am so cute, you can eat me."
• "Don't eat me; I don't want to die."
• "Are you thinking of a friend?"
• "Do you want to have a baby?"
• "Maybe he's thinking to have a house."
• "Maybe he's curious."
• "He's thinking about his family."

I told the group those were all good ideas, but, no, he was thinking he wanted to go swimming in the river, that he thought nothing would happen to him if he went in the water, that he didn't believe those stories about him being afraid of the water.  Well, the boys and girls tried to help!  They told him:

• "You might get soggy."
• "Maybe he could break."
• "Maybe he'll drown."
• "He will be soaking!"
• "He can't swim.  He might sink."
• "Maybe he will melt."

Did the Gingerbread Man listen to us? NO!  He went into a bowl of water and throughout the day we checked on him... He should have listened to us! YUCK!

REMINDERS

Don't forget to check out the K1 Grade Blog, too.  Link can be found on the side bar of this blog.

Class wordless books and the Songs and Rhymes folder went home today.  Please return the Wordless Book by next Thursday, and the Songs and Rhymes folder on Monday.  

We are starting to see some tired children! Please watch your child over the coming days and think about using the early pick-up option if needed.

Please return the "What is your World?" page before the October half-term break.