How Much Sugar?

First, my apologies for not writing for the last little while. I have been quite sick, but am up and at 'em again! I have about 15 posts written in my head and can't wait to share what is happening in our classroom.

Our most recent inquiries are Petsmart (which you may have been hearing about!), hairdressing and sugar! This post will talk about our healthy eating interests.

As you may know, our school is focusing on healthy eating this month. As part of this initiative, we have started to ask our students about what healthy foods they eat and which healthy foods they are bringing with them to school. Over and over again we hear the students say things like:

"How much sugar is in juice?"

"There is no sugar in cheese strings. They are healthy."

"Do you put sugar in water?"
Because of this interest in the big "S", we have decided to look into sugar in our foods. While sugar is not always a bad thing-- I for one can attest to the need to have a sweet now and again!--- we are talking about sugar in our foods and how much sugar we should eat every day when we are 4, 5 and 6 years old.

One of the things that has been most interesting to our students so far is that juice boxes are not healthy. Many of our kids assume that juice is good for you because it is juice, which has led to discussions about "artificial" foods and flavours-- which we are calling "fake" for the purposes of kindergarten!

This has the same amount of sugar in one pouch as...

Just under 1/2 cup of sugar.... or.....

31.6 Hershey's Kisses!

Some things that have suprised us as NOT being healthy, but having healthy foods:
-most juice boxes
-cheese sun chips
-cheesies
-doritios

Oh, how different my life would be if this was good for you to eat!

Later this week we will be doing a visual with how much sugar we eat in a day and how much sugar is in some of our foods. We will also be taste testing sugar vs salt... some of us aren't quite sure about the difference!

Stay tuned!

We're Going on a Shape Hunt!

I apologize for such a long break in blogging! I am determined to get back to it as soon as possible, and I thought I'd start with what happened after the holidays and just before my absence from the classroom-- our shape exploration!

As I'm sure most of you have heard (and sang... hopefully not over and over and OVER again!) we have been learning a variety of shape songs and poems to help us identify 2D and 3D shapes. When I left, we were exploring a variety of 2D shapes, using the 2D Shape Song and Shape Monster poem. As part of that, we decided to go on a shape hunt.

First, we found many objects that were either a circle, square, rectangle, and triangle. We sorted them and talked about what they looked like.

The ball of yarn was VERY creative!

These might not look like squares, but it's truly the camera angle!

 

Next, we decided to MAKE SHAPES WITH OURSELVES! It was a lot of fun... especially figuring out how to make our bodies into a rectangle, and not a square.



Triangle!



Circle. (Well... we tried our best).

Square-- all sides are one person long

Two long people and two squishy people!

Overall, it was a good time to look at shapes! We are now past shapes in our song, so look for lots of holiday celebrations coming soon!

11 Ideas for the Holidays

***While this post is a little early, this blog takes quite some time to research and update each week. As a result, I will be taking a pause from this blog for the next little while. I appreciate your understanding!***




I do hope this gives you some ideas for our holiday season!

1. Visit Downey's Farm! It is local and contains a variety of seasonal activities (weather dependent). Always a great way to spend an afternoon or weekend.

2. Try Public Skating. It is available at our local arenas, or if you are brave enough, Gage Park too!

3. Keep a picture journal of your holidays. Have your child draw a picture of all the exciting things they are doing! Encourage them to write in their journal-- this might be scribbles, letters, labels or sentences-- depending where they are.

4. Do some holiday baking! Baking is a math activity and promotes responsibility, science and teaches procedures.

5. Snuggle up with a book. Try reading a story and talking about some of the interesting pictures. Remember our local library might have different hours for the holidays.

6. While at the library, look and see what exciting activities your family might want to engage in.

7. Go for a community walk (and if you are lucky, go sledding!). While going for a walk, comment on changes you see in the neighbourhood.

8. Draw in the snow-- with food colouring! Simply fill a spray bottle with coloured water and draw pictures, letters and shapes in the snow.

9. Have free creative time. Allowing your child to explore their creativity without a set expectation about what will occur opens their minds to all sorts of possibilities!

10. See what Michael's has in store. Often they offer quick, drop in crafts during the holidays.

11. Play a board game, such as snakes and ladders or candy land. This promotes mathematical knowledge, turn taking, and language acquisition. Has the game become too easy? Use two die and have your child add both die together.

A Snapshot of Inside Play

We were given cameras (yay!) for our classroom, so I took advantage of it and took pictures all afternoon! Within 10 minutes of pictures, here are some of the things we working on...

Beyblade made with snap cubes.

 This beyblade is no ordinary snap cube beyblade! Traditionally, they have been made in our class with 9 blocks snapped together in a 3 x 3 grid with a block on top as a handle and a block below as a point. This monster was created after much trial and error by a friend with persistance! The new design he created is stronger, faster, and consistantly wins battles in snap cube or block stadiums. After teaching others how to make this beyblade, it has been decided it takes many more blocks (27 vs 11) and it's hard to get a colour scheme-- but a winner is a winner, no matter how you see it!

Princess and Toy Story puzzles are a favourite right now!.

 One girl can complete all our puzzles independently and is very proud of that fact! Others are learning to use logical thinking skills to match pictures on the pieces or to guess what part of the puzzle each piece belongs to.

Some were looking for sight words in our weekly literacy poem.

 Some students were playing with wiki stix (they look like pipe cleaners, but are made of wax and stick to paper!). They were hunting for the words "I" and "And" in the Dreidel song we are learning.

The boys were cooking.

 At the restaurant, the boys were busy ordering, cooking, serving and prepping! In this picture, one boy is cutting up the "food" at the table to serve to his patrons.

It spins!?!

 As our snap cube beyblades are boring for some, we are on the hunt for what spins. This juicer at the restaurant makes a fantastic top!

Exploring colours and story concepts.

 After reading some winter stories, a friend is exploring the colours and materials at the art easel to create a snow-woman that resembles herself. Other friends sat by to give input about what was missing (buttons, longer fingers, etc).

A battle is a-brewin'!

 This friend was exploring with geometric pattern blocks and using them to create complex battle grounds for his triangles. The battle ship is strategically creates and the triangle warriors are forming ranks to take the battle ship from the bad guys.

Oh wait... that's my play!

 Guilty as charged-- I was in a heated battle with some friends over who could build the tallest tower with foam blocks. We had to experiment with many bases and patterns to see who could get their tower to be the tallest each time.

Exploring funnels and pouring!

 These friends knew exactly what they were doing as they quickly-- and easily-- made "potions" by stacking funnels in such a way that water poured through the top funnel would filter into the cup below.

Alphabet hunt in the sand.

Several friends enjoyed going on an alphabet hunt with our fresh sand! It was so much fun to dig and search for letters or sounds. One friend called the letters or sounds (i.e. S! or "sssss!") and the other two had to see who could find the letter.


A snapshot of play! All the busy learning certainly made for a fantastic Thursday! Please come back again tomorrow for a post about 20 things to do during the holidays!

Just Playing

My greatest downfall and best strength is my passion that students can learn through play. I truly believe in what I teach, and I like to share this poem with parents every year, as I know that sometimes it can be hard to see how we actually do learn by playing in the classroom. With a well-thought out environment, strategically placed materials and guided interaction, playing is more than just a past-time, but a way of developing new skills that are forever engrained in students minds.

When I think about play, the book "Play" by Stuart Brown always bursts from my head and into my heart. He is a scientist who spent years and years studying the effects of play on everyone from children to adults and from aerospace technicians to serial killers. His results are interesting and often result in some "lightbulb" moments. He does have the first chapter of his book available on his website for those who are interested. 

Just Playing

"When I'm building in the block room,
Please don't say I'm "just playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
About balance and shapes.

When I'm getting all dressed up,
Setting the table, caring for the babies.
Don't get the idea I'm "just playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.

When you see me up to my elbows in paint,
Or standing at an easel, or molding and shaping clay,
Please don't let me hear you say "he's just playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.

I'm expressing myself and being creative.
I may be an artist or an inventor someday.

When you see me sitting in a chair
"Reading" to an imaginary audience,
Please don't laugh and think I'm "just playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.

I may be a teacher someday.

When you see me combing the bushes for bugs,
Or packing my pockets with choice things I find,
Don't pass it off as "just playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.

I may be a scientist someday.

When you see me engrossed in a puzzle,
Or some "plaything" at my school,
Please don't feel the time is wasted in "play"
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.

I'm learning to solve problems and concentrate.
I may be in business someday.

When you see me cooking or tasting foods,
Please don't think that because I enjoy it, it is just "play.
I'm learning to follow directions and see differences.'
I may be a chef someday.

When you see me learning to skip, hop, run and move my body,
Please don't say I'm "just playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning how my body works.
I may be a doctor, nurse or athlete someday.

When you ask me what I've done at school today,
And I say, "I played."
Please don't misunderstand me.
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning to enjoy and be successful in work.
I'm preparing for tomorrow.
Today, I'm a child and my work is play.

- Anita Wadley

A Big Update!

My apologize for the extreme lack of updates. After a week of being quite sick and having lots of visitors, we are back to our regular routines and procedures. As a result of that (and, of course, my camera finally biting the dust), we are ready to head back into this blog!

So as for some classroom updates....

In science we have been doing colour mixing experiments! Last week we experiemented with what happens if we put two coloured waters in seperate cups and use a paper towel to link them to a middle cup. It looked a little like this...

We did yellow in one cup and red in the other... and it made orange!

We took guesses and drew pictures about what we thought might happen and a few friends were right! The colours mixed together and out popped orange.

This week in science we are doing new colour mixing activities. Today Mrs. Saini helped friends to dye pasta. We had to make the colours using primary coloured food dye and tomorrow we will be able to bead with them. At the art easel we used primary colours to create all the colours an artist could need by mixing them just right.


Our newest inquiry has become seasonal holidays. This week we are learning a driedel song and all about Hanukkah. We have read a book and we are learning important vocabulary, such as "menorah" and "driedal". Next week we are all very excited to play a driedel game with pennies and real driedels!




Here, in kindergarten, we know that parents sometimes ask for ideas of what to do over those long (rainy?!) days. Check back Friday night for a post with several ideas of what to do at home with your child.

Creating a Restaurant

What a fantastic day for an inquiry to sweep across the classroom! Some of our parent observers were witnesses to the beginning of an incredibly interesting learning experience.

During our morning inside play a girl asked me to come to the drama centre to see what she had cooked. I went over and saw her soup, but I said she needed a bigger pot (she was supposed to be in the stew, and just didn't fit). One of the boys volunteered to help build a pot, and halfway through said, "Um... can we make a restaurant instead?"

WELL SURE WE CAN!

Quickly other friends joined in and suddenly we had benches being built, patrons seated at a table, tables being set, orders being taken, line cooks working at the stoves and it was into full force. Students were writing down orders, plates were being counted and all around you could hear students shouting, "How do you spell noodles?" with resounding choruses of, "N! It says nnnn!"

Unfortunately inside play was coming to an end, but we decided to save the restaurant that was built and continue on in the afternoon.

In the afternoon I gathered some "planners" and we brainstormed what we knew about how restaurants work.

I almost fell over when someone said "busboy". Such rich vocabulary!

Afterwards, we asked friends if they wanted to create menus. Soon after we had some friends playing in the restaurant, busily taking orders and others creating menus for next time. Here is some of the fantastic work we saw!

Chocolate ice cream!

Ice Tea is only $5!

Popsicles and ice cream for dessert!

Pineapples for those in the mood for citrus.

Tomorrow we will start to add in more resources to support their learning. I can't wait to see what develops next!