At the Farm

Our count down is finally over! Last Wednesday, was our visit at Valleyview Little Animal Farm.  The children were very excited to see the farm animals and to spend a day outside playing.  On our way to the farm, we looked though the bus windows and noticed the changes in our surrounding.  Previously, we asked the children to describe what they could see in a city by looking at pictures of the city of Ottawa.  Now, we wanted the children to tell us what they could see outside our suburbs, for example more of a country setting.  At the farm the children did many fun activities.  Here are pictures of what they did:

Taking the bus to the farm.

Riding the train.

Feeding small goats.

Feeding big goats.

Petting animals.

Watching a video about Valleyview Little Animals Farm

Playing on the tractor.

Playing on the tire swing.

Having fun on the many play structures.

When we got back to class, we asked the children to name animals they had seen at the farm in French.  Here is our list:

J'ai vu...
des chèvres (boucs)
un cochon
des perroquets
des poules
un coq
des canards
des chevaux
un lapin
des chevreuils
des faons
des paons
des moutons

We did not see any "chat, chien".


We had the children compared city land and country land.  By comparing their city to the country, we want the children to "develop an awareness of ways in which people adapts to the places in which they live" (The Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten Program expectation). 

City	Country
Transportation: buses, subway, cars, airplanes, trains	Transportation: cars, trains
More people live in a city.	Less people live in the country.
Tall buildings, skyscrapers, shopping malls	Stores
Many houses everywhere (suburbs)	Lots of fields, less houses
Walk on sidewalks	Walk on gravel along the pavement or walker`s path along the pavement
Houses include: Single home, townhouse, apartment building	Single homes
Dogs and cats inside	Farm animals outside

 Giuliana mentioned that she was born in Ottawa.  We asked the children in there was anyone born in another country than Canada.  we have a few of our friends outside our country.

Folu - Nigeria

Ella - Kuwait

Ivy - China

Tammy - Israel

This week, we will look at pictures of those countries to compare with our country Canada.

Making Connections

This week, we had the children making connections to their Duplo constructions. First, they had to write phonetically the name of their construction.  Then we asked questions to help them make connections.

Ben did a dragon.  When asked where he had seen a dragon he answered "in a book".  Then, I asked him what he knew about dragons. He said: "They throw fire through their mouth. They fly. They have tails."

Ben wrote phonetically "Dragon"

Brandon did a "flying guy".  We talked about where he could have seen a "flying guy".  Then I mentioned that Super Heroes can fly and asked if he could name me one.  He answered "Superman".

 

Brandon wrote phonetically "Fling gi" - Flying Guy

Ivy made a flying car.

Anthony made a flying airplane. He said: "I saw an airplane".





Mahmoud did a car. He said: "I saw one at home. My dad has 3 cars."

We took pictures of some of the children`s constructions with Duplo blocks.  Here are their connections;

Ben wrote that it was a dinosaur. He can name dinosaurs: T-Rex, swimming dinosaur and triceratops. He can describe the T-Rex: Big teeth

Brandon - A flying car. It is called Angry Bird.

Colin and Ben-  Lazy Bee. It looks like a bee and it is lazy (Colin).  It reminds me of a bee. I saw a bee in the front yard (Ben)

Sean - Dinosaur. I saw a movie. A T-Rex has big teeth, a triceratops has horns. I saw a swimming dinosaur.

Preston - Moustache. I drew one and Fouad wrote it.

Ben - Shooting car. I saw one in a video to fight bad guys.

Jackson - Dinosaur - A T-Rex. It is strong.

The Three Billy Goats

The children got to listen to two different versions of the story the Three Billy Goats: The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Billy Goats Fluff.  Thank you Ava for sharing this last version of the story. We asked the children what was similar and different between the two stories.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff	The Three Billy goats Fluff
Similar
Setting:  On a bridge in the mountain
Different
Title: Gruff	Title: Fluff
Characters: 3 goats	Characters: 3 goats and a mom
Problem:  Goats want to cross the bridge.	Problem: The goats were making too much noise crossing the bridge and it kept waking up the troll.
Solution: The Big Goat knocked the troll off the bridge.	Solution: The mom`s goats made them booties to be quiet.

 

We asked the children what ending they preferred.  Twenty said the The Three Billy Goats Fluff.  Alessa said "Ìt was a good idea to make the booties."  The goats were able to cross the bridge quietly without disturbing the troll who lived under the bridge. We brought attention to the fact that no one was hurt in this story.   Five students preferred The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  Sean said "I like wrestling and I like to push people." Kaitlyn said "I like when the goat said: Wait for my brother." Arman said "I like the big horns." In this story, the big Billy Goat Gruff push the troll off the bridge.

 

 

 

Here are Colin and Ava doing a retell of the story The three Billy Goats Gruff:

 

 

 

Here is Ava`s retell of the story (sorry I could not get the video directly on the blog. You can click on the following link to view this amazing retell. Ava is very good at adapting her voice tone for each character of the story)

 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff 

 

Paper Sculptures

We introduced the children to the art work of a Georgia artist, Kevin Cole, who is inspired by ties. For Father's Day, we had the children create their own paper sculpture using paper ties.

We asked the children to name an occasion when their dad wears a tie (June 2nd):

- To be handsome (Ella).
- To get married (Ben).
- When you go hunting (Preston).
- To go to work (Ben).
- When you go to a birthday (kaitlyn).
- To go to church (Ben).
- When you go to school (Tianna).
- Mr. Slack (Ben).
- When it's Valentine Day (Ella).
- When it's my birthday, my daddy will wear a tie (Giluliana G.).
- You have to wear a nice bow tie when you go to someone's nice baby shower (Giuliana M.).

Here is a tie paper sculpture made by Folu.

Brandon's Learning



The children were asked to draw a picture of a living thing.  Brandon came to me and showed a picture.  He proudly said: "Look Mme Maklin, I did spots".   The" spots" were divided on each of the 4 corners of an X. Then I told him that he should have his friends estimate which side had the most.  We put his drawing on a chart paper to allow his friends to make a check mark where they thought there was the most "spots".  Brandon spent all morning inviting his friends to come and do his activity.  Then he got to present his results with the class. We counted the spots with Brandon and he wrote the numbers. WELL DONE BRANDON!

 

Alessio and Brandon built a very tall structure using blocks. I asked them how many levels it had.  They answered 6.  When asked what it was Alessio said it was a tower.  I asked the name of the tower and Brandon named it Angry Bird. The boys wrote down the name of their tower. We compared the tower height to them and to myself.

 

 

The tower is taller than Alessio and Brandon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tower is almost as tall as Mme Maklin.

 



Alessio took a picture of me in front of the tower.

 

Mystery Insect (Jackson)

During recess on Tuesday, Sean saw a big insect and showed it to Jackson who then showed it to me.  We decided to take a picture of the insect to try to identify it, as we had no clue what it was?  The insect, however, kept flying away.  Finally, it landed on Mrs. Disipio who was visiting our class.  She was quite courageous when asked not to move, even when the insect started to move toward her neck.  We got our picture and started our inquiry 2 days later.  Before we showed the picture of Jackson and Sean's insect to the class, we had the children naming insects that they knew.  Two students named a dog and a rat. We also added those name to the list to help the children differentiate between insects and animals.  We started by comparing the rat to our insect.

 

Here is our comparison:

Insect	Rat and dog
small	big
6 legs	4 legs
antennas	ears
wings	tail
	whiskers

We eliminated the rat and dog from our list as we concluded that they were not insects.  We continued the activity by comparing each insect from our list to the mystery insect using an iPad and a computer.  Here are the insect that we eliminated including the reason.

Bumblebee - It is yellow and black (Ella).
Butterfly - Its wings are big and colorful (Sean).
Beetle - We thought it might be a bettle as they had many of the same characteristics. We decided to look at the other insects and come back to this one.
Ant - The antennas are small (Brandon).
Ladybug -  6 coconuts (Aiden),  it has polka dots (Christina),  it is round (Jackson),  it is red (Arman).
Spider - It has 8 eyes and 8 legs (James).
Tarantula - It is not an insect (Tianna).
Grasshopper - It hops (Sean),  2 long legs in the back (Joanna-Lee).
Fly - It has wings (Alessio).  We explained to the children that the mystery insect also had wings but we could not see them.
Mosquito -  It has wings (Alessa).
Dragonfly - It has long legs (Alessa).

We decided to look at other pictures of beetles.  We searched in Google for images of "black beetle with long antennas".  Some of the beetles looked identical to our insect.  Here is one beetle that looked quite like our mystery insect.  You can make your own comparison with our insect.

Mystery Insect

Image of a beetle found on Google.

We voted and 18 of us believe that our mystery insect is a beetle because both insects are black, have long antennas, 6 legs, a small head and an oval body.

Float (Mahmoud)

Last week, Mahmoud found a piece of bark in our school yard.  Previously, we had tried to make wood chips float in a water puddle, but because it had rained, it did not float.  In continuing the investigation,  I asked Mahmoud if his piece of wood would float in water.  He answered that yes it would float.  We encouraged him to ask his friends if they thought the piece of bark would float or not.  We had the children write the popcorn words "yes" and "no" to indicate their prediction.

Mahmoud counted 14 "yes" and 3 "no".  He concluded that there was more "yes" than "no".  More friends thought the bark was going to float.

Mahmoud poured water in the container and placed the bark in it.  It floated.  Alessa and Tammy had also brought pieces of bark from outside and got to place their wood in the container.  We observed the bark floating.  We told the children that we would leave the bark in the water and do more observations on another day.


After a few days, we asked the children what happened to the bark.

 

Here are their observations:

Some pieces are floating and others are not. Sean

The bark is making the water change color.

It is brown. (Why?) Because the bark is brown. Giuliana G.

Because the bark is dirty and it is being wash by the water. Ella

The bark is soaking up the water. Sean

(How can you tell?)

Because some of the bark is in the water. Sean

(Why do you think some pieces of bark do not float?)

Some are heavy, some stayed light. Ben

(Why some pieces of bark are heavy?)

We left them overnight. Tianna

Maybe water got in. Giuliana G.

The water was hard. Antonio

Maybe the water went toward the big pieces. Kaitlyn

On YouTube, I saw that when the water is lower, it floats. I saw on Wild Kratts some lizards walk on water. Sean

We concluded that the wood absorbed the water and made the bark heavier and it sank to the bottom.


We decided to extend Mahmoud`s activity by adding more objects.  In this activity, the children got to place objects in the water and then put its picture in the bowl indicated by "yes" or "no" to answer the question "Est-ce que je flotte?"

 

 

Prayer Tree

Since Spring has brought many flowers and insects, we felt the need to teach the children to respect God`s creations.   We started by reading the story about how God created the world in 7 days to the children.  When outside, they are reminded to honour life by respecting all living things such as flowers, leaves, insects and animals.  The children also helped create a prayer tree, in order to thank God for all his living creations.

God's creation of the world.

Our Prayer Tree

Making Connections

The school year is almost to an end so it is time to start sending home beautiful work of art such as all the flowers and butterflies from our spring bulletin board.  The children did a beautiful blue mural for the sky so we asked if it reminded them of something else.  Ben said “an ocean.”  We put the mural on the floor with coloring crayons and told the children to draw things found in oceans.   Tammy, Giuliana G., Joanna-Lee, Kaitlyn, Alessa and Ben had fun drawing and presenting to the class their pictures. 

Then, we asked the children how they knew that (name of their pictures) could be found in the ocean. The children were able to make connections to a tv show, a movie, to something they had experienced and even to their feelings. Here are those connections as said by the children.

Giuliana G.

Dolphin – I watched it on Wild Kratts.

Mermaid – I saw a mermaid from a show. (Do you know the name of the show?) Net Flix

Sea volcano – I saw it on Wild Kratts.

Crabs – I watched it on Wild Kratts.

Sinking ship - I watched it on Wild Kratts

Ben

Sun – The sun is in the sky, not the ocean

Shark – I saw it on a tv show.

 Alessa

Shell – I just know it.

Sea star – I just know it.

Seaweeds – I went to the beach and I saw seaweeds.

Mermaid – Because Ariel lives in the ocean. (How do you know Ariel lives in the ocean).  I watched the movie “The Little Mermaid.”

Tammy

Mermaid – …in the movie about Ariel.

Dolphin – I see a dolphin living in the ocean about a movie in Wild Kratts.

Seashell - Because they are everywhere in the ocean.

 
Joanna-Lee

Seashell – Jamaica has some.

People – Because in Jamaica I swim there.

Kaitlyn

Seashell – I drew a seashell with lines so the water can go in. I saw shells at the extended day.  We did a craft with them.

Flower  - I also drew a flower because I like flowers.

 

Presentation from Danait



 

 

Yesterday, I met Danait in the hall. I noticed that she had what we called "henna" on her hand however, there was no design.  I had seen henna before on people's hands and feet but it always seems to be accompanied patterns.  I was curious to know the reason why.  I wanted the children to learn about her culture so I invited her to come to our class for a little presentation.   Danait said that she was born in Eritrea and moved to Canada when she was 4 years old.  She showed us Eritrea on our globe.  It is situated above Ethiopia in Africa.  She explained that henna is a powder that women wear on special occasions. She had henna on her hand because on Saturday she had attended a wedding.  She explained that you have to mix the powder with water.  If you let it rest for 30 minutes, you get the color orange, all night you get red and 2 days black.  She said that black is for older women as it is more "ladyish".  It will stay on your hands for 3 weeks and on your nails 1 to 2 months.  In her culture, they don't make intricate patterns but you can see women wearing their henna in circles: one in the palm of their hands and little circles on each finger.

Mistery Skull

A couple of weeks ago, Mrs. Banks found the skull of an animal in her BBQ. She thought it might be the skull of a squirrel. We borrowed it and showed it to the children.  We let them look at it and guess what it was.

 

During circle time, we shared what we thought it was.  Here is our discussion:

What do your think it is?

Joanna-Lee: A dinosaur.
Colin: I think it is a bird bone.
Alessa: A T-Rex.
Tammy: A horse.
Kaitlyn: A dinosaur.
Aiden: T-Rex bone, see head, eyes.
Kaitlyn: A frog.

What kind of bone is it?

Colin: A head.
Ella: A dinosaur head.

It is a bone that is part of a head.  How can we tell it is the bone from a head?

Ella:  Because one time I saw a dinosaur movie and it was the one of a small dinosaur.

Do you know what we call the head bone?

Ella: It is called a skull.

What helps us say it is a skull?

Sean: It got teeth in it.
And it also has holes where were the eyes.

We told the children that Mrs. Banks thought it was the skull of a squirrel that might have gone in the BBQ to stay warm during winter and could not get out.  We told the children that we would look at pictures of skulls to try to determine which animal it belong to.

Yesterday, we decided to have the children look on Mrs. Cole iPad to compare pictures of skulls with our skull. Before we started, we decided to have a discussion to eliminate some of our guesses.

We eliminated the suggestions that it might be a dinosaur skull because dinosaur bone are "found underground (Giuliana M.)" and not in a BBQ. We decided that it was not a horse skull as the "horse is too big to fit in a BBQ (Ella)."  We were uncertain about a bird or a frog as our first thought was that they do not have teeth.  We decided to check that fact and to eliminate them if they do not have teeth. 

James, Sean, Antonio, Joanna-Lee and Mrs. Cole discovered that frog do have teeth but not birds.  Their next step was to look at pictures of a squirrel and frog skulls. They found out that their eye sockets were similar in size but not position in the same place. The skull of a squirrel is rounder than the one of a frog.  Both skulls showed teeth. 

Skull from a frog.

Skull from a squirrel.

Bridges

After reading the story of the Three Billy Goats in both French and English, we made a river and asked the children "Can you help the Billy Goats cross the river?" 

 

 

 Here are bridges that some children built using materials of their choice.

Ella

Anthony

Kaitlyn

Colin

Volume

The children have been exploring materials in our sensory bin, such as rice and water. We had the children explore the characteristics of rice with different sized graduated cylinders.  Then, we had the children observe the characteristics of water with different water tools.  After, we had the children looking at 3 different graduated cylinder of different sizes, but with the same amount of water.  We had the children make observations.  All the children thought that the graduated cylinder #2 had the most water and #3 had the less water.  We explained to the children that all the graduated cylinders had the same amount of water.  After more discussion, we concluded that the graduated cylinder #2 was narrower so the water had to move higher in it and the graduated cylinder #3 was wider so the water occupied more space at the bottom.

 

Later, we put two vases with water at the same level.  We asked the children "Which vase has more water?"  On our observation sheet, they checked vase 1 or 2 and explained "Why?"  Here are their observations:




Colin: #1because it is bigger.
Aiden: #1 because it is bigger.
Christina: #2 because it is taller.
Jackson: #2 because it is taller.
Antonio: #2 because vase #1 is flat.
Alessa: #1 because #2 is smaller.
Tammy: #1 because #1 has more room.
Tianna: #1 because the water in #1 is growing.
Nahisha: #2 because #1 has lesser water.
Alessio: #1 because it is wider.
James: #2 because it has more water at the bottom.
Kaitlyn: #1 because the vase is bigger.

We asked the children how we could measure the amount of water in each vase.  Ben said: "We can take measuring cups." Giuliana M. said: "we can take a big cup with lines and measure how much water and less water there is."

Ben and Giuliana measured the amount of water in each vase and found out that vase #1 had 400ml and vase #3 300ml.  They explained to the class how they came to those results.

Ben's results

Giuliana M.'s results

 

 

Leaf Discovery

Last Friday, Alessa discovered an enormous leaf at home and brought it to school to show us.  We thought it would be interesting to measure the leaf.  We gave Alessa a bag of one centimeter cubes and asked her to measure it.  Giuliana G. offered to help her.  The girls chose to measure the outside (perimeter) of the leaf.  Giuliana counted 82 cubes.  They took a picture of their work and we put it up on the Smart Board.  Giuliana started the presentation by asking the class if they could identify the number she had written down.  She congratulated the friend who had given the answer and then proceeded to show her peers where that number was on our 100 number chart.  I think we might have another teacher in the classroom!

We asked Alessa and Giuliana how many groups of 10 they could make with 82 cubes.  They made 8 groups of 10 cubes and had 2 cubes left. 

 

Today, Alessa brought another enormous leaf to school.  We compared this leaf with the one from Friday.  The leaf from last week had changed a lot in 3 days.  Here are the children observations and their explainations of what might have caused those changes:

- It`s smaller. (Kaitlyn)
- It`s broken. (Ben)
- It`s scribble (It crumpled) in the night. (Tammy)
- It`s old. (Fouad)
- It`s dead because it scrunched up and dry. (Ella)


Why did it die?

- It died because no one was taking care of it. (Ben)
- It died because it is very old. (Fouad)

What does a leaf need to live?

- It needs water to grow. (Giuliana G.)

Why is the new leaf bigger?

- It has more water. (James)

How does a leaf gets water?

- It gets water from the roots. (Giluliana G.)

So we can say that the leaf from Friday could not get water because it was not attached to its tree and therefore died. 

Alessa and Tianna put centimeter cubes around the new leaf.  To help them count how many cubes it took to measure around (perimeter) the leaf, we told them to form groups of 10.  They counted 12 groups of 10 and 4 extra cubes.  We helped Alessa write the amount of cubes "124".

The girls presented their work on the Smart board.