Snow

Recently, we did an inquiry about snow (see tab "Our Inquiries"). The children knew many facts about snow and came up with 10 things they would like to learn about snow. One thing they wanted to know is "How to make snow".  Mrs. Gregory shared an experiment that demonstrated how to make snow. This week was perfect, as a requirement was very cold outdoor temperature.

Materials;

• Freshly boiled water
• Really cold outdoor temperature

Here is our snow falling.

Explanation (click on link): How can boiling water turn into snow?

Dance-a-Thon

On Friday, the children participated in the school dance-a-thon. This activity was organized by the Parent Council in order to raise money to buy a projector for our gym. The children had a great time showing us their dance moves.

Our DJ Mr. Slack is talking to the children.

A little twisting

A little running

A little break dancing

Christmas Songs

  

The Kindergarten Children will be performing a French and English song at our Christmas Concert which will be held in the gym on  Wednesday, December 17th from 12:45p.m. to 2:30p.m.. Here are the lyrics to both Christmas songs to practise at home.

Les etoiles dans le ciel

Les étoiles dans le ciel

Brillent, brillent, elles sont belles !

Une à une

Elles s’allument

Pour bien éclairer la lune

Les étoiles dans le ciel

Brillent, brillent, elles sont belles

We wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas (Sign Language for Merry Christmas),
We wish you a Merry Christmas (Sign Language for Merry Christmas),
We wish you a Merry Christmas (Sign Language for Merry Christmas),
And a Happy New Year.

Let’s all do a little smiling (smile),
Let’s all do a little smiling (smile),
Let’s all do a little smiling (smile),
And spread Christmas cheer (raise arms and make sprinkling action with fingers)

Let’s all do a little clapping (clap),
Let’s all do a little clapping(clap),
Let’s all do a little clapping (clap)
And spread Christmas cheer (raise arms and make sprinkling action with fingers)

Let’s all do a little praying (put hands together),
Let’s all do a little praying (put hands together),
Let’s all do a little praying (put hands together)
And spread Christmas cheer (raise arms and make sprinkling action with fingers) 

Let’s all do a little waving (wave),
Let’s all do a little waving (wave),
Let’s all do a little waving (wave),
And spread Christmas cheer (raise arms and make sprinkling action with fingers)

We wish you a Merry Christmas (Sign Language for Merry Christmas),
We wish you a Merry Christmas (Sign Language for Merry Christmas),
We wish you a Merry Christmas (Sign Language for Merry Christmas),
And a Happy New Year.

Crystal Garden

In class, the children had the opportunity to observe the formation of a Crystal Garden that we made using a kit of special rocks. The instructions on the package said to cover the rocks with vinegar and after two weeks, crystals should form over the rocks. Here are our observations about our Crystal Garden:

November 5th, 2014

Looks like rocks.

November 10th, 2014

- Some of it is gone. The vinegar has evaporated.
- The liquid got darker.
- There are crystals in green, blue and yellow containers.

November 12th, 2014

- Green water (vinegar) already gone. It's dirty.
- Yellow turned into orange.
- Purple- Water is still there.
- It's like a spider web (blue).
- It's all crumbly.


Two weeks later, the children were invited to observe the crystals with their sense.

November 

Je vois (sight)...

- Triangle (Evallie)
- Diamond (Brandon)
- Octagon (Savera)
- Looks like a bird (Folu)
- Square (Rose)
- Crystal (Ivy)
- Pink, blue (Isidore)

Je touche (touch)...

- Hard (Brandon)
- Squishy (Evallie)
- Salty (Folu)
- Rocks (Savera)
- Hard (Rose)
- Rocks (Ivy)
- Spikes (Isidore)

Je sens (smell)...

- Smells like colours (Evallie)
- Yucky (Rose)
- Poop (Savera)
- Smells bad (Ivy)
- Ketchup (Mahmoud)
- Dirt (Isidore)

Je goûte (taste)... (We explained to the children that we would not taste the experiment as we do not know if it is safe.)

J"entends (hearing)...

- Crabs (Isidore)
- Nothing (Ivy)
- Sand (Evallie)
- Wind (Rose)
- Toys (Savera)

Healthy Eating

Last week, we had the visit of the Public Health Nurse. We invited her to talk to the children about healthy eating. Here are a few classroom activities that helped children learn more about healthy eating and healthy dental hygiene:

The Public Health Nurse talked about the importance of 

brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing once a day. 

In this activity, we had the children practise subitizing with

a dice.

After reading the story of "The Foolish Old Lady" who only ate

 junk food, the children helped her make better choices 

by choosing food low in sugar, fat and salt.

The children looked at x-rays of teeth.

Science Inquiries

Some of our little friends brought interesting things from our outdoor environment. Noah collected some leaves in our school yard. The children looked at his leaves and made the following observations with some prompting questions:

What can you observe about the leaves?

- They are yellow, red, orange, purple, green.

Why are they different colours?

- Mrs. Gregory explained that leaves already have fall colours, but it is the green chlorophyll that makes the leaves green as it provides food for the trees in the summer. In the fall, when they stop making food, leaves show their real colours because the chlorophyll is gone. Trees go into a type of hibernation during winter. They feed from their sap reserve like bears feed from their fat reserve.

What is happening to the leaves?

- They are dying because they can't drink.

Why do leaves fall during autumn?

- They fall before winter to protect themselves. They hibernate.


Rose brought a few items at school. She had a big leaf.  Here are some observations:

- It is bigger than Noah's leaf.

How much bigger?

Colin, Giuliana and Preston wanted to measure Rose and Noah's leaves for comparison.

Preston wanted to measure the leaves with grass.

Giuliana wanted to measure the perimeter of the stems.

Colin wanted to measure with Popsicle sticks,

All three concluded that Rose's leaf is bigger than Noah's leaf.

Is it a maple leaf? Yes or No.

We did a survey and most of the children voted yes that Rose leaf was a maple leaf.

Rose also brought a long floral object. Roberto wanted to measure its length with Popsicle sticks.

Noah collected another leaf and measure its steam.

Ivy, Mahmoud, Ibrahim, Noah, Evallie, and Alessio collected real leaves and matched them with the picture that was closest in similarities.

We also looked at Rose rock and Evallie rocks and leaves and tried to identify their shapes.

Rose's rock:
Shape like a triangle (Rose)
Evallie`s rocks:
1. Shape like a circle (Ivy, Ava), a sphere (Kaitlyn).
2. Shape like an hexagon (Giuliana).
3. Shape like a pyramid (Giluliana). We counted the sides and decided it looks more like a pentagon.
 4. Shape like a triangle  (Ayvah).
5. Shape like ovals (Preston).

Rose, Evallie and I looked on the iPad to try to identify flowers.  We searched for Canadian Wild flowers and compared their flowers to pictures on the iPad. We found out that Rose flower is a red clover.  Evallie's purple flower is called a turfed vetch and her other flower a black eyed susan.

Here are pictures of those flowers found on the iPad:

Red Clover

Turfed Vetch

Black Eyed Susan

Evallie brought in another wild flower. The leaves and the purple flower helped us identified it as a purple violet. 

Purple Violet

Trick or Treat

This week, the children chose a name for our new classroom pet.  The children voted for their favourite name from a list of names they chose themselves. "Trick or Treat" is the name that got the most votes. 

Trick or Treat is swimming in his new home.

Names suggested by the children.

Trick or Treat is taking a nap.