KA Continues to Investigate Flight & A Special Visitor

Some of the KAs are continuing to be interested in airplanes and flight.  I am amazed at the vocabulary students are using based on our research in their creations.  I hear words such as propeller, rudder, wings, landing gear, etc.  It's a true testament to the importance of using specialized language and "fancy words" with young children.  Below children used a variety of tools to construct airplanes and described them in detail to me.

A big part of inquiry is learning together - teacher with students.  This certainly was the case with Captain Dave - a retired pilot of Air Canada - came to visit us.  I frantically documented what he shared and tried to capture the children's questions and comments for our documentation board.   The kinders worked to brainstorm and write questions ahead of time which I sent on to Captain Dave.  He did science demonstrations, brought a model of the plane he flew, brought pictures of his plane (inside and out!) and photos of his travels as a pilot, and brought video of his last landing before he retired.  He did more than teach us about planes and flights - he made the message clear that dreams can come true.  I can't even put into words how engaged the children were, what a magical experience it was, and the impact his sharing made on all of us.  A special thanks to Mr. Farnworth who heard that we were looking for a pilot and connected us.

Below, we tried on Captain Dave's headset and Captain Dave was surprised by a spontaneous sneak-attack hug.  O.H. put on the headphones and immediately said "Hello, this is your captain speaking!".  Captain Dave is sure we have at least a few pilots in our room and was surprised by the knowledge the children already had, too.

KB's Interest in Living Things & Nature

There is nothing more enriching for programming than carefully listening to children's interests outdoors and supporting them in the classroom.  Each of our mornings at the park informs the decisions we make in the classroom around next activities, providing information to students or allowing them to research, and giving us a common experience to work from.

Below was a challenge for students to use various materials to create and observe their own rivers.   They learned the importance of banks to keep the water in, communicated their findings with classmates, and collaborated in groups together.  This learning also lead us to understand the concept of absorption could be visited in the future.

I've been thrilled to see that children are bringing things into the classroom.  That's exactly what we would hope for if we have students who are engaged and see themselves as co-constructors in our room.  This is called emergent curriculum where the interests and fascinations of children are woven into the curriculum.  Below we explore snails and tadpoles, research about their habitats and what they eat, and construct sculptures of their life cycle.

We have started to do some nature hunts on our park walks.  When we bring the nature items back into the classroom, we measure, count, sort, discuss, and wonder.  I provoked some art thinking by discussing the idea of a mandala (essentially intricate art in a circle) and showed some examples.  Many students created their own mandalas and outside the next day, a big group worked together on a large mandala.

We have been carefully observing the children in the forest to try to find out what the interest is to them and we have many theories which will lead us into further activities.  Stay tuned!!

KA Explores Flight

An interest has been growing in KA for a month now around airplanes.  It began with a student who brought in a mini airport with the intention of adding it to Madgascar.  This inspired some of the children to begin to make paper airplanes and since Miss Heffernan is certainly not a paper airplane expert, we consulted an online tutorial.

Mr. Farnworth's class caught wind that we were interested in airplanes and 3 of his students created and kept track of 170 airplanes for KA!

We began by exploring how far they flew using our measurement words and observation skills.  We noticed elements of the airplane that helped it to fly.

Miss Rowe (our student teacher from Nippissing) created centres where students were invited to build  an airplane out of blocks and another where students could sketch airplanes using books.  We were thrilled by how engaged the children were and also about the flight vocabulary that was being used.

Mrs. McGirr heard we were looking for a pilot and has a neighbour who is going to come in to share with us.  We drew and wrote our questions for him and compiled them into a big list.

After reading a story about a bear exploring clouds in the sky, we went out for a cloud wonder walk and found many shapes and creatures within the clouds.

KA April Update

Thank you for being patient as we got a little behind in updating the blog.  I am including in the post today pictures from our Scientist in the Classroom activity and also some photos from our Madagascar Party.

We explored Backyard Bugs with Scientist Barbara and rotated through some hands-on centres including recording observations, exploring camouflage, creating our own clay bug, and investigating features of bugs.
Take a look below at Scientists:

I can't say enough about the warm fuzzy feelings I had after the Madagascar Party.  Knowing that we are working with a group of parents who stopped everything to come and look at our "creative cardboard" and who saw the richness of the learning through the documentation and details was inspiring.  Take a look at the day through my eyes below:

Stay tuned for more on our next inquiry which has already enthusiastically begun!