Thursday, 24 October 2013

"Make Your Mark and See Where It Takes You"

Last week we were focusing on creativity and self esteem, the author Peter H Reynolds guided us through these learning experiences. The first book we read aloud was "The Dot" a story that fosters ones self confidence and encourages creative thinking through artistic representation.
 
Following the story each child had an opportunity to draw their own dot picture using pastels. Each picture was so unique and demonstrated the children's creative and meaningful connections to the story.
 



 
The next book read aloud was related to "The Dot" book but by another author called "Ten Black Dots." It makes several different pictures of daily objects out of dots. The book further encourages making connections and using ones imagination.

The children each designed a picture using various amounts of black dots. Together we made each page into our own "Ten Black Dots" book. It was inspiring to see all of the open ended things you can do with ten black dots. The children additional wrote a sentence to coincide with their picture.





 




 


As a class we read aloud the books we created together and each child was glowing with a sense of pride and accomplishment as their art pieces were shared.
To further stimulate the children's creativity we read "Ish" another story which encourages ones self esteem relating to their artistic ability. We introduced water colour paints for the children to explore visual arts. The paintings encouraged the children to communicate their ideas through an art form.
 
 
“Sky Color” was the final book we read this week to summarize the creative learning experience. The book encouraged the children to express themselves and their visual art representations by making connections to the text and their own experiences.

 
 
The children were able to display a deep awareness of themselves as artists through various engaging activities in visual arts.
 

Hands of Heritage

 
We are starting to discuss various countries and places around the world. We began by discussing in a community circle the places we have visited in the world. To scaffold this experience, we read the story "Gifts" By Barbra Reid, it took us on a traveling journey of places around the world. The children were making connections to their family and personal experiences.
I wanted to take the time to ask your family what your heritage is.
 It would be greatly appreciated if you could write back a short message about your heritage and or the countries your family associates with. It is our goal to celebrate each individual’s diversity. Further, it is a great opportunity for everyone to learn a bit more about their peers.
I look forward to hearing from you and expanding upon this in class.
Thank you in advance :)

November Calendar


Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch was an amazing and fun learning experience for all of the children. In the morning two buses arrived to bring all the Kindergarten's to a farm in Manotick. After the long and eventful bus ride we arrived at the farm!


 
 
 



The Miller family and their dogs enthusiastically greeted us, sharing the plan for the morning. We then went by class on a tracker ride; we had the full farm experience sitting on hay in a wagon behind a large tracker. We drove through the mud and saw many wonderful sites. We were dropped into the pumpkin patch and observed all different sizes and shapes of pumpkins. Children were thrilled to explore the pumpkin patch. They even noticed other fields with other crops. Each child chose a pumpkin and a gourd.
 
 


 


 


 



 



Then we got to go on another tracker ride back to the farm house for story time. Mrs. Miller shared some stories while we all had a fresh apple snack from the farm. The trip came to an end with loading back onto the bus and headed back to school. The children had an amazing time and shared all of their adventures with their peers on the bus ride back.