Here are the children's finished flower paintings.  They are currently displayed around our classroom... I will be sad to send them home!  They look so beautiful all together and give us a hopeful sense that spring is around the corner (since the weather is really not doing this!) 
 
Wow, what a fantastic field visit we had at the Muttart!  Thank you so much to our parent (and grandparent) volunteers who were able to join us.  Jenn and I really appreciated your help, especially since the Muttart was very busy, with people lining up to see the Putrella flower. 

During our field visit, Matt (our great leader for the day) told us the following tid-bits of information about ladybugs:
  • Ladybugs are insects (they have 6 legs, 2 antennas, a head, thorax, and abdomen).
  • Ladybugs can be different colours - in Canada we have 400 different kinds of ladybugs.
  • The number of spots don't tell us how old they are or if they are male or female. 
  • They are often referred to as "gardener's helpers" because they eat aphids.
  • They smell through their feet.


We then went to visit our first pyramid (the arid climate) where we talked about plant adaptations.  Using our sense of touch, we described how different objects felt, and related this information to plants.  For example, a cactus is "pokey" and "sharp" to protect it from getting eaten.  We saw a felt bush plant which is "soft" and "fuzzy".  At first the children thought this was also so it would not get eaten, but Matt informed us the fuzz helps keep the plant cool.  Lastly, we got to feel a jelly bean plant which had a waxy coating.  We learned that this helped the plant retain it's water (fight evaporation).  Matt squeezed the leaf and we counted how many drops of water came out - Morning Class: 10 drops, Afternoon Class: 17 drops! 

Our next stop was the feature pyramid where we learned about the roll bumble bees play: pollenating plants.  We learned that bumble bees and ladybugs have compound vision to help them find flowers.  We got to try on cool goggles that gave us compound vision and explored the pyramid with these on.

Next we visited the temperate pyramid which is similar to our climate.  Here we discussed the seasons:
Matt: "Summer turns to fall, then fall turns to winter, and then winter..."
Luka: "Winter turns to Christmas!"
Matt then informed us that ladybugs hibernate during the winter, so spring is a time when they come out to look for a home.  The children were then each given a ladybug in a container and were told to find it a home in the pyramid and release it.  The children each named their ladybug prior to finding it a home...

Morning Class Ladybug Names
  • Abd-ElRahman - Legrick
  • Amelie - Allison
  • Augustus - Spottsy
  • Finn - Buggy
  • Gabriella - Gabriella
  • Jasper - Climb-Climb
  • Kobe - Kenyon
  • Leia - Princess Leia
  • Luka - Black
  • Megan - Pinky
  • Nathan - Sebastian
  • Rayyan - Ladybuggy
  • Tobias - Spider


Afternoon Class Ladybug Names
  • Anna - Holly
  • Avery - Jill
  • Aroh - Jeriton
  • Cooper - Ladybug Finn
  • Dorine - Little Cute Baby
  • Elisha -Ladybuggy
  • Finn - Howard
  • Jesse - Cuckoo Head
  • Kinan - Howie
  • Lowyn - Unicorn
  • Seth - Goodsat


Lastly, we visited the tropical pyramid to see the putrella flower and talk about plants that grow foods we eat.  We saw a banana plant with small bananas growing on it, a small pineapple, a coffee plant (or tree, we aren't sure), and a cinnamon tree.  We learned that the putrella is very stinky to attract bugs to it, but it wasn't very stinky by the time we saw it.  Here's a little conversation between the children:
Avery: "We can't eat the stinky flower."
Kinan: "No, I already ate in the car."

Morning Class

Afternoon Class

 
Welcome to Aisling, who has joined our afternoon class! 
 
Thank you to Gabriella's family who washed our paint shirts, mittens, and cleaning cloths over the weekend! 
 
Here are the children's fabulous self-portraits for the month of April.  Enjoy :)
 
The children have been creating some fantastic structures using the blocks and manipulatives.  Here are some photos of their creations over the past couple of weeks. 
 
Wow!  We collected so much food for the Campus Food Bank!  Thank you so much for your generous donations, for allowing us to use your wagons and carts on our delivery day, and for the parents who were able to stay and help with the food delivery.  As the children pushed their carts/pulled their wagons across campus I felt overwhelmed with pride!  The food bank was very excited when we arrived with our large food delivery.

Here is a link to the Campus Food Bank website: http://campusfoodbank.com 

I hope you enjoy the photos! 

Morning Class Photos

Morning Class Reflections

"What was your favourite part of delivering food today?  How did it make your feel?"

Abd-ElRahman - I liked helping them.
Amelie - I liked pushing the cart.
Finn - I liked pulling the carts.
Jasper - I liked walking to the food bank.
Leia - I liked pushing the carts.  It was so bumpy.
Luka - I liked giving the food.
Megan - I liked pulling the wagon with Amelie.  It made me happy.
Nathan - I liked giving the food for them.
Tobias - I liked pushing the carts. 

Afternoon Class Photos

Afternoon Class Reflections

"What was your favourite part of delivering food to the food bank?  How did it make your feel?"

Anna - I liked it when I was pushing the cart.
Avery - I liked pushing the cart.
Cooper - I felt good.
Dorine - Pushing the wagon felt good.
Elisha - hen I was helping Dorine pull the wagon it was good.
Jesse - I liked carrying the adventure backpack.
Kinan - I liked laughing with Aroh and Talha.
Lowyn - I felt happy by pushing the stroller.
Samantha - I liked that day.
Seth - I liked pushing the food with bumping peanut butter with Mommy. 
 
The wonderful librarians at the HT Coutts Library invited us back for a spring read-in.  They even ordered a children's carpet so we had something to sit on when we came :)  

The children love going to the "Big Kids' Library" for story time.  I have signed out the books the librarians read to us so please feel free to read them with your child at drop off time.  Unfortunately these books cannot be brou
 
Yesterday, the morning class was invited to attend a performance of the Malawian folktale, The Singing Chameleon.  The performance was put on by an undergraduate music and movement class.  The afternoon class then watched the performance on our SMART Board during class time.   

This was a fantastic opportunity for the children to see the possibilities of story acting - something we have been working on over the year.  Our story acting is very basic (the children acting out the characters in their peers' told stories); whereas in The Singing Chameleon the students had created costumes, a set, and used instruments for both sound effects and to accompany the song within the folktale. 
 
Picture
We had a great (and quick!) visit to 4Cats Art Studio on Monday.  The children created their own flower paintings, inspired by Van Gogh's sunflower work.  A big thank you to our parent volunteers who were able to come help on this trip!!   

The children first drew a table, vase, and then flowers on their canvases.  Then they chose the colours they wanted to use and carefully painted their drawings.  Lastly, dots and dashes were added to the backgrounds to create a textured look.  


At school we will extend their learning by examining sunflowers, reading books about the life cycle of these flowers, and sketching the flowers in our room.  Again, we will display their paintings in our room for a few weeks before they are sent home.  I will post photos of their finished work within a few days :) 

Morning Class Photos

Afternoon Class Photos