We began the week looking at forces of push and pull with games and toys. We spent our morning in the Hall going to different stations to explore the different forces we used on toys to make them move. We played in water and paint. We played bowling. We saw how far we could roll a toy car and we tried to roll a whiffle ball into the center of a target.
The next day we explored balloons and toys that can go up in the air such as bubbles! The students had a great amount of fun running around the pitch chasing balloons that got caught in the wind and using large bubble wands to make strings of bubbles to chase.
That day was the day I thought we would get very messy making paper mache balloons however it wasn’t nearly as messy as I’d anticipated.
The following day we continued to explore toys and games with a memory game that helped us learn and remember everyone’s name. Then we built towers out of different items (mostly blocks) to see how high we could make them. Later, we made a spiral snake toy from paper. The students thought it was amazing how long it got once it was cut out.
Of course we couldn’t just leave our paper mache balloons plain so we painted them!
In Phonics we’re doing whole-group lessons again practicing our letter formation and letter sounds. We’ll be continuing that this week.
On Friday it was Sports Day. A great time was had by all. Thank you so much to the parents who came out to cheer on their children. It was wonderful getting to spend the morning with you.
That’s all for this week! We’re ready for another exciting week of learning in Week 5. We’ll be wrapping up our Toy Shop unit this week and then it will be half way through the term! How exciting!
Tuesday morning we have a very messy activity planned. It may not be advisable to send your children in their favorite clothes. We’ll be making paper mache. If your child does not have a shirt in their locker change of clothes, please send one as the children may wish to change after this activity.
Well we started the week with a bang! Our trip to the Toy Library was fabulous! In the interests of making this post readable, I will post those photos at the end of the update.
On Tuesday we went fishing! We used a stick and a magnet on a rope to catch a wonderful selection of colorful fish. Once we caught our fish we worked with some math concepts comparing our fish. We saw who had pairs or even more of one kind in their fishing bucket. We counted how many of each type of fish there was and compared more, less, or the same, of each type of fish. We also investigated the relative sizes of the fish.
In PE on Tuesday we continued to play some fish-related games. We played a game called “Fish on the Line” where we pretended we were fishes swimming around the space. Then, when the teacher called “Fish on the Line!” everyone lined up and made a train to swim together. We also played a game called “Fish in the Net” where we had to scramble around the space catching fish (balls) and bringing them back to the net. Finally we learned a dance about sharks with Miss Linky on Youtube.
On Wednesday we learned abut our bodies by dancing to a few songs like the “Hokey Pokey” and “Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes” and moved that into discussing different types of clothing that covered different parts of our bodies. Then we made a fabric collage of an outfit for a picture of ourselves!
On Friday, after our great day off, we looked at different toy packaging and had a little introduction to design where we designed our own package for a toy. Many children wanted to make a box for a toy rabbit.
And, without further ado, here are the photos from our wonderful trip to the Toy Library.
Wow! What a great week we had! Lots of exciting learning surrounding our Toy Shop Unit.
We began the week by making a book detailing our bears’ adventures throughout the school. In Week 1 the students took photos of their bears and we compiled them into small books. The students practiced their emergent writing in the books.
We then received a mysterious package from noneother than The Toymaker Himself! He left of a cryptic note telling us that the best toys are made. So, we created some different toys with found materials. Some people made lightsabers and pirate ships, while others were more open to abstract interpretation.
We also had an exploration of sticks which helped us realize just about anything could be a toy if we tried. We read the book Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis to help guide our learning.
Of course, during all this we’re still working on our phonics and practicing our letter formation.
One day we arrived to find that a little robot The Toymaker had sent to help us keep our classroom tidy had, in fact, done a terrible job. We had to teach it how to tidy up! And then we made some robots of our own using a great math link to 2D shapes and also practicing language around body parts.
Later that day we had a go at programming robots ourselves! We listened to the story Robot Rumpus about a houseful of robots gone amok. We then got out the programmable BeeBots and moved them from room to room in a house we created to do chores. The BeeBots are programmed by simple algorithms – go straight/backwards, turn left/right. The kids had a lot of fun experimenting with those and we’ll certainly be giving them a try again.
The Toymaker never ceases to leave surprises for us. He learned how great we were at creating our own toys and left us the keys to his toy factory! We had a great time in there building and learning. There was some excellent teamwork going on!
Then, when we were least expecting it, Ms. Yujin delivered yet another letter from The Toymaker which had come in the post! This time he had a challenge for us. There were some photos of creations he had made that we had to replicate. What a great time we had practicing our patterning skills and our spacial orientation!
That’s it for this week and we’ve got another great week in store for us in Week 3!
Hello and welcome back! Before I begin, I would like to address library books.
The children have a book folder that they bring home new library books every Friday. The folder does not need to be returned until the following week on Friday at which point they can get new books. I hope this clarifies any confusion about the book bags.
Now I would like to begin by giving a warm welcome to our newest classmate, Cecilia! Our class sure is growing!
Of course since it is a new term, we have begun a new unit. We’re learning about toys – how they’re made, buying and selling, our favorite toys and more! This unit is called My Toy Shop.
We began when a mysterious stranger left us many boxes of toys to open. They left us a letter and signed it The Toymaker! We’ve worked on sorting toys by different attributes such as color, size, shape, and and texture (a definite maths link). We also arranged some toys from biggest to smallest and of course we’ve been counting lots of toys.
We brought our favorite toys from home and worked on describing them. But oh no! they went missing and we had to create missing posters for them. Fortunately they were found and brought back to their rightful owners.
We found some mischievous teddy bears hidden around the class so we had a picnic with them and then they went on an adventure around the school which we photographed. We’ll be making a book about their adventures next week.
In one of our books that we read, Kipper’s Toy Box there was a character called Sock Thing and we made our own Sock Things out of paper bags!
In Phonics we’re working in whole-group this week to review some letter sounds. We’re also working on letter formation to get those fine motor skills going.
We’ve also had lots of creative play. The students are enjoying making little tents and dens with blankets and some clips! They sure got cozy nestled in there.
That’s all for this week! We’ll see you next week. Have a wonderful weekend.
It was wonderful to welcome all your children back to school today.
We have begun our new IEYC unit called My Toy Shop and in keeping with this theme I would like to ask everyone to bring one (1) favourite toy to school tomorrow, Tuesday April 19th.
The toys will stay inside school. They will not be allowed out on the playground at morning break or at lunch break so that we can keep them safe and do our best to ensure they do not get lost. I will mention this to the children today when I tell them about bringing their toys. If you can please emphasize this at home, I would appreciate it.
I can’t wait to see what toys the children have to show us tomorrow!
Well that’s a wrap folks! I can’t believe it’s the end of Term 2.
I am sending your child’s change of clothes home with them today. The weather is changing and everyone is growing so it is probably time to update their spare clothes. Please send a new change of clothes including socks back to school at the beginning of Term 3.
We had lots of great learning happening this week.
We received a letter from Enid the Explorer again and this time we went under the sea to find pieces of her submarine which we fixed and went deep into the ocean with.
Next we took to the skies! We learned about clouds and made cloud art with puffy paint.
In PE we explored different kinds of sky transport through movement such as airplanes, helicopters, and blimps. We did an exercise video that had us working for 30 seconds followed by folding part of a paper airplane. This process was repeated until the airplane was complete. When we were all finished we had lots of fun throwing our airplanes around the Hall.
Next, we explored hot air balloons! We played with regular balloons in the Hall for a while before we made our own hot air balloon craft.
We finished off the unit by drawing a mural of a journey representing everything we saw along the way.
Our small-group phonics practice is going well. The students are really benefiting from having the lessons tailored just to them.
During their play time, the students continued to explore treasure hunting from last week. They enjoyed making treasure maps on aged (tea stained) paper.
Finally today being our last day we made some chocolate chip cookies! The students all ate one for lunch and gave one to their friends in Mrs. Sim’s class. The remainder have gone home in their backpacks.
Have a wonderful holiday. Stay safe. Relax. We’ll see you again in two weeks!
What a busy couple of weeks we’ve had! First I would like to extend a warm welcome to two new classmates: Marcelo and Munryeong. It’s wonderful having new faces in our class.
Week 9 saw us starting a new IEYC unit called “Going Places” which focuses on transportation. We were visited by a stranger named Enid the Explorer who brought us flying carpets. We flew them all around the world, looking down at the ground below, and seeing what we could see. We saw buildings and rivers and of course lots of cars, trains, and busses. Upon landing we explored a fantastical new city and all the transportation it had to offer. When we returned to class we drew or collaged our carpets.
In PE we kept with the theme of transportation and drove cars (scooter boards) around a city. We also did some dance – imagining we were cars, planes, and trains.
We continued looking at different modes of transportation with wheels. We studied what rolls and what does not roll.There was a great maths link there learning about round and flat surfaces of 3D shapes. We tested our different hypotheses regarding what would and wouldn’t roll down a ramp. We used 3D shapes made for maths specifically but also we investigated different objects in the classroom. We also had a grand time rolling cars in paint and printing them on paper.
Next it was time to practice science concepts introducing push and pull. We used various cars and also a makeshift trolley. We read a story about Mr. Gumpy whose car got stuck in the mud and role played that in the Hall. Then we we got messy getting our own cars stuck in the mud!
In Week 10 we continued learning about transportation beginning with busses. We put ourselves into a bus singing our own version of “The Wheels on the Bus”. Then we made 2D shape busses. Also, we drove a bus around the school to various bus stops picking up and dropping off passengers while practicing our counting and simple addition and subtraction
In PE we continued our transportation theme pretending we were bus drivers while playing a version of Four Corners. Then we did some transportation yoga.
It became time to get back on our magic carpets and fly to the beach. It took us so long to get there we didn’t arrive till night time! We explored light and reflection with mirrors, flashlights and colored cellophane – combining them in interesting combinations! We were inspired by the book we read.
Later that day we read another book that takes place at night: Where the Wild Things Are. We compared the two books and decided one could have actually happened whereas one could not. We then made Wild Things masks and danced a wild rumpus!
The next day we read Jack and the Flumflum tree and took a boat to the island of Blowyernose and picked fruit from the tree for granny to help her get better. Later, we made our own boats!
Finally we were off to yet another island. This one tropical and with hidden treasure. We found a river and filled it with animals. We made palm tree stacks. And much to the children’s delight, we went on a treasure hunt (the treasure was lollipops!)
Much to my delight the students have begun exploring our new literacy centre during their free play time. They are engaging in exciting role play writing and using some of the activities such as the initial sounds clipper cards.
They are also demonstrating so many concepts that we’ve covered in class in their play such as patterning when they’re playing with play dough or measuring size. It’s amazing how much learning children do through play.
That’s all for now! Enjoy this last week of school for the term!
Hello! Just a quick update this week since we were doing online learning for most of the week.
It was so great having everyone participate actively in our activities. My favorite activity was making the slime. Did you like that? It was neat finding out that Planet Moonbeam was a Slime Planet!!
Doing small-group phonics worked even better than I expected so thank you students and parents for that! We will be beginning small-group phonics in class from next week. This way everyone will be learning at the right speed for them. You may have 1:1 lessons with Ms. M or you may be in a group with a couple of friends. I’m very excited to get this started!
When we came back today we made our own Moonbeam alien! I hope you love him or her and introduce them to your family. We also finished making our space museum. The Mrs. Sim’s class loved looking at it today and I know the other classes are excited to stop by and see what we made when they come back on Monday.
From Monday we’ll be starting a new IEYC unit called Going Places. It’s all about transportation. I sure am excited! This unit will take us through till the end of the term.
Enjoy the beautiful weather today and tomorrow. I hear it’s supposed to rain on Sunday so get out in the spring sunshine while you can!
