It was very warm this afternoon, which brought a surprise on the playground where a group were sweeping up piles of leaves and wood chips that had been buried under snow. Look… our first crawling bug of the season. A firebug!
A student wearing blue clothes and black rubber boots stands in diffuse sunlight in the playground, looking at his long shadow and the rock he tossed on the ground. Tree shadows crisscross his shape.
FI: My shadow is bigger because I’m a giant and the rock is small.
Today, our “write the room” time reminded us of our earlier challenge to make grocery shopping lists.
Friends using flyers from various stores showed us what they know about text: reading letters, numbers, words and other symbols (like dollar signs) to understand messages.
Read the world, friends!
Some students from K1 asked if there were “baby ducks” here too. It got us wondering if these ducks would have ducklings here.
CS and HC shared their wonders about the ducks, too. They asked if we could find out when we went back in to class. Research is a skill we’re working on. Let’s find out!
A group of students watched the ducks, and noticed some of what they were doing. It lead to questions and wonders… we didn’t capture all the questions but here PS saw their tongue, and noticed that ducks can put their heads under water for a long while.
We headed outside this morning for our outdoor time, and found a surprise in the big puddle by the soccer net - a pair of ducks! We tiptoed past them and they didn’t fly away.
Some good talk among friends while we explored the snow colours.
Colour experiments on the snow. We used the refreshed marker water for our salty snowflakes last week, but the colours were so rich, we couldn’t just throw them out.
A little colour on this grey day 🌈
A student sitting at a table with his duplo block creation, the word MEEHAH in primary colours.
Today, LS showed us how to make letter shapes and words with other materials in the classroom. Here’s his letters which he noticed spelled “MEEHAH” when he put them all together.
Whiteboard with six human figures created out of colourful magnet shapes.
PS & ML asked for a photo so they could share their creation.
M: We made this. It’s us. We were going on a road trip with our families.
P: We’re holding suitcases and skateboards.
Triangular magnatiles shaped into a large sun with pointy rays.
Meanwhile, MS created the sun inside with many triangles.
Collage of photos shows students using brightly coloured plastic shapes on the glass plate of an overhead projector, projecting on a whiteboard.
More light, colour and shadow exploration today as the bright sun illuminates the world around us. Today, a group explored layers of colours with a variety of materials on the overhead projector. They noticed how some layers were too dark to show as colour, instead making shadow shapes.
Students in snowsuits hold a log that they just managed to free from where it had been stuck beneath a fence.
As often happens in K, we had another moment of “We did it!” joy when a group of friends found something interesting, created a challenge, & met their goal. They freed a log that was stuck firmly under our fence. Outdoors exploration provides opportunities for testing skills, limits & perseverance.
Outdoor adventures this morning - exploring around the trees gave us fir cones, cicada exuviae (shed exoskeleton), tracks in the snow and crunchy ice.
Collage shows photos of students building and standing in a fort made of tall, dry grass and flower stems stuck in snow.
A spontaneous cooperative building game outside today - we made a fort!
Student holds a pointer as he points and sings the song on chart paper. The top of the song is cropped. The visible text reads: “She wants you to sing along. This better sings B songs. She sings b songs all day long. With a “bick back baddy back" Sing her insect song. She wants you to sing along. Z.”
Our song for the week, “The Letter Ladybug,” was inspired by rhyming name games we played last week. Here, CS uses the ladybug pointer to read the song, swapping the red letters for the Z in the box at the bottom. This zetter zadybug…
A colourful creation made out of window blocks, wooden hollow blocks with plastic windows in red, yellow, blue, green or pink. The sun is shining behind the blocks and the shadows are cast on a whiteboard on a stand.
The same window block creation on a wooden bench, seen from the other side. Some colours show on the bench where the sunlight passed through the colourful windows.
Shadows and bright colours on the whiteboard behind the castle built on the bench in the sun.
The bright sunlight made for a lot of shadow and colour play in K2 today. Here, LI, EH and TB made use of the levels, shapes and sunlight to make brightly coloured images on the whiteboard.
Blue magnets on a whiteboard put together to spell Pop!
LS noticed that the magnet shaped work well to create some letter shapes. He showed us how he spelled “Pop!”
Cropped slide with classroom photos, including a student holding his snap come flag in one hand, a Canada flag in the other. Text reads: “Ask Me About February 16-27”
Families, our latest “Ask Me About” stories are posted and have been shared in class. Lots to share! We hope you enjoy hearing about K2’s adventures over the past 2 weeks, and that you all have a wonderful weekend. See you Monday, everyone.
Students in snowsuits in a collage of photos with bubbles flying, falling onto wet pavement, and changing shape before popping.
EL and friends noticed something interesting today while we played outside. Bubbles that fell before they popped were sticking to the puddles, but they stopped being circles. “They’re cut!” Semi-circle bubbles? Yes!
The Olympics may be over, but the interest in K2 is going strong.
Here are PS, ER, ZH and TB with the hockey stadium they built this week and keep safe in a bin to bring out each day. They built the nets, sticks, a Zamboni, trophy, camera, and more!
Next, we went to outside play when we noticed some very interesting tracks in the snow, which were fun to follow. And the safety learning continued! These community helpers were working for Hydro One, clearing branches from the power lines. They came to say hello & to show us their safety gear.
Heres more information for families about cresting your own home fire safety plans:
www.mississauga.ca/services-and...
The Mississauga Fire services officer reading the classes at story while the book is protected on the big screen in the gym.
A slide on the screen reads “Fire Safety at Home MISSISSAUGA FIRE” It has a photo of a fire truck on the street and the Mississauga Fire Logo.
Cover illustration of the book “No DRAGONS for TEA Fire Safety for Kids” By Jean E. Pendziwol and Martine Gourbault.
Today, K2 learned a lot about safety from local community helpers. 1st up, we had an assembly with other primary classes. Our host was a Mississauga Fire Safety Officer who read us “No Dragons for Tea” and taught us about safety plans for home, like our fire drills at school. See mailbags for more.
From start to finish, our project took a few days and lots of drying time. But we noticed so many interesting things along the way. Colour scientists making beautiful designs, now to be new bulletin board to capture the beauty of winter. ❄️
And finally, step four. Here’s where the magic comes in - the salt draws the colourful water we made (by soaking old, dried up markers) along the salty paint lines… a little touch and watch the magic! 🌈🪄
Another example of step three: from glue lines to sparkly salt, with a salty “snowstorm” in between. ☃️
Step three: shake on the salt for the snowflake sparkle.
We have used salt in both cooking, snack time (on edamame) and in several of our experiments lately. Some students were curious about using salt in our artwork, and wondered what it would do.
Step two: use white glue to trace the snowflake shape. This is tricky work! It requires squeezing the bottle and drawing with the glue, all without getting stuck in the glue on the page. Good work, friends.
Collage of photos showing students tracing and colouring snowflakes with white pencils on blue paper.
Here’s a look at a project we’ve been working on this week - making “magic colour” sparkling snowflakes. How are they magic? That part comes later… here’s step one, tracing and colouring in their choice of snowflake.
