Promoting Peace & Preparing Poppies

In junior kindergarten, Remembrance Day is another opportunity to focus on peace. Promoting peace within our classroom is of utmost importance, and it takes shape in many different ways. As one of our little friends likes to remind us (daily) when we walk toward the buses, "We take care of each other in a day!" This is in fact, our class motto : The most important thing we'll do in a day, is take care of each other.

When we started introducing Remembrance Day to the children, we focused primarily on peace and poppies. Peace is not a new concept, and the symbol of the poppy is very familiar this time of year, as the children see them afixed to jackets. We have discussed the assembly and practiced standing (still?) for the Last Post and O'Canada. (The children made a good connection to the trumpet we examined in a the music room a few weeks back - good remembering!)

In creating a plan for making our wreath, we watched a few short videos depicting aerial views of poppy fields in England and California. We compared and contrasted the variations of poppies. We also googled painters' renditions of poppies and noted the colours of the petals. The children were encouraged to brainstorm how we could go about making poppies for our wreath, and paint seemed to be a popular material. But I knew that I also had some felt scraps, yarn and tissue paper squirreled away in the cupboard. A provocation was born, and the children were encouraged ...

To collaborate.

To play.

To explore.

To observe.

To create.

When the children broke out into their focus groups, they jumped into the paint straight away.

Working together, collaboratively, they started by making individual poppies on the page. Then I overheard someone say, "Hey! Look at this! I made orange!" The excitement over colour mixing never gets old. Remember, the little things are the big things in kindergarten! I can't be sure, but I think from that point on, they lost interest in painting individual poppies. I think they got caught up in the magic of paint - creating colours and line. Before the paper got too saturated to the point of tearing, the painting was scooped up and put on the drying rack for later.

The felt scraps, tissue paper and yarn remained. However, the felt was in squares.

"What shape are the poppies?"

"Circles!"

"Really?"

Picture a table of scrunched up faces. Too funny!

What followed was a discussion about petals, and stems. They're not circles.

"But the poppy on daddy's jacket is kind of a circle."

"Why do you think that is?"

We thought back to the videos - aerial views.

"When you look down, maybe it's a circle."

"How do you make a square a circle?"

The children were not impressed with the felt and scissors provided at this point. There was a lot of frustration expressed and another learning opportunity presented itself. Actually, many learning opportunities presented themselves.

In reflection afterwards, the children shared:

"The scissors only cut with little snips. Not my big snips."

"The felt wasn't cutting. It's different from paper."

"The scissors weren't closing on the felt."

"The scissors were sticking to the fabric."

"It was trickier because it (the felt) was soft.

The scissors were going up and down - kind of slow."

"The fabric doesn't work with scissors. Paper will work with scissors.

The felt doesn't work with scissors."

"The felt doesn't work with scissors because it's soft and fuzzy."

"I could do it with little bits."

"It was tough. It was closing but not cutting."

"It would work with sharper scissors.

Sharper scissors could cut off the corners and make a circle better."

The poppies were given a centre.

Felt poppies await the next part of the process.

Their "little snips" did work in the end, and the children cleaned up. As they were cleaning up the fabric scraps, an idea emerged, and the scraps were collected and tucked away for later.

The children had so much fun colour mixing, and the little "snips" of felt were too precious to waste, so another provocation and collaborative art work emerged. I regret that I didn't get photos of the initial "stage", but you can see from the one below that the children discovered that blue and yellow creates green.

A green "field" emerges

Little hands take turns applying tissue paper and felt scraps.

In "kindergarten" the flowers grow.

The earlier collaborative painting provides a bit of

dimension to the felt poppies.

At the end of the day, the children had worked together to create something beautiful to be proud of. There were lessons in comparing the many variations of poppies around the world. There were lessons in communication and problem solving. Value was given to process, cooperation and listening. Risk was taken, with the best of intent. We didn't know where the day would take us. All we had was paint, paper, some tissue paper and yarn. But we had ideas, and we were inspired, and we took care of each other in a day :)

Thank you for stopping in, and visiting our atelier.

Preponderance of Pumpkins

Early pumpkin exploration

As October pressed on, there was an increasing interest expressed in pumpkins. In fact, many unsolicited pumpkins arrived on our tables (thank you!) and opened the window for many math, language, creative and musical explorations. We had opportunity to hear about your visits to the pumpkin patch, and the many success stories of home grown pumpkins. Still life renditions were created. We read stories and watched videos exploring the life cycle of a pumpkin. Some seeds are set aside with the intention of starting our own little pumpkin patch, come spring.

The timely appearance of pumpkins provided many sustained inquiries and opportunities for math in our focus groups and independent play. In these small groups, we capitalized on the childrens' natural curiosity, which allowed us to be the "guide on the side" as opposed to the "sage on stage".

My approach to mathematics and numeracy continues to develop, and capitalize on learning opportunities. Our intention is to "spark" a curiosity. With our knowledge of the spiralling curriculum (concepts are built upon each year, K-8) we take children from one level to the next, and allow them to progress at the perfect pace for them. Numeracy provocations were inspired, and we broke out into our focus groups...

To play.

To explore.

To observe.

To create.

One numeracy math provocation

  

The children explored and discussed. The "spark" was evident as they poured over the manipulatives before them.

Measuring tape mayhem

 

There were trials, and it was interesting to see the many directions the children went with the materials available. Clearly, they were building upon their prior knowledge. These could not have been unfamiliar items: a weight scale and a measuring tape. Their actions indicated they had some understanding of how to use them. From here, we build.

Measuring the "perimetre" of the pumpkin 

 

There were some prompts to really observe the measuring tape. "What do you notice?"  They noticed that there were the numbers 1, 2 , 3 ... like a number line. So, we started again at 0, and wrapped our way around the pumpkin. Someone announced, " 52! " and I asked, " 52 what? "  My question was never really answered, and they moved onto something else.

 



Building around the perimetre of the pumpkin.

 

The children started building/measuring/counting around the pumpkin using blocks. We'll get there eventually - identifying standard units of measure (e.g. centimetres ), and using terminology such as circumference and diametre. But in the meantime, their experience is expanding and curiosity is piqued. I assure myself that it won't be the last time the children use the measuring tapes. And in the meantime, using non-standard units of measurement is right on target for the kindergarten curriculum.

 

 

Meanwhile, in other parts of the classroom, children discovered that when they press down on the pumpkin with force, the number gets bigger on the scale. Connections are made to home, when they stand on the bathroom scale with one foot, and then two feet.

 

 

The exploration wasn't over yet. Balance scales captured the childrens' interest, and they took part in the exploration of items in one bucket v.s. the mini pumpkin in the opposite bucket.

 

 

Admittedly, there was some "front loading" of information to assist with the balance scale "play". And, I was thrilled to recently acquire little weights to add to this exploration centre.

This little person is indicating that he finally applied the right weight in the bucket in order for the pumpkin and opposite bucket to achieve balance. This is kind of a big deal :)

There are moments when I stand in awe at the amount of enthusiasm that the children express, and the content covered during a "break out" session in our focus groups. Without paper and pencil tasks, the children are truly exploring, and their learning is relevant and concrete.

We thank you for dropping by our atelier.

Colossal Collections!

............ I wish this season could stretch ...........

I wish that the changes we are witnessing could last a while longer.

The children taking a moment to take in the

fresh scents of autumn by our pond

Thank you so much for sending in pressed fall leaves that you collected on your walks. We marveled that each collection was unique, as were the methods of pressing and preserving these little gems. The children have been so proud to bring them in, and we put them straight to "work".  The first collection which was presented last week, provided the initial inspiration for one of our bulletin boards. The leaves were pressed in three separate sheets of wax paper, and labeled with "kid print" : oak leaves, maple leaves and basswood leaves. When the next presentation was made, the children identified the "Canadian" leaves (maple), and it was suggested we put them all together. The children were identifying shape as a feature of their collections, and so the bulletin board emerged.

"We can sort by shape."

Four categories were created "on the fly" - leaves that look like the have little fingers similar to the oak leaves, leaves that are more rounded like the basswood leaves, leaves that have points like the maple leaves, and leaves that look like feathers. Over the coming days, more leaves came in and we added to the bulletin board, allowing everyone a chance to contribute.

 In our focus groups, we took the remaining leaves and brainstormed other ways that we could sort our collections. The process engaged the children and the morning flew by.



Sorting leaves by colour

Creating a "rainbow" of leaves

Another "rainbow"

Our second bulletin board that documents

the childrens' sorting collections

And then there was the MASSIVE leaf that was presented. Compared to their little hands, it was a shocking size and begged to be displayed. As the leaves came in, we sorted from largest to smallest, featuring maple leaves.

Part of the leaf sorting process

After sorting their leaves, one of the focus groups were inspired to make a long leaf train. That's a lot of leaves! How long is it?

The children use link-its to measure

 the chain of leaves

And once we had exhausted the leaf sorting activities, the paints came out. Brushes were dipped, and colour was applied. We did a water colour painting of maple leaves, focusing on one leaf at a time. We paid attention to the amount of paint necessary to add pigment to the paper. We replicated a pencil grip, using our brushes.

Water colour painting on dry paper

This activity was a precursor to a painting activity completed a few days later. The children had lots of "hands on" experience with the leaves at this point, and had observed the contours of the leaves, the colours and the veins on each leaf. Our next activity incorporated these observation skills and replicating the symmetry we observed. They were presented with a piece of paper, on which was only half of a leaf. Being fully aware that our little people are still developing fine motor skills, we encouraged them to take a risk and try their hand at tracing the other half of the leaf in pencil. Admittedly, we did not know how this would turn out. Both teachers and students took a risk with this one. The next step was for the children to pick up their paint brushes and interpret how the other half of the leaf would look. The results are amazing. 

So many curriculum expectations were covered. We touched on mathematics, literacy, science and social emotional needs. Creativity was employed, and critical thinking skills were exercised. We cannot thank you enough for sending in your collections! It is wonderful to witness the children engaged in "play", using natural materials.

Counting with our fingers, the children can

"read" this poem

Thank you stopping by our atelier!

Little Tree Huggers!

" Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. "

~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Inquiry : How many children does it take to form a circle around the tree?

Earlier this week, we took advantage of the remaining warm and sunny weather and head for the field to go exploring. There was no specific outcome planned. We simply needed to use our skills of observation.

We were intent on listening. What would we notice?

We were intent on watching. What would we notice?

We were intent on smelling. What would we notice?

We were intent on feeling. What would we notice?

We noticed that some trees have leaves, and other trees have needles.

"It doesn't have any leaves."

"It's a little bit darker on the skin."

"The bark."

"That one has pointy sticks on it."

"Branches."

"Branches grow leaves."

"The tree is so big and has lots of branches."

"The leaves fall off and the trees are naked."

"Leaves are for summer."

"Leaves are for the birds."

"One has changing leaves and one doesn't."

"The other one has needles."

We spoke to the differences between deciduous and coniferous trees, and asked the children if they think the trees will look the same next week?

In reference to the leaves, one little person said,

"If they're still on - they may change. They'll look red." 

I had anticipated that we would make our way around the entire yard, but our adventure took an unexpected turn. Someone tripped. They were ok, and many friends stopped to help him up. But they wondered, why did he trip? Remember, the little things are the big things in kindergarten. They notice, and they observe... 

Roots growing out from the base of a tree = tripping hazard.

 We spent a l-o-n-g time checking out the roots in this part of the yard, and didn't move beyond this point until it was time to come in.

"There's logs coming out of the tree."

"The grass is growing up to cover the logs."

 "It's like a log, but it's not."

"It's connected to the other tree."

"They're roots."

"You can step on the roots."

"It reminds me of a river."

"Maybe the roots are making the leaves fall off the tree."

 Our nature walk was a 'jumping off' point for a number of follow-up activities. We did some yoga - 'tree pose', and tested our balance, comparing it to a tree swaying in the wind. Our 'limbs' helped us balance. We spoke to the function of roots, and how they provide nutrients to the tree, ensuring its survival. We read a story, The Tree, written by Dana Lyons & illustrated by David Danioth. It is a personal experience narrative, told by an ancient tree on the west coast. The story highlighted the fact that trees are homes to birds and other wild life, and its roots hold back the river banks. Towards the end of the story, the tree expresses its gratitude for the children who embrace it, and the wind which carries its song.

This got us talking about the sounds trees make and how they communicate. This conversation was fascinating, and I got caught up in the "I wonder ..." discussion, momentarily forgetting that ideas were coming from 3 & 4 year olds. This alone, could be a separate post.

We were also inspired to pick up our paint brushes again, and create another collaborative art work, in the form of a mural. 

Just the basics (grass, a few outlines, and a couple tree trunks) were prepared on the mural as a provocation... 

To play.

To explore.

To observe.

To create.  

Ideas are shared, and details emerge.

  

A view from above - above ground.

Roots are added, showing an "underground" perspective.

You can imagine my delight, when, one of our friends shared a little "root" vegetable from their garden! How timely, and how wonderful.



  

These two little carrots reminded us of the roots we explored on our nature walk! And I was reminded of how we are all interconnected. The beauty of nature fills us with wonder.

Thank you for visiting the atelier.