How Friendship Functions

-->

 New children, new ideas, new explorations...the first week of September we talked about Olga and the different ways she could look for a friend. Please see Kathryn's Blog for more information about the formative week.

This week the children decided that they want to talk about themselves and their friends. The wind group will have an exploration map where we will record our inquiries and discoveries and we will observe the evolution and the changes at the end of the unit. 

The children received small cut outs of paper people that they decorated. One was of them and the others were of their friends. On a piece of paper, the children drew a picture of what they were doing together with their friends – How Friendship Functions -

--> 

Definition of FUNCTION - "The understanding that everything has a purpose, a role or a way of behaving that can be investigated".

Emilie said: “ I jump with my friend. I run with my friend” 

Trystan said: “ Sometimes I fight with my friends”; “ I play pretend games with my friends” ; Simon said: “ I read with my friends” “ I draw with my friends” ; 

Howard said that he “ holds hands with his friends when they walk to the forest” 

Sofia said that she “ reads books with her friends” “ My friend and I eat together” “ We share toys when we play together” “ 

Byron said: “ I like to play soccer with my friend” and “ I like to bike with my friend”

Please share more ideas on what friendship looks like at home so we can compare different things they do at home and at school with their friends. Pictures will be great so we can show them to the whole group and discuss them. 

Thank you, 

Anamaria 

Take Off!

-->

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Blast off! 

The day started with excitement. Building air planes, remote controlling Peter's helicopter and building kites in our small groups. 

The children enjoyed painting and assembling their kites. The whole afternoon was spent outside, the children and teachers running around the fields, flying the kites and air planes. What a blast! 

The Fairy House

With a little bit of magic and a lot of gathered materials, we all went to the forest to build the Fairy house. The children loved having the freedom to choose where the rooms will be and what they will look like. They had a swing in the front garden, a bedroom were they all rested and a big room where they spent time together - reading books, telling stories about their day and playing. What a great time we had! 

The children wanted to share their stories with everyone, so they made a book entitled " A book about a fairy". On the cover it's a picture of themselves posing " the Fairy pose". The story tells everyone about their responsibilities when being a fairy and the pictures show their costumes and favourite colours. 

Serena said that, "anyone can be a fairy, just a big smile, colourful clothes and voila". Library Fairy, Cleaning Fairy, Laundry Fairy, Driving Fairy, Teacher Fairy, etc. Don't we all seem to play these roles at one point or another?

Building Forts in our Forest!

Holding a friend's hand, the children walked in a line, heading this time, to a different part of the forest. We were looking for a special place where we could build our forts. After walking deep into the forest, we found a spot off the trail. All the children had wonderful, creative ideas. They all collected sticks, and in small groups, they built a fort. After the forts were built, we all had a rest and the teachers shared some fruits with everyone.
We had so much fun that we lost track of time.
On our way back we were all so hungry that we decided to have an early lunch!
                                                      Enjoy the pictures!

Fairies and all magical things

-->

Fairy group’s chant:

Fairies, Fairies, Pixie Dust – POOF POOF

Fairies, Fairies – Magic Wand

Hocus Pocus POOF!

Close your eyes and imagine that you are a fairy. 

Where do you live? What are you wearing? What are your responsibilities?

The children took turns telling a story about what they think it would be like if they were a fairy.

They came up with a list of things you need to do in order to be a fairy:

1. Create your wand - Made out of a stick and 2 stars.  Make sure you use lots of sparkles and flowers. 

2. Design your own dress - Wearing what you like will make you feel more happy and confident.

3. Practice some magic spells - The children said that they don't have the power to transform things, but if they use kind words, they can make people pretend they are different things. Just try to wave your wand and point it to a person. Say: hocus, pocus, please turn into a dog. Guess what? If that person is part of your game, they will start barking. :) 

4. Fairies fly, so the children said that if you swing on the swing or go down the slide it feels like you are flying. It is really fast and it makes them feel really happy. 

5.Build and clean your own house – As you can see in the picture, this is what the fairy group’s enchanted house looks like. 

 6.  Group meeting -  We've got new children in our group so the children shared some very important ideas. They reminded themselves and the others of some friendship rules: Cooperating, sharing, caring, taking turns and using kind words are some points that will help them communicate and work together as a team.

Next week we will go to find an enchanted place in the forest. We will make a list of materials that we need to build our magical house in the forest. 

Isn't it great to see how the children connect this mythical and magical concept with the friendship unit? Having lots of fun, exploring, creating, and imagining together with their friends gives the children a chance to express their individuality.  

The Function of a Plant

After exploring the FORM of a plant, the children wanted to know what the FUNCTION of a plant is. We planted the beans (seeds) in the soil and they recorded each change on their charts. The roots grow down into the ground, and the stem and the leaves rise up, searching for the sunlight. 

Olivia said that one of the responsibilities that we've got when we take care of a plant is to water it, but what happens to the water? Chloe thinks that the soil sucks up all the water, but how does the plant drink up the water? How does it grow? 

After watching the movie " The magic school bus - goes to seed" we came up with some answers. The roots are very important, they suck up the water the same way we suck up water with a straw. To understand this concept, we all used a straw to suck up water - just like the roots. 

From the roots, the water travels through the stem, all the way to the leaves. After this inquiry was answered, the children were curious to find out how the plants feed themselves. Is water enough? NO, plants need sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow. We looked at leaves using a magnifying glass and we saw all the different textures that it's got, the veins, and little dots, called pores. Through those pores, the leaves breathe in the carbon dioxide, a gas that is released by cars, fabrics, smoke, etc.  

This whole process is called PHOTOSYNTHESIS. The water, carbon dioxide and the sun (energy) mixed together form sugar and oxygen. The plant feeds itself, by producing it's own food - SUGAR and exhales the OXYGEN. From this exploration, the children understood that the function of the roots is to keep the plant in the ground and to suck water up, that the plant produces it's own food and that it helps people and animals survive. 

For the next week, we will assess our knowledge by dramatizing the PHOTOSYNTHESIS process. The children are really excited to share their knowledge with the other children.

A change in our inquiry project - The growing process of a bean

After four days of measuring the length and watering the lollipops and the plants the children noticed a CHANGE.

The lollipops are the same length, so they didn’t grow yet, but the beans changed. The bean was 1.5cm when we planted it and right now it reached 2cm in length and a root is coming out.

The children were excited to observe and write down their observations. Then, two days later, the bean grew even more.

 It went from 2cm to 6cm and now has more roots.

How did this happen? We just watered it every day!

What a great way of exploring this inquiry! 

As a second assessment, the children received a brainstorm chart where they had some plants in the middle and arrows pointing out. They drew all their ideas about how to take care of a plant (RESPONSIBILITY)