Decorations tell human stories and help us know one another

For Art on Fridays, we made paper-mache to create hanging decorations. Each child took their time to carefully choose the colours they wanted to use.

The children showed an understanding that decorations can tell a human story or be the introductions to it.

Each hanging decoration is unique and tells a story.

Theo's hanging decoration is silver because it makes it look shiny. "It will brighten our Christmas tree", Theo added

Anila "The red spots are me and my parents"

Louis "The sun is peeking through"

  Zoe "I added sparkles to my ornament. It glows."

Keira "There is a red heart, showing my love for my mommy"

When you look at the ornaments, it might remind you of a different story. This is how we share our lives with each other.

What is a decoration to each of us?

The picture attached above shows the children's ideas of what decorations are. Each day, the children are encouraged to add more ideas to our chart. The new ideas will be added in different colours, allowing us to see the growth in our learning. 

I noticed a common theme in the children's answers - hanging decorations. All the children in the wind group celebrate Christmas and this is a conversation that arises each day. The children share their ideas on what decorations to use during these Holidays, their different shapes and sizes, etc. 

To broaden their imagination, I read the book "Night Tree" by Eve Bunting. This story is about a family decorating a tree outdoors with food and nuts for the animals. Eagerly, the children asked for us to do the same. They all showed commitment and determination while working on their decorations.  

Apples, cheese, popcorn and flowers 

The children were given a chance to connect to the animals and their need for food during winter time.

As an assessment on what they thought that the animals might like to eat, they drew pictures of what the tree looked like after they decorated it and we recorded our predictions on what will happen to the decorations on a chart.

The tree is decorated! The children are enjoying a bowl of popcorn while reading the story right next to the tree. 

We were all very surprised!! This is the only decoration that was left on the tree.  

Enjoy,

Anamaria

We Decorate Our World

Decorations are seen differently by each individual and expressed in different ways and forms. During the first week of our new unit, the children got a chance to express what they know about decorations. Most of them think that colour is decoration, as well as objects around the room. 

This exploration will continue for eight weeks, allowing the children ample time to inquire, explore and share their learning with others.  

The line of inquiry that we discussed first was: "Decorations tell human stories and help us know one another." 

This directed our discussion towards Remembrance Day. The children are aware of this Holiday and it is a great connection to our unit on decorations and who we are. The tradition of having a poppy pinned close to our hearts, is a form of decoration, remembering the brave ones as well as sending peace, love and kindness around the world. 

Sound Travels - Summative week

With Halloween just days away from our summative project*, the children decided to write a story about the characters they will embrace during this spooky fall celebration.  In connection to our unit, the children used their knowledge on Sound and used objects or musical instruments to accompany their story. 

The children showed interest in this project and were very confident that some of the stories will be scary ones while others will be great bedtime stories. 
After I jotted down their ideas, all the children used art as a visual tool to reflect the characters in their stories.  

The instruments or sounds written in the brackets show the connection between the stories and the sound unit.  

1. A Brave Knight - by Theo 

One night, there was a knight close to a swamp. An alligator came out.(Alligator sound) The knight attacked the alligator. The alligator died. (Trumpet) Safely, the knight walked out of the forest. 

2. Falling Snow by Serena 

During the day, in a castle lived an ice queen named Elsa. (Piano) She used her powers and froze the castle. Now there was an ice castle.(Piano)

3. Louis the Kangaroo - by Louis 

In a story there was a kangaroo. He jumped out of the book and went to my house. He jumped and I became a Kangaroo. 

4. A Giraffe - by Anila 

When I was at Palm Desert I saw a giraffe. The giraffe laid down for a nap and the baby giraffe went and joined his mommy. 

5. Zoe for Halloween - By Zoe 

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Zoe. She liked to walk around her castle, but suddenly, she got hungry so she sat down and had something to eat. 

She drank some water and after she was done, she put it in the sink.

6. Keira the Brown Bear - by Keira 

One day, Keira the bear was walking in the woods.(Accordion) Keira found her big stuffed teddy there. They met other bears in the forest and became friends. (Accordion)

*summative (project) assessment  - allows the children and the teacher to reflect on their learning in the last seven weeks of inquiry. This eighth week gives the children the opportunity to express the knowledge they accumulated along the way.

Music sparks Imagination

We used the book "Once Upon an Ordinary School Day" by Colin McNaughton to support our learning. 

The story opened a path to thinking about imagination and creativity. The following phrases from the story inspired the children: "I want you to listen to some music and I want you to let the music make pictures in your heads" and "It was as if a dam had burst in his head and words just came flooding out..." 

As we are approaching our summative activity where the children will be sharing their knowledge on sound, we listened to classical music and each of them took a turn to share an idea of what the music/sound made them think about or feel. In the end, the children latched on and expanded on each others' ideas and composed a story inspired by Vivaldi's "Four Seasons (Spring)". 

Story: 

Zoe: "One morning, I was eating breakfast. I was enjoying my oatmeal." 

Keira: "After I finished my breakfast, I walked towards my playroom. While I was playing, a blue flower that bloomed outside my window caught my attention. Shortly after, I noticed a purple flower too." 

Theo: "I was looking at the blue flower and the petals and suddenly, I couldn't believe my eyes, but right there, next to my window, there was a deer." 

Louis: " The wind started blowing and it blew the blue flower away." 

Serena: "The blue flower flew up in the air and it landed on the wood chips at the playground." 

Theo: "People were playing and didn't notice the flower. They were stepping on it." 

Keira: "A little boy noticed the squished flower. He picked it up and found a spot to plant it in the dirt." 

Serena: "A new flower bloomed." 

Zoe: "It was growing taller and taller and more beautiful." 

Theo: "It grew so beautiful, but the petals started falling off. The flower died." 

And that was the end of our story. The children carefully listened to the music and I observed that when the tempo increased, the characters became more elaborate and the ordinary scenes became more intense. For example, it occurred when the children wrote the scenes with the people stepping over the flower, and the deer appearing in the image.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a holiday when everyone gets to spend time with their loved ones and share things that they are thankful for. 

Instruments make sounds that captivate us.

While listening for sounds in our immediate environment, Theo identified the sound of a tambourine echoing from the cubbies. It was the Water group, making their own instruments and exploring sounds with them. 

Anila "I want to make an instrument." 

Triggered by the children's interest, we looked at pictures of different instruments from all over the world and played a game where the children had to listen to the instruments and identify them.

In the pictures attached, you can see the instruments we worked on. 

Next week, we will be finishing decorating and we will gather together to try them out.