Wednesday 20 November 2013

The Snow has Arrived...

...but has the Tomten?


Now that the snow has fallen, we are keeping a watchful eye for fresh Tomten tracks. A Tomten is quite like a gnome, or an elf, but he lives on only on farms and in rural countrysides. The Tomten is a kind being that helps the animals of the farm and watches over the children. The Tomten especially likes animals and children because they can speak the Tomten language.



“If they would only wake up, then I could talk to them in Tomten language, a silent little language children can understand.  But children sleep at night.”

Tomten tracks or Bailey and Cassie tracks?



We also continued with our exploration of how Living Things Prepare for Winter. We really narrowed it down to three things living things will do in a climate such as ours:

migrate! hibernate! or adapt!

Which would you choose if you could?

Another extreemly exciting project happening in our room right now is the Brant Argyle Store. Myles, Cassie, Nic, and Matt have been busy designing, setting up, pricing items, and making flyers for the first ever (in school) Brant Argyle Store!

the staff schedule

Thanks to last month's veggie fundraiser and a lot of help from Nic's very generous and handy parents, our play area went from this:



To this:





On Monday, we will have our GRAND OPENING. All students will be invited to tour and shop the store. Fresh cookies made by K-3 will be served and the store will be officially open for all to enjoy during playtime! All families are of course welcome to join us and celebrate our new space for imagination.

Friday 8 November 2013

Somewhere Today

After Reading Somewhere Today: A Book of Peace we decided to make our own book of peace.We showed some of the simple ways in which we can all make the world a better place.














Thursday 7 November 2013

Planting Peace

This week, we worked with the theme of peace and helping others. We read some beautiful stories, such as Jeff Brumbeau's The Quiltmaker's Journey (Illustrated by Gail de Marcken). 


This is a story of a young girl and how she finds happiness and strength by giving. The girl sets of to the woods, at first unsure of how she would find her purpose, but soon discovers she can keep others warm by making quilts. It is a beautiful story about giving, and more so, giving without expecting a reward or acknowledgement.

 

The book inspired us to start our own peace quilt this afternoon. It is so exciting how these unplanned projects unfold! We remembered we had a whole bunch of fabric from Caleb's mom, so we experimented with different techniques for colouring the fabric: markers and rubbing alcohol? (We thought this would make a tie-dye effect; no such luck, thankfully, as the rubbing alcohol was smelly.) Melted crayon? Crayon and an iron? Be sure to check back with us in a few days to see photos of our patches and our progress. I have a feeling we will be able to do some math with quilts, too!


Yesterday, we talked about the beauty and power of mandalas and how they can help us feel peaceful. Mandala is a Sanskrit word that is loosely translated to mean circle and completion. Mandalas have been helping us concentrate and feel more relaxed. Before we created our mandalas, we  took a moment and thought about the things we are grateful for, what peace is, and how we can spread peace. Our mandalas turned out simple or quite elaborate. Each mandala is a personal experession: aren't they beautiful?


holding hands around the mandalas
This week we also have some seeds sprouting in our windowsill! Below you will see that group one's pumpkin seed has sprouted. Sam also planted some beans last week that are doing quite well. No activity in Nic's Wild Cucumber experiment. Yet...




Tomorrow we will put the finishing Touches on our very first class book: Somewhere Today. I can't wait to share it with you!

Until Then,
Take good care of each other!

Friday 1 November 2013

Friday Photos

Happy November Dearest Readers,

I told myself I would not leave tonight until I updated the blog. I have so many exciting things to share with you, but have to admit I have been moving the blog to the bottom of my list when I would think about all the things I wanted to write. So, with much love, this sunny evening I present to you: The Photos of the Week.

Happy Friday,
Ms Hadfield

Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy's art, here is a creation on
the trail by one of our Middle Years Friends.



Brett counting seeds at last week's Pumpkin Festival. We counted just over 1000 pumpkin seeds!

Pumpkin Fest

Sam brought in a Cattail for each person in our class.
Then, we tried a very cool experiment Sam taught us: exploding the seeds!
We talked about how Cattails spread their seed using the wind, like the Milkweed plant.
Cattail seeds (fluff) can be used to stuff pillows and line mittens.
Check back in a couple weeks to see what we have done with our collection.

A vampire visits the food table at our Halloween party.
Thank you parents and Mrs Shot for the delicious snacks. 

Cuttin' a rug at the Monster Bash.

A horse orders some popcorn at the Monster Bash.

We learned a lot of very interesting things about bats this week.  Here is a bat made from an egg carton!

And an owl out of a pinecone!

We also talked about spiders yesterday. Here we are making webs with chalk pastels.

The web is white glue that has dried.

Aren't they colourful?

Today the whole school went for a post-Halloween wellness walk.
A sunny six degrees!

Argyle on an autumn afternoon.
My top photo of the week.
And after looking at this last photo, a thought for the week:


"Passion is lifted from the earth by the muddy hands of the young. It travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart." -Rich Louv