I Love Reading Challenge

Both the month of February and the I Love Reading Challenge are over for another year. We were so happy to have the JKs (and new SKs) join the kindergarten students at Alcona Glen participate in our second annual I Love Reading Challenge, dedicating an entire month to reading. We received a number of photos over the past month. It was great to see children (and their families) enjoying reading in so many different ways.

Learning About Scotland

Nathan taught our class about Scotland. He showed us what it looks like in Scotland, as well as talked about Scotish food (haggis and shortbread) and clothing. He talked about tartan (plaid) and showed the class what his family's tartan looked like.

Later in the week, Liam shared about Scotland as well. He had a Scotish flag and talked about a Scottish festival that he went to with his family. He said that a lot of people there, even men, wore kilts, which are plaid skirts. Liam also had some Scottish music for us to listen to. It was very special because his grandfather was playing the bagpipes on the CD.

Room 106 Christmas Dinner

One of my favourite days in December was when we had Christmas Dinner with the class.

Starting off with brainstorming a list of what you might eat at Christmas Dinner, it was a group task. Students decided what they wanted to bring in to share, including "fancy drinks", a variety of vegetables, stuffing, and dessert.

On the day of our dinner, students helped to get the vegetables ready. We peeled potatoes and carrots and cut the beans into smaller pieces. We pushed the tables together so that we could all eat together and worked on setting the table. Students learned where the forks go (beside the plates, not above them) and where to put the drinks. We made sure to put our poinsettia in the middle of the table as our beautiful centre piece.

After recess, we went up to the stage to use the stove and did some writing while we waited for everything to cook. When everything was ready, we brought everything back to class. We were so excited to try what we made. Just about everyone tried at least a little bit of everything - some students tried a lot of everything :) Once we were all served, we said a bit thank you to each other for sharing and preparing our food.

After we finished eating, students took turns washing dishes, wiping off the table, and sweeping the floor.

Learning About Guatemala

We are continuing to learn about the countries where children in our class come from. Joshua's family is from Guatemala and Joshua had a lot of interesting things to share with us. 

Mrs. Chapman and I were very interested in the tortilla warmer and the other things made from woven materials, but the students seemed to enjoy the dessert from Guatemala the best. 

Avery's Video on Friday, December 11, 2015

Ron's Video on Friday, December 4, 2015

Construction Continues in Room 106

Building has continued to be a favourite activity in Room 106. We've moved from the Block Area, to the Construction Zone, where students have made houses, mouse traps, and towers. Students have used a variety of tools (science and technology), drawn blueprints of their designs (visual art), taken measurements with tape measures (math) - the learning has been endless.

Last week though, building took a new direction. Using large cardboard tubes, student created a Pipe Line. The Pipe Line traveled from the turtle tank and water table to an "animal pool" at the other end. They created an on/off valve to shut the water off at recess, as well as blocking the end with a brick to prevent a water spill.

              

A couple of days into the project, Bryson found a hole in the pipe. He and Mrs. Chapman looked though a mining book they found in the library and Bryson decided they needed wire to fix the hole. 

We didn't have any wire, but he managed to improvise. 

Bryson did a blog post talking about his pipe building to share his learning.

We are exited to see where the interest in building will take the class next. We are so impressed with the ideas that have emerged so far!