Art Activities in December

Shaving Cream and Paint

Miss McKay, our ECE student, had the students explore shaving cream and paint. They enjoyed how it felt on their skin and how it looked on different materials.

Some students explored it right away with their hands, while others used popsicle sticks and paint brushes.

This student explored this for a long time using paint brushes, toothpicks and popsicle sticks. He eventually used the tips of his fingers but in the end, he used both hands. He was very excited about the colours he made and how it felt on his hands and arms. 

Mrs. Olafson put out some Christmas colours and cookie cutters for the children to explore.

A Snowman Surprise !!! 

The children have been excited with the new snow outside so we decided to bring it in the classroom. We collected snow and added it to our water table, read lots of winter stories and finally invited the children to make a "Snowman" for someone special in their family.

The Gingerbread Man

Most of the children in the class have been pretending to bake things. They have turned the blocks, the drama centre and play dough centre into a bakery. They have also asked to go to the kitchen to bake something, several different times. We decided to read them some of the Gingerbread stories and of course bake some cookies.

We all helped out with baking the cookies.

After making the cookies, we went back to class and Mrs. Olafson read "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School" by Laura Murray, while they cooked.  When we were finished reading the story, we went down to check on the cookies to see if they were ready to decorate them and of course, eat them.

When we got to the kitchen our cookies were gone.....

We only found cookie crumbs and a clue that started us on our hunt for the cookies.

We followed the first clue,
"I got bored waiting for you so I went down the hall to look for a ball."

We found the next clue in the gym.

The next clue..

which led us to the office

Then our next clue was....

"Go to where we learn."

Which led us to....

Finally, we found our cookies safely back in our classroom; ready to decorate and eat. 

We still don't know who moved our cookies and left all of those clues to find them!!! We all had fun hunting for our cookies and solving the clues along the way. 

Puddle Measurement

It was a cold rainy day in November and we just had to get outside for some fresh air.  We discovered how to investigate the puddles and still stay dry.....

Ms Lee brought out a collection of rulers and yard sticks for the children to go on a puddle hunt and measure how deep the puddles were. This was an awesome example of using our natural environment to reach one of our math expectations.

Exploring Standard and Non-Standard forms of measurement.

 One of our students decided to collect several different sizes of sticks to pass out to his friends to measure the puddles. He said; "these are non-standard measurement tools because they don't have numbers on them and the sticks are all different sizes. "

Some students also measured how wide the puddles were. 

This student used a stick to measure how deep the puddle was. He said his stick was bigger then the puddle. 

Fishing for Leaves??

 November had lots of rainy, wet and cold days. On this day, the children went out to our sand pit to explore. They were wondering what happened to the sand with all the rain and with the cold weather. They were very excited to see the huge puddle of water and all these leaves that had gathered within it.

Several of the children decided it looked like a lake of "leaf fish" and wanted to go fishing. 

Some children carefully stretched out as far as they could to reach the perfect fish.  

Others gathered sticks to use as fishing poles. 

This was a great opportunity to problem solve how they were going to reach the "leaf fish" without falling in. I wish I could of captured the team work and co-operation between the students.

"Look Mrs. DeYoung how big my Leaf Fish is!!!!!"

100 Day's of school count down

This student was excited to share that she could show the number 23 on the Abacus; just like on the 100 Days of School Chart.

Collecting Snowflakes !!!

The class was full of excitement with our first snowfall this year. We brought out black construction paper to see if we could catch snowflakes. It wasn't long before some of  the children were trying to not only capture a few snowflakes but fill their page.

This student worked with a few other friends to build a tiny snowman. They brought it inside to see how long it would take to melt. Once they were inside, they soon forgot about it and when they remembered it was a puddle in the science centre.  She replied; "Well, that didn't take long. It was too hot in here."