A Castle Inquiry

Castle Creations
We started our classroom castle inquiry after we noticed that many of our students would build castles with the loose parts and blocks on their own. They would proudly show us what they had built and when asked what it was they would say "a castle". After realizing that they were interested in building castles we set up various areas of the room with pictures of castles and various materials, to inspire them to continue their interests in castles.

A Kingdom made from Tim Horton's coffee trays, paper towel tubes, and cut up pool noodles. At the carpet area where we have a lot of building materials I posted a picture of a castle and asked the question, "Can you build a castle?"

A Castle at the Light Table

At the light table we posted a picture of a "Frozen" castle and put out jewels and small coloured foam blocks. The children were so excited to build a Frozen castle as most of them absolutely love that movie right now!



 

Using various craft materials to decorate a castle.

At this table we posted different pictures of castles, displayed castle books, and left clipboards with paper labelled "My Plan" for the students to draw what they would like their castle to look like before building it.

Here a student drew out her plan ahead of time of what she would like
her castle to look like before she started to build it.

Catapult Fun!
We were lucky to have such an amazing student teacher in our classroom who came up with a lot of fun activities for the kids. Here she built a catapult after reading about them in a castle book. The children used marshmallows to catapult from the spoon. They had a blast with this!

Another castle built using different building materials available at the carpet/block area.

Decorating wands!

Making their own coat of arms with their favourite things.

A Class Dragon Tale.
Our student teacher chose a big book about Dragons and had the children use their imaginations to predict what they thought the title should be and what was happening on each page by doing a picture walk. Our class created story was quite funny! After recording what different students said, the student teacher typed it into comic life and posted our story on a wall in the classroom. Now this story is available at the reading area in a duotang for the kids to enjoy!

Our Kingdom
After a class vote the kids decided our Kingdom should be called "Sophia the First Kingdom". We used large boxes picked up for free from a furniture store. The kids painted them and added tin foil. They also made flags for the top and their own crowns to wear when they were playing in the castle at the dramatic play area.  

A Castle Inquiry
Here we have posted pictures of different castles the children built and their own written description of what they had built. There is also a KWL chart posted so we could see what they already knew about castles and what they were learning along the way.

At the end of our castle inquiry we had the parents come in for a Castle Feast!

Patterning

Patterning with Alphabet Bean Bags.
On this particular day we had just started a whole group math lesson on patterning. Later, when the children were playing a group of students pulled out the bin of our alphabet bean bags and created simple patterns on their own. They were so excited to show us teachers that they had made a pattern together as a group!

Creating and Continuing Patterns
The students enjoyed this activity that was set out at our writing table. We created a simple pattern on an overhead sheet and left blank spaces for the students to try to continue to the pattern using the white board markers. We then asked the question, Can you make a pattern?" to see if the children were able to draw a pattern on their own.

Making their own patterns on the whiteboards laid out at the writing table.

A Pattern Provocation
We set out 4 separate bowls using natural items at the math table and posed the question "Can You Make a Pattern?" It was interesting to see how drawn the children were to this activity.

Making a simple pattern with loose parts.

Each student created their own unique pattern that was different from their peers.

Patterns at the Playdough Table.
We set out some loose parts (straws, noodles, and beads) at the playdough table to see what they would create. I think because we had already done some whole group math lessons on patterning the children were eager to make patterns on their own where the materials were set out to allow them to do so.
 

Making Patterns Using Different Materials.

Another Patterning Provocation
When the students returned from lunch one day, I set up a basket of loose parts, four papers with spiral designs, and two mirrors with patterns I made to inspire the children to make their own patterns with the materials set out.

A Spiral Pattern Design made with Loose Parts.
With this student they started off with a pattern using the green and pink flowers and then switched to the gems and stones to make a more complex pattern (2 gems, 1 stone, 2 gems, 1 stone).

Making a Pattern at the Light Table Area.
This student was playing by herself with the loose parts available to use at the light table. I walked over and noticed that she had used the blue and red jewels to make a pattern and placed them in the clear tiny cups. These particular items were placed at the light table with a picture of a castle since we were doing a castle inquiry. It was neat to see this student using the materials that were placed out to inspire the children to build a castle, to create a pattern instead. I asked her what she was making and she said it was "juice"!

Making a Pattern During Lunch
I found this very inspirational to see that even when a child is eating their lunch and socializing with their friends, they enjoy choosing to partake in math activities on their own.  

Autumn Learning

Autumn Learning

Autumn is my favourite season of the year with all of the beautiful colours, the crisp cool air, and the harvesting of the abundance of vegetables and apples here in Ontario. There are also many opportunities to bring nature into the classroom during this time of year as well as bringing the classroom outdoors. Below is a glimpse of some of the activities we did during the fall season in our classroom.

2 students are exploring together the fall themed materials set out at the light table. I also had tiny clear plastic cups that fit the plastic clear and coloured pumpkins perfectly.

The ECE in the classroom brought in a variety of gourds and set them out at the science and discovery table for the children to feel, observe, ask questions, and to record their thoughts. We also set out the magnifying glasses and had them record their observations in their science journals.

After exploring the classroom gourds at the science table the children had asked where we had gotten them from. This started the conversation about what a Farmer's Market was and what can be bought there. We decided to turn our dramatic play area into our own classroom Farmer's Market. Here we have some children designing and painting the sign to be displayed.

The start of the farmer's market. We made apples with Styrofoam balls and painted them adding pipe cleaners for the stem. We also made apple and pumpkin pies using tissue paper and paper plates. After the children labelled the bins and added a price amount.

The students role playing being customers and cashiers.

Playing in the Autumn sensory bin. The students enjoyed putting the tiny sparkled pumpkins in the ice cube trays then counting to see how many they needed to fill it completely.

Apple Water Table

Apple Prints

Creating a jack-O-lantern with the pumpkin play dough and loose parts.

Making tiny pumpkins with the pumpkin play dough and sticks.

Sorting leaves by colour that we had collected on a nature walk.

Corn painting with fall coloured paint.

Planting our pumpkin seeds after we had cut open a pumpkin and explored the inside. Each student planted a seed in a cup with dirt and water. We placed them in the classroom windows to see if any would sprout a seedling. We also learned about how and what plants need to grow.

Making crock pot apple crisp with the apples we picked at our AppleLand field trip.

Outdoor leaf rubbings. The students found a leaf that they liked outside and placed them under a page in their science journals then rubbed a crayon over the page and leaf to reveal the intricate designs of a leaf.  They loved this activity!

Comparing and noticing the differences between the two pumpkins.

Dinosaur Discovery

Dinosaurs and Playdough

This year quite a few children displayed an interest in dinosaurs. One JK boy in particular his parents had said on the first day of school that he loves anything with sharp teeth such as sharks and dinosaurs. I hadn't planned on bringing out the bin of dinosaurs we had hidden away in our cupboards but when this boy was hesitant to come into the classroom on his first day, I brought them out. He was instantly drawn to them and went right into the classroom to play. I added the dinosaurs to our" chicka-chicka boom boom" sensory bin, that then became our "dinosaur" bin.

Discovering Dinosaurs
After seeing how much the students enjoyed playing with our toy dinosaurs I displayed books about dinosaurs on our science table and in our reading area. The children learned a lot of facts about different dinosaurs and how some were meat-eaters and others ate plants.

Digging for "Bones"

After reading about paleontologists and what that big fancy word means and what they do, we did a fun activity by becoming paleontologists ourselves! The children each received a chocolate chip cookie and a toothpick so they could dig for "bones" and get the chocolate chips out of cookie.

Digging for Dinosaur Bones

In our sandbox we put small paintbrushes, scrapers, magnifying glasses, stones with dinosaur prints on them, and clay formations with dinosaurs hidden inside. The students could use the paintbrushes to delicately brush off the sand when they found a fossil and use the scrapers to dig for fossils hidden in the clay.

Dinosaurs, playdough, and loose parts.

Dinosaur Eggs

Each morning the children would excitedly come into the room to see if our dinosaur/reptile eggs had hatched. We had also made some predictions about what we thought the eggs would become as not all of the eggs were dinosaurs (we also had a snake inquiry going on). We had guesses such as; lizards, birds, chickens, and even humans!

"Dinosaur Land" made with recycled cardboard, water bottles, tissue paper, paint, shredded paper and rocks.

Dinosaur Imprints in Playdough

Building a dinosaur with fossils on the light table.

Making a Dinosaur Egg experiment

The ECE in the classroom made a dinosaur egg with the whole class. She simply used baking soda, water, and green food colouring to create the egg. She formed the egg around a tiny dinosaur and left it to dry over night. The next day the egg was dry and hard.

Finding the Hidden Dinosaur

The next day after the egg had dried we had the class get together as a whole to make predictions about what will happen when we spray the egg with vinegar. The children first smelt the vinegar to guess what liquid was going to be used. The children were so engaged in this science experiment and were amazed when the egg started to fizzle away to reveal the dinosaur hidden inside!