This Moment

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment...

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Monet and Water Lilies

Sorry, Spoiler Alert!!!  Mothers Day Art Project.

We have had the loveliest time painting this week.  We continued our studies in art by looking at Claude Monet and we made our own version of the famous water lily paintings.

I had the pleasure of sitting with two children at a time and working my way through 43 paintings!  There was lots of talk about light and blending colour and smooshing the edges.  I made a few stencils of water lily pads that I had the children place on their canvas and trace with pencil.  Then we just went in with lots and lots of paint.

I ordered thin canvases from Deserres.  These canvases were great in that we were able to record all the important information on the back.  The one thing I neglected was to date the paintings and I recommend that you do that.  Especially when your budding artist is a grown up.  They will want to know when they painted their water lilies.  I so loved this project and I hope you do to.  I especially enjoyed my down time chatting with all your children as we painted.  Wishing you all a lovely Mothers's Day!  ~Ms. Michelle

Caine's Arcade

Wow, I don't really know what to say about this.  If you have not heard of Caine's Arcade or watched the short film you really need to.  It was the best 10 minutes I've spent watching anything for a long time.  I laughed, I cried (I really did) and I felt joyful for this young boy.  Check out Caine's Arcade and let your imagination take over!

Songs from Around the World

For the last few weeks in music class we have been singing songs 

about our neighbourhood, and the people and places in it. Many of the songs are charming and old-fashioned, about cobblers and bakers and teddy bears. We also sang about mailing letters, and about mailing ourselves (that sparked a lot of silly discussion!).The children have learned to name some rhythms (especially "ta ta ti- ti ta" and "ti-ti ta ti-ti ta"), and we were able to discover these rhythms in our songs, so that instead of singing "teddy bear, teddy bear," we would sing "ti-ti ta ti-ti ta" in its place. We also played lots of games with the notation of these simple rhythms, so that the children can lay out cards with rhythmic components in the corresponding order. It's been a busy time!!We are now heading into our final unit, which will be songs from around the world. We will learn quite a few French songs, but there will also be songs from Austria, Greece, Mexico, Russia, and Africa, and maybe more!  ~Ms. Susanne

The Week in Review

I'm just taking popping in to wish you all a happy weekend and give you some snapshots of our week.  It has been a very busy one. 

I am sure that you noticed that incredible paper structure on our carpet on Monday when you picked up at the end of the day.  We had the pleasure of working with some Scientists from  Dalhousie University's "Lets talk Science" program.  Two scientists came in and made structures with our children. 

 We learned how to make bridges with paper and what it is about the design that makes them so strong.

 We learned about layers and strength with tissues.  Testing to see how many layers before our structure collapsed. 

 We built an amazing Paper Structure with Triangles and tubes.  When I stopped for a moment to look back on the morning I noticed that our children are using these materials all the time.  It is in all that we do with our various Sensorial Materials. 

What was interesting, was that when I stopped to listen to the children as this structure was being built, I heard lots of talk about whether or not it was an octogon or a pentagon or something else.  I didn't intrude on this discussion to correct anyone I just let it naturally unfold.

I am thinking we will be making more structures, perhaps on our next rainy day!

 The addition Strip board saw a lot of action this week.  My friend here can add all the way up into the nines!  She was so proud of herself. 

 You will be seeing lots of lifecycle work coming home.  We are patiently waiting on our butterfly larva.  I hope it comes soon. 

Beautiful Binomial work!  Happy Weekend!

Osha Mae Giveaway for May

 I am happy to announce that Laura Wae of Osha Mae has kindly offered up one of her yummy gift bags of goodness for our May giveaway.
In our gift bag you will find some Pumpkin soap, Atlantic Sea kelp soap, Unscented oatmeal soap, Yarrow Hydrosol, Cinnamon Spray, and The Ancient Kyphi incense oil for your bath or massage.  It all smells amazing and I can tell you that her products are wonderful.  We are waiting on a specially made soap order for Maple Tree.  We have noticed that our children prefer to wash their hands with a bar of soap and I asked Laura if she could make us up some Earth to Ocean bars that were just right for little hands.

It is so important to me to support our local businesses and use natural and safe products.  These soaps lather up well, rinse well and last a long time!  Welcome, Osha Mae to Maple Tree!

If you just can't wait on your chance to win our gift bag, you can drop into the Halifax Seaport Market and find Osha Mae Upstairs across from Java Blend.

Announcing Our Winner for April

 

Congratulations to RHM, our April winner of the Sun Print Kit.  Your Sun Print Kit will be available for pick up in your child's art file tomorrow.

I CAN'T wait to use our kit at Maple Tree!!