Learning About Leaves

This week I have been studying leaves with a few of the children in the class.  We have spent a great deal of time at the playground hunting leaves and bringing our favorites back to the classroom.  We have  some resources in the classroom that help us learn about leaves such as books, nomenclature cards and our “Parts of the Leaf” puzzle.  We have been examining the individual parts of our real leaves and learning the names from our nomenclature cards.  This has been a nice lesson in nature and a great vocabulary builder. ~Ms. Melanie

This Moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. 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.

Leaves and Paint

 We've been looking at leaves in the classroom lately and this week we are making spray paint leaf pictures! The little bit of extra mess has been worth each and every smile on the kids faces as they squeeze the spray bottles and out come the colours. Each child has surprised me with how carefully they chose where to spray their second and third colours and deciding when their picture was just right. Seeing all the unique creations has been wonderful.  ~Ms. Ann

Two little Apples

At the beginning of the year in music class we spend the first few weeks getting to know one another, and so we sing about new friends at school and about our families at home.  You might hear some of these songs from your little one these days:  There Were Ten in the Bed, There is Somebody Waiting for Me, or Shoo, Fly!
We usually tap a steady beat as we sing, and some of our songs have actions, or a game that is incorporated with the singing.  We also do lots of circle games and dances as we sing, to promote the social aspect of making music together.
We are also singing music with fall harvest in mind, and you may hear Can you Plant a Cabbage Seed? or the words to Two Little Apples at home.  This last is a spoken rhyme, with actions, and very popular in the class right now, so with a little encouragement, you might even get your child to speak it for you.  Here are the words, so you know what you are listening for:

Two little apples, hanging on a tree.
Two little apples, smiling at me.
I shook that tree as hard as I could,
Down came the apples!
Mmm, they were good!

~Ms. Susanne

This Moment

A Friday ritual. 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.

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Spelt Muffins

2 cups Spelt Flour (I used unbleached all purpose flour instead)
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1Tbs  Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/3 Cup Dark Chocolate Chips (I used dairy free ones)
2 Large Eggs
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
1 tsp Vanilla
3/4 Cup Sugar
11/2 Cups Pumpkin Puree




Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease muffin tin or line with muffin cups.  Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients together and all dry ingredients to the wet and gently mix.  Do not over mix or you will have flat muffins.  These were super tasty today and not vey sweet at all.  They were very moist and had a super pumpkin flavour.  I would make these again for sure.  We had them for afternoon snack at Quinpool.  ~ms. michelle

Sunshine in a Vase

 This project is a couple of weeks old now and I've meant to post it sooner and share my thoughts about it.  We are looking at two artist this month.  Van Gogh and Cezzane.  Over the years I have collected some fantastic children's books about various artist.

 Van Gogh and the Sunflowers is one of those books.    It is a lovely read and we were able to look at Sunflowers up close from my garden and talk about them.

Those same sunflowers are now drying out as we will use them for seed collecting work.  Aren't sunflowers incredible?  They just keep giving.  They grow and blossom and provide food for animals and inspiration to the young budding artist and seeds for the next year for planting.  They are a most cheerful bit of loveliness in a fall garden and the last small bit of summer.

On this day that we looked at Van Gogh, I painted my own vase of flowers based on a vase set up at the art easel.  The children watched me mix colours and smoosh my brush and well, just have fun with it.  The result was beautiful.  I very much enjoyed watching children come and go and paint their own version of what they saw during that week.  I am setting this up at our Quinpool campus this week and am excited to see what the children see and paint.  I think my favourite paintings are the ones that are very loose and free.  You will see what I mean when you scroll through.  The colour mixing was fun to watch.  I am not an artist and I do not have an art background but I do feel very passionate about putting real materials in children's hands and making sure they understand and appreciate all kinds of art.  It is one of my most favourite things about being a teacher.  ~Ms. Michelle