Math - Counting Bears

It was an interesting afternoon counting with the boys. They were asked to choose to their own 5 coloured bears. The boys all had different colour combinations, which took us a while to get ready.

The boys were curious about the total amount of the bears they took out. As a result, we gathered all the bears in the middle and count together.

"What color is the most popular that most children choose?" 

Here, we lined up and sorted the bears by colour. What a great way to visualize the relation of the amount of each coloured bears! Each boy was in charge of counting one colour and report the result fro the group.

The children practiced predicting, counting, reporting data in a playful way through this activity.

Science - Magnets

This afternoon, the children were given a tray full of different objects to explore with magnets.

The children were asked to sort the objects into two groups, attracted and not attracted by magnets.

With various shaped magnets, the children manipulated and learned about magnetism. This invisible force can pull/attract or push objects. It was very interesting to see the children had their own ways to explore magnets!

wood is not attracted by the magnet.

Look! I hang it up.

I can carry so much stuff!

This got pushed up in the air!

Halloween Decoration Craft

This Friday, we decided to make little spiders for Halloween decorating!
As Halloween coming soon, all of us noticed that our room and many houses in the neighbourhood were decorated for Halloween!
What a good pre-assessment for our next unit, "what is our purpose?" (central idea: people use decoration and this helps us learn about each other)!

We painted the spiders black!

The children all chose their own colour for the lags of their spiders!

Math - Heads or Tails

The children were asked to toss or flip a penny this afternoon. "Heads or tails?" We collected and recorded our result on a piece of paper. They were very eager to toss the coins and to guess which side they got!

We counted and compared how many heads and tails we got after 25 tosses.  Having counted carefully, we found that there were 12 heads and 13 tails. It was a good introduction of probability concept for the children. Through this little math experiment, the children practiced collecting and interpreting information.

Science - Build a Bridge

"How can we build a strong bridge?" the children were asked. We all agreed that shapes are very important in building a strong bridge. We decided to test which shape is stronger.

"Will the folded paper be stronger?"

The children all share their ways to build a bridge.

We tried an arch, but it was hard to put things on it. We did not think it would be good for people to walk on this bridge!





Then, we added another piece of paper helping us hold up the objects! It worked pretty well!








Oliver found another way to build his bridge! folding paper in rectangular shape seemed to create a very strong bridge!

Art - Rainbow Fish Project 2

We continued the Rainbow Fish project from last Friday. The children put colourful fish scales and eyes on their fish. At the very end, we added one shinny green scale on the fish because the Rainbow Fish only keeps one shinny scale for itself at the end of the story.  

we spread the glue on the fish!

The fish has lots of colourful scales!

Then, we created the habitat for our fish live. With some sand and plants in the blue ocean, our fish can swim there happily.

 

Science - Float & Sink

This afternoon, we collected some toys and objects in our room for our science experiment. 

"Would this float or sink when we put it into the water?"

The children all made their prediction if the object would float or sink.

Each child picked one object to put into the water. Some children were amazed when they saw the big foam block floated on the water! We sorted the objects into float and sink group.

Math - Coloured Beads

We started our math time from estimating the amount of the coloured beads in a tray. The children were asked "which colour is there most of ?" We all made our guess; then we sorted our beads by colour. 

Each child was in charge of threading one colour of beads onto a piece of string. By doing that, we sorted and separated each colour onto different pieces of string.  

We counted the coloured beads, recorded and compared the amount of each colour.

The children enjoyed threading and counting the beads. It was so interesting to see the smile on their little faces when they proudly displayed and reported their amount of beads. 

Math - Cube Patterns

"I got 3 ways to join the cubes!"

This afternoon, we explored the concept of patterning, perimeter and area by manipulating the interlocking cubes. 
The children were given 5 cubes and were asked to join the cubes together in the ways they like.

"How many ways can we join 5 cubes together?"





Then, we recorded  the shapes we made on square grid paper. The children enjoyed colouring their square grid paper.
This math activity inspired each child in different ways! 

Esme: "it's like the crossword Daddy and Mommy play in the morning!"
Mila & Sofia: "it's like a map! we are going to make a map!"
Roy: "Hey! 3+2 is 5!"

The children were also experimenting with shapes using a 2D (square grid paper) and 3D (interlocking cubes) materials.

"I got a twisty twist! Here, I'll show you!"

Art - Rainbow Fish project 1

This Friday, we read "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister.
Not only learning empathy and compassion towards the needs and feelings of others through the story, the children also started an art project out of it.

we put some cotton in to make our fish puffy!

The children chose the colour they liked to paint their fish colourful! 

 

We will continue the art project next Friday after the paint dried out.