There has been a lot of interest in Outdoor Learning this year with educators wanting to create safe learning spaces that provide play based programs. I wanted to share a google document from last June that I hope is helpful to those families or educators looking for fresh ideas. I would love hear what playful activities are working for you. Thanks for stopping by, Outdoor Math Play & Loose Parts...

“…The Atelier had to be a place for the individual (or collaborations) exploration of projects…a place for researching motivations and theories of children from scribbles on up, a place for exploring variations in tools, techniques, and materials with which to work.” Richland Academy Yarn and Water Colour Art Process Art Good morning, It is so hard to believe that we are already in January and heading into our colder weather and second term. I hope that you are enjoying a restful and joyful winter break. I have appreciated having so much time for hiking and plenty of space in my days to read, write and draw. Due to Covid restrictions our family has become skilled with virtual visits and have moved from indoor gatherings to family walks. I am so grateful that our children live close by.  This month the children will continue with many of the now familiar learning frameworks like Counting Collections, Writing Workshop, Shared Conversations and Story Play. Our offsite program will be depe...

My early learning program has always included small world play as a learning centre for my kindergarten students however after visiting Reggio Emilia, Italy to study their program, I returned to Canada excited to make changes to my program which reflected increased time for exploration  with my students.   I returned to Reggio Emilia the next year with the   intention to focus my professional learning on documentation and exploration play. It was an exciting opportunity and my third journey to the Reggio Emilia Opal School in Portland was postponed due to the outbreak of Covid-19.  One of the first changes that I made to the program was Story Play. I continued my learning with course work offered through the  Opal School (a small pre-k- gr 5 North America Reggio Emilia focus school with a strong partnership with RE) to deepen my understanding with Story Workshop and to further understand the perspective of student led learning through exploration of rich materials.  At the Opal School ...

Good morning, We have had such a wonderful time with Miss Minty and will be sad to say goodbye next Friday. We will miss her kind heart, joyful teaching and caring manner. She has worked very hard and has completed the student teacher requirements. Miss Minty will graduate this month from the VIU Education Program. This coming week she will be spending some time in other classrooms observing different grades. However she will be with us every morning for the outdoor program. We are planning a little celebration the final half hour on Friday afternoon which will include sharing a slideshow of Moments with Miss Minty and a Christmas Treat together. This will be a purchased treat.  We have told the children that we will have one final week and Miss Minty will be sure to spend time with each child this week. Our Christmas video was filmed yesterday and today is being edited. I expect to upload it on Monday so that you can view it and will send out an announcement confirming how to view. We...

BC Kindergarten math is a really fun and easy to implement in an outdoor program. Here are five math play activities that we have been doing in the forest or beach the last few weeks. We  have been trying to be offsite four mornings a week and so have adopted a schedule of forest math twice a week,  art and then nature journals at the beach. Comparing sticks is a great way to encourage children to explore length and width. Is your stick longer or shorter, where does it fit on our stick line? We ended up with a Christmas tree! We did this as a whole group but could now re-introduce it as a small group challenge. and bring along some extra nature bits like small fir cones and chestnuts for decoration. We also used a collection of rocks to encourage the children to explore balance, spatial reasoning and number sense. Taking advantage of a pile of rocks the children were challenged to see how many rocks they could stack. We wanted to encourage the  children to continue exploring symmetry...

Good morning families, We have had a very busy week with Miss Minty completing her units of study and preparing to transition to teaching 50% next week. She will continue teaching in the morning, including our offsite learning, and I will resume the afternoon lessons. The children have done very well with the math study on patterns and the study on Being Mindful which has also included many conversations and activities using our five senses. Our classroom is beginning to look christmassy with coloured lights, our nature pennant (made with red beets, green rosemary, spinach and yellow flowers) as well as the children's festive art.  On Thursday we spoke with the children and decided to spend time decorating the classroom as well as working on our family Christmas gifts. In the outdoor classroom we will continue with our nature pennants and explore some ways to offer Christmas treats to the animals that we share the forest with. I purchased oranges, apples, birdseed and peanut butter...

Photo courtesy of  Childhood 101 Transient Art This year I am continuing to work on my goal as an Reggio Inspired educator to celebrate the 100 languages of children by encouraging a classroom culture of process and transient art. I have intentionally included art in all areas of my kindergarten program including during Story Play, Math Play, Literacy Play, Exploration and Quiet Play. I believe that these repeated opportunities provide children with the confidence and mastery of art skills which can be applied to print, water colour, pastel, paint, collage and of course loose parts play. Christmas trees loose parts play However, it can be tempting to abandon process art for teacher directed art at Christmas so that the children bring home beautiful, perfect pieces to share with their families.  I believe that it is even more important for the children to have time to create their own personal pieces to share with families using child-directed or guided art activities. This makes the ar...

One of the provocations used in the classroom The BC Kindergarten Math Curriculum includes Patterns as part of the children's learning. In my kindergarten program I introduce children to patterns through playful guided experiences.  In the classroom I invite the children to explore patterning by introducing them to patterns in nature, songs, poems, stories, art and then set the table for playful inquiry with loose parts. Photo courtesy of Reggio Children I lay out the materials in a provocative way to provoke the children to explore a rich array of materials. As they explore I observe their work and listen to their conversations about patterning. Often I make notes and take photos to review later. Then using that information as a springboard I engage the children in knowledge building conversations where they think about questions like What makes a pattern? Do all patterns repeat? How are patterns alike and different? Photos courtesy of Krokotak It is fascinating how engaging this ...

Dear Families, As our Kindness Inquiry continues the children have been learning about themselves and each other. We have been exploring our five senses, our different feelings and activities that we enjoy. Naturally the children are interested in family similarities and differences.  Miss Minty and I have found the perfect tree branch to display our family photos. Please email me at  lmccaw@sd68.bc.ca  a family photo which I will print and display in the classroom. If the photo is of your family outdoors even better but not a requirement of course. Using this beautiful book, 123 I Can Make Prints! as inspiration the children have begun a study of print beginning with fruit like apples and oranges and then experimenting with different materials like cardboard, bubblewrap and loose parts. We will be continuing with our water colour and clay activities which have been added to our morning Story Play. Recently we included paint pens, stamps and a variety of colourful sharpies to our art r...

Dear Parents, I always begin to think about Christmas about mid November and begin with a thorough cleaning of my home. The same goes for the classroom. This week as Miss Minty assumes the role of teaching 100% with myself moving to support teacher, I will be cleaning and refreshing the classroom, updating our art corner and working more closely in small groups. I have removed the home centre to leave more space for block and road building. The literacy assessment is completed and your child's e-portfolio has been updated. This past week I began to work with the children on showing them how to video themselves and upload the video to their portfolio. We began with asking the children to count to ten and back down to zero and will move to making number groupings to five followed by patterns. It is so satisfying to offer this opportunity to your child to reflect on his/her learning and share it with you through the e-portfolio.  Miss Minty's unit on Mindfulness has really connect...