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...