Outdoor Challenge - The Afternoon Class

This past week our school participated in the Outdoor Challenge.  We spent five exciting, creative, wet, fun, memorable days outside learning and playing together.

Monday - Day 1

We started our day with the story Little Cloud by Eric Carle at our Tarp Time.  We looked at the clouds and pointed out different things we saw in they sky.  We knew it was going to rain tomorrow, so we practiced our team work skills and put together a wind shield for our "Home Base." 

Then we explored the outdoor discovery centres. We really liked the  materials found at fence weaving and designed our own special outfits. Some of us painted sticks and rocks,  made art with loose parts and collected things from nature on our play ground.

We finished the day with walk to Bruce Park with our Learning Buddies.  We filmed our GoNoodle Dance Video with our buddies and had a little play time. What a fantastic first day!!

  

Tuesday - Day 2 We started our second day with a Nature Walk to Assiniboine Park with our learning buddies. Everyone took a paint chip and tried to find a perfect match to one of the colours.  We took our time and noticed all the different shades of greens and browns. Once all the flowers ore in bloom, we want to go back and find all the colours in the rainbow. When we got back to the school, we started to do some exploring at the wet outdoor discovery centres.   We made magic potions with puck paints, observed what happens to sidewalk chalk when it gets wet and had our snacks under the shelters that were built in the morning. Wednesday - Day 3 Today we gave our walking feet a rest and stayed in the school ground all afternoon. Everyone wasn't as excited to go out in the rain as they were yesterday.  With a little quick thinking, we came up with a plan that got big smiles from everyone. We used the large spools donated by WesTower Communications to make the perfect outdoor stage. We even used some tarps and bungee cords to make a backdrop! Everyone had a blast singing and dancing on the spools and then jumping off to splash in some very BIG puddles! After our video shoot, we had lots of time to explore the water discovery centres. We worked together to build and decorate sandcastles, used different materials to make boats to float in the puddles and made lots and lots of soup in water play area. At story time, Mrs. McDonald read us the story Not a Stick, by Antoinette Portis and then we all shared what we imagined a stick could be used for. Thursday  - Day 4 We were so happy to see the sun today!!  At Tarp Time, we practised our math skills and made a number line. All the numbers were mixed up and some were missing.  We used a hula hoop for zero then put the  numbers 1-10 in order.  We challenged ourselves to make the number line continue by making the numbers 11-15 with our bodies.  We are smart kindergartens! Next, we met our Learning Buddies on the front steps and listened to a story read by Mrs. du Plessis. This book gave us 10 rules to find the perfect rock. We walked to Assiniboine Park to look for our very own perfect rock. On the way, we stopped for a dance video break and got lots of smiles from all the people walking by. Then we pulled out our Nature Journals to sketch at the Duck Pond. We looked closely, drew what we saw and wrote about our observations.  It was the perfect day for sharing, dancing, exploring and writing in the park. Friday - Day 5 Today was Mud Day! A big pile of soil was delivered to the front of the school.  The teachers shovelled the soil into different buckets and set up a "Mud Kitchen" with all the fantastic supplies donated by our families. Some of us couldn't wait to get dirty, while other chose to play on the swings and structure. At first, we had a lot of mud soup, but as we played we problem solved and we made lots of discoveries about texture and consistency.  Then we were able to make mud balls or mud chicken nuggets.  We even made mud money to buy a rubber ducky  from our friend who made their own Ducky Store. It was an exciting, exhausting and fun week of learning.  Everyone should be extremely proud of themselves!

Personalize a photo slideshow

Outdoor Challenge - The Morning Class

This past week our school participated in the Outdoor Challenge.  We spent five exciting, creative, wet, fun, memorable days outside learning and playing together.

Monday - Day 1

We started this beautiful day by going on a Nature Walk to Bruce Park.  As we walked, we took special care to notice all the little things around us. In the park, we took a little break and played for little. Just before we left, we asked some city workers to come dance with us!  They said yes, (after a little coaxing) and will be featured in our GoNoodle dance video.

When we got back to the school, we explored at a variety of outdoor discovery centres.  We made art with loose parts, tried some fence weaving and painted sticks and rocks.

To end the day, we reflected on our morning and wrote and drew in our nature journals.  

Tuesday -  Day 2 The second day was very different than the first. It was rainy and very windy, but that didn't stop us!   With the help of the other classes, we constructed a shelter with tarps, bungee cords, strings and our play structure.   It was hard work, but it was worth it because it helped keep us a little drier. After, we explored at more discovery centres.  We poured, measured, role played, made music, shared, created and imagined. We finished our day with a story perfect for a day like today.  Muddle Puddle, by Robert Munsch. Wednesday - Day 3 We started with another Nature Walk, but this time to Assiniboine park. Everyone took a paint chip and tried to find a perfect match to one of the colours.  We noticed that rain made all the colours in the flower garden look so much brighter!   We jumped in puddles, filmed more for our music video, played at the Nature playground, ate our snack and made it back in time for a special story read by Mrs. McDonald.  She read the book, Not a Stick, by Antoinette Portis and shared what we imagined a stick could be used for.      Thursday - Day 4 The sun was shinning and we couldn't be more happy!  Together, we created an obstacle course. We had to write our names with sidewalk chalk, balance, jump, crawl, take turns, and have lots of fun!  For discovery time, we painted big spools with different nature objects like rocks and dandelions. We even got to chase after the Earth Ball on the field! Ms. Versteeg came out and we had music outside. Then we snuck into the library for our last book exchange of the year and then returned outside with Mrs. Branco who read us another Robert Munsch story! Friday - Day 5 Today was Mud Day! A big pile of soil was delivered to the school.  A "Mud Kitchen" was set up with all the fantastic supplies donated by our families. At first some of us didn't want to get dirty or even touch the mud.  By the end of the day everyone was a muddy mess, but all smiles!! We also found treasures, had duck races and explored with more water play.  Everyone should be so proud of themselves for participating  in the Outdoor Challenge.  It was an adventure to remember!

Make a slideshow

 

SaveSave

The Kinders Go Back In Time...

After researching, writing, editing, acting and filming, our Dinosaur Adventure movie is complete.  We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we did creating it!

The Morning Class

The Afternoon Class

The kinders couldn't have all the fun in the time machine... At our Dino Day Celebration, we invited our families to travel back in time to when the dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Morning Families

Afternoon Families

The Dinosaur Museum

After six weeks of learning, exploring and creating everything dinosaurs, we were finally ready to share our Dinosaur Museum with family, friends and the other classes in our school.

We added the finishing touches to the exhibits and our dinosaur posters.  We wrote and delivered special invitations to the other classrooms so they would come and visit our museum.

  

Before the museums grand opening on Thursday, we practised asking each other questions so we would be ready for our visitors. We were so excited and couldn't wait to share all of our learning! We opened the doors and welcomed the first class into our room. Each of the class visits started with a special viewing of our Dinosaur Adventure Movie. Then, we took our places and the students and teachers were invited to ask us (the Museum Specialists) lots of questions!

 

    

The Morning Class

The Afternoon Class 

Thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed our Dinosaur Museum!  

Velociraptor complete with hand drawn feathers

                   

The Making of a Dinosaur Museum

The past few weeks have flown by! We have been busy transforming our classroom into a Dinosaur Museum to share our learning with our friends and family.  

Together, we came up with a list of different areas or exhibits that our Museum would need and got straight to work.

We added leaves to our spring tree so the herbivore dinosaurs would have something to eat and created waterfalls for drinking.

After looking around our classroom a little more, we noticed that our house corner did not fit in to what we were trying to do.  We painted a huge mural to help make that area look more like a museum instead of a classroom.

We kept our learning going and really looked closely at dinosaur fossils and skeletons.  We started by making small skeletons out of Q-tips which made creating our much bigger version a lot easier.

One of the most exciting things that has happened during the creation of our Museum is all the collaboration and team work! If you were to walk into the kindergarten classroom you would see students working together to create, solve problems and share ideas!

The morning students thought we needed to have coprolite  (dinosaur poop) in our Museum and the afternoon students worked together to create a dinosaur nest. 

 

We have also collaborated with some very talented people from our school. For our upcoming Dino Day, we wanted to make our own Dinosaur movie. In the movie, we travel back in time to when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  

Mrs. Jones and one of her grade 3 students modelled how to write an exciting movie script. The criteria for this piece of writing was it had to have a "hook" at the beginning, three facts about a dinosaur and then an ending.  This grade 3 student was so excited to help, that he took it upon himself to write  his own example to share with us! 

  

We also used Mr. V's music talents to help create the soundtrack to our movie.  He showed us how to use GarageBand and then we experimented with different sounds effects and music clips to create our own unique track. It was amazing how fast the students picked up on how the music had patterns in it and what sounded good and what did not. 

 

 

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who helped in the writing, editing, rehearsing, filming and putting together of our Dinosaur Movie!  We are so lucky to have such a great team at Linwood School!

Past Kinder Dino Experts (grade 5's) helping rehearse our lines

Another big Thank You to Miss Versteeg for teaching us an amazing Dinosaur Song that we will perform during our Dino Day Celebration!