A large part of our philosophy is that children are competent and capable and come to us eager to learn.  This is evident countless times through our day.  I'm realizing that the documentation we are posting below came all from today (with the vehicle documentation building over time) and, on a regular basis, we have a hard time keeping up with all of the amazing ideas, learning, and self-directed exploration.

Mrs. Diljee and I have been fascinated as we've watched a group of children use blocks and other pieces of furniture to build stable structures.  Recently, most of the structures seem to be vehicles but there is so much creativity in the types of vehicles we are seeing (tanks, trains, jets, rocketships, ships, etc.).  We are also in awe of the amount of measurement taking place along with the concept of symmetry emerging.  There has been a recent interest in planets with our rocket ship, so we have introduced the concept of the 3D shape called a sphere.  We also have provided globes as a model of the Earth which has inspired conversations about where in the world their vehicle is travelling.  The richness of the stories being told during this discovery time is incredible.

The concept of 3D shapes has been uncovered a lot lately during our exploration.  The clay creations inquiry group watched a Pingu video clip today where clay characters are animated.  This inspired us to try some of our own characters and we used 3D shape language as we created (sphere, cylinder, cube and cone).  

We've noticed the sphere shape coming up a lot - especially with snow that can be packed into that shape!  Encourage your child to find 3D shapes in their environment as you are in the car or out for a walk.  Children need meaningful and real-life connections to solidify their learning.

Spheres came up again when children explored styrofoam balls and dowling.  There were all sorts of creative uses for these inventions and attention to detail as children were building structures.

Our interest in mixing continues and we've noticed that children tend to mix our loose parts in the classroom together.  We wanted to provide a space for this so cleared out our sand and mixed in many objects.  The theory behind loose parts is that giving children open-ended and enticing materials that can uncover all sorts of curriculum (math, art, science, language) will allow them to use them in creative ways.  Children were eager to explore this area - some were still exploring in their coats as they came in!  Check it out.

Instead of Mrs. Diljee or Miss Heffernan reading today, we had a new face in the "teacher chair" reading Pete the Cat (one of our favourites).