Today’s weather brought surprises and inspired good questions. A group pulled up chairs to watch the snow. LI wondered: It’s snowing. The sun came out and we know sun melts snow but it’s not melting. Why not?”
Hmm, good question! What do you think? #NoticingNature

What to do on a blustery day (yesterday)? Well, there’s a lot you can do with a 🌈 parachute and a group of friends! We played “catch a bubble”, “popcorn”, “swap sides” and more. Can you hear the energy?

Ms. Moore fixed the wooden stackers our tracks needed, & brought them back. Thanks Ms. Moore!
Some comments we heard:
NS: A speed run.
VV: I was putting the balls on the slide.
LL: Fast.
SJ: There were 3 different tracks on each side, & I tried to make it fast by pushing (the tennis balls).

And then we got to answer AJ’s question - yes, bird nests are real. We saw one and looked closely. AJ noticed the interesting materials used in it including spider webs. Great observations! #NoticingNature

We noticed a lot of squirrels around the yard, too. One was noisily eating a bit in a tree overhead, but it ran down when a group of us went to watch it.
AJ asked an interesting question that led us to go for a walk to see if we could find out. He asked “Are bird nests real?” We saw squirrel nests…

From yesterday - we had a wonderful morning in the park, even staying outside for our story time. There were a lot of wonders and observations on this warm, partly cloudy morning.
Here, SJ found “a fluffy seed flower” while CP found a worm and wondered about what it was doing in the sandpit.

Once we got to the playground, it was dry and we stayed to play. Suddenly, everyone was finding ladybugs. It really WAS warm outside today!

We also spotted what we think is the biggest worm ever.
Do you agree? It’s very big!

This morning’s warm, wet weather gave us an idea: we didn’t want to use the playground wet, so we went on a Fun Friday Expedition… first stop, the rocks and “the berry tree forest” along the Nine Creeks Trail. Students hid in the lower branches while others watched robins eating berries in treetops.

Today, the last group of students worked on making poppies with the leaf-printing technique we learned last week. Here LS shows the second step: roll the leaf and lift to reveal the print. Beautiful!

We went out around the schoolyard this morning before the rain came. AJ and CS gathered a bunch of leaves, when A called me over. He said, “It’s Canada, see?” And C held up one of his maple leaves to compare. Yes, 🍁 like 🇨🇦. The leaves lead to so many observations. #TreeInquiry

The best part was the reveal, when each one was peeled back to “show the magic!”
Worth walking to the far side of the tennis courts for those tulip tree leaves. SB shows his paint magic in the video clip. He asked if he could share. 🌈🍁🖼️

Another day of students collecting leaves, so another day of experimenting with paint.
Yesterday’s leaf prints were fun but they turned out muddy & splotchy. We decided to try again. Today, we used sponges instead of brushes and added a roller to smooth the leaves out. It was an interesting process.

Another way exploring teaches us about painting is when we notice different effects.
This leaf print didn't show the shape as TB expected it to. Was there too much paint, or not enough? These questions fuel further exploration and our observations help us refine techniques.
Play is learning.

Painting explorations continues in K2. As trees give us free materials, we keep trying new things.
We have tried painting on leaves and pressing them. We have tried painting over leaves and leaving a cool shape. We painted on crayon resist prints. What else to do? We'll see what tomorrow brings!

CS found an interesting creature while we were out riding bikes, & protected it. It was bigger than any beetle we’ve seen around here. CP thought it might be a cricket until he looked closely. HC wondered if it could be an “oil bug” but we weren’t sure.
Has anyone else seen this big insect before?