We had a fair bit of rain last week.  Two days of indoor recess.

The upside is that the rain filled up some puddles.

And in between showers, we got outside for some puddle play.

Pants tucked in to rubber boots.  Don't get anyone else wet.  Go have fun in the puddles.


Creating rivers with "boot digging" so the water can flow downhill.  Why won't water go uphill. How can we make it go faster.

Had to get some rocks out of the way. Co-operation and physics (using sticks as levers). 

Around the corner to a ramp.

They really wanted to get the water to flow under the ramp and out the other side. More boot digging required. 

Sometimes the puddle does not need to be controlled and changed, just enjoyed with a couple of sticks.

happy puddle playing

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Sandi

The kidlets and I went to the forest.

The kidlets had a mission.  They needed to find a stick.  The only rule was that it could not have roots on it and still be in the ground.  (I should have been a bit more specific: I should have said the kidlets  needed to be taller than the stick!)

Sticks in hand, we looked at all their different sizes.  We wondered who had the smallest sticks.  Down they went on our small tarp.

The kidlets measured to see where their sticks should go in the stick triangle.

Everyone contributed a couple of sticks to to collection.

And then we went to play.

Until it was time to go inside and read

Huge thanks to Juliet Robertson for this idea; her blog I'm a Teacher Get Me OUTSIDE Here is a go to resource for fabulous outdoor activities.

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Sandi

I believe that being outside, hanging out with nature, is good for the body, brain and soul.

I know that I am very blessed to live in a town on the ocean, with forests out our backdoor.  And  even more blessed that my school has a huge school yard with hills, a garden and a big forested area.  

We play outside ...  exploring, running, making games, digging holes, climbing, pretending ... every day.

One of my goals for this school year was to bring more of our structured, focused learning outside.

Today, we brought a wee bit of literacy outside. We made a nature letter museum.  (A tip of my cap to Juliet from I'm a Teacher Get Me OUTSIDE Here.)

We brainstormed what we could use from the forest to make the first letters of our names.  We were pretty limited  to leaves, sticks and pinecones.  Pinecones being the hands down material of choice.

this young man spent over half an hour sounding out and making pine cone words

Check out some of the exhibits in our Letter Museum.

After making our letters, we got down to the serious business of playing with sticks, rocks and leaves, running, jumping, chasing - the serious business of childhood.

            

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Sandi

Winter solstice.

The last day of school before Christmas.

The remnants of an earlier in the week snowfall on the ground.  Balmy, cloudy but not rainy weather.

Fifty kids and a sprinkling of wonderful parents.

A perfect time for a walk.

We saw

tall trees 

(that's how we make them here)

 nurse logs

soft, thick moss

mushrooms

 a few "no fires" signs

We got to a meadow, and fulfilled our "take care of living creatures" mission.  We fed the birds.  

Each child had a small bag filled with birdseed to scatter on the snow for the birds.  The kidlets took their bird feeding responsibility very seriously, carefully placing or scattering the seed on the ground.

While we were walking one of my wee lads asked me why we were going for a walk in the woods.  

My answer was that walking in the woods is good for our bodies, our brains and our souls.

Definitely good for the soul.

I think that sharing the walk together was the best Christmas gift we could have given each other.

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Sandi

I have been wanting an outdoor kitchen for my kindergarten kids  since I saw them on Pinterest.

But I teach at a public school; our schoolground is used by kids K - 7 every school day and by the community outside school hours.  A permanent outdoor kitchen was just not going to work for us.

But a portable one could ...  an outdoor kitchen in a box.

We took the kitchen in a box out for its first adventure.

We counted 3 saucepans, 1 frying pan, 2 muffin pans, 3 wooden utensils, 2 metal utensils and 1 shovel.  At the end of outside play time, what has to come back to the box?

A group of boys took the frying pan behind a couple of bushes.  I went to see how they were doing.
I heard, "We need more garlic." as one of the kidlets was scrunching up dry leaves to add to the concoction.

Other children stayed in the playground area which provided small pea gravel, perfect for digging, pouring and baking delicious delicacies.

When the meal was ready for eating, everyone was called in for dinner camp style!

When it was time to go back inside, the "kitchen" was put back in the box (without any hassles, or reminders from me) and carried down the hill back to the school.  Co-operation at its finest.  

I am looking forward to seeing fine cuisine is produced when puddles and mud are added to the ingredients.  

  

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Sandi

I have become quite partial to sunflowers in the last few years.

Pictures like these sent to me by a friend who grew them in her southern Alberta garden

and painting Mr. Van Gogh sunflowers with grade one kidlets, have given me a renewed appreciation of sunflowers.  Now, if I could just get mine to grow tall and glorious!

Last week the most ginormous sunflower was brought to school.

One morning, E came to school with his dad who was carrying the tallest sunflower I have ever seen.  It was so tall that we had to put it in the highest part of the room.

It was so tall that we had to write a story about it.  E and the Sunflower (rather than Jack and the Beanstalk.

The story (without all the details that the kidlets insisted were necessary goes like this:  Once upon a time A boy named E was going to his friend's house with a pair of froggie slippers.  On the way he met an old lady who traded some magic seeds for the slippers.  E planted the seeds and they grew up to the sky.  Being an adventurous lad, E decided to climb the sunflower. He climbed all the way to the top where he found a castle.  E knocked on the door and a troll answered. E climbed up to the roof and went down the chimney. Inside the castle he saw a prince painting a treasure map.  E grabbed the map, and ran out the castle door, dodging the troll. E found the treasure, and brought it back to the king of the castle who made cookies and shared them with everyone.

The sunflower was so tall that we had to measure it.  It was almost 4 kidlets tall.

A sunflower that tall has a lot of leaves.  We made smart guesses - the biggest guess was 1000!  It was less than 1000 - less than 100, less than 50 - but not by much!  We counted 42 leaves on our sunflower.  That's a lot of photosynthesis happening!

After measuring the sunflower, I removed the head from the stem (I had to bend the stem in half and have part of it sticking out the back window of my car to bring it home to compost!) We are observing like scientists and checking out the head of the sunflower.  The petals and the florets are falling off, leaving the seeds showing.  Right now the seeds are all white and a bit soft.  We wonder if they will turn black and white and hard. 

We want to save the seeds for planting in the spring.  Then the school yard and the town can be full of ginormous sunflowers.

            

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Sandi