Building Together #5 - Chinatown Fieldtrip

 "The trip was awesome!" Owen said on our way back to Creative Minds.
When we arrived in Chinatown, we walked down Pender Street then Keefer Street. The children visited all kinds of stores, fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, dried food, and a bakery shop. The children noticed that all the people that worked there were Chinese. During our visit to the meat shop, the children and the butchers had such a great time talking (some in Mandarin) that the butchers gave some chinese sausage for the children to taste. "It's delicious!" said Jack.

After our stroll around the market, the children had lunch at Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Park. As we entered the park, the children felt the difference in the environment and asked, "Are we still in Canada?" Some noticed the different decorations around the park and Serena said, "The decorations look Chinese." This comment sparked a conversation about our past decorations unit and the different ways cultures decorate their community.

Building Together #4 - Grocery stores and asian markets

Working as a team

This week the children from Water Group transformed our drama area into a grocery store (an idea extended from the children when we were building Safeway in our Water Town). After setting up our store, we played a song game:
(tune: London Bridge)

Oh, we are going to the grocery store, the grocery store, the grocery store.

We are going to the grocery store

to buy some groceries. 


The children took turns being the cashier and shopper during the game.

Paying for the groceries

In addition, the children talked about how people have to work together in order to run the grocery store. They noticed how it is really convenient for shoppers to buy things because they don't have to go from store to store to get what they want. I shared with the children that not every culture has grocery stores, some have open markets where vendors gather together in a space to sell their products. I shared my experience as a child in Taiwan. Our family would shop at open markets and we would go so often that we made connections with the vendors at the market. Like my family, many people feel comfortable and at ease when going from stand to stand. At vegetable stands, the vendors would always throw in free green onions, garlics, or other kinds of spices. At meat stands, they would always give us free stock bones. Then Serena shared her experience, "One time they let me taste different kinds of meat at Stong's and we know the person working there, his name is James".

What shall I buy? 

To help the children have a better image of the open markets I showed the children video clips of open markets in Asia. The children immediately noticed the different stands and how people chatted with the vendors.

 In connection, the children will be going on a field trip to China Town to get a sense of an asian market and the China Town community.

Building Together #3 - Building a community together

Blueprint

Planning the roads

When I told the children of how Creative Minds joined the Southlands community, Leighton asked, "Well, who put the school there?" This sparked our discussion of how a community is built. Owen suggested, "Maybe someone put a school here because there wasn't one." To help the children get an idea of how a community is formed, the Water group started to build a community of their own called "Water Town".

Building the houses

Decorating the houses

First, we constructed our blue print on the smartboard. The children pretended they have just arrived in an empty town. They drew their houses and each one came up with something that they need to have. The children came up with swimming pools, doctor's office, train station, farms, a park, and Safeway. The children built and decorated their houses. Currently, the children are constructing the swimming pool and Aiden noticed that a skating rink is needed. He said it is very important to have one so Canucks can play there.

Building Together #2 - Jobs for Water Group

Children's pay envelope

To help the children understand the roles and responsibilities within a group and community, Water group came up with jobs for group time. The children will be paid after each group time with stickers for doing their jobs and when a child is not following a message, he/she gets a ticket. When someone receives a ticket he/she has to use the stickers earned to pay for the ticket. The children are very excited with this idea and they came up a list of jobs and their description. As we carried out our group time, Becky noticed that more jobs need to be added, for example, a No Touching Monitor (a person who can remind others to keep their hands to themselves).

Building Together #1 - Formative Assessment

The central idea of our new unit is the work people perform helps build community.

The lines of inquiry that define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea are:

- The jobs people do in our community support its development

- We take on roles each day and this helps us build a strong (preschool) community.

The teacher questions that will drive these inquiries:

1) What is community?

2) What are some jobs done in the community and how do they make a difference?

3) What jobs/roles do you have within our preschool community and/or home?

4) How are these jobs the same or different in other places in the world?

For our assessment activity, we read "C is for Community" and created a checklist of occupations and services that are offered in a community. Then the children went for a walk on Dunbar street to observe how our immediate community functions and at the same time, comparing it to our checklist. The children were ecstatic to find that Olivia's dad is a veterinarian at Dunbar Veterinary Hospital and he was able to give the children a tour around the facility.

Living in Yesterday and Today #5 - Life of Early Humans

Owen brought a stone tool from home to show the children. It sparked the Water group's curiosty of early humans. How did they build things with tools made out of sticks and stones. The children turned themselves into cavemen and women to experience what it was like to live like cave people. We went into the forest and found materials that we think can help us build a house. The children gathered sticks, barks and leaves. We tied the sticks together with tree bark and used a rock to hammer the sticks into the ground. and the children used leaves and wood pieces to decorated our house.

Living in Yesterday and Today #4 - Extinction and Preservation

Making the salt dough.

The children were so interested in finding gold that they started looking for gold during their morning playtime in the forest. During their dig, a child cried, "I found a dinosaur bone!" This made the children wonder what happened to the dinosaurs? How were people able to find their bones?

Making the dinosaur imprints.

We researched the topic by watching videos from Brainpop Jr. The children learned that the dinosaurs died and through the process of fossilization people were able to know of their existence. We discussed the different theories (asteriod, volcanic activity, ice age, disease, and the gradually climate change) as to how the dinosaur became extinct.   We furthered our discussion into the animals that have become extinct (e.g. dodo birds) and ones that are endangered. We talked about the change of the animal's habitats and what people can do to prevent other species from going extinct. 

Baking the salt dough fossil.

Lastly, the children made their own dinosaur fossilss out of salt dough. The loved it and commented that the colour on the fossils really looked "old".