We Decorate Our World #3: Connect Through Decorations (2)

By looking at the gardens, the children learned many things about each other.

- Eric loves blue and he doesn't like to make his house too colourful. He likes it simple.
- Charlie loves red and swimming.
- Eva is good at making a beautiful garden and the children think her "house" looks very magical.
- Miquel likes green and he likes having big windows.
- Hyra wants her house to look pretty and colourful.
- Jacob likes having windows around the house. He also loves blue.
- Elliot loves red and he wants to make his garden pretty so everyone likes it.

We Decorate Our World #2: Connect Through Decorations (1)

Decorations tell human stories and help us know one another

Adding pools and flower beds

The children loved the different garden decors in our neighbours' yards. They commented on how cute a cat statue looked in one and in another how the trees looked silly. Our neighbours' creative gardens decorations inspired the children to create their own unique garden to their dioramas. Can the children's garden help us more about them?

"There's lots of flowers in my garden."

Blueprint for the garden

We Decorate Our World #1: Creativity and Individuality

Similarities and differences in ideas about what a decoration is

What is a decoration to each of us?

Painting the "houses"

On our decoration walk, the children pointed out the different shapes, colours and pattern on each house. We read the book The Big Orange Splot by D. Manus Pinkwater. The children loved how Mr. Plumbean turned his "neat street" into a "dream street".

Adding windows

What if we were able to build and design our own houses, what would it look like? 

The children were excited by the idea of designing their own houses.  

For the next few weeks Water group will be working on building a house diorama. The children will utilize their creativity and show their individuality through their designs.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

                                               - John McCrae, May 1915

As remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace, the children painted their own Flanders fields. 

Sound Travels #5: Music Projects

To end the unit Sound Travels, all the children created their own music sequences that describe a thought or a feeling. They used found objects, musical instruments or their own voices to create these music sequences. Here are their projects:

Elliot

Hyra

                                          
                                                                           Charlie

                                          
                                                                            Eva

Jacob

                                          
                                                                             Eric

Sophie

Sound Travels #4: Three Billy Goats Gruff

How sounds are experienced.

How do we experience sound?

The Water Group really enjoyed dramatizing the Norwegian fairy tale, Three Billy Goats Gruff. They experimented with the voices for the different characters in the story. They felt their voice should be small and soft when saying Little Goats Gruff's lines and rough and loud for the troll (because he is scary). I showed the children parts of Peter and the Wolf and explained how the characters are represented by different instruments. Inspired by the play the children added drum sounds to the their dramatization of Three Billy Goats Gruff and felt confident and excited to perform in front of all the other children.

Sound Travels #3: Folk song - Hop Old Squirrel

Folk song games have specific forms.

What are a few forms of folk song games?

Water group has been studying the folk song Hop Old Squirrel. First we played the song game where we pretend to be squirrels hopping around and stopping to listen to our surroundings. The children had a lot of fun choosing other movements (walk, run, climb) to go with the song.

Making the song map for Hop Old Squirrel

Next we tried to feel the tempo (beat) of the song. I showed a metronome app on our iPad and we marched, clapped, tapped and nodded to match the beat of Hop Old Squirrel. The children felt the song going faster when the metronome was set at a higher number and slower when the number is lower. In the end, they chose the number on the metronome to be the perfect tempo for Hop Old Squirrel.

Making the music sheet

The children also made the music sheet for Hop Old Squirrel but instead of music notes we used symbols.

Sound Travels #2: Feelings Through Instruments

Exploring sounds

Water group agreed that music can arouse emotions and feelings within us. But could feelings be expressed through music?

Painting our tambourines

No peeking

We read the book The Maestro Plays by Bill Martin Jr. and the children were captivated by the way the Maestro plays each instrument. They tried playing some of the instruments we have at Creative Minds. They played loudly, quietly, fast, slow, long, short, and many other ways just like the maestro in the book. They took turns showing others what happy, sad, or scared might sound like. Then we played a guessing game where one child hid behind a screen and the others had to guess which instrument the child was playing and the feeling that he/she was expressing.

Guess my instrument

The children loved the sound a shaker and tambourine make. So we combined elements from both instruments and made tambourine shakers.

Sound Travels #1 - Music and Feelings

This week Water Group explored how music and sound are used to express our feelings. First, we have to make sure if we can identify our feelings and as you can see below the children were quite good at expressing them.

concerned and sad

Surprised!

Then we listened to different sounds and music and each child shared how the music made him/her feel and what they thought of. The children expressed their thoughts through different art forms as they listened to each piece of music. They were so indulged in the music that when it stopped, they all froze and asked: "Where's the music?" Some even said, "I need it to for my art."

Matisse cut-outs while listening to
Vivaldi's Winter from Four Seasons

Painting with water colours while listening to
Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Express Yourself #2: Spreading Joy Through Flower Arrangments

The Water group explored Sophie's interest in flowers. First we went around the school to look at different flowers and made sketches. They feel that flowers are beautiful and people feel happy when they see them. They felt a little sad when it was time to return to school because they wished there were flowers inside our school. So the next day, I brought some flowers bought from IGA and the children made their own flower arrangements to display. And indeed, when the other children saw the arrangements, a smile would emerge from their little faces and they would comment on beautiful the flowers looked.

Express Yourself #1: Expressing Ideas Through a Book

When we gathered for group time to talk about the new unit, Express Yourself, many of them wanted to make a book to express some of their ideas. I showed the children many types of books. There were picture books, wordless books, scary books, story books, educational books, comic books, and the list goes on. The children eagerly chose a topic, the genre of the book and became authors! Below are their ideas:

Jayla and Allye: My Little Pony story book


Lucas: Eiffel Tower educational book

Sasha: Frozen picture story book

Theo: Pokemon character book

Olympia: Dora comic book

Matthew: Rescue Bots movie book

Charlie: Paw Patrol pop up book

Water Wonders #4: Summative Project - Diorama

For our summative activity (an activity to assess the children's connection to the central idea), the water group children created a diorama with a landscape next to a waterway. Their dioramas show how animals, plants, and people use water. As they worked, the following questions were asked:

1) What do you know about water?

2) Why is water important to people? (what do they use it for)

3) Why is water important to animals?

4) Why is water important to plants?

5) What would happen if there was no water?

6) How can we make sure this never happens; how can we save water?