Halloween Week Part 2

What a great week!! Fun activities, fun trip and a fun dance! What more could we ask for. Kinderland is simply rockin'.

Before we begin the blog we want to once again say thank you for all the kindness and support we keep receiving from ALL parents and guardians. We are so blessed to have such amazing students and amazing home-school connections. Let's keep this going because this enhances your childs learning experiences. 

Please Note: Clothing drive at kiss and ride this Monday!! Get your extra old stuff out and let's donate what we can. 

Now for the rest...

We know you all got this photo already but we needed to post it as it is just the cutest group photo ever.

Halloween fun at our school...

We really loved all the costumes and the students loved the special Minion cupcakes (Thanks to Ms. Flor for making them!).

P.S check out Twitter for some of our dance videos from the dance.

MOUNTSBERG TRIP

Thank you so much to our four parent volunteers who attended this trip with us. You were fantastic and you embraced the inquiry in the forest. This made our experience even better and all the monkey doodles loved it.

Below are some photos from our trip.

The students were led on nature inquiries in two groups by Mounstberg staff. Each was taken into a forest area and each group explored based on their own interests. We have tried to gather as many photos as we could from parents/staff to try to include all students in this post but we are sorry if we missed anyone.

We found beautiful horses on our nature walk and some students were able to touch them and use their sense of touch to describe what they feel like. Beautiful horses that were descendants from French horses from the war.

The other group may not have seen horses but they found Solar Panels!! Some students were curious to find out what they are used for and what they feel like.

Climbing around the forest in the trees. "Peek a Boo"

Mountsberg was full of areas to explore!

We were also able to have a break from just exploring and use it to be active and jump around on hay stacks.

The Predator birds area was filled with neat birds or prey and learning opportunities.

The students were extremely eager to learn about the birds of prey. They kept asking what they eat and what their names are. One group even got to meet a huge bird up close. Can you see what kind it is?

All the birds here have been given safe homes after being injured in the wild and have been rehabilitated. They are not strong enough to survive in the wild but are now cared for and used to help us learn more about them.

So what is inquiry at Mounstberg?

"Inquiry-based learning means that we are honouring our children’s ability to drive their own learning. We are placing student questions and ideas at the centre of the learning process. Students are encouraged to ask questions and then investigate their own queries about the world. Inquiry-based learning is part of an emergent curriculum. It does not mean that the educators are relinquishing their role. Educators use their knowledge of curriculum and expectations, and their expertise to extend learning. They ask open-ended questions and engage students in problem-solving." (Journeytogetherfdk.com) 

So at Mounstberg students were placed in situations where their inquiry was based on their love for fall and nature. Their inquiry was somewhat provoked with various materials in the forest but overall they self regulated and chose their own various learning opportunities. Below are some examples.

Some students picked FUNGUS off trees and we later used descriptive words to talk about it and asked our guide about it. We also used this as a counting activity.

Trying to figure out how to tie up one of our volunteers.

We worked on building by talking about the materials and their length and sizes in order to choose proper ones to build scales, beams to cross and tee pees.

Some of our students were interested in thin and thick as well as long and short roots and decided to dig to find them along the way we also learned about worms and where they like to live.

Other groups really enjoyed exploring the various leaves and trees. We also learned that moss that grows on stumps and rocks a long time ago was used in baby cradles, baby diapers and toilet paper by Native Americans NEATO.

Patterning with leaves.

We noticed some Geese and tried to fly south just like they would in the shape of a V.

Above is a photo of the forested area one of our groups was left to explore with guides and adults. 

We also had fun riding the bus and some of us got very sleepy on the ride back!

Have a safe Happy Halloween everyone!