Category Archives: Arts Integration

Corona – not just a virus!

Happy eclipse day! This morning we explored what a total eclipse would actually look and feel like by watching a time lapse video, pausing it strategically, and talking about what we saw. Some questions that we discussed: What is happening to the shadows? Is this scary? Why/why not? Why does it look like night outside? Why can’t we look at the sun? What is the sun made of? We spent a lot of time talking about our eyes and why it is not safe to look at the sun. We even got to try out Ms Thompson’s eclipse glasses! Thank you for the cool experience, and the yummy surprise snack!

Then, we created our own corona art work, went for a nature walk to check out all the cool shadows on campus, and had snack outdoors in the beautiful weather.

Comment below if you watched the eclipse – we are so curious!!

Have a lovely, safe afternoon!

Light

This week JK explored the element of design “light” through a scientific lens. We studied light, light sources, darkness, shadows, and learned about the upcoming eclipse on Monday. (Reminder: Monday early dismissal at noon!)

Next week, we will explore the element of “space” which includes both outer space and physical space. I will be talking to JK about the upcoming move to KBI after Pesach, and we will be discussing their thoughts and feelings, and collecting their input on what toys and games to bring with us to design our new classroom space! If you haven’t already talked to your child(ren) about the upcoming move, please consider this weekend as a great opportunity to do so. Quinn, the school social worker, will be running a workshop on transitions to help strengthen the learning environment in the classroom and to help the children prepare for the move to KBI. If you wish to opt your child out of the workshop please let me know before April 11th as this is when our workshop will take place. We will be talking about change, and playing games that focus on transition (change), as well as their favourite things in the classroom that will be coming with us.

Shabbat shalom and have a lovely weekend!

form – a shapey social and emotional learning journey

This week in JK, we continued to our second element of design: form. We learned that a form is a shape, which is what you get when your line connects back to itself, and no longer has a beginning and an end. We started on Monday with a review of the basic four 2-dimensional shapes, circle, triangle, square, and rectangle, and then learned their names en Français! Cercle, triangle, carré, et rectangle. We also learned the names and features of some more complex shapes: Oval (ovale), heart (coeur), star (étoile), and diamond (diamant).

Purim is coming up, so we made silly clown door decorations by folding, cutting, and stamping. We even made our own pom-pom hat toppers!

We looked at the shapes of everyone’s mouths when they were trying to express “being silly” and discovered that each mouth has a shape. We extended our learning by exploring feelings, and noticed that the whole face can change shape with different emotions. For example, your cheeks squish to the sides when you are happy and smile, making your head wider, and when you are surprised or scared and your mouth opens, it makes your face longer because your chin goes lower. We traced different ’emotions’ stencils and looked at eyes and eyebrows, and mouths and talked about what their different shapes might mean.

We read and discussed the story “How are you Peeling? Foods with Moods” by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers, focusing on two very important things. First, the ability to look at someone’s face and decode/figure out their emotion based on the shapes of their features (eyes, eye brows, mouths…). We discovered that some emotions have similar shapes and that you can feel more than one feeling at a time, and that’s okay! Second, that the best thing to do when you are having BIG feelings (and small ones too!) is to talk about it.

We looked at photos of people in various scenarios and discussed what they might be feeling or what might be happening to them based on their facial expressions and what else is going on in the photo. It was perfect timing, as we have been having some new friendships forming, and other friends feeling left out, and we had a really good chat about that.

   

Another way that we explored the concept of form included a new gym warm up: yoga. We explored the forms our bodies can make (and some that we can’t!). Check out this Alef Bet yoga to practice at home.

We have also been experimenting and learning about our Innovation Day theme: Sink/Float. Can’t wait to share it all with you on Wednesday, March 20th from 9:00 am to 9:45 am!

 

the “end” of the ‘line’

Your children are proudly bringing home their stories, zip line kits, and final ‘line’ study today. We discussed how lines can be short or long, straight or curved, have arcs or corners, and even all of those things in one line! The one thing to remember is that a line has a beginning and an end. Yesterday we painted using pipe cleaners to give an interesting parallel-lined texture to our picture frames. Today, we traced a beautiful continuous line drawing (yes, just one line!) to make a Shabbat themed window hanging. Next week, we will see what happens when the beginning and the end are connected… stay tuned!