Category Archives: Arts Integration

forces of motion

This week we are exploring the forces of motion. We talked about gravity and tried to jump as high as we could to see how gravity feels when we “fall” back down. We played with our marble run, which has sections that allow the marbles to fall straight down and observed that they go really fast. Then there are the other pieces that make the marble go around in a circle, a squiggly line, make something spin, and even do a loop!

We observed that the marbles can travel at different speeds through those pieces of the marble run, which is very interesting. This is called friction. We wondered what else can cause friction to slow down a marble. Since we have paint readily available, we decided to test out how the paint would affect the motion of the marble, and turn this experiment into art!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s extension: applying magnetic force to marble painting!

the results are in!

We discovered that:
– the sun faded the paper (maybe it burned it!)
– the tape and the rocks left shadows
– the sunscreen is very thick and we scraped off a bit to find the paper was still very black underneath

Some questions we still have:
– why did the sunscreen stay white on the paper when it does not do that on our skin?
– would it also work if we use a different kind of sunscreen?
– what if the paper was in the sun the WHOLE day?? The sun moved and our paintings were in the shadows for a bit
– comment below with your own questions!

In conclusion/Now we know: Sunscreen works! Please consider sending your children with a sun hat and sunscreen already applied in the morning, or send a labelled tube/bottle for them to apply before going outside in sunny weather. Please practice with them at home so that they can apply sunscreen independently or with a little guidance. Thank you!

light and sight!

This week we have been investigating “light and sight”.

Our wonderful EA, Morah Alanah, brought us an experiment this morning: sunscreen painting! We first talked about the weather and how as spring moves into summer, the days get hotter. It is the sun that gives us heat and light, which can be dangerous for our skin and our eyes, so we talked about how to protect ourselves. Finally, we got to paint with sunscreen, hypothesizing what might happen to our paper when we leave it in the sunshine…

Stay tuned for the results!

Exploring our world through art

Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve posted! We’ve been super busy here, getting adjusted to our new surroundings and routines, and more importantly, welcoming 2 new friends into our JK family!

As we continue on our STEAM journey, we have been taking our art exploration to another level. Over the next 5 weeks, we will be conducting science experiments through process art to investigate and learn about nature and the world around us!

This week, we are focusing on water and air, therefore learning about three of the states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. Here is a simple experiment you can conduct together at home, to extend your child’s learning about the water cycle. If you try it, comment below to let us know how it went, what you learned, and what you still want to know!

So here is what we did on Wednesday: We first sprayed water onto paper and froze it. Next, we painted onto the frozen paper, and watched what happened to the icy paper and warm paint as it thawed. Then, we took our leftover paint and painted ice cube trays, added water and popsicle sticks, and stuck them in the freezer overnight!

Today we painted with the frozen paint cubes. We started in the shade just to test out our cubes. Then we went into the sunshine! Some friends noticed that the ice cubes melted so much faster in the sun, and remarked they went from solid to liquid! We talked about how if the liquid heats up even more, it turns to gas, which is why puddles always disappear. From there, we painted on the grass, made grass prints, and some friends even made hand prints. Check out our process and our masterpieces!

   

Tomorrow, we are hoping for another warm and sunny day so we can get outside and paint with water to see if it will evaporate, how long it takes, and compare evaporation in the sun and in the shade.

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!