Last week, my wonderful DECE (@h_theis) and I received a lovely surprise from one of our JK students! Upon his arrival to school, he eagerly took out two specially wrapped jars of maple syrup! To our surprise, Jordan went on to tell us that he in fact made the maple syrup with his cousin and Grandpa at his Grandpa's house over the weekend! Without question, we asked Jordan if he would like to share his story and pictures with the class since we knew it would spark connections to other students who had visited outdoor learning and conservation centres like Kortright Centre during their Maple Syrup Festival! He did a wonderful job holding up the photos while I read his mom's email about what was happening in each picture. We were delighted when his parents gave us permission to share Jordan's story with you! We truly enjoy celebrating these wonderful moments shared with us by our students and their families and we hope you enjoy reading them!

"This is Jordan and his cousin looking into the barrel filled with fresh sap from the trees. The sap is then filtered by hose into the boilers in the next photo. These barrels will process about 4-5 litres of finished maple syrup! Jordan also told us that him and his cousin had to hike through the forest along with their uncles and cousins to help collect the sap from the actual trees (approximately 65-75 trees) and dump it into the big barrels on the trailer!"

"When they got back from the bush, they watched Grandpa hoist the barrels off the trailer and put them into the platform and proceeded inside to watch the making of the maple syrup! Jordan then asked his Grandpa if he could take some maple syrup to his two teachers and of course Grandpa obliged."  

Thank you Jordan and his family for sharing such a wonderful story and family tradition with our class!

Lorna Jackson Airline Update

Airport 126 has been quite a busy space in our classroom over the past few weeks! With flights going to Florida, China, Germany, Australia and beyond, our students have not only adopted particular roles which they felt were important (e.g. ticket agent, flight announcer, pilot, co-pilot, passenger, security guard, flight attendant), but they have truly shown eagerness and enthusiasm towards participating in this new transformed learning space.

Thank you to my wonderful Aunt who is a Travel Agent, for visiting our classroom and teaching us about what travel agents do, what belongs and doesn't belong in a suitcase, and surprising us with luggage tags, ticket holders and our very own airplane model! Your visit sparked lots of conversation around vacations and the steps to take once you arrive at an airport. Many of our students enjoyed sharing their own personal experiences from visiting places around the world and drawing and writing about them.  

This post highlights the student-led advancements within our dramatic play area as we continue to learn more 

about airplanes and airports! 

Here are some of the exciting additions to our learning space:

1. "Role Tags": Students decided that in order for everyone to know what role they are playing, they need a tag (e.g. ticket agent, pilot, co-pilot, etc). These are just simple clip-on plastic tag sleeves whereby students have written down each role.

2. Personal Passports: L.D. mentioned during a mini lesson that he needed a passport in order to go on his trip with his family. That comment led to much excitement as other students were able to make connections to having passports also. To support their idea, my DECE and I created a simple template for them to use. Each student filled out their passport and whenever they visit a new place, they get a sticker inside their passport to symbolize where they've been! It's been a hit!

3. Seat numbers: After reading many books about airplanes during our shared reading and read-aloud time, A.C., I.D., and C.M. decided that it was important for passengers to know what seat to sit in so they created seat numbers for the backs of our chairs. This also made it easier to fill in our Airline tickets!

T.B. (JK) decided to sort the airport word cards
around the carpet based on the first letter of
every word! Students saw and began reading all the
different vocabulary cards and making connections
to our airport! 

4. Luggage Scanner: After sharing A.C.'s creative representation of an "x-ray machine" at the Building and Constructing area to the class, she inspired a few students to make a plan for our giant cardboard box. R.L., T.B., I.D., J.S., and A.C. worked together to draw what they wanted our scanner to look like and what materials we would need to make it work. As a result, black streamers, tape and scissors were used to give it that realistic look! 

5. Security Computer and Checklists: I.D. brought in a book from home to share with the class that was all about airports. She noticed in the middle of the book that there was a picture of a luggage scanner! She also noticed that it needed a computer to see inside the luggage so she decided to create one to add to our airport. Similarly, a small group of SK's came up with the idea to make a checklist of "safe" and "not safe" items so that when luggage goes through the scanner, they can use the computer to check off what they see. Amazing!

This transformation of our dramatic play area has allowed us as educators to integrate, document and assess many curriculum expectations! Below are two short videos of three of our SK students (I.D., A.C., and S.M.) engaged at our ticket counter: 

(I apologize for the video being so small...it was much better quality on iMovie)

Oral Communication

BIG IDEA: Children are effective communicators.

1. Communicate by talking and by listening and speaking to others for a variety of purposes and in a variety of contexts. (1.2, 1.5, 1.7)

4. Communicate in writing, using strategies that are appropriate for beginners (4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5)

Number Sense

NS1.3 Begin to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects

NS1.4 Demonstrate an understanding of the counting concepts of stable order

Stay tuned for another update since we have another surprise visitor coming!

Blocks, Books and X-Ray Machines

Since the start of our airport a few weeks ago, our students have truly taken ownership over the learning space. In particular, the personal experiences and stories being shared by our students daily has really helped shape our learning and make the space meaningful to them. That being said, our students have found connections to each other which has allowed for an incredible sense of teamwork and creativity to flourish within our classroom! Moreover, with their interests and preferences at the forefront of our learning, collaborative projects are now underway to make our airport "more like a real one" (S.M.).

This post highlights the work of one of our SK students who used her schema, personal experiences and newly acquired knowledge to construct something spectacular in our Building and Construction area!

During our exploration time, A.C. decided to make an "x-ray machine" as part of our airport (now formally known as Airport 126). My amazing DECE and I noticed quite an interesting construction underway and wasted no time to jump in, dialogue and document her thinking. 

How it started... 

Here is how A.C.'s x-ray machine works:

Once A.C. was seen demonstrating how her x-ray machine works when scanning luggages at an airport, W.V. wanted to share his theory on how he thinks an x-ray machine works based on his personal experience at an airport:

Thank you to A.C.'s parents for letting us post these pictures since it truly helped make her thinking visible to all!