Home made paper

The children have spent the week making paper by recycling old paper.  Connecting the children to why we put paper in the recycling bin and how that saves trees by providing a hands on hands on activity - essential to create children who understand why recycling is important.

Measuring your ecological footprint

You can measure your own ecological footprint simply by visiting the Earth Day Network Web site at www.earthday.net and entering some information about your lifestyle (such as the size and type of your home, how often you eat meat and processed foods, and how many kilometers you drive each week).

Whats your footprint?

:)
Melissa

Outdoor Winter Activities for Kids

If the kids are getting a little antsy from being inside for too long, bring them outside and give them some ideas with these totally fun outdoor winter activities for kids. They’ll have a blast! And after they’re done releasing all that energy, make them some hot chocolate and they’ll be happy as can be!

Create a snowy obstacle course for the kids.

DIY snow paint for hours of fun in the snow.

Have target practice with snowballs.

Create colorful ice sculptures.

Create frozen bubble balls.

Build your own snow bakery for hours of fun.

Make colorful ice balloons.

Play tic tac snow.

Make beautiful ice decorations to hang on the balcony.

Build a snow castle for an afternoon of fun in the snow.

Get creative with your snow sculptures and build a snow horse.

Build a snow lantern.

Have fun!!

:)

Melissa

Connecting to Recycling

Next week, we will begin making our own paper in room 101.  The recycling process, and therefore why we recycle, can be abstract for young children and that makes it hard for them to understand why it is important.  Recycling paper to make our own paper helps the children to have an experience to help them understand how used paper turns into new paper.

The link below is to a youtube video of grade 4s making paper at home.  We will use a similar process here at school.

https://youtu.be/87w8kdhjFvU


:)
Melissa

Reducing waste by using objects in new ways

Snow is fun

Finally!!

The children are so excited.  We finally have snow to play with.  We will spend the day shoveling, sliding and building!  The perfect day to be outside.

:)
Melissa

taking care of the land

This week, we begin looking into ways we can take care of the land.  Here are some ways you can take care of the land at home:

1. Before throwing something away, think about how you could use it in another way.

2. Share and trade toys, books, and clothes with your friends and family members.

3. Reuse wrapping paper and bows from gifts.  Paper bags, used colouring book pages, and old maps make great wrapping paper, too.

4. Take reusable bags with you to the grocery store.  That way, you won't have to use plastic ones.

5. Buy used clothes and toys instead of buying new ones.

6. Pick up trash around your neighbourhood.

7. Find out what kinds of things Toronto recycles (http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=947fd187c3b02410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD&vgnextchannel=03ec433112b02410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD),  Then, recycle as much as you can.

8. Make cards and gifts instead of buying them.

9. Take good care of your things so that you don't have to buy new ones.

Together, we can keep Mother Earth clean and healthy.

:)
Melissa

a little about today

Today, we continue our discussions of where birds get food in winter by making bird feeders.  We will use toilet paper tubes, soy butter and bird seed.  Hopefully, we will get to see lots of beautiful song birds nibbling away at our feeders in our learning yard.

:)
Melissa

Winter Adventure Time

What an amazing day to go outside.  With the right clothing, a day like today is glorious.  Remember, layers are what creates warmth - long sleeve shirt, sweater, jacket, snow pants, warm socks, winter boots, hat, mittens and a scarf.  Mittens are almost always warmer than gloves.  And don't forget to dress the adults as warmly as the children so you can all enjoy outdoor time together.  Investing in snow pants for yourself will change how you feel about winter.

:)
Melissa

Our Challenge this Week

This week, the students who visit room 101 will be investigating how birds find food in the winter.  We are writing down our ideas, observing the birds outside and puzzling over materials we will use for an activity later in the week (we are making bird feeders out of recycled materials).

Let's hope, by weeks end, we all will have discovered how winter birds find food.

:)
Melissa