Posted on No Comments on Learning About our Needs

Learning About our Needs

When we returned from Christmas holiday we did a social studies mini-unit about needs.  We discussed the basic needs all people have for food, air, water, shelter, clothing and safety.  Then we talked about how once your basic needs are met, you need to meet your emotional needs to feel happy.  The emotional needs are Belonging, Freedom, Power (feeling good at something), and Fun.  We talked about a different emotional need each day, and brainstormed ways we could fill that need.  We discussed how everyone fills their needs in different ways, but we need to make sure that they way we fill our needs doesn’t hurt anyone else.

Posted on 2 Comments on Toys Go Out

Toys Go Out

Mrs. Clark recommended this book by Emily Jenkins as a read-aloud and we are loving it!  It is about three toys and the adventures they have when their little girl isn’t looking.  Stingray, Lumphy the Buffalo, and Plastic (who we discovered is a ball) have lots of fun together.  Yesterday we finished chapter three.  Lumphy got covered in peanut butter on a picnic, and hid in the closet because he was afraid of the “terrifying bigness of the washing machine”.  We all laughed out loud picturing Lumphy stuck headfirst in a running shoe with his bottom stuck up in the air.  He was freed by the one-eared sheep who likes to chew on laces, and decided to let himself be found when he heard the little girl crying.  The washing machine turned out to be friendly, and sang him a song about “a roughy, toughy buffalo” which he quite enjoyed.  The next weekend Lumphy deliberately stuck his face in the jam jar so he could visit the washer again!

Posted on No Comments on Winter Scenes

Winter Scenes

First of all, Happy New Year!  We’ve been back for two weeks and we have been busy at school, even though I haven’t put up a post.  I will try to do some catching up this week!

Winter weather has finally arrived in Vancouver– it must be because we made some wintery art last week.  We used torn tissue paper to create the soft look of a winter scene.  We brainstormed possible things you might see in winter, then students were able to make their own choice for the subject of their art.  The only requirement was they had to have a background and a foreground.  We had a great variety of images.  See a few below!