The Sky

One of the most amazing parts of the new Ontario Full Day Kindergarten Curriculum Document is its focus on play based learning through inquiry.  It gives us, as teachers, the ability to listen to the students interests and tailor our planning around what they want to learn about.  Miss Campbell and I have been doing a lot of listening lately and within the last few weeks our students have been buzzing about the sky!  

It all started a few weeks ago when a few students including S.B., J.L., A.K (jk) and V.T. exclaimed during DPA one morning.... "LOOK! The moon is out! And it's morning!"  Slowly, other students have jumped on board noticing, thinking and wondering about different things in the sky including clouds, the sun, birds, rain and jumbo jets.

Introducing our first inquiry... 

take a look at our learning and inspiration!

 

 

Z.L. "I did a sun, a moon, a little cloud and bigger clouds." 
Miss C.  "Why did you put dots on your moon?"
Z.L. - "Because I looked at the book, saw the moon had dots and made mine."

We are learning how to make collages on our favourite iPad AP - "Pic Collage" 

We made this one as a class during our afternoon meeting!

 
Here are some Mrs. Zupnik made to capture our learning. 

 

 In looking at the sky during a nature walk, some of our students thoughts were: 
S.S. "I saw a bee in the sky." 
V.T. "I could see the sky when I was running.  The sun is really a star." 
S.Z. "I saw the sun right beside the clouds." 
Z.L. " The sky is actually purple if you were floating up high.  But if you are far it looks blue."
G.A. "I saw the moon this morning.  IT was following me.  It was moving." 
S.B. "Jets are so fast to see in the sky."
E.B. "If the clouds are coming down they have to fly back up."
A.K. (jk) "Little clouds turn into big clouds." 
A.K. (sk) - "The sun makes us hot and sweaty." 
D.V. - "I see (the cloud) over there, it changed!"
S.M. "The sun makes my eyes hurt." 
E.R.(jk) "The sun is made out of hot lava."
 
This week, we started our wonder of the week about our first question: "I wonder why the moon is out, and it's not even night time!"

I.L.

We post our thinking with sticky notes on our "I Wonder" wall!

Here is some of our thinking about our first question! 

G.A. "It has to.  The moon has to go up." 
S.B. "Sometimes the moon is behind the clouds and sometimes it is in the front." 
A.D. "Because sometimes the moon goes behind the sun."
L.H. "The moon is having a conversation with the sun." 
K.H. "The moon's mom let's the moon go outside in the morning." 
A.K. (sk) "I think in the daytime the moon turns into the sun and in the nightime the sun turns into the moon." 
I.L. "Moon"
S.M. "Sometimes the moon wants to be friends with the sun." 
E.R.(jk) "When it's out in the nightime the sun doesn't get to see it." 
A.K.(sk) "I think because the moon doesn't want to be left alone." 
Z.L. "Because people are still sleeping.  Because it is still nighttime for some people." 
J.Lnds "It's afraid of the dark.  He doesn't like the dark." 
D.M. "The moon likes to stay with the sun in the morning."
M.O. "It needs to be dark if you need to sleep." 
E.R.(sk) "It sometimes goes up and sometimes goes down."
J.L. "Because he likes the sun." 
L.S. "I think sometimes the moon is behind the sun." 
V.T. "Maybe that time the moon was sick and the Mom said the moon has to go outside and visit the sun." 
D.V. "I think the moon is playing hide and seek." 
P.Z. "Maybe because the Earth is spinning and the sky is moving." 

Miss Campbell put some soft dough in our sensory table this week!  (A combination of flour and baby oil - without telling the students we were calling it "cloud dough") Here are some of the things we observed them talking about with each other as they manipulated the dough. 

K.H. "It feels fun and soft.  I am making a cloud.  It is really big.  It flies in the air.  It feels like water." 
H.H. "A star! A sun!"
E.R.(jk) "I feel a pillow."
S.B. "I am making clouds.  When things go toward it, it breaks." 
A.K.(jk) "It smells like real dough! I made my own cloud and now it is raining! (crumbling)"
Z.L. "I am making raindrops." 
J.Lnds. "I am making a star.  I am making it rain (pinching fingers together)." 
S.Z. "It feels like clouds!"  D.V. "Ya clouds are really soft!"  S.Z. "Ya they are!"
V.T.  "I can make it thunder! (throws dough down) Clouds get so heavy it feels like they have to go to the bathroom." 
D.V. "It's raining!  I think the moon would feel like mashed potatoes!"
L.S. "It's so gooey and so soft.  I made a moon.  It is white and so nice and pretty."
A.K. "I made a star.  It's big.  It has dots. At night they shine." 
M.O. "This stuff is white and clouds are white!  I am doing raindrops going into the ground." 
E.R. (sk) "It feels like snow combined with sand.  I made my own fluffy cloud.  I think the moon would feel hard like metal." 

(to be continued...!)   :)