I love how the upcoming buddy visit created this buzz and excitement in the classroom for days before our trip. Since this was our first time going to our buddies' elementary school, there were also some nerves as children did not know what to expect. Aside from talking them through what the day might look like, I also thought it would be helpful to find something that could ground them and make them feel personally invested in going to the school. Typically, I make home-made cookies for our buddies but it dawned on me that is far more meaningful if the preschoolers baked for their big buddies themselves. And, to further personalize the gift, the preschoolers would decorate bags with their buddies name on it. And, to further the learning around that… we would send home the bag of cookies (stapled as a safety precaution from any looming cookie monsters!) on Wednesday and the children were to bring them back on Friday- certainly learning around responsibility to others and working on memory skills. Of course, reminder emails were sent to parents and extra cookies were brought in case but I was so pleased that each child and parent team remembered the cookie bags!
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| Jordyn's decorated cookie bag. |
Lined up outside the elementary school, we marched our way down the hallway; eyes scanned the cool art projects on the wall; noses smelled the unmistakable scent of hundreds of elementary school students; small hands felt the crunchiness of the paper bags in their hands; ears listened to the sounds of teacher's voices and children's laughter, we arrived at Mr Vine's classroom. The door was swung open and there was a mad dash for buddies to find each other, like a scene from Titanic. The buddies were thrilled with their cookies and equally important was the satisfaction of our preschoolers had in giving them.
Mr Vines and I had a rough outline of the shape of the day. Since it was time to clean mason bee cocoons, we decided to make this part of the day as both groups of children were doing this in their class. The preschoolers had cleaned mason bee cocoons on Monday and in doing so we ended up acting out the life cycle of the mason bee and how tubes are filled. Children pretended to be bees, pollen, nectar, and mud walls- in this they learnt the science of the mason bee and math patterning. They loved it and wanted to do it again so the class decided they wanted to show our big buddies. Emma was a bee and she had to buzz around the classroom collecting nectar, pollen and mud. I knew my preschoolers would love to re-create this activity but what I did not anticipate was the interest from the big buddies. They were shouting out to be picked, hands up so high, cheering, laughing, literally leaping with joy. Wow! Emma was brave as she navigated through these big bodies and tried to calmly choose people from this most enthusiastic crowd. It was wild! Then we settled down and we shared more information about mason bees which of course cannot help but lead to honey bees! I was surprised and impressed by the knowledge of some of the students. This conversation could have gone on for much longer but we brought it to a close, knowing we will revisit this topic in the future.
A beautiful sunny, crisp autumn day called us to go outside for snack and play at the 'big kid's playground'. Bellies filled with cookies, we went back inside to watch a clip on Andy Goldsworthy, an artist who works with natural materials in outdoor settings. The students watched intently before heading out to create their own art in the outdoor space surrounding the school. Unfortunately we did not have enough time ( do we ever?) but here is some of what they designed.
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| Mr Vines talked about adding garbage that may be found outside so Emma wrapped a twig with a plastic wrapper. |
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| The word respect written in sticks. |
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| A big buddy had his little buddy collect materials to make a nest. Then he placed it in the tree. |
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| We talked about circles during the Andy Goldworthy clip. One student commented that one of his creations may be representing the circle of life-is this a connection to that? |
To finish off the day, we had Genius 15. The older students had spent time throughout their week researching their topic and our preschoolers were tasked with bringing in either information or a tangible item related to their topic to share. This was a challenging activity for all but the learning was tremendous.
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| Jordyn and her buddies are studying Canada so she brought in a flag. |
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| Sebastian's group is investigating playgrounds so he brought wood chips, sand and rocks to represent different materials found to cushion falls. |
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| Matias's group is looking at letters. |
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| One of the big buddies quickly sketches some nuts. |
Time to go- big buddies helped little buddies collect items, assisted in packing bags, and zipped up coats.
We walked back to school, learning new skills as we walked. Road safety means being aware and staying on the side of the road ( oh, how the middle of the road is so tempting!)
Some of the children got tired and plunked down to rest for a moment.
But, we did eventually make it back and every child carried their own knapsack the whole way!
After class, Bonnie and I spent a lot of time discussing the day and we poured over the Genius 15 sheets, thinking about where to take it next time. Afterwords, I brought over the copies of their work to Dixon School and Mr Vines and I had an in depth dialogue about Genius 15 as well as some planning for our next visit. I am so grateful to work with teachers that are creative, intelligent and eager to spend the time to reflect on activities and students. True collaborative work-how invigorating!
Emily
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