West Richmond Preschool

A few weeks ago, our buddy teacher and I got together to plan some activities around Earth Day. During one of his teaching practicums, Kevin was introduced to the Popcorn Project. It is an interesting exercise that sheds light on the idea of ecology,sustainability and reducing our ecological footprint. The group is divided into four generations; the first generation has only 2 people and then each subsequent generation has more and more people. There is a large mound of popcorn on a communal table. Each person is given a bag and instructed to take as much popcorn as they wish, providing it fits into their bag. The first generation begins helping themselves to popcorn and then the second and so on. Of course, the fourth generation was left with nothing. Some interesting moments occurred during this exercise: The first and second generations mostly filled their bags to the brim. Some people really stuffed their bags while others took barely any. The fourth generat...

These images will tell tales of our day at Terra Nova.... Emily

A week filled with adventure as we set out our mason bee cocoons at the farm, went to Ironwood library, visited Burnett Secondary to play games with Grade 12 psychology students and made homemade waffles. The waffles really were a vehicle for honey. We established we wanted to eat something with honey, in honour of all the honey bees, so we decided on waffles. We ate our waffles outside on the balcony, with a slight drizzle of rain falling, misting our jackets and waffles! Comments made during waffle eating: Little Emily: I love you bees!  The honey tastes like wax. Nicholas: I love you bees but not when you sting me. Loreli: Yummy honey! Wayne: I like the waffle. Cash: I don't like the honey. Luca: I only like the honey. Cole: I don't like the waffle but I like the honey. Alexa: I like it because it is yummy. Sidney: I like the honey the most. Cracking eggs is tricky business! Whisking is so much fun  Adding the dry ingredients We had a l...

A most special week in school. Maybe it is the spring air, maybe it was the time off, maybe it is because we are all growing... but we had so much fun this week. Wednesday We went to the farm with a big planting agenda. I am happy to report that we did get everything planted but not before we.. ran jumped picked dandelions and made bouquets and rings dug in the mud picked up worms looked at birds noticed buds on trees tripped on the paths looked for mushrooms hoped to see the coyote shared sea shells from the depths of our pockets looked at the developing play area walked backwards and sideways made up songs felt the wind We then got down to business and put in lettuce, spinach, peas, carrots, yu choi sum, and beets. Seeds went in rows, seeds were dropped who knows where and we all had a glorious time. We also worked on our bee books, ate lunch and gobbled up delicious purple sprouting broccoli that was generously gifted to us by Chef Ian Lai  from the Ric...

We have all fallen in love with mason bees and the children can tell you lots of interesting facts about them. We will paint our houses next week and get ready to put them at the farm. Needless to say, excitement is high. In the meantime, we are now learning about honey bees. The children are fascinated with bees and are deeply intrigued by these intelligent and well developed insects. We discussed their complex society, the job of each bee, what they eat, honey, royal jelly, life cycle and of course, the stings that are often associated with bees. On Monday, we decided that we would play a bee game on Wednesday whereby we could take on the roles of all the bees in a hive. Of course, every girl said they wanted to be the queen so we decided that we would have a meeting to discuss rules and role assignments. Today, as soon as we opened up the discussion Chloe said she wanted to be the queen bee and Alexa then added that she also wanted to be the queen. Chloe responded wit...

When I think back on the last few sessions, the word that stands out for me is...negotiations. Peer to peer negotiations, teacher to student negotiations, teacher to teacher negotiations. These negotiations have taken on many forms; some peaceful, some adversarial but always with a positive learning outcome. The learning that takes place throughout these processes is extraordinary and I am so pleased that we have the time in class to allow for these processes to take place. I enjoy listening to the evolution of the negotiation. It is like watching a story unfold. It can start in a very quiet, controlled simple manner or it can begin like a volcano suddenly erupting. The middle part can be slow, especially if there is a stalemate. Bodies become agitated, eye contact either intensifies or completely vanishes, voices either increase in volume or are silenced. And then, the moment of some sort of resolution which is either going to make both parties happy, only one happy or...