Off And Swimming With The Whales!

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What a fun first few days we’ve had in the Whales classroom! The list of activities are endless, but here are a few of the highlights.

We played outside together, enjoying the beautiful weather, the big blue blocks, the climbing structure, and the company of new friends. We began our exploration of sunflowers, examining them up close with magnifying glasses and tweezers. We had our very first Writing Club, and Whales are practicing sharing what they know with readers through illustration and words. We are discovering new things about our brain, putting important tools in our Whale toolbox that will help us regulate our emotions, concentrate, and stay calm and safe. Finally, we are enjoying books together! Whales are learning to read silently by themselves, slowing down, and reading books through pictures. After just two days, the Whales have begun to form a happy little pod of friends!

Birds Galore!

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Deep into their study of birds and wetlands, the Whales got a chance to put their knowledge into action as they ventured to Fernhill Wetlands! Our field trip started with a tour led by Seth Winkelhake from Clean Water Services. Seth talked to us about how our local wetlands improve water quality by removing nutrients, cooling, and naturalizing the water after it goes through a conventional treatment process.

Then we had the chance to spend time doing some serious birding! With thanks to Pacific’s Biology Department, and expert ornithologist and biologist Lauren Chan and Gregor Yanega, the Whales got to look through real scientist’s scopes at a wide range of birds - many of which we have been studying. There were squeals of excitement as Whales saw “their” Red-winged Blackbird, Song Sparrow, Anna’s Hummingbird, Northern Flicker, Canada Goose, Mallard Duck, etc. What an amazing experience!

Whales have also spent time practicing being birds together. It turns out that trying to fly as fast as an American Kestrel, stare as long as a Great Horned Owl, stand on one foot for as long as a Great Blue Heron or flap your wings as quickly as an Anna’s Hummingbird is hard work!

This week, our exploration of birds has been focused mostly on beaks and feet. We pretended to be birds with webbed feet and straining beaks, wading feet and spear beaks, etc. We are learning just how important a bird’s beak and feet are for their survival!

Whales Begin Their Study Of Birds!

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Whales launched their study of birds this week - and we are taking off and soaring! Each Whale has a special bird that they are researching. We have learned more about what our bird eats, where it spends its time, where it builds its nest, how many eggs are commonly in the clutch, and how big the eggs are. Our bird play has extended into the Piazza where we worked together to build a giant eagle’s nest. There was no end to the sound of eagles screeching madly outside!

We also spent time placing our completed scientific illustrations of our wetland animals onto our giant mural in the classroom. We decided where each of our animals should be placed within the wetland ecosystem.

Whales are beyond excited for our field trip to Fernhill Wetlands on Monday, where we will have the chance to see the plants, animals and birds we have been studying up close!

More Wetland Animals, Food Webs, Strategy Games and Parachute Fun!

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The Whales got to hear more presentations from our wetland animal experts this week. We have been looking at the special characteristics that our animals have that help them survive in their habitat. We did some big exploration of food webs in the wetland ecosystem and discovered that plants are even MORE powerful than we originally thought. As one Whale remarked, “Plants are just almost better and stronger than anything - they make their OWN FOOD!”

In addition, Whales have been completing some amazing scientific illustrations of their wetland animals, noticing the tiniest details in shape, color and form. We’ll post a photo of their completed work next week.

We ended our week playing strategy games like Checkers and Tic-Tac-Toe. We talked about the concept of strategy, and agreed that if you are using strategy, you have to think before you do - and that means using your prefrontal cortex!

Our last activity on Friday was some surprise parachute play out under the trees in the quad. We had so much fun working together to make the parachute go uuup and dooown, each Whale taking their turn under the vibrant and magical colors of the parachute. What fun!

Wetland Animals

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The Whales started the week by thinking about all the parts of the wetland ecosystem, and looking at photographs of our very own Fernhill Wetland. We noticed that a wetland has mud, water, powerful plants, trees, sky and clouds. We split into small groups and decided that we would create a wetland habitat in our classroom by painting a mural. We worked hard together, each of us taking on a specific part of the wetland ecosystem. When we were finished, we were amazing by how beautiful it was! The Whales agreed that all our ecosystem needs now are the pollinators, animals, birds and fish that make their home in the wetland.

We signed up for our favorite wetland animal and completed some pretty amazing research at home. Whales have been teachers this week, sharing all they know about their wetland animal. It’s been so fun to watch them share their knowledge so confidently with one another. Whales are becoming wetland experts!

The Power of Wetland Plants!

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The Whales began their exploration of wetlands this week, starting with the role wetlands play in cleaning our water, controlling flooding and providing oxygen for us to breathe. We took a detailed look at the amazing superpowers of wetland plants, comparing them to everyday objects like vacuum cleaners, sieves, sponges and brooms. During our science experiments we watched as wetland plants helped filter impurities and absorb excess water, keeping our drinking water clean and our city safe from flood waters. We even practiced being wetland plants, with sticky roots that caught impurities and sediment before it went into our drinking water!

We also got to visit our very own mini-wetland (bio-swale) in the Cedar Classroom! It was exciting to see the plants we had been drawing and painting doing their amazing work cleaning the water that comes from other areas of our university campus. We had to listen like ninjas and have our eagle eyes peeled, but we were thrilled to see the water being filtered before our very eyes!

Earth Week Magic!

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The Whales spent a glorious week together, using our senses to explore the beauty and wonder of our earth. We used our ears to listen to the sounds of nature, our eyes to see even the tiniest details in the world around us. We felt the wind and sun as we danced under the trees in the quad. We wrote poetry about what we saw and what we heard.

Our week culminated in a gift to our families, and to the wonders of nature. Together, we used all our skills in pattern-making and symmetry to create beautiful mandalas to share with our family and those strangers passing by. Each of us used descriptive words to write a poem about the center of our mandala.

It was beautiful week of friendship, nature and fun!

Shapes, Friends and Fun!

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Whales began an exploration of 2-D shapes this week. We talked about the qualities of 2-D shapes, how we can draw them, memorize their names, and find them in our environment. We spent our mornings playing shape games, creating shapes on our pegboards and making new shapes out of existing shapes with our pattern blocks.

On Friday we celebrated with a 2-D Shape Bingo Walk around campus. We found circles, ovals, triangles, rhombus’ pentagons, hexagons, octagons, trapezoids and more. Once we started looking, we began to notice shapes EVERYWHERE!

Whales Explore More About Force and Motion

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We’ve had a fabulous time digging deeper into the concept of force and motion over the last two weeks. We’ve explored how the force of gravity and friction affects the world around us. We looked at the work of big machines and tried to mimic the forces of push and pull that they use to do large jobs. We decided it was easier to dig a deep hole using the movements of an excavator than simply digging by hand!

As luck would have it, we got to watch a digger and dump truck do some work right outside the piazza fence at the ELC! We were so excited to “narrate” the movements of the big vehicles, and the men doing the work. We shouted, “push!” “pull!” “lift!” “dump!” “friction!” “gravity!”.

When we began to think about how friction can change the direction of objects in motion, we put our ideas to the test and played a game of Human Bumper Bowling outside in the quad. It was rollicking good fun!


Saying Goodbye to Ms. Katie and Exploring Force & Motion

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The Whales will be saying a sad goodbye to our amazing student teacher, Ms. Katie tomorrow. Her happy, kind, confident, wise and incredibly competent teaching has been such a gift to our Whale classroom. Please find some photos of just a few of her brilliant lessons below. We love you, Ms.Katie!

XOXO The Whales

The Whales have been having a fabulous week exploring the concept of force and motion. We have discovered new facts about push and pull, inertia, gravity and friction…and we’ve done it all while playing games like marbles, pick-up sticks and tug-of-war. We will continue to explore these physics concepts next week!

Symmetry, St. Patrick's Day and Whale Friends!

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The Whales explored the concept of symmetry this week, using our bodies to find symmetry through movement and dance. We even went outside and used the big drum to perform a 1, 2, 3 - SYMMETRY! dance together. It was so fun to watch Whales practice using their Eagle Eyes and Ninja Listening to regulate and control their bodies so they could mirror the movements of their friends.

After we practiced moving together, we used our skills as artists to create magnificent symmetry string paintings with Ms. Katie. We were thrilled to see the symmetrical shapes our pieces of string left behind!

On Wednesday, we arrived to class and began creating our AMAZING leprechaun traps! We used our skills as writers to welcome those rascals into our traps, and give them detailed directions on how to get inside. Although none of us were successful in catching one of the Wee Folk, they did make a real mess in the classroom! Chairs were tipped over, glitter all over the floor, and green (ehem) something in the toilets. Thank goodness they left us some chocolate coins to eat!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

Off And Swimming With The Whales!

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