Place and Time: Transportation

Early Canada

Early Canada was covered in wilderness and when people wanted to travel from east to west a railroad had to be built. On Monday the children heard a story telling of how hundreds of men travelled by boat from China for the dangerous work of building the railroads. Afterwards, they played with the train tracks pretending to build the railroad across Canada.

Learning in our wagons

It's hard for any of us to imagine a time before cars and getting around by horse drawn carriages and wagons. We researched this through video and the children noticed similarities and differences between horse drawn wagons and cars.

They applied what they learned by building a wagon complete with spoked wagon wheels. They will present the wagon to the other children and invite them to use it in their imaginative play.

Cars stop and go by brakes and gas pedal but how does a 

horse stop and go?  We imagined hanging tightly to the reigns and calling out "Giddy-up!" and "Whoa!" We played a song game in which the children took turns pretending to be the horse (Old Joe) and the rider.

Trot Old Joe, trot Old Joe.

You ride better than any horse I know.

Trot Old Joe, trot Old Joe.

You're the best ride in the country-o!

Whoa Joe!

Place and TIme: How We Communicate; Telephones

Because I am a saver of things I still have the rotary telephone that used to belong to my grandparents. The children were intrigued! I presented 3 phones: a cell phone, a touch pad phone and a rotary phone. The children showed me what it looks like when they make a call on each. 

They were all familiar with the cell phone.

"Is that an iphone?" asked Esme 

"My mom and dad have iphones." said Alan

The history of the telephone

A lesson was given on how to make a call on the rotary phone and on how to answer the phone politely "Hello, Oliver speaking." Alan made a pretend call to his mom. Esme called her dad, her baby brother and Nana and Oliver called a talking apple!

Oliver initiated an idea, he told us of how his grandma made a telephone with him using a straw and paper muffin liners. Great idea! We didn't have straws, instead we used pipe cleaners. Esme and Oliver used them to call each other and have a conversation.

Place and TIme: Making Butter

Child's Question: What's an invention?

The Fire and Wind Groups joined together to explore this question.

An invention is something people have built or created to do the work for us 

or to make the work easier and faster.

Both groups have read the story "Winter Days in the Big Woods" and we spent some time talking about the page where Mary helps Ma churn butter. We discussed where we get butter now . . . "From the store!" and we watched a video illustrating how milk is shipped in tanker trucks to a factory where machines churn it into butter and shape it into blocks. We noticed that the machines did most of the work and all the worker had to do was connect hoses and push buttons.

Another video showed butter being made in a churn and we came across an old fiddle song called "Churning Butter" which we listened to as we churned butter using a jar and a lot of energy!

Start with whipping cream

Sharing the work

We made butter!

This is a lot of work!

Venn Diagram

Everyone shared in the work and the children noticed how much time and work it took to make butter. Finally it was ready and everyone sampled store bought butter and home made butter.

We expressed what we learned in a Venn Diagram.

New Unit: Where We Are In Place and Time

• A new year and a new unit!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Transdisciplinary Theme: Where we are in place and time
  • Central Idea:

    There are similarities and differences between the way people lived long ago and the way people live today

Lines of Inquiry:

·       There are similarities and differences between past and present

·       Inventions have been made that impact the things we do

Changes in daily life

Most of us remember endless stories from our grandparents 

or other elders about "the olden days" and how life was different. 

"Winter Days in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder was our launching point today as I recorded what the children already know about life long ago.

The parts of the story that intrigued them were the girls using a thimble to draw pictures on a frosty window "What's a thimble?" and when the girls churned butter 

"How do you make butter?" 

Next, we went into the kitchen and looked at some inventions that weren't around long ago: dishwasher, microwave, indoor plumbing and the refrigerator.

"What's an invention?"

Three great questions to start our investigations!