What job does my parent do?

Teacher Question: What are some jobs done in the community?

The children show an understanding that there are jobs done at the daycare and at home that are important.

"Mommy's job is to wash dishes"(Chloe)

"My daddy's job is to make coffee" (Byron)

"My mommy washes dishes too." (YuHa)

When I asked "When your mom or dad goes to work what kind of job do they do?" No one had any ideas to offer! We started a chart that needs your help to complete. When you pick up or drop off your child please tell us what kind of job you do!

We spent some time playing with the blocks and people and created a community. As the children played I listened and observed for understanding of jobs in the community. After some time I saw farmers taking care of cattle and horses, roads being built, schools opening and closing at the end of the day. Actually, I saw businesses opening and closing a lot! 

"My school is opening" (Hao Hao)

"This is a dancing school"(Chloe)

"We need cars and stop signs"(Byron)

"This girls job is to go to school, we need a teacher." (Natalya)

Job: the barber

Line of Inquiry: The jobs people do in our community support its development

There is a store in between Scotiabank and Bean Around The World on Dunbar street that is all closed up with paper taped on the windows. The children were intrigued - what type of store could have been here? We imagined we were going to open up a business that our community needs and came up with some possible ideas; a dress shop, a Christmas tree store, a shoe store and a toy store. Next week, we'll develop these ideas and explore how these stores would help in the development in our community and set up a store in the daycare for some drama play.

Near this closed shop is the Barber shop. Many of the children recalled going to the Barber shop to watch Simone's dad get a shave and a haircut. We watched the process of the customer getting a shave on a Youtube video. I recalled as a child watching my dad shave and pretending to shave along with him lathering my face with shaving cream. The children wanted to try too! So off we went to "the barber shop" (the bathroom) and everyone lathered up and used a popcycle "razor" to shave.

The children enjoyed the slippery texture of the shaving cream so we extended this idea by finger painting with shaving cream!

Lathering up!

It feels slippery!

Trying the coloured shaving cream

Our new friend Peter enjoys himself!

Exploring what a bank is for

Line of Inquiry: The jobs people do in our community support its development

While talking about businesses in our community the children became aware that they did not know what a bank was for. Today we played bank and the children set to work cleaning the drama room for which they were paid 5 Smarties. At the end of their "work day" they counted out 5 Smarties and then opened a Savings Account at the local Wind Bank. I am the bank teller and it is my job to keep their money safe and to be available for when they are ready to make a withdrawal. Many of the children said they were going to save their money to take home but in the end everyone decided to eat 1 Smartie right away.

Everyone working together.

The bank is open all day except for rest time and outside time, otherwise, the children can take their money whenever they want with the understanding that once their bank account is empty the bank will not give them more money "You have to go to work again" said Chloe.

Getting paid for our work.

As the day went on, the children were reminded that they had money in the bank. Some children kept their money in the bank, some withdrew one more Smartie, and Byron emptied his bank account after the first reminder. As some of the children's bank accounts emptied and others still had "money" to withdraw the children seemed to understand that the bank does not just keep giving money but that they had to deposit more in order for there to be money in their accounts.

Our savings accounts
I will contact a local bank and see if they will give us a tour!

New Unit Formative Week: a walk in the community

How We Organize Ourselves

Central Idea: The work people perform helps build community

This week the teachers are gathering what the children know about the central idea. The children come with an understanding that there are jobs in the community such as, construction workers, gardeners, winemakers, and dishwashers. They know there is work done within the daycare community such as, sweeping, washing tables, cleaning up toys and organizing books.

Yesterday the children went for a walk to 41st and Dunbar St. and walked along Dunbar to 39th Ave and noted all the business and jobs they saw. They even got to visit Olivia's dads work, he's a vet.

Today we started a map of the community focusing on the four corners of 41st and Dunbar. The children knew a lot about the Shell gas station; its an important feature of our community because "our cars need gas and without gas we'd have to walk" said Chloe. "Or take the bus" offered Rocco. The bus transfer station is right across the street. A new and used book store is on another corner. Julia thought this store might be important to some people but not to others. Kai said "If you like to read, you need a book store." The Scotia Bank is on the other corner. Many of the children have been to the bank but have no idea what the bank is for. This is an area we will explore further.

The children added pictures to the map and Adyson added a feature she knows: traffic lights and stop signs. Someone has the job of putting up traffic signs, we'll explore why this is an important job and what might happen if this job wasn't done.

Summative Week: creating an Invention

Summative week is an opportunity for the children to take all that they know and have learned about the central idea and present it in a project. The central idea is "There are similarities and differences between the way people lived long ago and the way people live today."

Over the past 6 weeks the children have explored the way things were done long ago (food preservation for winter) and how it's done today. They learned that many families still preserve food for winter, such as making jam or freezing blueberries. They learned that this practise isn't always necessary now because of the an innovation: green houses, which can provide us with fresh food in winter.

For summative week the children reflected on a problem that the teachers have noticed - at times people don't like to clean up. The children set to work developing an innovation that will do the work. Every child added an idea to be included in the machine. While building they were asked to reflect on these ideas: when should we use the cleaning machine? Will we become lazy if machines always do the work? Will the machine create more time for us to play? Does it feel good to do a good job in cleaning? What would happen to this feeling if the machine does the work for us?

Adyson's idea is to make the machine red

Attaching the arms for the grabbers

It needs 'on' and 'off' buttons!

Add caption

We called it "The Super Duper Machine"

Comparing tools from yesterday and today

Teacher Question: How have ideas and processes changed out lives?

Some innovations have been developed to meet a need, usually to take away the work from us and giving us more time to play. Today the children looked closely at some of these innovations in the daycare; the job they do, how they work, why we use them, and why we might chose not to use them and continue doing the work the way we've always done it.

The children shared stories of how they sometimes wash dishes by hand even though they own a dishwasher or how their parents still hang their clothes out to dry even though they have a dryer.

The children had hands on experience using various tools to mix flour and water together and discussed the time line of these innovations; a wooden spoon, a hand beater and an electric mixer was tried by all.

Trying a hand mixer

How does an electric mixer work?

trying the tools in the water table

Do plants grow in winter?

Child's Question: Do plants grow in the winter?

The children checked the seed packets that they had prepared in the previous week and discovered that the ones that were inside where it was warm sprouted and the ones that were kept outside in the cold didn't.

To experience this concept again the children planted the pea seeds in the planter outside and were asked if they thought they would grow. We used an upside down aquarium for a greenhouse and planted some of the seeds in the greenhouse and some outside of the greenhouse and we'll wait and see what happens. The children will observe how the invention of greenhouses impacts our ability to grow food in the winter.

The children completed an assessment to show their understanding so far of their question "Do plants grow in the winter?" based on the past weeks experiences and experiments.