Place and Time: How We Communicate; Email

The internet and email has changed the way we communicate allowing us 

almost instant communication with people around the world. 

What do you know about emails?

All of the children have heard the word, here is their understanding . . . 

"You press a number on the phone or computer, you text." - Esme

"There's a screen to look at. Computers are good for typing, you can send 

a message to people who are too far." - Oliver

"It's about computers." - Sophie

"I don't know. It's about messages." - Tyreese

Everyone was eager to see what an email looked like and how it was done so we decided to send an email to their parents. I wrote their message and they typed their name and hit 'send'


Whoosh! 

It was gone! Arriving instantly in their parent's inbox. 

Some of the parents replied and their messages read to their child. 

Place and Time: What Do You Do For Fun?

Comparing similarities and differences between what children 

did for fun long ago and what they do now. 

What do you do for fun?

Sophie - play with the marble tower and pretend princess
Esme - play with my stuffy and blanket and pretend family
Rylan - use my blankets to hide under, build forts and just play around
Tyreese - play with diggers and lego and dinosaurs
Rielle - build forts and shine my start light on the ceiling
Oliver - play cars and trucks and pretend to call people on the telephone

Now, thinking of the olden days, what do you think your moms and dads did for fun when they were little kids? After a few giggles at the idea of their parents being small the children thought . . . 

Esme - I have no idea!
Rielle - they probably just spilled water on the ground
Rylan - or on people's heads
Tyreese - when my mom was little she was a boy and she played digger
Oliver - my dad probably watched movies
Sophie - my mom played princess but she was so small she couldn't reach the counter

We realized we need to do some research!! Parents please reply in this blog or by email and tell us what you did for fun when you were young. We'll share your stories next week

The children made a toy that's been around for a long time: Toss and Catch

A button attached to a cup by a string provided the challenge to try to swing the button and catch it in the cup. Parents, maybe you had a similar toy when you were young, you know, in the olden days!

Place and Time: Horse Drawn Wagons

My recent adventure of getting stranded in Powell River when my flight was cancelled due to fog led a discussion of how even with inventions like airplanes that speed up travel we are still affected by inclement weather "like the olden days."

The children finished their wagon building project and we fashioned a horse 

out of chairs and fabric. Byron and Jayla helped document by taking pictures. The wagon was presented to the other children and all were invited to use it in their imagination games.

The song game Trot Old Joe was requested again only this time the children offered

ideas of other ways horses move: walk, run, skip.

Everyone built wagons with Lego thinking about various elements: wheels, a base and sides (so you don't fall off) and reigns (not rains!) It turns out we only have 2 horses which allowed the children to be creative in choosing other animals to pull their wagon! 

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!