Captivated by the Winter Olympics

For the past two weeks, the children and teachers at our little yellow school have been caught up in the excitement of the 2018 Winter Olympics.  These Olympics brought joy to our days.

From Culture to Arithmetic to Language, interest in the Olympics permeated our classrooms.  It all began with the question "Where in the world is PyeongChang?"  We used our atlas along with the Puzzle Map of Asia to find South Korea.  The Asia map has been in constant use over the past two weeks with children labeling the names of the countries in Asia.

The Puzzle Map of Asia

Hard at Work

Many stories were written about the games and the medals Canada won.

Our favourite activity occurred each day at circle.  That is when we would track the progress of our Olympic team on a simple wall graph.  

Our Graph

The wall graph provided the children with the opportunity to collect data and organize it.  Through our graph, the children were able to:

~  collect information
~  count and sort
~  read graphs
~  make observations from a graph
~  ask questions about graph results

They spent much time counting and discussing the medals Canada won.

Discussing the Graph

While we learned a lot about South Korea and the different sports, it was the stories of the Olympians that taught us some very important life lessons.


Dedication - All of the Olympic athletes on our screens displayed dedication.  Most began their training as children and put in countless hours of practice to be among the best athletes in the world.  Our students were particularly interested in the story of Olympic darlings Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.  Our beloved Canadians began skating together in 1997.  Twenty years later, they leave these Olympics as the most decorated figure skaters in history with five Olympic medals each.

Perseverance - All of the athletes have persevered through good times and bad.  The story of Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris's comeback from near death resonated with our students.  With his accident occurring a mere 11 months before the Olympics, Mark refused to give up and landed on the podium with a bronze medal.  Very impressive!  Mark's perseverance was referenced by India's Prime Minister in a speech to young students. 

Teamwork - In the Olympics, there are individual sports and team sports.  It was inspiring to see veteran speed skaters Charles Hamelin and Marianne St-Gelais, medal winners at previous games, supporting and guiding the new young stars of the sport.  It was also great to see athletes from different sports coming out to cheer on their fellow Canadian athletes.  This also resonated with our students as this happens in our Montessori classrooms each and every day.  We are always here to support, guide and cheer one another on.

Good Sportsmanship -   In each Olympic sport, there are those who receive medals and those who do not.  As Canadians, there were some losses in key sports that we did not anticipate.  Despite this, our athletes always tried their best and were gracious in both victory and defeat.  They set a wonderful example.

At the end of these games, our wall graphs showed us that Canada won an impressive 29 medals - 11 gold, 8 silver and 10 bronze!  We placed third behind Norway and Germany for the most medals won.  This is our highest tally ever at a Winter Olympics!

Hooray, Canada!

Thank you to PyeongChang and the people of South Korea for being such gracious and elegant hosts.  A huge thank you to all of our Canadian Olympic athletes on a wonderful Winter Olympics!  We kept you in our hearts and in our thoughts.  You brought light into our wintry February days and made Canada proud!  Congratulations!

Math ~ The Multiplication (Bead) Board

Multiplication work is always a favourite activity in our classrooms.  The second and third year students have been working with a flurry of multiplication materials - the golden beads, the multiplication bead bars, the stamp game and the multiplication operations boards to name a few.  The clear favourite is the multiplication (bead) board.

The multiplication (bead) board is a square wooden board with one hundred little dimples carved into the wood in rows of ten.  Across the top of the board are the numbers one to ten.  There is a small grooved circle to the left of these numbers in which a small red marker rests when not in use.  Half way down the board on the left hand side is a little slot for a number card to be slid into.  A cut out circle window allows the number to be seen.  The white cards are numbered one to ten.  There are also exactly one hundred small red beads for counting.

Before I get to how this material is used, it is important to discuss the language used.  It differs slightly from more traditional methods.  The language is the key.  Instead of saying multiplication is two times four, we would say that multiplication is a number taken many times.  In this way, we would say two taken four times.

So how does this material work?  When this material is introduced, the child would be given a multiplication booklet consisting of ten pages.  Each page illustrates a multiplication table one to ten.  (The child in these photographs has already completed a book and wanted to work on his ten times tables.)

In this first photograph the child is working on ten taken three times (10 x 3).  The side window has the number ten in it to indicate it is the ten times table.  The child begins by setting out ten beads under the number one.  They then set out ten beads under the number two and then the number three.  The little red marker in this picture is at the top of the board above the three.  This tells the child where they must stop when setting out the beads.  Next they count all the beads laid out and write their answer ten taken three times equals thirty.

The second photograph shows the child moving on to ten taken four times.  The little red marker is now above the four.

The greatest challenge of this work is in the counting.  The child must be able to count up to one hundred.  The other challenge is making sure the beads are placed securely in the grooves.  If they are not, they have the tendency to roll off tables and all over the floor.  The other children in the classroom are only too happy to help look for the little red beads.  When you see a group of children crawling on the floor looking for red beads, it is time to step in and thank them for their great help.

Crystal Hearts ~ Valentine's Day Science

The children at our little yellow school are so excited about Valentine's Day!  What better way to enhance our celebration than with a fun and easy Valentine themed science experiment!  Here is our crystal heart adventure.

We began by gathering our supplies - construction paper hearts, a cookie sheet, salt, measuring spoons, a measuring cup and hot water.

Ready to Go

We filled the measuring cup with very hot water.  The children took turns mixing salt into the water to make a solution.  

   

 

  

  

   

When the water could no longer hold anymore salt, our solution was ready.  We poured just enough of our solution to cover the construction paper hearts.  Here is what happened.

24 Hours - Crystals are forming yet there is still a lot of water.

48 Hours -  Most of the water has evaporated and crystals have formed.  The hearts are still very wet.

72 hours -   Our construction paper hearts are dry and coated in large and small crystals.  They now have a pink tinge.

The children were fascinated by the results!  They each took home a heart to show their families.

How did this happen?  This experiment is all about chemistry.  In the simplest terms, chemistry is about the changes that occur when substances are mixed together.  In this experiment, salt and water were mixed together to form a solution.  As the water evaporated, the sodium and chlorine atoms found in the salt were no longer separated by water.  They began to bond together to form crystals.

We all enjoyed this amazing chemistry experiment!  Thank you to www.littlebinsforlittlehands.com.

The Children's Montessori Academy