You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby

You must have been a beautiful baby
'Cause baby look at you now.

So goes the old 1930s song, most recently recorded by Michael Buble.  Baby Pictures was the March Show and Tell Theme. Our students are all so cute right now.  Could they really have been any cuter?  Wait until you see their baby pictures!  (You can click on the images to make them larger.)

Four and a half year old C.

Four year old M.

Three and a half year old B.

Three and a half year old A.

Four and a half year old O.

Four and a half year old O.

Four and a half year old J.

Four and a half year old M.

Five and a half year old A.

The baby pictures received many  "Oh you're so cute!" comments.  We looked forward to seeing them each day. We have known some of our little students since they were in their mom's tummies.  It is hard to believe how quickly they have grown.

Show and Tell Bag

During the month of February, our Show and Tell theme was a guessing bag.  Each child was given a lunch bag.  They were asked to place an interesting item (not a toy) inside the bag. Once an object was selected, their families helped each child come up with three clues about the object.  These were written on the outside of the bag.

We had never done guessing bags before.  Mrs. P. brought in a guessing bag so that we could all have a trial run prior February.

Mrs. P.'s Show and Tell Bag

Each child was in charge of his/her own presentation.  Each child read one clue at a time.

 

A. Reading One of Her Clues

R. Reading One Of Her Clues

Three guesses were accepted per clue.

M. choosing someone who would like to make a guess.

F. Accepting a Guess

At the end of the presentation, or after a correct guess, the object was revealed!

What could it be?

It's a necklace!

Reaching In

So much time and effort went into the guessing bags.  We were particularly impressed by how many of our students wrote their own clues, even some of our youngest.  

M.'s Guessing Bag

It's a pony jewelry box!

I.'s Guessing Bag

It's shells!

H.'s Guessing Bag

It's sunscreen!

J.'s Guessing Bag (left)

It's a straw!

Show and Tell has taught us many things this year.  It has taught us how to speak in front of a group, to raise our hand if we would like to ask a question and to wait our turn.  We also learned that we may not always be chosen every time and that's okay.

Speaking in front of a group with confidence is most noticable in our two youngest students.  Both of the following students are newly turned three year olds.  Their presentations were absolutely lovely and demonstrated just how far they have come since September.

A. turned three in December.

A. turned three in February.

A. demonstrating her suncatcher.

A huge thank you to our parent community for getting so involved in this activity.  It was such a fantastic experience. There were so many interesting objects!  It was, however, very difficult to stump this group of children.  They are very sharp. 

Can you guess what Mrs. P.'s object was?  The children did.

Mrs. P.'s Show and Tell Bag

It was snowflake soap!

Snowflake Soap

Each child took home a flake of snowflake soap.

Note:  A huge thank you to Ms. Sandi and her blog rubber boots and elf shoes for the idea and the guessing bag template.

Christopher Columbus ~ A Courageous Sailor

Over the course of the winter term, the children at our little yellow school have been learning about the most famous sailor ever, Christopher Columbus.  While it has been over five hundred years since that fateful voyage across the Atlantic and the discovery of the New World, his story continues to fascinate.

A Model of Columbus's Ship, The Santa Maria

In Culture, the children had been introduced to and/or refreshed their knowledge of the continents.

I. with her continents map.

Our study of Christopher Columbus was a lead in to our work on North America.  

Five Year Olds L. (l) and J. (r) Working With the North America Map

We read simple biographies and looked at paintings and drawings of Christopher Columbus and his three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.  Years ago, Mrs. P. found a replica of the Santa Maria in a thrift shop.  The children were very excited to have a model of that famous ship!

 

Parts of the Santa Maria

We had many activities for the children to work with.  The older children enjoyed learning the nomenclature for the Parts of the Santa Maria.

 

Four Year Old A. With Her Work

 

Four Year Old E. (l) and Five Year Old A. (r) With Their Work

Almost Five Year Old M. With Her Work

The children also enjoyed colouring a picture of Christopher Columbus and his three ships.

Four Year Old K. Colouring the Ships

Four Year Old M.'s Work

Four and a Half Year Old C.'s Work

Five year old J. was particularly captivated by the story of Christopher Columbus and was always interested in learning more about him.  J. wrote a story about Christopher Columbus.

Five Year Old J.

 

Five Year Old J.'s Story With the Story Alphabet

J.'s Story

J. even brought in his grandfather's engineering compass for Show and Tell.  This went beautifully with our own study of the compass.

J. and his grandfather's compass.

A Compass Book

A Page From a Compass Book

We learned so much about Christopher Columbus and continue to be inspired by the tenacity and the courage that led to the discovery of a whole new world.

Christopher Columbus,

He sailed the ocean blue.

He found a continent in 1492.