Going on a Bear Hunt

Collaborating with the Kindergarten classes is always a blast. During the 2023 winter term, the Kindies were learning about bears and hibernation. Instead of booklets and worksheets, we went on a Bear Hunt.

My niece Emma not only was my partner tour guide, but also stayed late after school with me to created the bear habitats.

We divided the library into five bear habitats for polar, black, spirit, brown, and panda bears. We chanted the bear hunt song, did the actions, and located the bear.

The classroom teacher was in charge of reading the "bear clues" to the class. When the students finished the clues they went on to the next bear.

The tour went as follows:

1. Around the mountain: find black bear/ catching salmon in a river

2. Swim across a river: find panda bear/eating bamboo in a bamboo forest

3. Jump over icebergs/ find polar bear in snow

4. Crawl under vines/ find brown bear in forest

5. Go through dark cave/ find spirit bear sleeping in a cave

Students learned about the habitat, country/location, food, and other characteristics about the five bears.

I ran a forest ambience video on the big screen for both appropriate noises and a little extra light other than the flashlights.

Space Extravaganza

This was an amazing collaboration with my Grade One Teachers. The three classes were exploring space and the planets during the 2023 winter term. I was asked to help with making paper mache planets for a hallway gallery walk. I love all things messy so I gladly agreed.

We tarped the gym for an entire afternoon and invited parents as helpers.

All three Grade One classes came to the gym smocked and ready to get messy. The teachers divided the students into 9 groups with at least one parent per group.

The groups were responsible for putting three layers of paper mache on their planet.

Regular balloons and punching balloons were used to create size and scale. The string handles of the punching balloons proved helpful for hanging later.

The sun and eight planets were left to dry in milk crates covered in plastic bags. A fan sped up the drying time and our lovely custodian diligently turned them around throughout the evening so that all the sides could dry evenly.

A few days later, I mended a few holes that were missing paper mache. Then, it was time for painting!

The nine planets/sun were divided among the three classes. Students worked together to paint their planet based on their previous research.

Spray insulation foam was used for Saturn's rocks and the sun's solar flares. A mini land rover was glued onto mars, and cotton balls were stretched and attached to Earth for clouds.

The planets and sun were hung in the hallway for the school and parents to enjoy.

Making the planets and sun:

Finished planets and sun:

A walk through:

Space Drumming

Another part of the Space Extravaganza was a musical piece called space drumming. Both Kindergarten classes joined the three Grade One classes for the drumming.

A slideshow of planet videos downloaded from Pixabay was made and with the help for my husband, who luckily is a music teacher, we created a musical score for boom whackers and rhythm sticks.

It was definitely a team effort with our Aboriginal Support Worker, several SEAs, and the classroom teachers coming together to help pull it off.

Over the Rainbow

September 2022 brought in the new school wide theme based on the novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It continues to amaze me that my staff allow me to hijack the entire year with my literary chaos.

I'm reading the original text aloud through a podcast accompanied by pictures and video clips. We are running the podcasts during a school wide teacher prep block. This is different procedure from the past two years when my podcasts were used during lunch eating time to help with supervision (Covid years). It was my way of having a shared reading experience in a time when were separated into isolated classes.

However, now I am able to watch the podcast with my students, and there is something magical about watching 257 multi-aged children bonding over a book at the same time.

This year, we will be taking the theme a little further. In an assembly, the school community was introduced to the challenge: The Missing Bricks of the Yellow Brick Road!

LadyMac and I created a video introducing the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys:

The witch sees in her crystal ball the Blacklock Elementary is coming to Oz to save Dorothy. But the problem, according to the witch, is that the yellow

brick road was damaged by the cyclone and unless Blacklock can locate the bricks and fix the road, they will not be able to save Dorothy.

Luckily, the flying monkey defects, and makes its way to Blacklock and interacts in real time with the principal Aussie Girl. In monkey language (that she learned in university - lol ), the principal learns

that there are 9 bricks missing that Blacklock needs to earn during the year. Only then can the school save Dorothy.

Some of the tasks the school will need to accomplish include food bank food drive, Earth Day garbage clean up, annual Read-a-thon, and so much more.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!