Mrs. Sweezey | Natoaganeg School

Don't Push the Button

Mad Science Thursday - Dancing Milk

Posted: September 28, 2017

Another successful science experiment completed! Today we made dancing milk. All you need for this experiment is pie plate, whole milk (must be whole milk), an assortment of food colouring, q-tip, and preferably Dawn dish liquid. Fill the bottom of your pie plate with milk, add a few drops of food colouring, coat one end of your q-tip in the dish liquid, and then dip the q-tip into the center of your pie plate - what happens?

When we complete our experiments, we do our best to fill the role of a scientist by using the language and asking great questions and making observations. The children are getting better at making hypothesis and describe what they see. In this video clip I have captured the children's excitement. After they made the milk dance, they very much enjoyed mixing the milk and making new colours. Way to go little scientists!

Week 3

Posted: September 22, 2017

What a super duper day

Posted: September 21, 2017

Today was a jam packed day of fun. Before leaving for our "adventure time" in the woods, I took a brief moment to demonstrate to the kiddos our end of play time signal. This is my best owl call and when the kids hear it, they are to stop and come find me. It took a few hoots, but they came when they heard me call. Great listening K4!

"We're going on a bear hunt."

Posted: September 21, 2017

Today we read one of my personal favourites, "Were Going On A Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen. This book is great to read because you can sing along, add your own actions, and the imagery is so inviting. Plus there's a bear and kids love a bear story. Sharing my love of reading and picture books is something that I am excited to share with the kids and I'm happy to report that the kids either want to read the book alone once I'm done, ask me to read it again or want to read it to their friends. Story time is my favourite time.

In this video one kiddo is doing their best to retell the story in their own words which is a wonderful sign for an early reader :)

Mad Science Thursday

Posted: September 21, 2017

On Thursdays we are scientists and today we did our second experiment of the school year. What happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar? Together we made our hypothesis and then we completed the experiment. Each student got there own cups of ingredients to mix and boy were they surprised of the reaction that happened. "It exploded!!!"

Clearing a path.

Posted: September 20, 2017

It's been a long time since Mary Dale and I spent time in our forest classroom and it has sure changed a lot over the summer months. The paths are no longer clear and the campsite is blooming with a lot of greenery. We explained to the kids that we got a lot of work to do to tidy up our campsite. Here is Mary Dale explaining to the kids how to safely remove branches with the cutters. Assessing risk and playing safely is a huge part any outdoor classroom curriculum and the kids are on the right path. Here's to many more adventures in the woods at Natoaganeg School.

We made it too the woods! Day 2.

Posted: September 20, 2017

On Tuesday we completed our first boundary walk. We walked along the school grounds and tied ribbons to trees to show the kids points that they are not to pass. We are making an invisible wall to keep us safe! Today we reviewed our boundaries and both days ended with some play time on our trails and in our wooded play spaces - the day was a huge success. In this video you can see how happy, free, and comfortable the kids are in the woods. Great work K4.

Foodie Friday - Part 2

Posted: September 15, 2017

No pie is complete without a little whipped topping - mmmmmm.

Another Foodie Friday - No Bake Apple Pies

Posted: September 15, 2017

Foodie Friday is becoming a hit. This week we made a No Bake Apple Pie in a cup. "Cooking" is a great way to engage children in learning because they get to practice so many valuable skills. In this short clip our lovely EA, Mary-Dale is demonstrating to the children how they will assemble their apple pies. Mary Dale has a great way of capturing the students attention and explaining instructions to them. We are super lucky to have her in our classroom - Welalin Mary Dale.

"I can make green choices!"

Posted: September 15, 2017

This week we began talking about the choices we make at school - some choices are good, these are GREEN choices and sometimes we make bad ones, which are RED choices. To start, some GREEN choices in our classroom include listening, cleaning up, playing with my friends, using my words, quiet voice, walking feet, sharing, and throwing away my garbage. RED choices are behaviors like not listening, spitting, running (indoors), yelling, hitting/pushing, and taking everything. In our classroom we stress the importance of community, which is why as the educators we remind the children that we are Team K4! We work together and support one another and by helping each other make more GREEN choices, our classroom is a fun and safe place to be.

In this video, a couple students are reviewing our GREEN and RED Choices chart. Awesome job K4.