Exploring Nature and Making Connections Together

Dear Monkey Class Families,

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to meet with me during the recent Parent-Teacher Conferences. It is invaluable to share insights about how each child is doing at home and at school. Together, we can continue to help each child be their own personal best. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child, and in this case, the Monkey Class community is essential. I truly value your commitment to working together.

Sharing the Planet Unit of Inquiry

In our "Sharing the Planet" unit, we explored elements of nature. The children engaged in discussions about what nature is—and what it is not. They sorted pictures of nature into different categories based on similarities, giving each category a title. It was wonderful to see how confidently the children shared their findings and challenged each other's thinking by suggesting new pictures to include.

A week later, during arrival play, we revisited the images and asked the children to sort them again, this time using only three images per category. The different connections they made and the knowledge they shared were fascinating! I've included an image below of how the children sorted the images and continue to make connections between the images.

Animal Exploration

Animals are always a favorite topic! During circle time, each child had the opportunity to share their favorite animal. We soon noticed many common interests and documented these. We then explored where these animals live in the wild, as many children initially thought they lived in zoos or Ocean Parks based on their prior knowledge. This led us to create habitats in the classroom. The children's involvement made these habitats far more beautiful than I had envisioned. It was amazing to hear their suggestions on what was missing, and together we created five habitats for our favourite animal toys.

We also discussed what animals eat. Many children shared that in zoos, people feed the animals, and in some places, visitors can feed them too. Our exploration continued as we started looking into different continents and where animals live around the world—and why!

Questions of Inquiry

Two questions of inquiry that emerged from the previous activities:

Can crocodiles live in the ocean? (AM)

What animal is this? (referring to an image of a raccoon hiding in a tree) (PM)

During circle time, we explored these questions together. It was delightful to see the children's ideas and how they built on each other's thoughts. After the children shared their thinking, we decided to research and see what we could find on Google using the image search. In the AM class, the images varied greatly, and the children noticed that in some of the images, we saw crocodiles on rocks near rivers, but in a few, we could see sand and what looked like the ocean. We learned a bit about saltwater crocodiles, so this inquiry is ongoing. In the PM class, we were able to reach a consensus that the animal in the picture was a raccoon by searching for the animals we initially thought of and comparing their varying features.

Tapping into Student Interests

We are continuing to take time to explore students' interests while developing both our questioning and research skills. Through small group and one-on-one conversations, I have been gathering information from each child about their knowledge of nature and their questions. This has revealed several themes, such as:

Favourite coloured flowers and where to find them

Growth, such as what is the biggest shark or how big fish can grow

And inquires about whether different animals can be friends

Who We Are Unit of Inquiry - Reflections 

In our "Who We Are" unit, we have begun a weekly reflection time called "Friday Reflections." We use the acronym TGIF:

T - What did you TRY this week?

G - What are you GRATEFUL for? 

I - What INSPIRED you this week?

F - What was FUN this week?

Currently, only a few children share during this time, and often, they echo what the child before them has said. However, valuable sharing is taking place, and I believe that as the year progresses, the children will become more confident in expressing their thoughts and ideas. Here are a few examples of student sharing over the last two weeks:

"I said Konichiwa", "I say Bonjour instead of hello" "I try say Shalom" (These relate to our new hello song and during greeting times we have encouraged children to try different languages)
"I try to find Giselle during Open play"
"I try to playing car with Kira"
"I tried playing water in the playground with Alex"
"I am grateful for my mommy" "Grateful for daddy and Aunty too"
"Inspired by my friends, people playing together"
"It was fun going shopping with mommy" "It was fun to look at my picture from holiday"

Google Photos & Spotify Playlist

Here are the links to our class photos: Monkey AM Class  |  Monkey PM Class

and our Monkey Class Spotify Playlist. I can't find this song on spotify but the children love it, so here is a youtube link. This is nature

Wishing you all a fantastic week ahead. Until next time, take care!