"Do you want to build a snowman?": Invitation to Create

LP's poem about her snowman, Lilee:

Black buttons.

White flower eyes.

Rock arms.

One star balloons.

Snow Bear.

Press Here

Our class loves this book!

Press Here by Herve Tullet asks the readers to press buttons, clap their hands, shake the pages, and watch to see what happens to the dots. The kids were amazed and laughed their heads off. It was a great way to get kids involved in reading:

RL presses the buttons

KL and RL clap their hands to make the buttons bigger

KB presses the buttons as she reads to a friend.

LP's turn to press the buttons.

We were inspired to write our own versions.

by KB

"Great! Now press four." by LP

"Press here and turn the page" by NH

"Press the yellow dot" by MJ

by RL

by TY

"Now, press the 2 buttons. Press the chicken." by KL

"Press the Blue Dot" by DD

by AG

"Press all the buttons" by RM

Ask your child to read their version to you!

Not a Box

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis is a fantastic book that celebrates the imagination of children. With just a bit of imagination, the rabbit's box becomes a car, a spaceship, a mountain, a hot air balloon, and a robot.

After reading the book, I challenged students to come up with their own ideas for what a box could become.

The children got to work writing, drawing, and sharing their ideas.

Animals were a common theme:

We listed all the ideas on the ActivBoard and everyone voted for what they wanted to transform the box into.

Elsa was the clear winner!

How to turn a box into Elsa posed a bit of a problem. After lots of discussion, we were able to enlist the help of the artistic Mrs. C to help us draw and cut out the shape of Elsa's body. Next, we brought out the paints.

Here's the finished product:

A few others went ahead and made other creations.

A Fox by LP

SA designed a house and enlisted her friends to help her paint it.

Straws and Connectors

This week, there was a huge interest in the "Straws and Connectors" at the building centre. I was happy to see most of the girls really get into building this week; it often is a centre that is dominated by the boys.

KW used the materials to make letters. Here is her X:

A lighthouse by NH

"Ice Keeper" by RM

A Fairy Castle by LP and KL

FM, AG, and BW made themselves robot costumes!

It was a great opportunity to talk about shapes, especially squares and rectangles, and to introduce the new vocabulary words of cubes and rectangular prisms.