my home and native land

Canada's birthday is tomorrow, so I figured a little Canadian content was in order.

Handprint Canadian flags are an elementary school staple.  Just about every child has one in the scrapbook that they take home at the end of the school year.

source: Meet the Dubiens

A couple more maple leaf crafts...

source: create-kids-crafts

source: almost unschoolers

Raffi, our Canadian children's troubadour, sings about C-A-N-A-D-A

The maple leaf is one symbol of Canada.

Another is our national animal -- the  beaver.
Our early economic history was tied to the trade of beaver pelts which were used to make men's top hats.  And they are busy, industrious little critters.

source: Family Theme Days

Canada is the second largest country by total area, and is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories. We border on three oceans, the Atlantic, Pacific and the Arctic Oceans.

Poutine is a French Canadian dish - french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.  Fabulous.  My daughter is making it for her workmates at a Yorkshire B and B on July 1 to honour her home and native land.

source: Almost Canadian

We can't lay claim to strawberries as a national food.  But they are red and they are ripe for the picking on Canada Day.  Can't be co-incidence.

source: Savvymom

VixenMade is celebrating Canada with a week of Canadian crafts. 

You can download this awesome subway art from It Works for Bobbi.

I'll say "so long, eh" with Canada My Canada, sung by the students from a school "just up the road".

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Sandi

Arrrrgh matey!

We have been enjoying pirate fun for the last days of kindergarten.

Parrots, bandanas, telescopes, swords, walking the plank, hooks, peg legs and most of all "aye, aye captain" have been the order of the day.

Pirates are such a fun theme to fill the classroom with rich language and math opportunities.  (I know that in real life pirates were and are violent and ruthless lawbreakers.  We do talk about that, and then decide that we will have fun with pretend pirates.)

An Ikea ice cube tray and some jewels, pearls and skulls (from a dollar store pirate bracelet) "mark the spot".

Pop up Pirate is a lot of fun, and a good opportunity to practice taking turns.

The surprise hit this year was a pirate based snakes and ladders game from a dollar store.  You're not going to find me complaining when kids are wanting to count, add, subtract, do one to one correspondence and figure out how close they are to 100.

The kids loved creating and recreating Pirate Island.  There are some lift the flap surprises on the island which make for more fun. I like listening in on the stories that they create.  And I grin from ear to ear hearing them use "story language", knowing that they have internalized how a story is pieced together and works.  This flannel board set (and a whole bunch of other ones) is available through Fun Felt.

We also made Deanna Jump's pirates.  I think they each have so much personality and look fabulous.

Click on over to check out our pirate sensory bin and grab a free pirate poem printable.

that's where you say "aye, aye, captain"

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Sandi

This week, the marbleworks have been getting a little wet.

A couple of weeks ago I followed a link about creating learning spaces in small spaces and found Arlee's blog, Small Potatoes.  Happily not content with reading one post, I settled in for a good explore of her blog.  And found this gem - waterworks.

The kids have enjoyed this "new and improved" version of marbles.

pour the water from the bottle and see where it goes

chase the marble with the water to make it go faster

 

or attach the bottle to the marble works and fill it up that way

 watch how the water comes out the sides

The kidlets and I say thank you for this fabulous idea, Arlee.

            

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Sandi

aye aye, captain

On our last full week of school, it is good to be overrun with pirates.

That way, I can growl at the kidlets and tell them to walk the plank -- and it's all good.

The kidlets have been enjoying a pirate sensory bin.

The base is aquarium gravel.  It was a bit expensive, but I liked the texture.  Rice dyed blue would also work.

The pirate ship is an aquarium accessory.  Again a bit expensive, but cheaper than toob pirates.  I economized and bought dollar store pirates.  They swashbuckle well.

Other bits and pieces that went in to the sensory bin are:

gold coins

cut up mardi gras necklaces

a cut up fake pearl necklace 

sea shells

plastic "jewels"

glass pebbles

sharks and a dolphin

dollar store treasure box

Thrift Shop goblet 

Thrift Shop metal ice cream dish

skulls and Xs (to mark the spot) from the dollar store

and pirate bounty 

The kids have been having fun burying treasure, making pirates walk the plank and sometimes being eaten alive by the sharks, dividing up the treasure ... 

Listening to the language and the stories that they are collaboratively developing is fun.

Here is a fun little pirate poem that we are reading.

Click on the image to download your free copy from google docs.
(just print the first page - google docs seems to enjoy messing up a second page for me)

may you find much treasure on your journey

            

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Sandi

my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to ... defend yourself with a pool noodle

A couple of week ago, I bought one or two pool noodles.

We have been building with them, using them as incline planes for marbles, telescopes, armrests - but that's another post.

I also wanted to make some noodle swords for the kidlets to be able to play with outside.

Amy at muddy boots has a fabulous tutorial how to make very fancy lightsabers.

Here are my less-than-fancy but fully functional, noodle swords.

Noodle swording does have some fairly serious rules.

1.  Swords are for playing not for hurting. Anyone is hitting for hurting is de-sworded.

2. You can only hit someone who also has a sword in their hand.

3. If you have a sword in your hand, please expect someone to hit you.

4.  Hitting is only allowed between shoulders and toes.  Anyone who forgets this rule will be de-sworded.

5.  When you are finished with the sword, it needs to be returned to the sword bin.


Let the swording begin ....

on guard ...

battle on the foredeck

one for all and all for one ...

and my personal favourite

I think our fortress/ship/castle is well defended, 

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Sandi