Great Partners, Great Results

This year we used an online photo album company to manufacture our yearbooks. At first we were a bit worried that this process would work out well but it was the best option for the number of books we needed; too many for most companies, too few for printers. And we have been so pleased about the outcome.

www.photobookcanada.com has been wonderful to deal with. They have specific software that we downloaded so that Mika could design the book and for those of us without design knowledge it is user friendly and a quick learn.

Not only did they negotiate a discount with us for the larger book order but they also sent us a proof so that we could make sure all was well. During that process we found a spelling mistake and a grammar problem!! YIKES!! They were great, allowing us to edit the book and resubmit.

Thank you photobookcanada for all your help and allowing us to have such a beautiful keepsake of our first year!!

OH DEER!!!

Left, Photo of a deer captured with a cell phone camera during forest school.

Since September the children have been playing a wonderful game at Forest School called 'Sleeping Fawn'. The children lay low and quiet in the long grass pretending to be a sleeping fawn and the coyote has to try and find them. A themed version of hide and seek. Today as the older children were decending the big hill they came across a real sleeping fawn curled up in the long grass. They were so excited!! They were able to stay and observe for several minutes before deciding to let the baby return to his nap. Their experience gave new meaning to the game they have been playing. By the time the younger group went out the fawn had moved. They were however treated to two adult deer walking through the park.

A Time to Plant

The beautiful weather has finally arrived with a vengence! We are so excited about chosing what to plant in our outdoor garden. The kids are talking about what they want to grow, most decisions seem to be made based on what food preferences they all share.

To learn about the parts of the plant and how they grow we have started a few seeds in the classroom. Our radishes, onions and carrot seeds are a very exciting draw daily. When the radish seeds began sprouting well before the other plants the children were concerned that something had gone terribly wrong with the other seeds. A few days later the onions began to poke through the top of the soil. Cheers errupted that morning! The sole carrot sprout has finally pushed it's way into the sunlight and is being ever so lovingly tended to. As a class the children are monitoring the plants progress and wondering when we will be able to eat the "fruits" of their labour.

Newsletter - Construction Update

Construction Update

It has been a long road but I think we are finally coming to the end of the journey to our renovated space!

Construction is now in the final stages and they are finally “reassembling” our school. The contractor has given us a finish during the week of April 11^th.

We are all very excited about moving back to our little school house.

Moving Information New Location April 18th

We will be moving over the weekend of April 16^th and 17^th. Therefore both the Toddler and Children’s House classes will be held in the school house at 798 Scottsdale Dr. as of April 18^th.

Children’s House Class PD Day April 19th

As a result of the move and licensing inspections we will be having an unusual PD Day for the Children’s House class ONLY on Tuesday April 19^th, 2011. Although we understand that this unscheduled and may cause some planning issues we feel this approach will result in the least possible disturbance related to the move. Please let me know if you have additional concerns.

Toddler Class Normal Class Beginning April 18th

The Toddler Class will be held at the 798 Scottsdale Drive location as of Monday April 18^th, 2011 and will continue at that location from that day forward.

If they love to build...

From

As the year progresses it is interesting to see how the interest of the children has changed and been influenced by past experiences. After our trip to the ROM many of the children would use the Pink Tower in conjunction with the Broad Stairs to “build” the Museum. The building has a very geometric entrance area that drew a lot of attention while we were there.

Building on their interest in architecture we have introduced a set of cards, each with a picture of a famous structure. These include but are not limited to Big Ben, Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Water Cube, the Bird’s Nest, the CN Tower and the Eiffel Tower.

At first we looked at the photographs and discussed the names of the buildings, which quickly led to where they are located in the world and what are their uses. Due to high interest it was a mere day or so before they could all identify each of the buildings by name.

With little encouragement I suggested that they use the materials available in the classroom to “build” these structures. The challenge was one they took up with a vengeance. One of the youngest members of our classroom got out his mat and carefully chose the card with the CN tower. He sat for a few minutes examining the sensorial shelf before selecting the Broad Stairs. Standing each of the prisms on their end he built a structure using the broadest until just as high as he could reach. He then sat down and took the card in his hand. Looking at his card and then to the structure he’d built several times before he looked to me confused. I stepped in and asked if he had a problem. Pointing to the rounded part of the CN tower he said “We don’t have anything that makes that shape”. I assured him that there had to be “something” we could find. Within moments another child who had overheard the conversation made a couple of suggestions. The young architect took both and tried them on the top of his structure, in the end he did use one of the suggestions, a rounded heavier lid from another piece of work. With that problem solved he sat down again and examined the photo. Declaring to no one in particular “Now I just need this part here” as he pointed to the top most point of the photograph. Carrying his card with him he did another tour of the class before exclaiming “Hey one of these would work, look it’s got an end on it” showing me as he walked back to his mat. Standing on his tippy toes he reached up and placed the tall thin cylinder from the cylinder block on the top. Once again he referred to his card and then his structure, satisfied that he was finished he asked if I could look at his building. He was proud of his work because he’d made the choices, solved the problems and had succeeded in completing his work.

Editorial on Schools

Slate has an interesting discussion over formalizing education. It dovetails nicely with the approach Echo works towards in terms of spontaneous learning and exploration of a child's environment.

http://www.slate.com/id/2288402/

TEDx

Anyone in the region that likes to hear interesting and inspiring speakers should take a look at TEDx.


TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and is a very special conference bringing speakers from all over the world. It includes speakers on children and education such as Gever Tully and a couple presentations by Ken Robinson: School Kills Creativity and Bring on the Revolution. There are of course hundreds and perhaps thousands more, but, the above are a handful that we have found interesting.


Waterloo and other regions host a branched out version of TED called TEDx that brings some substantial speakers to individual regions. This year in waterloo it includes the astronaut Roberta Bondar and the young sailor Abby Sutherland. The format of TEDx preserves the format of TED: Tightly limited 20 minute presentations on “Ideas worth sharing”. This year the TEDx theme is Discover Explore Challenge – The Uncharted.


Let us know if you do end up planning on going it should be an exciting event. One of us will be going and will post our thoughts on the speakers after the conference on March 3rd.