Celebrating our Blog's 2nd Birthday!

Today I gathered a few Senior Kindergarten Girls (D.J., M.Y., H.W., E.Y., and A.A.) into our Digital Studio to show them our Blog on the Smartboard.  I mentioned that it was the Blog’s Birthday today, along with E.Y.’s Birthday, and that we would need to think of how we wanted to celebrate.

Ms. B: What are some ways that we might celebrate our Blog’s Birthday today?

E: Flowers, balloons...

M: We can make a happy birthday with playdough.  We take playdough and make letters out of the playdough.

H: Make a heart out of playdough.  We can make something nice for the Blog, like the alphabet. 

D:  We can use art kind of stuff and glue it onto paper and make it into a flower with the art.

A: We can maybe write on a piece of paper “Happy Birthday Eunice” and “Happy Birthday Blog!”

M: Birthday cakes with icing using playdough.

E: You can buy something for the blog at the shopping mall.

H: I think we can give presents, like little playdough toys.

A: I would say “Happy Birthday” Blog!

I asked the students to walk around the classroom and look for some materials that they might use.  When they returned I told them to come back with their creative ideas.  A.A. said, “You mean we should use our creative eyes!”

E: We can give candy to the Blog!

All the students pointed to the candy box.

H: But if we give the candy to the Blog, the Blog can’t eat the candy.

So we continued searching...

M.Y. pointed to the flower petals.

M: We can put it on the piece of paper of “Happy Birthday Eunice” and “Happy Birthday Blog!”

H: Put them on the paper and make a heart.

E: You can make any shape or triangle.

D: Maybe we can stick it on and make a flower.

A: What if we can try to make a heart and then when we are done we can try to make something else.

E.Y. noticed the wire and the beads.

M: We can make necklaces and wear them to look beautiful for the Blog.

E: You can make so many beads for the Blog!  We can see if the Blog will like it!

H: I would make a flower with them.

D: Maybe we can get a piece of paper and we can be creative.

A: When we are done making a necklace for the Blog, maybe you can take a picture of us!

H.W. found some sparkly blue decorations.

H: I would use this to make another heart.

E: You can make a flower heart and a happy face.

D.J. and M.Y. found the shells and the beads.

E: You can make another heart!

M: I would make a heart and then do patterns down with shells and beads.

Ms. B: What do you think is inside the birthday box?

H: I think inside of it is a present.

M: I think inside is birthday stuff and loot bags and presents.

E: I think there are some bags inside and you can cut it out.

D: Maybe it is loot bags with candy inside of the loot bags.

A: I think there is balloons inside. 

Ms. B: Why did you point to the birthday box?

M: Beacuse it is filled with birthday stuff!

E: Because today is me and Blog’s birthday!

We went to get the birthday box!  The students were so excited!

E: We want to see what’s inside!

After seeing what was inside, I prompted the students to determine an appropriate way to organize the birthday materials on our math carpet.  I thought it would be an interesting way to begin thinking about mathematics.  They began to sort the various items using the pre-created squares to separate the colours and shapes that they found. This later led them to use their creativity in order to make a gigantic heart out of the balloons, streamers, bows, and even a birthday crown!

Other students used heart-shaped cookie cutters to make hearts out of plastiscine.  

Eventually, A.A. asked if we could make a sign for the blog.  I found some birthday toothpicks with letters on them, however, she noticed that the letter “H” was missing after referring to the word “birthday” found on a card.  A.A. quickly created her own “H” out of three candles and that was that!

After reviewing the above documentation, Mrs. Ham and I noticed a popular thread throughout our discussion: hearts and flowers.  We wondered how we could tie this into our celebration of birthday’s throughout the school year.

I suggested the idea of a collaborative art piece, where each child contributes to on their birthday.  Inspired by an idea that I saw at Richland Academy, the Fairy Dust Teaching blog, and E.Y.’s hope of using wire, beads, flower petals, and shells.

What we came up with was four rather large hearts made out of wire, attached together like a flower, that hang from the ceiling.  

After each child creates their birthday beads and birthday tag, their final product will be connected to the hearts.

We are looking forward to how this will turn out in June! 

Thank you for following our Blog for two years!