3.14

The kids have been measuring everything they can with measuring tapes.

We discovered that it is really hard to measure around the edge of a circle.

Luckily a few thousand years ago, some mathemagicians figured out that if you measure a circle at the biggest part (the diameter) and "times it" by 3.14, then you know the circumference. 

They called this special number pi. 
And their alphabet did not look like ours; pi looked like 


The kids thought that was pretty  interesting.  They thought it was neat that mathemagicians have their own secret math code.

I told them that today was Pi Day.  3.14  We counted that March is month number three.  And that is is the 14th day of the month.  3.14.  That made sense.

Then I really got their attention.

What does the word pi sound like.  Hmmmm.  Pie?

How do you think we could celebrate Pi Day.  Pie did seem like  good idea.

The kids could choose either apple or blueberry pie.  And three choose apple-blueberry.


Into the oven.

Out of the oven.


Into the tummy.


Even pie measuring.  It was also noted that the diameter of the pie was "fatter" than the diameter of the muffin tin opening.  


I am thoroughly convinced that my kidlets are brilliant.  Even so, I decided against telling them that pi is an eternal and irrational number.  I need to leave something for their high school math teachers!

Check out this pi domino spiral.  The clip is 3.14 minutes!

                             

maybe I'm finding my inner math geek

1 more get-up until Spring Break

Today I brought a couple of tape measures to school.

By request.  The kids thought that we really needed something longer than a metre stick for measuring things.

So, I obliged.

And measure they did.

They measured the walls,


Flat Stanley's envelopes,


our cubbies,


book bins, 


even an obliging dad's foot!

Just about everything that could be measured, was measured. 


We found that we could measure things that were straight.

Going around corners did not work well. 

And measuring circles with a tape measure was just about impossible.

I guess it works out perfectly that tomorrow is Pi Day (3.14).  


2 more days until Spring Break 
(not that I am counting- ha!)








well, actually, giraffes can dance!

It seems like a really long time ago (it's been a l-o-n-g week here), but Anti-bullying Day was only last week.


We made an awesome video.  I am so proud of my kidlets; we are learning that kindness is contagious.  Check it out here.


We all wore pink shirts that said respect the right to be different.


My very favouritest book (yup, I hang out with 5 year olds) about respecting differences is Giraffes Can't Dance.  A very favouritest book qualifies to be a perfect picture book.





author   - Giles Andreae
illustrator   - Guy Parker-Rees
published by Orchard, 2001
 juvenile fiction
themes   - self acceptance, resecting differences
great for ages 4 - 7

opening lines

Gerald was a tall giraffe
whose neck was long and slim.
But his knees were awfully crocked
and his legs were rather thin.

summary 

Gerald the giraffe longs to dance, but his legs are too skinny and his neck is too long. At the Jungle Dance, the warthogs waltz, the chimps cha-cha, and the lions tango. "Giraffes can't dance," they all jeer when it's Gerald's turn to prance. But with some sound advice from a wise cricket, Gerald starts swaying to his own sweet tune.  (goodreads)



why I love this book

The book first had me hooked at the cover.  Bright, cheerful, engaging and promising to be a lot of fun. But, one is not supposed to judge a book by its cover....  The rhyming text has good rhythm and is perfect for a read aloud.   Gerald is an endearing fellow, and I think that all readers and listeners can connect with his feeling of being all knees, feet and the object of everyone's mocking.  My students were definitely empathizing with Gerald, and there were several "that's not caring" comments about the jungle animals' response to Gerald's dancing during the story.  The pen and ink, and watercolour illustrations are warm and fun; Publishers Weekly wrote that they  "exude a fun, party vibe".

Some reviews stated that the message was overly didactic and there are much better books available about individuality.  I can't stand "preachy" books and I love Giraffes Can't Dance.  My kindergarten kidlets enjoy it and choose to reread it.  They "get" that Gerald is different from the other animals, and that we all need to "respect the right to be different".  Wouldn't it be boring if were were all the same?


resources

Last year when we read this book, we indulged in a biggish art project.  You can read all about it here.  The end results were fabulous and had Gerald personality in spades.



This year our art time frame was a bit smaller.  

But I still really really wanted to create a Gerald with the kidlets to carry on our conversation about listening to your heart, being true to yourself, and respecting other's rights to be different.

Instead of using 12x18" paper, we used letter size, 8 1/2x 11" paper.  We painted the grass and the sky the same, but glued on a white paper moon and made glitter glue stars.  This time we used handprints for the giraffe's body and legs.  The don't have the dance moves that last year's giraffes had, but they still rank pretty high on the cute/fun scale.


The rhyming text, perfectly lends itself to song.  My kidlets love this; check it out.  

                                      

find the music of your heart, and dance like no one is watching






We've extended our Dr Suess fun past his birthday.

Mostly because of the Dr Seuss Camera - Cat in the Hat Edition App.


(Thanks to Lynn Goff from Mrs Goff's Pre-K Tales who had the coolest picture of her as the Cat in the Hat on her blog.  I just had to find out how she did that.)


With this cool app (currently free in honour of the good Doctor's birthday), you can make a bunch of different Cat in the Hat pictures using your camera or pictures from your photo library.  Then you can jazz them up with stamps and borders.

You can email the pictures to all your nearest and dearest.

Or if you are a kindergarten teacher, you print out those pictures and make a writing activity.



Click on the graphic to download a copy.


Make a book. See what crazy tricks your kidlets will come up with.  





Green is the perfect colour for a March sensory bin.

Lots of St Patty's Day fun - and some Suessian elements just for good measure.




In Canada, February 27 is Anti-Bullying Day.

Or pink shirt day.

Six years ago, a male grade 9 student in Nova Scotia was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school.  A couple of boys chose to stand up for this young man, and bought and handed out 50 pink shirts for students to wear the next day.  

Now, many schools are a sea of pink on February 27. 

We all wear our pink t-shirts.  (One little guy in my class even spray dyed his hair pink!)


I figure that kindness is contagious, and is good bullying prevention.  So, we like to promote kindness.  Read about our video project here.

This week was our premiere.  Kindness is contagious.  


Check it out.
The song is Noah and the Whale's Give a Little Love.
I think you'll like it.

                     

Anti-Bullying School Project - CCES from Ken Diewert - Cutlass Film/Love on Vimeo.


There will be peace in the world when there is peace in the playground.  - Ovide Mercredi








We had a fair bit of rain last week.  Two days of indoor recess.

The upside is that the rain filled up some puddles.

And in between showers, we got outside for some puddle play.

Pants tucked in to rubber boots.  Don't get anyone else wet.  Go have fun in the puddles.


Creating rivers with "boot digging" so the water can flow downhill.  Why won't water go uphill. How can we make it go faster.


Had to get some rocks out of the way. Co-operation and physics (using sticks as levers). 


Around the corner to a ramp.


They really wanted to get the water to flow under the ramp and out the other side. More boot digging required. 

Sometimes the puddle does not need to be controlled and changed, just enjoyed with a couple of sticks.



happy puddle playing


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