Our final session of the year was hosted at Thompson Elementary on May 16. Inspired by our core resource, Messy Maths by Juliet Robertson, we created outdoor ten frames using pieces of cotton fabric and sharpies. These ten frame can be used to count quantities of found objects to ten as well as using for grouping smaller objects like pebbles or acorns. And they are washable and re-usable and can be used in the rain which makes them ideal for outdoor learning where we live!

We also used rubber mallets on cotton cloth to create leaf and flower prints to explore the shape, size and symmetry of local plants. This is the just right time of year to do this when the cells of plants and petals are full of moisture.

Teachers shared the different ways we have been using our focus picture book Flow, Spin, Grow by Patchen as we have found growing, swirling and branching patterns outdoors.

We also shared information about the Lost Ladybug Project – a fun way to engage students in looking closely for ladybug species, taking photographs and sharing the location of the find with the world through the website HERE

The Thompson team toured us through their outdoor learning space and showed us their student’s mapping project.

Thank you to Denise, Tanya and Danielle and their teacher candidates for hosting us!

We have surveyed the group and it looks like next year’s focus will be interdisciplinary learning outdoors. We will be able to connect our work around storytelling and math outdoors from the last two years as we move forward together in our professional learning.

~Janice