We went to Iqaluit (well...sort of)

I know, I know, the title of this post is tricky, and sort of a stretch from the truth, but with the help of @conorgoddard on Instagram (you must visit this page to see this lovely family), we sure felt like we landed in the deep north. 

In our social studies/geography unit, Moonface and Rainman are following the same curriculum. Being in grade 2 and 5 means there are differences, but as our studies focus on Canada, I am so pleased that they have been able to explore at their own pace (mainly), what life is like in Canada for many different families. And this means learning about the present as much as learning about the past.

After reading all about Nunavut, and watching various Youtube videos, we decided that we wanted to dig a little deeper and get to know what life is like in Nunavut. Moonface decided she wanted to ask someone. 

So she conducted her own interview with the Goddard family (online of course), and we learned so much from this wonderful encounter. Thank you to the Goddards for helping us on our learning journey. 

Interview with the Goddards

Please excuse the lack of accents on the french words. The interview was conducted via Instagram, so I wanted to leave the answers as they were received.

Qui est dans votre famille?

Who is in your family?

**Tracy (mere), Conor (pere) et deux enfants, Callum & Caitlin.  Je (Conor) viens est nes a Montreal et Tracy est nes a Kuujjuaq (Nunavik, le Québec Arctique) qui est une autre village Inuit. 

Pourquoi avez-vous déménagé à iqaluit

Why did you move to Iqaluit?

**On a venu ici pour des opportunites qu’on n’avais pas a Kuujjuaq.  C’est important pour nous comme famille d’avoir access au terrain traditionelle de Tracy et mes enfants donc on peut pratiquez leurs culture traditionelle.

Depuis combien de temps vivez-vous à Iqaluit?

How long have you lived in Iqaluit?

**On habite Iqaluit depuis Fevrier 2017, presque 4 ans. 

On a demenager ici de Kuujjuaq avec nos enfants et notre equipe de chien a traineau.

Qu’est ce que vous aimez à propos de Iqaluit?

What do you like about Iqaluit?

**On aime surtout la communite et le terrain.

Qu’est ce que vous n’aimez pas à propos de Iqaluit?

What don’t you like?

**On n'aime pas les haute prix dans les magazins. Une carton de tropicana coute entre $17 et $19 dollars.

Comment vous réchauffez-vous à la maison

How do you keep warm at home?

**Notre maison est chauffe a l’huile

Où achetez-vous votre épicerie

Where do you buy groceries

** On achete notre nourriture a l’epicirie, comme dans le sud.

Avez-vous des animaux domestiques

Do you have any pets?

**On a une petite chienne chez nous et une equipe de chien de traineau

Est ce que le lac est toujours congelé?

Is the water always frozen?

**L’ocean est gelee de Decembre a Juillet. He viens de chasser des phoques par bateaux aujourd’ui

Avez-vous un jardin?

Do you have a garden?

** On n'a pas une jardin.

Comment voyagez-vous en Iqaluit?

What do you drive (how do you get around)?

** On se promene a pieds, en camion, par bateaux, par skidoo et par traineau a chien.

You guys my 7 year old did this!!! She needed help with the spelling, but these are all her questions. After learning about permafrost in the north, she was very interested to know if the family had a garden. She was quite concerned that they had no food. So that question needed to be asked lol.  

She was also very excited to see how the Goddard children hunt, and learn how to live "with" the land (her words). But she also realized that the children enjoy doing some of the same things that she does, like doing arts and crafts (a fave of hers), playing sports, and the piano and soccer.

And just going back to the interview...$17 to $19 for a carton of orange juice. Oh my word! I am quite intrigued. I would probably never drink orange juice again.

Here are some photos of her work: These page are from a booklet that she made.

Moonface learned all about Northern Lights, and she is enamoured. Here's one of our attempts to draw a landscape pic based on some of the things that Moonface and I learned.

So tell me, what's happening in your homeschool? I'd love to know!

Also, coming soon...the kiddos will be learning about the Native American legend of the 3 sisters, something that I introduced a few years back, but will be so exciting for both of them to do the lessons together this time around.

Photos of Nunavut courtesy of Conor Goddard. 

Story of the month: Stone Soup

We started our storytelling on Thursday, which was just the right day to do so as it was soup day. The children take turns picking veggies out of my sac to add to the soup, and they almost know the story by heart :)
We are having so much fun with this story. We did a bit of French vocab as well, and made our own soupe aux legumes craft. In the kitchen we made vegetable soup with wild rice, and we added a boiled egg AND potato latkes - yum!

Stone Soup Synopsis (there are many variations of this story)

A young man (Jack) is very hungry. He comes upon a village, where he assumes 2 things...where there's a village there are people AND where there are people there is food. He's sure he will not be hungry for long.
He knocks on each door in the village only to be turned away, and told to go ask someone else for food.
Empty-handed and still hungry, he leaves the village. He finds a stone on the side of the road, which gives him an idea. He runs back to the village and speaks to one of the villagers - telling  him that he is going to make stone soup. The villager is curious and brings Jack a big pot, which they place in the village square. 

One by one the villagers bring vegetables, herbs and meat to add to the big bubbling pot.  
Soon, the pot is filled with potatoes, garlic, onions, carrots, cabbage, meat and so on. Indeed a great delicious pot of soup was shared by all the villagers, and Jack leaves the villagers the stone, for the next time they want to make a pot of stone soup.

A bit of storytelling ... bit of art, a bit of food.

There are other versions of the book.  Well look This is the first copy that I found/read.

On Dancing & painting & just being you...

Can you dance? Can giraffes dance? These questions led to a serious discussion at our table as the children snacked on yummy treats.

Giraffes Can't Dance is our May book of the month, it is one of my favourite books ever. I have included it in my homeschooling curriculum for a few years, and was happy to share it with our daycare friends as our May 2016 Book of the Month.

I love Giraffes Can't Dance for its simple yet important message...it's okay to be different, and to do things differently.  This book is also about friendship, learning and trying new things, and being the best you can possibly be. I think it sends a great message to young children. 

Over all we enjoyed our book of the month, and most importantly, we ended up doing some kind of wacky art (see above).

But enough about me. When I asked what everyone loved about the book they said:
/ Gerald is super-funny and he has long legs
/ the lions dance really nice
/...when Gerald was really good at dancing and no one knew he could dance
/ all of it
/ when Gerald met the cricket
/ the trees are tall like Gerald

You'd have to read the book to see what we're talking about.

Studio C prt 1

I don't even know where to start. It was a great fun day for us. The children and I create some kind of art almost every Wednesday, so this was an extension of what they know and love. But, seriously, a trip downtown to Studio C...really? We were tickled all over. 

I had been preparing the kids for weeks...telling them about our trip. WE talked about riding the train, the bus (which are oh so exciting when you are a kiddie), and we talked a little about art and the studio. One thing that I learned from our session was that I had missed talking to and reminding the kids about NOT touching all the pretty art hanging on the walls, lol. 

The morning started off a bit stressful (for me), as I had been glutened the night before (you know where you eat something with gluten in it, and the flood gates of misery are opened)? Yes, that was my night and early morning. Oh the pain...I was so worried that I would not be able to withstand the train ride downtown, but thankfully, we all got to our destination in one piece.

We stepped off the Tuscany-bound train and cross the street over to Macleod, and the kids were already jumping around with excitement. Iman and I only had 3 friends on hand with us, as 1 friend was coming down with mom & dad, and my own littles were coming with dad.
As we entered the Burns building the kids were curious. Just what exactly were we doing there?
I think soneone even mentioned that there was "no art here",  lol.

There was an accident on the highway so our friends were late. As we waited, the children talked about this and that, and ran around for a bit.
I quickly texted Colin-upstairs- to let him know that we were on site- just not all of us. I think we all finally headed upstairs closer to 10 AM.

No problem, everything was set and waiting for us. The space was very inviting and bright. Of course after the children got settled a bit, I wanted to delegate who would take photos and etc, but when working with kids I have learned and keep learning to go with the flow. That being said, it didn't mean that I didn't want to ensure that we had some photographic documentation of our special day. So to get that crossed off the list, I put hubby and Iman in charge.

Colin and Wilmer were very gracious and so good with the little ones. It's not a normal day when toddlers and preschoolers walk through the doors of Studio C :)
...did I mention how bright it was? That was one of the best things. The table covered with an array of art materials was big enough for all the kids to sit on one side- which for some reason meant a lot to me. I loved seeing them all from one side.
 
Colin and Wilmer gave us their blessings, and quietly left us to our devices, and we were off to the land of creativity.
Then the real work began.
The task? To get creative, explore and have fun.
And so we did...

After we finished up, we ate lunch (not so quietly), and the kids ran around for a bit (very loudly). Then we went to look at some art, and say our goodbyes.What can I say, I love my job. I'm probably bragging a bit right? Well, my little team is something worth bragging about. I love them!

Thank you Studio C, and thank you dear parents for running with every idea that pops into my head. We had a blast! 
We will be heading back to Studio C for another creative session, to finish up our project for our big event.
...please stay tuned!

We Got Mail!!! {recap}

If you remember in February, the children and I started talking about community workers. We decided that we would learn about fire-fighters and mail carriers. It was especially a good time to learn about carriers, as our mail no longer comes to the door; it goes to a community box up the street.

Planning
I started off by getting each child involved in planning out our mail week. This meant, circle time activities...songs etc, and creative ways to share mail with friends AND learn about the mail process/system (of course).

Then we made a mailbox...everyone had an idea what they wanted the box to look like. ...and a mail bag

Then we made a schedule. It covered more or less our daily rhythm. It looked like this:
Project: We've got Mail
Date(s): Feb 22- March 1st, 2016
Directions:
Monday Feb 22nd / ZA - play money (like b-day/holiday gift) must be homemade.

Tuesday Feb 23rd / JM - a flyer...must be homemade (ie. You are selling an item or items (toys, food etc)

Wednesday / LE- a postcard to friends 

Thursday / MB - something for crafting (stickers, fancy paper etc)

Friday / AH - a gift for friends (something all can share or per child)

Monday/ HA - healthy treat to eat 

Tuesday/ MM- a book - (the book will be read and returned)

Circle Activities
Mail Mail Stamp 
This activity was all about teaching kids the importance of mail delivery and that without a stamp, mail cannot be delivered. How do you play? Picture Duck Duck Goose and you've got the gist of our game.  For the letters we used any thing from stickers, to simply drawing a pic of a stamp, to using actual stamps.

Five little letters
5 little letters sitting in the basket
(insert name here) took one letter how many are left
etc (some kids were able to id their names on the envelopes)

Nature
On nature walk day, we walked around the neighborhood and checked out different types  mailboxes. I am not sure if even the older kids understand that we used to receive mail right to our doors, but now, they ONLY go to the community boxes. Speaking of community boxes, we then walked to our mailbox (which is actually not very far), and checked out what it looks like. 

Literacy
We read the book the Jolly postman...we also saw this video. I think this is where the kids got the crazy idea for our letter  (see below :)
The Jolly Postman is a silly/fun story about a mail carrier who delivers letters by bicycle to characters from children's stories; such as Cinderella, The 3 Bears etc. Funny...silly...we loved it! .

We also wrote a letter and posted it to ourselves (which makes sense of course).  The point of that activity was to see how long it would take for the letter to come back to us. It took 2 whole days.
The kids composed the letter (each child adding a line to the story), which was a silly story about a very tall mailman who rode a bicycle and bumped into a tree :)

It was also very cool that one friend gifted books to all...

Thanks AH

Art
The children painted a pic for mom and dad...we had planned to send via mail, but didn't get the chance.

Keeping simple was so easy, because all the kids wanted to do was open envelopes and packages and show them off to friends. We got mail from different parts of the world too...

MB brought art supplies that we will be using very soon

LE sent a postcard (from Italy)

JM's mail was quite popular. He sent a homemade flyer...we learned French vocab and talked about shopping. The kids couldn't get enough of this one.

MM sent a book about a Bunny who loved to read, but his friends did not

ZA cut out some Mexican currency to share with friends...we traded in our fake money for real money and bought a treat for all to share.

H sent his friends a gift certificate which they cashed in for a healthy AM snack

Thank you dear parents for making it so much fun. You are all very innovative :) One of the best things was that I was also just as surprised as the children when we pulled out the day's mail from our mailbag...I simply had no idea what we would receive. Thank you!