November & December!

Learning how walnut cakes are made during our visit to Korea town. 

The labyrinth at Christie Pits Park

                                                             Self Portraits with chalk

 Warming up with a bowl of miso soup in Kensington Market

 Remembrance Day thoughts...

 Will this origami boat float or sink? We experimented ...
 We slowly added lego figures to see how much weight the boat could hold. It held a lot and stayed a float for a whole minute!

MOVEMBER! 

 Our new friend, Patric McGroarty stopped by and did some song writing with us. We learned about rhythm and how to make up a funny verse and chorus! Listen to a part of our song "things you shouldn't eat" here:

                                               http://totesmcgroats.com/index.php

Making guacamole 

We ended the month the same way we began, by visiting the Frida Khalo & Diego Rivera exhibit at the AGO!!  The Lion Wolves were completely enthralled by the story of their magnificent, colourful and courageous lives and artistic styles.

                                                       Distance & Perspective

                              Painting on photographs in the style of Frida Khalo's father!

Making progress! Our solar system is almost complete!! 

Our trip to Earth Echoes.

We are becoming experts at getting around in the city by public transportation. Last week was the first time we ventured on the subway (now we've taken every mode of public transportation!) We spent quite a bit of time watching the trains zoom by and listening to the music of the subway chimes. 

The sounds of the subway...

 Our trip to 'Earth Echoes' on Bloor Street West. The store is full of different creatures (from bearded dragons to chameleons - both big and small, turtles and many different types of snakes). We met the owner of the shop, Jeff, who was really friendly and knowledgeable. He asked us if we would prefer to learn about lizards or snakes on this visit....we chose snakes! We were lucky enough to hold a baby python and two different corn snakes! We learned about their habitats and many different cool facts. We're excited to visit again and learn about a different creature family!!

 We watched the sucker fish cleaning the algae from the tank. The coolest vacuum around!

 Our friend Jeff showing us the different snakes in the shop.

Guest Musician: Ronley Teper

Ronley Teper is a local singer-songwriter, storyteller and performance artist who has been active in the Toronto music scene for over a decade. Ronley has spent many years traveling and conducting vocal improvisational music workshops with children, and we were lucky to have her stop by and play some vocal, rhythm and improvisational games with us! 

http://www.ronleyteper.com/

Fall Field Trips

Our trip to Fort York

Riverdale Farm

 Learning about the animals and plants that inhabit the Riverdale Farm Ponds.

A tribute to the animals we saw at Riverdale Farm

 A perfect way to spend a rainy day: The Josef Sudek photography exhibit at the AGO

 Watching a short film made by Josef Sudek.

 Exploring light, shade, colour and architecture in these beautiful photographs.

 Sketching the model ships!

Crazy Bedroom

Last month, The Lion Wolves wrote a story called "Crazy Bedroom". It was a rainy day and an exercise of storytelling turned into quick an epic story! They loved it so much they wanted to turn it into a movie. I documented the story as they took turns creating it orally amongst themselves. The story ended up being 5 pages long! Pretty amazing stuff. Narration in the video here is done by me, but the story line is 100% kid directed. Enjoy!!

October

Public Art & City sights

We always stop to look and talk about the colourful murals that we see on our walks. 

 Sometimes you come across a fall fair at a neighbourhood school and get to enjoy wonderful local musicians playing and maybe even have a tasty treat!

 Planting bulbs for the spring...

 Creating our own 'Buildings & Bodies' drawings by local artist, Ryan Dodgson. www.ryandodgson.com.

 Science Experiments! Exploding Volcano!

 Costumes are always a good idea.

Exploring parks and nature in our wonderful city

                                         The beginning of our paper mache solar system

                                                                  Funny collages