This week we have been working in small groups to complete our STEM challenge. We had criteria that we had to follow and our challenge was linked to our learning in Social Studies. Our challenge was to build a boat in the style of the early explorers (1500's) to Canada using only the supplies provided. The boat had to float, have a flag, have a sail and hold 100 gold coins. We worked through the STEM process of Ask, Plan, Create and Evaluate. Students showed great perseverance, amazing creative thinking, wonderful communication skills and fantastic optimism. They also used their critical thinking skills to evaluate how their plans worked. So much fun!
0 Comments
Working with our buddies we have been thinking about what kindness means to us and what kindness looks like for us. Together we have created a display to share our thoughts with other students in the school. Our class supported their little buddies as we created leaves for our kindness tree. We thought about what kindness means, how we have been kind to others, and how others have been kind to us.
Last week we got to go on an amazing fieldtrip with Ms. Crighton's grade 3/4 class. Together we went to the Bubly tube park in Whistler. It can be found at the base 2 area on Blackcomb Mountain We were very lucky to have fresh snow while we were there and the rain held off. The tube park has multiple lanes and varying degrees of steepness for all to enjoy. It was lovely to hear the laughter and see the smiles on so many faces. I am very proud of how well behaved our students were and was thrilled to see so much perseverance and optimism with students trying something new. Thank you to the parent volunteers that were able to come with us.
Wow, it's great to be back. I have definitely missed being with my class. Our first month of 2023 is complete and we have jumped straight back in to our learning adventure. Some of our focuses this month have been: - fractions and multiplication, - early explorers to Canada, - thermal energy and, - non-fiction reading. During science we have been exploring energy, looking closely at thermal energy (heat). We have really enjoyed working through the scientific process, making hypothesis's and conducting experiments. Below are some photos of an experiment to show how the molecules in hot things move faster than in cold things. With our buddies we created a collaborative poster that we shared in assembly last week. The students thought carefully about what it means to have the courage to be brave. We have started to create individually drawings of our thoughts and those will be put up on display next week. So if you're in the building be on the look out for our growth mindset display. You will also see other posters created by other buddy classes in the building.
Last week we had lots of fun working through the scientific process completing a great experiment. We worked as a team to complete an experiment to find out which type of pop would make the most gas when we added pop rocks candy. We made our own hypothesis, worked through the experiment steps, recorded our results and found our conclusion. We discovered that the pop with the least amount of sugar produced the most gas. What a great bunch of scientists !!
This week we started our science unit, learning about matter. We explored how different matter behaves. We popped balloons that contained different matter and became scientists as we used our senses to observe what happened. We had balloons filled with ice (our solid), balloons filled with water (our liquid), and finally balloons filled with air (our gas). It was a great starting point for our learning. We began our writing project this week learning about how to write a walking story and focus on writing that helps a reader to connect. As a class we created our writing criteria and learned about using the five finger planner to add details to our writing. The five finger planner helps us to add details to our first thought and we finish with 5 sentences instead of one. The plan is Topic - Detail - Detail - Memory - Feeling. I can't wait to read their finished pieces.
On September 15th it was International Dot Day. You maybe asking yourself, what is International Dot Day? International Dot Day, is a global celebration of creativity, courage and collaboration. The inspiration behind the event is the children’s book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. The story behind this book relates the tale of a teacher who challenges one of their pupils, Vashti (who thinks she cannot draw), to take courage in her abilities. As the story progresses, from a simple dot on a page, the youngster goes on to make her mark. The class enjoyed creating and challenging themselves to change circles in to images. Our learning during Social Studies over the last few weeks has focused on residential schools, the impact it had on Indigenous communities, and the rights of a child. As a school we observed Orange Shirt day on Thursday learning through story and conversation. In classrooms we read "You Hold Me Up" by Monique Gray Smith. Then we brainstormed what holds us up, makes us feel safe. We wrote these words on feathers and used orange, yellow and red to decorate them. The feathers were then put together in the shape of wings for all students to read and reflect on. Maybe you could ask your child what their word was? What would your word be? Routine Rally This week we had our Routine Rally assembly where we shared a video we created. Our topic to teach the school was "How to talk to adults" With our buddy class we collaborated to decided what was important when talking to adults in our building; teachers, EA's, parents and visitors. Once we had a plan of what we wanted to share students volunteer to be in a movie that we were going to create. Students worked hard to learn their lines and had a great time acting out short skits. These amazing acting skills were put together into a movie that we shared with the rest of the school on Tuesday. They all did a fantastic job. Well done class! You can click on the button below to view our video. Classroom Contract In class we have worked together this week to create our classroom contract. We talked about expectations and how we would like the people around us to behave and act. Instead of thinking about statements that start with "Don't" we created statements that start with "Be". Some ideas are "Be flexible", "Be creative", "Be inclusive". After we discussed what we are going to be this year, we then created BEE's to help us remember. The display in the classroom looks great.
Welcome back to school, I am excited to be your child's teacher this year. We have had a great first full week together as a class and have begun to learn more about each other and make new connections. I know this year is going to be full of learning and adventure. While working in the classroom we have been trying out different places we can work and learn. We have a variety of seating options to choose from and it was exciting to see what the class enjoyed. We have a tall table, wiggle seats, tables, the carpet and some new floor desks. Students have the option to choose what works for them. On Friday we had a great turnout for our Terry Fox run. We spent time during the week reviewing what we knew about him, learning some facts and information about what he achieved and working on our word choices of nouns, verbs and adjectives connected to him. It was great to have so many parents come out and join us and luckily we had wonderful blue sky while we were running.
|
Author
Archives
February 2023
|