News for May 18

News for May 25

This week we welcomed 25 Painted Lady caterpillars to our class! We also said good bye to Ms. Stark, our third and final student teacher for the year. We wish her the best of luck in her teaching career. We will miss her.

In science we started our new unit by learning about the characteristics of insects (for example, insects have 6 legs). The students also had a chance to observe, record and draw what the caterpillars look like (colours, texture, length). The science name for Painted Lady caterpillars/butterflies, is Vanessa cardui. The class also learned one of the important principles of science which is to report on and draw exactly what they see, not what they think they should see.

In math, students investigated and practiced using the vocabulary of probability (certain, likely, equally likely, unlikely and impossible). The children flipped coins, spun spinners and used what they know to discuss how to determine the probability of all the possible outcomes.

As a follow-up to the book we read recently, "The Banjo of Destiny", the children learned about the history and the parts of the banjo. They also got a chance to hold and play the banjo. At the end of the week, we had a "special musical guest" who came and played the banjo in our class...one of our former student teachers, Ms. Fletcher! She came and played the banjo and sang songs along with the children. As a connection to our reading the biography of Jim Henson, we sang Kermit the frog's famous song, "It's Not Easy Being Green". We also sang "The Lazy Song" and of course, the song we sang at the Winter Concert, "Firework".

 A video of our visit with Ms. Fletcher can be found below:



The students wrote a review of the quality of the instructions they used last week to make a balancing acrobat toy. Then they created a poster that included a good copy of this writing and a photo of each student balancing his/her acrobat. Recall the purpose of this lesson was to have the students reflect on the process of making a toy instead of buying one. This is a link to our pioneer unit. These posters are now on display in the hallway.

Ms. Stark taught the students how to sketch with charcoal. Using burnt willow vine charcoal the class went outside to sketch trees. These sketches are now on display in the hallway outside our classroom.

The class also had a chance to practice the sport of Speed Stacking (cup stacking). This is a great activity for children to increase their eye-hand coordination.