News for May 17

News for May 17

This week, the students did a wide variety of activities, from using microscopes to observe the caterpillars to using pennies to create art.

In math, the students continue to focus on EQAO test-taking strategies by working on complete answers to math word problems. The children finished up the last math unit on patterning and wrote the final unit test of the year. On Friday, the students had a chance to explore the branch of mathematics called "topology" (the study of surfaces) by making flexagons. The model they created takes a piece of paper (with two sides) and by folding and cutting the paper create a model with 4 separate surfaces. Here is a video:

Room 5 - Flexagons




The class continued to learn and practice strategies for the language portion of the EQAO test. I met with each child to talk about how they could improve their written answers.

The children finished creating their "scratch art". They finished using wax crayons to put colours in patches on paper. Then they painted over the crayoned paper with black paint. Once it was dried, each child used a penny to scratch off the black paint to reveal the crayon colours to create a design.

The class visited "Cafe Maria", a cafe set up by the grade six students to raise money for cancer research. The cafe was inspired by Maria Mantello, our school's librarian/French teacher who is currently undergoing cancer treatment.

The class visited their kindergarten Reading Buddies in Room 101 this week. The students chose a favourite picture book to read to their buddies and then helped them write a reading response to the story for the Reading Buddies to take home.

There were a lot of changes to the Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars this week. The caterpillars grew to be very big! Many of the caterpillars have turned into chrysalids and are now in the butterfly cage. The students continued to write down their daily observations and draw diagrams of their caterpillars. They also wrote down their hypotheses about what they think happens inside a chrysalis as the caterpillar changes into a butterfly. The students learned the characteristics of an insects. (Did you know that all insects have 6 legs, 2 eyes and 2 antennae?) They learned the science names for all living things are in Latin. The science name for this kind of caterpillar is Vanessa cardui. A person who studies insects is called an entomologist and one who studies butterflies is a lepidopterist. A video of one of our caterpillars can be found at the end of this posting.

Books read aloud this week:

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
What Is An Insect? by Lola M. Schaefer
Victoria Day by Jill Foran
The Empty Pot by Demi

Video - Caterpillar's Day Out