This short week the children were very busy! From selling soap to studying butterflies to growing plants the students filled the days with their questions, answers and theories.
In math, the students tried playing each other's beanbag math games and then wrote reviews to the game creators to let them know what was good about the game and some ideas to improve the game. The class also reviewed how to move horizontally and vertically on a grid. The students learned a bit about algebra and strategies on how to solve questions when the unknown is in a different place. For example, usually a math question is in the form of 4+9=__, but sometimes the question can look like this 4+__=15.
The basil and coriander plants germinated this week and the leaves and stems were very different! The basil plants have short stems and wide rounded leaves. The coriander plants have long stems and long narrow leaves. We also looked at and planted the seeds for poppies, four-leaf clover, money plants and forget-me-nots. The seeds all look very different!
After waiting and waiting, the butterflies began to emerge from their chrysalids. At the end of the week there were three butterflies in our butterfly house. After thinking about what happens inside a chrysalis the students learned that inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar breaks down into "caterpillar soup" and reforms into a butterfly. The children used Lego pieces in a zip lock bag to help them understand what happens inside the chrysalis. The class also learned that the caterpillar stage is also known as the larvae stage and the chrysalis stage is also known as the pupa stage of the life cycle. Metamorphosis is the name given to the process of changing from one shape to another different shape.
Each student began to research the plant or tree that they chose to learn more about. They worked on making the title for their posters and began looking in encyclopedias for more information.
Each student took the soap that they made last week and designed a label to package it and a poster to advertise it. After talking about what information needs to be on a label and what kinds of information helps a person choose a particular brand of soap and various ways to present this information, the children each designed a poster to "sell" his/her soap. These posters are now on display outside of our classroom.
In guided reading the class chorally read and discussed the story The Medicine Walk to learn more about how native medicine remedies are collected and passed down from one generation to another and how native people shared this information with the pioneers.
The pioneer village groups continued their research this week and worked on their presentations. Each group will present what they learned to the class next week. Each student also had a chance to saw a piece of wood (from a pine tree). After learning about the safe way to use a saw, each child used a saw to cut the piece of wood into two pieces. It's not easy! The class now understands that for pioneers to build a house out of wood without electric tools was very, very difficult and took a lot of time and effort.
Books read aloud this week:
Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat (chapter book - continued)
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