The big news for this week was our special "Pioneer Day" on Thursday, when we pretended to live like it was 200 years ago. So, technically, it was Thursday, May 7, 1815...
The students tried cursive writing with feather (quill) pens and ink. They learned the famous sentence that has all 26 letters of the alphabet (called a pangram), "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." They performed a pioneer song and dance in the music period. Using chalk and blackboards they solved arithmetic (math) problems. The children learned how to make homemade rope by twisting cord until it twists around itself. (They used our dyed wool to practice how to do it.) In the pioneer spirit, the children helped to prepare food for the pioneer lunch. The students helped to make homemade applesauce, cornmeal pancakes and butter. Also on the menu were pickles, carrot sticks, cheese and raisins and popcorn for recess snacks. Did you know that the dried navy beans we sowed (planted) and grew into bean plants are the same kind of beans used to cook baked beans? We also used these same dried beans to sew beanbags (to use in games next week).
It was a fun day but the students also realized that living hundreds of years ago was also a lot of work! Here are some photos from that day:
In math the children learned about motion geometry or how shapes can move across a surface. Shapes can slide (translation), turn (rotation) or flip (reflection). The class also talked about lines of symmetry in nature and in objects and learned how to use "mirras" or translucent mirrors to help figure out where the lines of symmetry are on a drawing.
Room 5 is turning into a room of scientists! We have two big science projects going on now as we look at plants and as of this week...caterpillars. The students have grown bean plants from dried white navy beans. Did you know that the first leaves that feed the plant are called "cotelydons" and are actually the two halves of the bean seed?
The Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars arrived on Tuesday and are growing so fast! Most have now doubled in length and have molted several times shedding their skin as they grow. Did you know that the small pellets in the caterpillar containers are actually their poop? (But, the science word for it is "frass".)
The children finally finished designing and making their books inspired by a small, empty box. Next week, the students will read and write reviews of each other's books.
The class is now working in groups to research some of the places in a pioneer village. They are researching: the general store, the schoolhouse, the grist mill, the pioneer home, the blacksmith and wheelwright. The groups used wooden blocks to create a building and are now collecting facts to present to the class. The students also started to learn a pioneer song, "When I First Came to This Land".
In honour of Mother's Day and in the pioneer spirit, each child made a special gift and card to take home. Using all kinds of different beads and pieces of thin wire, the students created large beads made of smaller beads to make a unique necklace for their mothers.
Books read aloud this week:
Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat (chapter book)
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