News for May 18, 2018

News for May 18, 2018

This week the children learned about measuring mass and capacity, continued to ask questions and learn facts about the caterpillars/chrysalids/butterflies and even welcomed a robot cat to our classroom!

Writing

The children finished writing their book reports on their favourite Dayal Kaur Khalsa book. The students also learned some biographical information about the author and put some of this information into their reports. Did you know that she was born in the USA but lived much of her life in Canada?

The children worked with a partner to write a dice story fairy tale, where a roll of the dice determines the number of words that partner can write. At this time of year, the stories are much longer and more detailed. The students will present the stories orally next week.

Math 

The children learned about how to measure mass and capacity.  Mass is the amount of stuff or matter that everything is made of. Capacity is the amount that an object can hold. The children talked about relative mass, or which object has more or less mass and relative capacity or which object can hold more or less. We also talked about the standard units that are used to measure mass, kilogram (kg) and gram (g) and capacity, litre (L) and millilitre (mL).

PARENT NOTE: The use of the words mass and capacity are required by the Ontario Curriculum. For grade 2 children mass and weight can be used interchangeably because mass equals weight on Earth. The word capacity (the amount an object can hold) is now used instead of volume (the amount of space an object takes up).

Reading

The class began a short study of the near-fiction books by the author James Bowen and his cat Bob. James was a young man going through a difficult time when Bob the cat entered his life and changed it for the better. To help the class understand the power of how caring for an animal can teach responsibility, caring and empathy, our class now has a life-size robot cat…named Bob, of course! Here is a link to a video of the real James and Bob the cat:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UlytJkufQDw

Science

The class continued to study the life cycle of the butterfly. For most of the week, the caterpillars were still in their chrysalids. HOWEVER, on Friday, 6 butterflies had emerged! It was very exciting! The children wrote down their ideas of how the caterpillar was changing into a butterfly in such a small space inside the chrysalis. The students took 10 bricks of lego and made a caterpillar shape. Then they put their lego caterpillar into a small ziplock bag. Then they tried to make a lego butterfly using the bricks without opening the bag. It’s difficult! So the children got a first hand idea of how amazing it is that a caterpillar goes in the chrysalis and a butterfly comes out!

At the end of the day, we talked about how to give the butterflies food over the 3-day weekend. Did you know that butterflies drink but do not eat? Inside the butterfly cage are now pieces of fresh orange and a dish of orange Gatorade. (The caterpillar supplier says that Gatorade is very close to real flower nectar.)

Social Studies

The children talked about the reason for this holiday weekend…Victoria Day. The class read about Queen Victoria and how she was head of the British Monarchy for 64 years! Her actual birthday was May 24 and Canadians have been celebrating her birthday since 1845. It's a day for families to spend time together and there is a tradition of watching fireworks. Did you know that she became queen when she was only 18 years old?

We also talked about food traditions. After reading a book about birthday food traditions, we discussed similar traditions in the students’ families.

Art

The students were inspired by the paintings of Dayal Kaur Khalsa and planned and began to create beautiful art of their own on canvas boards. 

The children went outside to create pencil drawings of the silver maple tree that we’ve been studying.

Oral Communication

The students read through a new play this week called “Always Do the Right Thing”, a play about honestly and integrity.  The children then chose the roles that they wanted to play. They are now in two groups and are rehearsing together. Our class will be performing these plays at the Character Assemblies for junior and primary classes at the end of the month.

The children had a great opportunity to see the amazing oral storyteller Nathalie Vachon perform on Friday. She told the students stories with only her voice (no text or pictures).

Extra

On Friday, the class started a big project using discarded Sun Chips bags from Pizza Lunch. The children created signs to make sure that the other students in the school didn’t put the bags in the garbage. A few weeks ago, the students learned that the bags are made from metal and plastic that are fused together and therefore not recyclable. Next week, the children will clean the bags and then do some math, writing and art activities with them, in an effort to keep these bags out of the garbage.

Books read aloud this week:

The Birthday Feast by Heather Hammonds

My Name is Bob by James Bowen

Bob to the Rescue by James Bowen

Where in the World is Bob? By James Bowen

Eight Ate - A Feast of Homophone Riddles by Marvin Terban

Derek the Knitting Dinosaur by Mary Blackwood