It was a busy four-day week in Room 222! The children finished their third books with different sized and coloured paper, they continued the unit on linear measurement and learned how to make small sculptures using aluminum foil.
In writing, the students worked very hard to finish their third books of the year. Recall the class heard read aloud Open This Little Book last week and took on the challenge to create their own versions of this style of book. They wrote, edited and create a good copy of their stories using coloured paper of different sizes. They made front and back covers and all the pages were sewn together using a sewing machine, just like how hardcover book pages are sewn together. These books will now be available in our classroom library for children to read each other's books during independent reading times.
In guided reading, the small discussion groups read a story about clouds and rainbows. This story is an example of a fiction story that teaches non-fiction information. In our class we call these stories "Near-fiction" to differentiate them from fiction and non-fiction stories. The class made connections to the text about what they have learned about different types of clouds and water in the atmosphere and learned about how, for example, a rainbow is formed after a heavy rain because the water in the air splits white light into its component colour wavelengths (red/orange/yellow/green/blue/indigo/violet). The groups then discussed the differences between pigment colours (e.g., in paint) and light colours as components of white light. The children also looked at CD disks, where the surface of each disk is prismatic, and also is able to split white light to create small areas of standard rainbow colours.
In math, the class continued the unit on linear measurement by learning how to estimate. Estimating is a particular skill that requires children to apply what they know and requires a lot of practice! Estimation is different from guessing because there is some information that is already known to help to make the estimate. The students practised estimating and then measuring to think about how accurate their estimates were (e.g., length of his/her shoe). After measuring the height of our classroom (3 metres), and remembering that our school has three floors above ground, the students estimated how tall the school is. Then the class had to solve the problem of how to actually measure the height of the school. We all went to the stairwell and used plastic ribbon to measure the vertical height from the floor of the first floor to the ceiling of the third floor. Back in the classroom, we measure the plastic ribbon and it was 10 metres and 17 centimeters long. The class also estimated and measured the length of the short hallway near our classroom using non-standard units (12 student bodies) and standard units (16 metres).
At the end of the week, the children were introduced to how to measure mass and weight. They reviewed the using of a standard scale (standard weight in kilograms) and a balance scale (relative weight). For example, a small Domo figure has the same mass as 35 plastic cubes. Mass is the amount of "stuff" or matter in something and weight is the measure of the pull of gravity on that mass. That's why the mass of something doesn't change but the weight can, depending on where the object is. For example, objects have a lighter weight on the moon because the pull of gravity is less.
In science, the arrival of colder weather and snow has helped our units on water and liquids and solids! The children learned how a snowflake is really a solid crystal of ice and how it "grows" in a cloud. Because of the shape of the water molecule, snowflake crystals are always in the shape of a hexagon and the crystals often has small "branches" sticking out of the vertices of the hexagon. Did you know that every snowflake begins in a cloud, with a tiny speck (e.g., a piece of dust) upon which the ice crystal grows?
In art, the class experimented with making small sculptures with aluminum foil. Since aluminum foil is metal, the standard ways to adhere it together, like glue and tape, do not work. After learning about how to cut the foil strategically, the children learned how to create a small foil person. The students were then free to make more foil people and to experiment with the foil to make other forms. For example, using a smaller piece of foil to make a smaller foil person and how to cut the foil to make rings or other animals like cats and spiders.
On Monday, the class attended the school's Remembrance Day assembly. The large peace symbols, poppies and origami paper cranes that our class made were used to decorate the auditorium for this occasion.
Books read aloud this week:
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Snow Crystal Photographs by Wilson A. Bentley
The Story of Snow - The Science of Winter's Wonder by Mark Cassino
Winter's Coming by Jan Thornhill
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