This week in Room 222, the students made large, sparkly borax crystals, learned and wrote about the poinsetta plant and created paper chains almost as tall as eight of our schools stacked on top of each other (76 metres)!
Math: This week the class learned the standard algorithms to solve two-digit addition and subtraction questions with regrouping. The procedure for addition is fairly easy, but the subtraction questions are very tricky. The children know that to do these kinds of questions accurately, one must practise, practise, practise!
The class continue to learn the power of doubling numbers. Our calendar pattern is a doubling pattern (children use calculators at this point, to figure out the new number each day), the read aloud book "One Grain of Rice" is based on a doubling pattern and the children saw a video based on this pattern. Doubling makes numbers bigger very, very quickly! Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OuJhaqeUbo
When I was a child, I loved to make paper chains each year for our family Christmas tree. The class really enjoyed making these chains too! The children started talking about the math ideas that we could explore using the chains. The students counted the individual paper circles in their chains (as non-standard units), estimated the lengths and then they used metre sticks to measure their chains (standard units). They worked in their table groups to use calculators to total the numbers and then we calculated the grand totals for the whole class. There were 1,586 paper circles linked together to make a chain 76 metres long! We had to go into the hall to have enough room to measure them. One table group made a paper chain that was almost as long as a blue whale!
Writing: All of the snowflake posters are now finished and on display on the bulletin board in our classroom. The students also continued to write (and receive) letters as part of our school-wide holiday mailbox program.
Ms. G, one of the staff members in our school whose classroom is beside ours, surprised us this week with a beautiful poinsettia plant! Of course the children were full of questions about this plant that is a traditional decoration for Christmas. After a bit of research, we learned a lot about poinsettias and the students wrote about what they learned in their journals. Did you know that it got its English name from the US Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett? Around 1820, he saw this green and red plant and it reminded him of traditional Christmas colours. He named it after himself and so the plant is known as "poinsettia" in English. Did you know that the red parts are not petals? They are specialized leaves called "bracts" and the actual flowers are the tiny yellow flowers in the centre of the red bracts.
Reading: In our guided reading groups this week, the children talked a bit about folk tales and how sometimes these stories were invented to explain things in the world before science could explain the real reasons. For example, the story we read was about why snakes have no legs, elephants have two long tusks and giraffes have long necks. These kinds of stories are entertaining, but are not the real reasons for these animal features.
During our daily read aloud times this week, the children continued to learn and talk about winter holiday traditions. Did you know that Frosty the Snowman was a story told in song first, then a cartoon and a book? Did you know the "tomten" is a fictional creature that looks after farm animals during the winter in Sweden?
Science: The class learned about how a solid can dissolve and disappear into a liquid. Using borax powder (a laundry detergent additive) the students tried to dissolve the powder in cold water, but it didn't work. When hot, boiling water was added, the powder disappeared! The reason for this is that the boiling water molecules are moving around rapidly and there is more space between the water molecules. So the borax can go in these spaces and "disappear". When the water cooled down overnight, there is less space between the water molecules and the borax comes out of the solution, The students hung a piece of pipe cleaner into each cup and the borax re-formed or crystalized on the pipe cleaner creating beautiful clear cube-shaped crystals! The children looked at the crystals using magnifying glasses and wrote about what happened by filling in a chart with information on what the borax looked like before and after it was dissolved in hot water. The class even did a "molecule dance" to physically show what water molecules do when water is a solid (ice), liquid water and boiling water (gas).
Social Studies: The children learned about a variety of traditions that are observed this time of year. They heard the story of Frosty the Snowman, began making holiday wreaths from reused plastic bags, learned how the poinsetta plant became a symbol of Christmas and the tradition of using paper chains to decorate Christmas trees. We also had a very interesting discussion of the religious (the birthday of Jesus who is the central figure of Christianity) versus the secular or non-religious (Santa Claus and Christmas trees) themes of Christmas.
Art: The children worked in their table groups to reuse plastic bags to make wreaths to give to some of the staff at our school. Plastic bags are not recyclable, so this activity at least gives the bags a "second life". Wreaths are traditional at this time of year for Christmas, but wreaths are also used all through the year as decorations in many cultures.
Finally, our class amaryllis plant bloomed this week! Currently, there are two big, beautiful red flowers. The plant is now 41 cm tall. We talked about how the plant is now like an "adult plant" because it has stopped growing taller and is now putting its energy into growing its flowers. There is also a second bud growing beside it, that is catching up in height.
Books read aloud this week:
One Grain of Rice (A Mathematical Tale) by Demi
The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren
Merry Christmas Squirrels! by Nancy Rose
Frosty the Snowman by Jack Rollins
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (to be continued...)
No comments:
Post a Comment