Category: Exploration

Today was incredibly exciting and slightly nerve wrecking for some. The Big Bad Wolf came to Division 7 and he brought a lot of force with him. The students have been working very hard on their little pigs’ houses. We had a straw house, stick house and brick house. Students worked together to develop a plan, draw their proposal, create their vision and then observe whether or not their structure could remain standing after both a minimum and maximum amount of force was applied. 

I can not give out the results of what happened with their three structures, rather, I encourage you to ask your scientist what happened. Did all three structures remain standing? Did any of the structures fall down due to the force? Was there any movement? If so why?

How does the weight of an object affect the possibility of it being moved? If an object is lighter, does it require more or less force to move it compared to a heavy object?

Encourage your scientist to discuss how inertia was involved in this fun, hands-on and interactive activity. Hint hint* inertia* a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force. 

Today marked the end of a very special opportunity we were fortunate enough to have, that being our time with Ms. Field and participating in Story Workshop.

Although our sessions with Ms. Field have ended, that does not mean that our opportunities for Story Workshop need to end as well. The beautiful thing about Story Workshop is that stories are all around us, they are within us. There are ample amounts of materials in our surroundings that have the beautiful possibility of evolving into something else right before our eyes. These items are used as inspiration to derive our stories from. Do the materials hold meaning or significance to us? Do the materials inspire a creative and imaginative story out of us? Do the materials remind us of an experience or memory that we once lived?

The possibilities are endless…

I witnessed magic during our sessions of Story Workshop. Students that initially were hesitant and or intimidated by the writing process demonstrated consistent engagement, passion, curiosity and ultimately enjoyment for the writing process. They were eager and willing to orally share their story as well as draw and write their story in written communication form. 

I also found that Story Workshop encouraged our young authors to find the beginnings of their own authentic writer’s voice, as the objects within our story studio provided a supportive, interactive and challenging environment. Over time, students also began snapping their ideas together and collaborating their stories.

Throughout the story process, students would select the materials of their choosing (whatever they were drawn to), and would first create their story, then orally share their story with others and if time permitted, began recording their story. This process supported the opportunity for students to develop their reading, writing, listening, speaking, critical thinking, and imaginative problem-solving capabilities. During the share-out process, as an audience, students would ask questions, drawn inspiration from others and or provide thoughtful compliments. Again, the possibilities were endless, as stories continued on to the next day, or next week, listening to others’ stories provided inspiration for other stories to be created as they could add on to the original story etc, the possibilities…. were… endless…. 

What will inspire your next story?

Yesterday was our first day of construction!

Students were assigned to groups and were given the medium that they will be using to construct their ‘Little Pig’s House’  (a) straw house (b) stick house or (c) a brick house. Students are working together in their group with the purpose of constructing a house that can successfully stand up against the FORCE of the Big Bad Wolf from blowing their house down. The force of the wolf will be a blow dryer. Each group has collaboratively come together to generate a plan for how they will combat the force. 

Groups continue to work on their effective communication skills, the ability to respectfully listen to others and their ideas and perspectives as well as actively participate in this group activity/challenge. 

Stay tuned for the results of when the Big Bad Wolf comes for a visit!

Today as scientists we made thoughtful predictions on what material a toy race car would travel down the fastest. Scientists recorded their predictions and then together as a class we tested our theories. We had a small ramp and four different materials. These materials included crepe paper, tissue paper, felt and textured fabric. We tested the car travelling down the ramp on all four materials. Using a stopwatch we recorded the exact time it took the car to travel from the top of the ramp to the bottom. After testing our theories we then recorded the results and and our findings on why the car travelled at different speeds.

Ask your scientist if they remember what force was involved in this activity. 

Currently we are learning all about communities in Division 7.

What is a community?

Is our school a community? Our house a community? The neighbourhood playground a community? Why or why not? What makes a community a community?

We have learned that communities can be classified into three different types, rural, suburban and urban. What is similar and different between these types of communities?

After lunch today the students were surprised to discover that there was a scavenger hunt within our class. There were twelve different photographs of communities and we had to determine what type of community was portrayed in each photograph. It was time to become a detective and to use our knowledge and understanding and carefully observe what we saw each photograph. Through careful observation we were then able to determine the type of community.

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