Month: May 2019

We returned from the long weekend to be BLOWN away by all the growth that occurred with our seeds over the past couple of days.

Ask your young scientist what seed is growing faster, the bean or the pea.

Why do you think some seeds grow faster than others?

Our grade 2’s are taking a short break from all our hard work learning addition and subtraction that involves regrouping. We are enjoying the creativity that comes with exploring the world of Geometry. What can you build with 3D shapes?

We have been exploring many aspects of light through exploration centres this past week.

We have each planted a bean and pea seed and are simultaneously learning about the plant life cycle as well as the interaction between plants and light.

We are observing on a daily basis that plants grow towards the sun. We are now able to identify and distinguish between natural and artificial light sources.

By exploring the different light stations we learned about the following:

We learned about REFRACTION: it appears that the pencil in the water is split in half, but is it really? Why does it appear that it is split? What is the light doing?

We are now able to identity what materials are TRANSPARENT, TRANSLUCENT and OPAQUE.

We understand that interactions of light with different objects create images and shadows. Ask your young scientist about the incident ray of light and the reflected ray. What is happening to the light when it reflects off a surface?

We are saying goodbye to our adventures in the Solar System as we embark on a new adventure, investigating plant growth and LIGHT!

Being the curious learners that we are, some investigating questions have already come up during our class discussions:

• What is the relationship between plants and light?
• What is happening in this picture? Is the pencil really cut in half?

• Can light travel through all types of materials?
• What are natural and artificial sources of light?

Tonight was wonderful to witness.

As a teacher it was a great feeling to ‘fade away’ and observe your child become the teacher. They were beaming with pride as they took you through their learning journey. From landform creations, community construction plans, scientific experiments, astronomy discoveries and POW words, you took time, care, patience and interest in your child’s education. I loved overhearing the questions that you asked your young learner. I heard ownership from your child as they explained the activity they were proud of, the purpose of it, why they enjoyed it.

Your presence today not only meant the world to your child, but also to me. It was truly so fulfilling and rewarding to see your child step into the role of a leader (and teacher) over their learning. Thank you for coming and taking part in your child’s learning journey. Our Toodle Wall is currently bursting with love. Thank you for all that you do!