Month: April 2021

Little Bear’s Vision Quest by Diane Silvey, illustrated by Joe Silvey 

Before reading Little Bear’s Vision Quest written by Diane Silvey we discussed the importance of stories and how they are an integral part of Indigenous culture. Students learned that stories are not just for entertainment but they are told to teach lessons and these lessons typically focus on ways to overcome a struggle, how to change one’s attitude or behaviour, and how to be our best self. In this particular story, Little Bear learns to be kind, thoughtful and respectful towards others after being banished to a remote island and reflecting upon his behaviour. The students quickly observed that throughout the story, Little Bear’s coat was initially brown (as seen in the cover of the book). Once he had cleansed himself from the bad, negative thoughts and spirits and welcomed the Power Spirit, he was cleansed, and his body was now pure. Once he was pure, the students were in awe when they noticed that his coat was now pure white. The students thoroughly enjoyed this story and the various themes and lessons that they took away from the story.

What we took away from the story:

– Reflect on your actions and problem solve

– Treat others like you want to be treated

– People can change

– Be in control of your emotions

– Be respectful to others

– You always have good inside of you

– How to take responsibility for your own actions

– How to understand consequences

Our art work was inspired by Little Bear’s Vision Quest. Students drew their background, then applied water colour paint and then decided how they wanted to represent Little Bear. If you look closely you can see how the students chose to represent Little Bear, some decided to represent Little Bear being entirely pure, others wanted to portray him as he transformed towards his purity self. I believe these turned out beautifully. Underneath we wrote about what lesson we took away from this story.

Math:

The Gr 2s continue to power through their addition and subtraction unit focusing on numbers 1-18, next up comes working with numbers 1 – 100! Stay tuned to learn about some strategies that we will learn and employ to support us with our solving problem abilities.

The Gr 3s continue to work on their multiplication facts. As we become more familiar we have been relying on a multiplication chart to support our operations.

Social Studies: 

As we continue to learn about our Earth, we have been discussing pollution and the effects that contaminants have upon our air, land and water. Look at the images below, with your family, can you brainstorm and discuss the affects that the pollutants in the images have upon the environment?

In the images below you can see we did a similar activity in class. The students reflected upon the images of pollution and determined how these actions affect our planet.

Happy Friday + see everyone on Monday!

Happy Earth Day!

In honour of Earth Day we had the opportunity to participate in some special activities on Thursday.

To start off the day, we got to participate in a live reading from author Evelyn Bookless.  With the beauty of technology we were able to participate in this virtual author visit all the way from the Netherlands! Evelyn read her newly released picture book called Captain Green and the Plastic Scene.

In the afternoon we had the privilege of participating in a directed drawing lesson over Zoom with an Indigenous artist from the Squamish nation, Gordon Dick. Now, technology can be our best friend and worst enemy simultaneously. Unfortunately, by the afternoon, technology was not our friend at all. During our Zoom session with Gordon, our internet connection became very poor and we received a lag in our video stream. Next, we lost our sound so we unfortunately could not follow along with Gordon’s verbal cues. Not to fret! This was a perfect opportunity for us to practice a) our patience b) our flexibility by going with the flow when something planned does not go as expected and c) our inferencing skills. We continued to persevere with the art lesson and we practiced our inferencing skills based on what we could view while not being able to hear the instructions. Students continued to be risk-takers and attempted to explore various shapes and lines that Gordon was demonstrating. We inferred that Gordon was showing us different techniques for how to use different line strokes to produce different effects that we would then later incorporate into our own drawing. I was pleased to see many students show grit and perseverance during this difficult and unexpected time when our technology disappointed us.

We continue to see growth from our pea seedlings! Ask your scientist how our experimental seedlings are doing – is there any growth from the seedling with no sunlight; no water; no soil? Were your initial predictions correct or incorrect?

In Math, the Grade 3s continue to learn and practice new mathematical skills. We have moved on from our unit on fractions and have now dived into the world of multiplication! This past week, students began to understand the concepts of multiplication as groups of, arrays and repeated addition. For example, 5+5+5+5=20 is the same as 4 x 5 = 20 and also the same as having 4 groups of 5. Students are developing their skill-set in showing their mathematical thinking in both pictorial and concrete representation.

Can you answer the following questions?

a) Doughnuts are sold in packages of 5. On the weekend, Mrs. Ralph bought 3 packages. How many doughnuts did she have altogether?

b) There were 4 sheep in the field and 3 cows in the field. How many sheep were there altogether?

c) Can you draw 2 groups of 6? What is the product (the answer)?

d) Can you draw 3 groups of 5? What is the product?

Grade 2s continue to explore the world of addition and subtraction. We continue to primarily focused on number bonds and number sentences, using both operations of addition and subtraction. It can be tricky at times to recognize that the number sentences contain the same numbers, however they are just in a different order. I encourage everyone to continue practicing writing their number sentences to become more familiar and confident with these skills.

For example, 

5 + 4 = 9

4 + 5 = 9

9 – 4 = 5

9 – 5 = 4

In the number sentences above, all four sentences are using the numbers 4, 5, and 9. It is key to remember that when you are subtracting, you are subtracting from the largest number as you need to be able to take away from it.

Can you answer the questions below?

a)

6 + 3 = ________

3 + ________ = 9

9 – ________ = 6

________ – 6 = 3

b) Please write two addition sentences for the math story below.

There were 8 birds sitting in a tree, 9 more birds joined the tree. How many birds are there altogether?

c) Please write two subtraction sentences for the math story below.

There were 19 cats sitting on the fence. A dog barked and scared away 4. How many cats were left?

d) Please complete the doubles and doubles + 1 below:

• 4 + 4 = _________
• 4 + 5 = _________
• 6 + 6 = _________
• 6 + 7 = _________
• 8 + 8 = _________
• 8 + 9 = _________

Earth Week:

In preparation of Earth week this week we have been discussing about ways that we, as individuals, can make an everlasting impact upon the world by protecting Mother Earth. This morning, the students came up with ways that we can protect our Earth. Some examples include following proper hunting regulations to protect our animals, composting our food scraps and waste, conserving energy, finding alternative forms of power such as solar power panels, electric cars, conserving water by turning off the taps when brushing our teeth and reducing our daily pollution by trying to walk more, carpool etc.

Are there more ways that you can make a difference?

After watching this video below on “Sorry” for future generations for this Earth Day, can you and your scientist + active citizen, discuss what they think and feel after viewing the video. Are you feeling disappointed; sad; shocked? What in particular made you feel this way? Do you think the message of the video is important? Why or why not? Did you feel motivated to make a change or a difference in some capacity after watching this video?

Being the next generation to make a difference and protect our Earth, what can we do? How can we encourage more people to do the same? How can we spread our message? Ultimately, how can we do better, be better?

We have quite a few projects underway this week. Since “The Earth is in our hands” we began working on an Art project that will decorate our halls by spreading the message for different ways that we can take care of our only home, and protect our planet.

Art:

Our Art last week is now on display in our hallway, adding a splash of colour! We were inspired by “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle. As previously mentioned, the students were in awe of this painting project and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Ask your artist about the processes that were used to achieve this textured look.

Science:

This week we worked extremely hard on our display of our Butterfly Unit. In our project we focused on the life cycle of the butterfly, the changes that occur during metamorphosis, body parts of both the caterpillar and butterfly, ways that both the caterpillar and butterfly can protect themselves, what the butterfly eats, distinguishing the differences between a moth and butterfly and so much more!

Why do you think that the butterfly will lay it’s eggs on specific leaves? What is the significance in that? 

From our studies of the butterfly, what was something that you were surprised to learn? What are some facts that stick with you? 

We are seeing GROWTH from our seedlings! Inquire with your scientist how our experimental seedlings are doing. Is there any growth from the seedling that is growing without sunlight; no soil; and no water? So far, are your predictions correct or incorrect?

Friday Math Games – always a delight! Again, students continue to practice their foundational math skills, focusing on various formats of adding and subtracting with numbers 1-10 and 1-20. My favourite quote from today after we cleaned up our math games was “when are we doing math?” I smiled and asked them what they were just doing, the student responded by saying “well I know we were doing mathhhh, but it was so fun and like a game, so that can’t really be math!” SURPRISE! Learning through play can always be fun, that is just one reason why I love math games. Students are practicing and utilizing their number sense and addition and subtraction facts without even noticing. I have also witnessed many students gain confidence within themselves and their ability as they strengthen their mental math strategies and their number facts.

Social Studies: 

To begin, students analyzed the photographs on the board and were encouraged to see if they noticed a pattern or theme amongst the photographs. In a flash, students quickly caught on to the theme that some photographs involved humans and other photographs did not. We decided to categorize the photographs into Human Impact vs Natural Disasters. We then passionately began selecting four topics from Human Impact and four topics from Natural Disasters that we wanted to record in our flapbook. Stay tuned for the final result!

Art: 

Any guesses what we are creating in Art this week? A hint is that we are inspired by the artwork in the story from “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle. It was a big task creating our painting, demonstrating patience as it dried and anxiously awaiting to complete our next step which is putting it all together. The students marvelled at the great reveal when they opened up their paper to see the symmetric design that was created. Stay tuned!

Last Friday we planted our very own pea seeds.

Science:

The purpose of growing and tending to our seedlings is to observe the characteristics of local plants, or in our case vegetable! As scientists, we will take thoughtful, daily observations to closely analyze the subtle, yet always changing features of our seedling. We will collect simple data on our developing pea and discuss the necessary things it needs to not only survive, but to also thrive. Along side growing our peas, we will also plan and conduct an experience to determine if a seed can grow and develop without water, without sunlight and without soil. What are your predictions? 

In our studies of the butterfly, we have focused this week on the following questions. As scientists we listen and observe to information and we select which information is imperative to record in our butterfly journal. We focused our attention on some of the following questions below:

What are some things that a caterpillar eats? Ask your scientist why the butterfly strategically lays its eggs on particular leaves? What are ways that a caterpillar can protect itself? What do butterfly’s eat? NOTHING – trick question, they DRINK instead. So, what do butterfly’s drink by using their proboscis? 

Physical Education:

In basketball, we continue to develop our skill-set in ball handling and keeping control. We presently are developing our ability to dribble with our dominant and non-dominant hand as well as dribble with control a cross over pass. Next up we will be executing group drills that incorporate passing. Prior to starting our basketball drills, we always warm up our bodies with some group games.

Earth Day:

Ta Da! Our stained glass Earths are complete and are now decorating our windows. This quick and easy art activity turned out great! The kids also loved to observe the effect that took place once water was added to our coloured coffee filter. Coming up next we will be focusing our attention on Earth Day, through discussions and brainstorming we will collaboratively come up with ways to reduce our carbon footprint and to portray our ideas in an instructional writing format to inform and teach, members of our community how everyone can make an impact on saving our planet. Stay tuned!

S.E.L. – Social Emotional Learning:

In Social Emotional Learning, we are discussing that various people, places, and things help support us in our daily lives. In each puzzle piece, we wrote down someone, some place or some thing that supports us. It was delightful to read their work and to see what is meaningful and supportive to each individual. Some examples included Nonna and Nonno, walks with Mom, hugs with Dad, music, nature, biking, books + reading, school and animals and so much more!

Social Studies:

Today we combined Social Studies with Science as we conducted an experiment on weathering + erosion. We were given a cookie which was our ‘rock’ and were given three different tools to symbolize weathering. A q-tip represented plants, a toothpick represented animals and water represented the natural elements such as ice, water/ocean etc. Prior to beginning, students made a prediction on which tool they thought would have the greatest impact on the cookie’s weathering + erosion process. We explored the different tools one at a time and at different time intervals, first we tried one minute and then recorded our observations and then tried for 5 minutes, again, recording our observations. We all discovered that over time the ‘rock’ would weather down and erode. Ask you scientist which tool made the greatest impact on the weathering process and why they think so. As scientists we continue to demonstrate our curiosity of the world around us while also explaining and justifying our thinking. It is safe to say we are all a big fan of the exploration process today as it ended in a cookie snack!

Math: 

This week the Gr 2’s finished off their Data unit and have begun their newest unit, Addition + Subtraction. To begin we are working on number sentences. As mathematicians we are working on carefully reading the word problem to determine which operation we will use to correctly answer the question. In conjunction to working on number sentences we are also working on our doubles, and doubles + 1 facts, for example, 4+4= 8 ; 4+5=9. Knowing our doubles facts and doubles +1 will help us tremendously as it will enable us to use our mental math strategies to problem solve these equations quickly in our heads.

Can you answer the following questions below on a separate piece of paper and bring it in to Mrs. Ralph? Good luck!

1. Mrs. Ralph made 13 cookies. Her husband gobbled up 7 of them. How many freshly baked cookies were left?
2. Alfie went to the dog park and there were 8 dogs there altogether (including him), 9 MORE dogs arrived to the dog park, how many dogs were at the dog park altogether?
3. Mrs. Ralph went to the ice cream store. She decided to get 3 scoops of different flavoured ice cream, but then decided on getting 5 MORE scoops! Sadly, as she was eating her ice cream 2 scoops fell off of her cone. How many scoops did she have left? * this one is tricky!! 

Meanwhile, what have the Gr 3’s been up to? …

Gr 3 students continue to explore the world of fractions, recognizing that fraction parts are equal shares or equal-sized portions of a whole or unit. Through various formats of questions and close analyzing, students are beginning to recognize that fractions are numbers that represent an amount or quantity.

Question: If you can, solve this question on a piece of paper, remember to show your thinking and hand it into Mrs. Ralph!

Question #1 Riley and Aiden each have an apple. Riley cuts his into halves and eats one piece. Aiden cuts his into quarters and eats two pieces. Who ate more of their apple?

Question #2 Draw a rectangle, then divide the rectangle into eighths. Be sure each part is the same size. Colour one eighth red. Colour three eighths blue. Colour half of the parts green. Good luck!!

To end our Wednesday, we went outside to enjoy some sunshine and be creative simultaneously. We collaboratively created a Nature Treasure Poke Box!