Click image to view questions.

We started our inquiry into spiders by thinking about what we wonder about them. Many thoughtful questions were shared. We loved witnessing how one question asked would spark another one! What other questions might your child have that we can add to our web of questions? We would so love to see you add new questions as a comment to this post! 

For our first experiment, we discovered how it might be possible for a spider to be able to walk on their own sticky web. By using masking tape and some oil on our finger, we got to experience how to make the tape feel less sticky. Although spiders don’t actually have oil glands, some spiders do have a special chemical coating. This gave them a sense of what it might be like for a spider not to stick to their web. Ask your child about our experiment! To learn more, click here to go to Wonderopolis to read or listen to Why Don’t Spiders Get Caught in Their Webs? or watch this video which offers three reasons why:

Students also made their own beautiful glittery webs. Stay tuned for their art to be shared soon. Next week, we will be sorting the questions to help us dive into our inquiry further. There’s still a lot more to learn even about their webs!

We picked leaves from outside for our Wreath of Gratitude. We then became scientists who studied the same leaves focusing on parts of the leaf like the edges and the main veins and small veins.

As artists, we practiced drawing our leaf before we drew it again. Then we used liquid glue to outline the shape and veins of our leaf. Learning about warm and cool colours and complementary colours, we learned about the technique of blending using pastels to colour in and shade from dark to light with our best tools – our fingers! Our fine motor skills got practice in so many ways with this art project and we exercised our artistic thinking skills too.

Check out our creations!
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Yesterday, we met with our big buddies from Division 1 for the first time! Big and little buddies got to know each other by recording their similarities and differences on a Venn diagram based on the Buddy Interview questions. They were encouraged to come up with some of their own questions to ask of each other as well.

What we saw were genuine smiles. We heard lots of chit chat with giggling and laughing too. With some students away, not everyone was with the buddy they have been assigned to but they all had a good time getting to know someone new. 

We worked on one of our core competencies: communication. Click here to view.

We are already looking forward to our next big buddy time next Thursday!

As part of our thinking about gratitude, we used Kidspiration software to help us organize our brainstorming. 

Click on image to enlarge.

Then we wrote about which one resonated with us most. Using ChatterPix Kids (free iPad app), we used our creativity by having our leaves come alive to speak for us. The leaves were chosen because we thought they were special; these leaves were to become a part of our Wreath of Gratitude. We presented our compilation of ChatterPix videos at our Celebration of Learning last Friday. Click here to check out a few samples.

Students really enjoyed creating their own videos. During this time, our Superintendent, Gina Niccoli-Moen, was visiting our class. She was thrilled to see how engaged they were in this activity. A few students had the opportunity to share their work with her.

We hope you thoroughly enjoyed your Thanksgiving long weekend. We are grateful to be blessed to teach your child this year!