Fall Leaves

Our Fall inquiry started with many wonders.  We wonder:

“Why do they (leaves) change from green?”

“Do leaves change every season?”

“Why do the leaves fall down?”

“Why do the leaves change colour?”

“How does it get colder?”

“Why are the leaves red?”

On our nature walk we explored around Parkcrest Park and looked for different kinds of leaves.  We sorted them into Fall colours (brown, yellow, red, orange) and green and then tried rubbing leaves on paper to see if they leave a colour.  We were pretty amazed to see nature colours on our paper!

We worked as a team and sorted leaves into different sizes- small, medium, big, biggest.

As scientists, we investigated why leaves change colours in the fall. First, we made some guesses.

“The weather is cold.”

“We have less sun.”

“It rains a lot.”

Then, we sorted the fall leaves by colour, ripped the leaves into bits and covered it with rubbing alcohol. We put coffee filters into the leaf and rubbing alcohol mixture and allowed it to sit long enough to absorb the liquid. As the liquid travels up the coffee filter it separates all the colors that were inside the leaf.

We learned that during fall, the days get shorter so the leaves don’t get enough sunlight and the green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves.  As the green fades away, we begin to see yellow, orange, red and/or brown colours. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along!

Symmetrical drawings of our leaves

Parts of a Leaf

Our Leaf People

The Leaf Man goes where the wind blows…

 

Our Leaf People flew to a lot of places and saw many things.  Some flew to a pumpkin patch, some went to a forest, one went to a big city, a couple went to a farm and a few flew home.   Please ask your child to tell you their Leaf Man story 🙂

Remembrance Day

In class we talked about the importance of Remembrance Day.  It is a day to honour soldiers, veterans and families who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom.  Our school had an in-person assembly on Thursday. There were many thoughtful presentations and all the children were very respectful during the Remembrance Day assembly.  Division 11 recited the poem “Poppy Poppy” with Division 12 in front of the whole Parkcrest community.
Each class made a wreath for the wreath laying ceremony at the assembly.
We talk about why the poppy became a symbol for Remembrance Day and we made our own representations of poppies.  Here is an invitation to create poppies with loose parts:

We painted poppies on our hands

We also read “The Peace Book” by Todd Parr and talked about what peace means to us.

 

 

Story Workshop- Pumpkin Patch

 

Story workshop allows learners to explore, create and connect their ideas through play. A variety of materials like loose parts, paint, playdough or blocks can be used to help children develop their ideas.

This week, we used loose parts to retell our pumpkin patch field trip with a friend.  Look at the story with your child and ask them to tell you more about it! Enjoy their pumpkin patch stories!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Patch

 

We had an amazing experience visiting the Aldor Acres Pumpkin Patch in Langley!  It was a wet day, but that didn’t stop us from having fun!  For some of the students, it was their very first pumpkin patch experience.

We hopped onto a tractor-pulled wagon and headed over to the field to pick our pumpkins to take home!

The children were so excited to see and touch the animals. We saw so many – sheep, horses, piglets, chicks, bunnies, goats, llamas, donkeys, chickens, puppies, a giant cow and more!

At the end of the school day, we had a sharing circle and each student shared their favorite part of the trip!

Here are a few things that were said:

“I love playing in the hay pile!”

“I liked looking for my pumpkin!”

“Big Bob the cow was so big!”

“petting the rabbits!”

“the bus ride”

“petting the pigs and puppies”

If you ask your child to tell you what their favourite moment was, feel free to share their answer in the comments!

A big Thank You to our parent volunteers who were able to come and supervise groups of students. Thank you for helping out! Also, thanks to Ms. Gourlay for organizing and booking this trip!

Happy Thanksgiving

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Division 11 is so thankful for many things! We brainstormed what we are thankful for and then we created our own thankful mobile.  Here is what we are thankful for this Thanksgiving:

Kaede: “My friends, my bike and my family”

Eden: “My home”

Jack: “Waves and mountains, my family and my friends”

Felipe: “My family”

Anna: “My family and my bike”

Arydan: “My dad, my family and I can draw circles”

Yeona: “Ice cream, heart and food”

Brooklyn: “My family, my house and my friends”

Aubree: “My family and my heart”

Melody: “My bike, my home and my friends”

Chloe: “My family, dad, mom and grandpa”

Olivianne: “My friends, daddy and I’m a queen”

Greyson: “My family, trees and chocolate”

Hera: “My family, my friends and my sister”

Myles: “My scooter and my family”

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends!

 

 

Barnet Marine Park

It was a beautiful day at Barnet Marine Park and all the kids had so much fun!  In the classroom, we have been learning about a few ocean animals (sea star, jellyfish, shark, orca whale), so this field trip was a great opportunity for them to explore more about marine life in our local environment.  What a great experience to see so many sea stars (starfish) under the dock and flipping rocks to look for crabs!

Thank you to all parents who volunteered to drive and supervise students, and families who came to join us!  We hope you all had a great time at the beach!

Community

 

Our little city planners and builders have been learning about important community helpers and services that make up a community.  We took the information we learned and built five different communities. Each group brainstormed what their community needed, collected materials, built it and then they named their community (Ultimate Sand City, Racing Town, Towerson Town, Sugar Dot City, Sparkling Sprinkle Neighborhood Town). They all put in a lot of effort into building their town/city together.  Keep up the great teamwork, Division 12!