It was a hot and fun Sports Day at Parkcrest! The teams did so well working together and cheering each other on! A special thank you to the Grade 7s for organizing all the stations.
Sports Day
Author: laij
What Animals Do in the Winter?
Our class learned animals make behavioural and physical changes to survive in the winter. Some animals sleep through the winter by finding a cozy place to hibernate; some animals migrate to warm places; and some animals adapt to the climate by growing thicker fur and changing colours.
We created a class diorama.
Animal Research Project
Each table group chose their animal (bears, snakes, monarch butterflies, arctic wolves, and beavers) and we looked at books to help us find information about our animal. We then shared the information to the class. Please ask your child to share some information about their animal with you.
Arctic Animals Art
We went on a nature walk to look for holes animals could live in. Here are some of our predictions:
“A hole! I think a spider lives here. I see spider webs. “
“I think an owl lives in that hole.”
“A squirrel’s home.”
“A bird is in the hole.”
“Maybe this hole goes to that hole. Animals can go out there.”
“A worm! I see a worm!”
Literacy Week
We had a fun literacy week! Our new principal, Ms. Ashton, read us a story, teachers changed classrooms to read their favourite children’s book, we read in the dark with flashlights and we had a book cover parade! A very special guest also read us a story. Mr. Lee surprised all the kids with a pre-recorded video of him reading a story to the whole school!
Hope everyone enjoyed Literacy Week! Thank you parents for participating in the Family Bingo!
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.
Kindness
Last week was an exciting week! We moved into our new classroom and we are loving our new learning and playing space. It was also kindness week! To show our friends how much we appreciate them, we brainstormed kind words to describe our friends. We also drew a portrait of our friends. Look at all the details and effort we put in to show our friends how much we like them!
Leaf Man
The story Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert is about the Leaf Man drifting around and it visited many places and saw a lot of animals. We don’t know where the Leaf Man is going because it goes where the wind blows. After reading the story, we created our own Leaf Man. As the children were building, we heard some interesting stories of where their Leaf Man has gone and what they have seen! A few leaf men went to the beach, some went to Parkcrest school, one went to the states and another one went to a pond. These leaf men can be anywhere! Look around next time when the wind is blowing. You might see a Leaf Man drifting by.