Category: Science

September and October

 

The Kindergarten year is off to a busy start! We have been learning, playing and establishing our classroom routines.  It has been great to see friendships forming among the children as they get to know each other! Here’s a little glimpse of what we have been doing.

 

 

Learning to recognize and write our name

 

We learned Terry Fox is a Canadian hero who raised millions of dollars for cancer research through his Marathon of Hope event.  Our class participated in the event by running around our field and raising money for cancer research.

 

For Truth and Reconciliation Day, we learned the day honours the children who never returned home and survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities.  We also learned a Powwow dance and saw a Powwow performance.

 

Playing with numbers 0-10

 

Learning about pumpkins

 

Ask your child to share their Leaf Man story with you.

 

We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch! Ask your child to share their favourite part of the field trip with you.

 

 

 

We had a great time celebrating Halloween together! Thank you for all the yummy treats!

 

Jack-o-lantern art

 

Halloween Stations

 

What will happened to Candy Corn when we put them in hot water, vinegar and Bubly?  Ask your child about the candy corn experiment.

 

 

 

All About Plants

Our kindergarten class has recently been learning about plants. We have been learning all about the different parts of a plant, how they grow, and the importance of plants in our world.  We had such wonderful time exploring and discovering the wonders of nature!

We can plant flowers!

We can draw flowers!

We can make an observational drawing and make predictions!

We can examine different seeds and match the seed to their fruit/vegetable!

We can take care of our plants!

We can tell you the life cycle of a plant!

We can tell you the name of plant parts!

Quails

Division 10, 11 and 12 have been learning about quails! We learned baby quails are called chicks.  We also learned about the basic features of quails and their life cycle.

Fun fact: In the wild, the female quail lays the eggs and the male bird sits on them to keep them warm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We named the chicks Rose, Blossom, Tulip, Sunflower, Petals and Daisy.

February

Division 12 had a busy month learning, playing and exploring! Here’s a little glimpse of what we did in February…

Reading in the Dark

 

Over and under the Snow- In Story Workshop, we created our own Over and Under the Snow stories.  Please ask your child to tell you their story.

 

We went on a nature walk to look for homes animals could hibernate in during the winter.

 

We made birdfeeders for animals that adapt to the weather in the winter.

 

We went to our forest to look for animal tracks.

 

Valentine’s Day Fun!

 

“I Am From”- we each wrote a poem about things, places and words that are important to us. Some of us shared our poem to the Parkcrest community at our Celebration of Learning assembly.

Vancouver Aquarium Field Trip

We had an exciting field trip to the Vancouver Aquarium! The weather was sunny and the air was cool and crisp. We saw many amazing sea animals, including sea otters, a 9 metre long Green Anaconda snake, stingrays, sharks, glowing jellyfish, and even Scuba Claus in the water!

Vancouver Aquarium

After the trip, we took a few days to discuss and reflect on our experiences. Students had opportunities to share some of their favorite memories. We drew pictures and wrote in our journals, and created a web of favorite moments. The web became our brainstorm for the upcoming school-wide write.

Here are a few favourite memories that came up during discussions:

“the sea otters playing with us and floating around”
“watching the seals eating”
“the little baby sharks”
“the jellyfish was glowing”
“some stingrays”
“I touch the starfish”
“a monkey in the rainforest”
“tiny poisonous frogs”
“a giant enormous snake”
“the hot chocolate smell from the Polar Express” (this was part of the 4D experience theatre!)
“the ride on the bus”
“Scuba Clause was in the water!”

When asked if the children would visit the aquarium again, they all said, “Yes!”

 

It was wonderful to see the children connect with marine life, and continue to develop a growing appreciation for animals and our environment. Please continue to ask your children questions about what they have discovered.

Finally, a huge shoutout to parents who joined us and helped to supervise the children – thank you!

Apples!

Our class has been learning about apples this term! Here are some highlights from our apple exploration.

 

We used our sense of smell, sight, touch and hearing to explore the apple trees in our park.

“The bug is eating the apple!”

“Ew! The apple smells bad!”

“This one is rotten.”

“The tree is bumpy.”

“I hear something inside!”

“I hear nothing.”

 

We used our sense of taste to find out which apple is our favourite – red, yellow or green.

“The red one is crunchy and hard.”

“The Green one is very sour!”

“The yellow is really good!”

We found out most people like the red apple! It’s a tie for the green apple and the yellow apple.

 

We did an experiment to see if the apple will sink or float.  The predictions were 10 for it will sink and 5 for it will float! We were pretty excited to see it float!

 

 

Making colour patterns with apples

 

 

Making art with yarn

Welcome to Division 12!

We had a wonderful start to the school year!  September was full of school events. In our classroom, we read stories and played games. We are learning how to write our names “the kindergarten way,” starting with an upper case letter followed by lower case letters.  We are learning routines and school procedures, and most importantly, we are having fun!