with Ms. Lai & Ms. Loungsay
Since it did not snow as expected, we decided to make our own snow in the classroom!
We used shaving cream and white liquid glue. The students used their fingers to make snowballs and then they each made a snowman!
We have been learning about apples this term. Here are some photos from our apple tasting experiment in October. Students sampled three varieties of apples – red (Royal Gala), yellow (Golden Delicious) and green (Granny Smith). Students chose which color apple they liked best. We created this graph below. For some fun photos of your child eating the apples, please log into your child’s Blogfolio.
Last week, the pumpkin patch came to our school! Each student chose a pumpkin to take home.
In class, we read stories about pumpkins, including the story, The Very Best Pumpkin, by Mark Kimball Moulton. We discussed how pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes.
On our first nature walk, we explored signs of fall. We read a story called “Wonderfall”. The story follows a single tree through the changing seasons. While we were reading the story, we noticed the tree drops acorns, loses leaves and provides food and a home for a pair of squirrels. Before heading out to explore fall, we brainstormed what we might find using one of our senses, sight. We predicted that we might see leaves changing colours, leaves falling, acorns, apples, caterpillars, squirrels, people wearing jackets and scarves, wind, the sun, and clouds. During our nature walk, the first thing we discovered were falling leaves. We also found a caterpillar on an abandoned frisbee! We didn’t see any squirrels gathering acorns, but we did find some apples under an apple tree.
On our second nature walk, we gathered leaves and decided to sort them by colours to make it easier to see what we had found. We identified the colours we needed and placed coloured construction paper mats in brown, red, green, orange and yellow on the floor. Then we sorted! Stay tuned for our next post. We will be creating our own fall colour!
We also made patterns on our nature walk too!
We have been learning about chicks and oviparous animals (e.g. animals that lay eggs) this term. With Ms. Gourlay’s class, we hatched some eggs! We had three eggs in an incubator and we looked through a special scope that allows us to see inside the egg. Students completed a Science journal, where they made predictions and recorded their observations.
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Photos of individual students will be uploaded to their blogfolios for Term 3.
We have been learning about polar bears with Ms. Gourlay’s K/1 class. We learned that polar bears are the biggest carnivores on land. Polar bears have 3 to 4 inches of blubber (fat) underneath their skin – this helps to keep them warm, and increases their buoyancy when they swim in the icy water.
This is the experiment we did. In one hand, students held an ice cube. In the other hand, they held 4 inches of fat (shortening) with an ice cube on top, like a polar bear! Which hand was warmer?
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We also learned that polar bears only appear to be white, when in fact, their fur is transparent. Their skin is actually black! Black helps to absorb the heat of the sun, which keeps them warm. Placing their hands on the black and white bear cut-outs, students were asked, which color felt warmer?
Please see your child’s blogfolio for individual photos of the ice cube experiment. Ask your child to tell you what they have discovered. We encourage parents to make comments in your child’s blogfolio posts, and you can also type out what your child says about polar bears.
Thanks to Ms. Gourlay for inviting us into her classroom!