Category: Science

Jellyfish with our Big Buddies

Inspired by the origami jellyfish we saw at the Vancouver Aquarium, created by a local artist, we decided to create our own jellyfish. Thanks to our grade 4/5 big buddies from Mr. Boulanger’s class, as well as Ms. Mitchell, for helping us with this fun craft!

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The kindergarten students had many unique questions about jellyfish!  We learned that jellyfish or jellies live in all the oceans.  A jellyfish is an invertebrate made mostly of water.  It has no heart, brain or bones.  But it does have millions of stinging cells in their tentacles.  When the tentacles capture food, toxin is injected into the prey.  A jellyfish can sting you!

our jellyfish
 

Vancouver Aquarium

What a fun day it was!  The children arrived at the Aquarium with wonder and curiosity about the world of sea animals.  We saw sea lions, frogs, salamanders, turtles, jellyfish, and more.  We saw playful sea otters, jumping dolphins, and African penguins shorter than us.  At the Discover Rays pool, children were able to touch the stingrays who glided just beneath the water’s surface.  Some of the children were shocked by their moving chair and sprays of water during the 4D movie, Coastal Predators.

We are scientists who observed, questioned, analyzed, and discussed what we saw.  The children left the aquarium tired (and many of them napped on the ride home), but inspired to learn and care for our environment.  Over the next few weeks, we will continue to discuss our observations and study about animals that live under the sea.

 Thank you to all the parent volunteers for coming with us!
 
 
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 For more information, visit the Vancouver Aquarium. 

Hatching soon

We have been reading lots of stories about chickens and other oviparous animals.  We have been visiting Ms. Gourlay’s classroom every few days to observe the eggs in the incubator.  Sometimes Ms. Gourlay reads a story to both of our classes.  Today, she read a funny one titled, “Chicks and Salsa” – the chickens get tired of the same old chicken feed and decide to try some new foods!  Soon, all the animals decide to plan for a fiesta with chips and salsa!  After the story, we ALL got to try some chips and salsa!  Some kids were trying chips and salsa for the very first time.

“It was the best!” H.S.

“It was salty, but I still like it.” A.L.

“It was a little bit spicy, but I liked it!” K.S.

“I loved it!” E.Y.

“It was a tiny bit good…” A.O.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to the story on video –> Chicks and Salsa video

We look through a special scope that allows us to see inside the egg!  Then we draw and write about our observations in our booklets.  The eggs are due to hatch any day now…

What’s Hatching?

Division 7 and 8 are studying a new theme this month. We are little scientists and we are learning about oviparous animals. Last week, three eggs arrived at our school. We will get to see how these eggs hatch!  The eggs are slightly larger than the ones we usually eat at home. They will take approximately three weeks to hatch.  The eggs are safely stored in an incubator in Ms. Gourlay’s classroom.  We will visit them every 2-3 days to make an observation about the eggs and write down some notes in our observation booklets, as scientists do.

eggs in the incubator

Ms. Gourlay and I are keeping it a secret.  What animal do you think is inside?  “Hopefully not a dinosaur,” said a kindergarten student.

Spring flowers!

We painted the backgrounds and experimented with changing paint colours. We added white or black to make a colour lighter or darker, and mixed some colours together to make new colours. Then we made flowers and added them to our paintings.

Let’s hope these flowers bring on some warmer weather ahead!  These are now on our bulletin board in the hallway.