Penguin Research

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We have been doing research on a variety of (six) penguins with Mrs. Anstee, our librarian.  We began as a whole class learning about the Adelie penguin.  We then divided into 5 groups of 4 students to work on a different penguin (as a group) each week.  These penguins are: the Gentoo, the Galapagos, the Rockhopper, the Little Fairy, and the Chinstrap.  We have two weeks left in our research timeline.  Each week the students have completed a booklet on one of these penguins.

In addition to this research we have created a height chart (with the penguins and the students recorded on it).

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Students have enjoyed doing their research and learning about penguins.

Welcome to Pringle, the Penguin!

In January we had a delivery from the Antarctica.  It was a penguin (named Pringle), the novel Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and a letter from Admiral Drake – a character from the novel.  We have been reading this novel over the past few weeks and we will finish it up this week.  Pringle has been making home visits with students in the classroom.  The students have been making journal entries about their experiences with Pringle.  Each morning the students read these journal entries to the class and share their pictures.  Pringle has also been adorned with a variety of necklaces, bracelets, and ribbons as a result of these visits.

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Mobile Dairy Classroom

On January 16th we were lucky to have a visit from the Mobile Dairy Classroom.  A huge trailer came onto our school grounds with a mother dairy cow and her baby calf.  Students learned what cows eat, how they have 4 stomachs to digest their food, and how they produce milk.  They saw the cow being milked by the milking machine and saw the calf being feed this milk via a baby bottle.

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It was a very enjoyable and educational experience for all of us.

Christmas Clay Project


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We had a great time working with clay for our Christmas presents to our families.  Students began with the raw clay which they formed around a wooden doweling (forming the hollow centre necessary for the firing process).  The grade ones created snow people and the grade twos created gingerbread people, as they had made snow people last year in my class.  They created the bodies in three sections and then made the hats. These needed to dry for almost a week before they could be put into the kiln.

After they had been fired the students glazed them and then they were re-fired.  Students then decorated their people and they were ready to be wrapped to be given as gifts.  I hope you all enjoyed them!!

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The Next Few Weeks …

It is hard to believe that we are only a week away from December 1st and then a short time until our Christmas vacation!!!  Here is a bit of an update:

This week we will be finishing up our study of bats.  Students have learned a fair bit about these interesting mammals.

Beginning next Monday we will be doing more seasonally themed activities. We have completed the initial stage of our clay projects, which will be the students’ surprise for you for Christmas.  They have done a very nice job so far and are looking forward to the next two stages of this fun project.  They are supposed to keep the finished product as a secret for you.  I hope that you like how they turn out.

Tomorrow I will be sending home the December Scholastic order forms. There is a note attached that gives some information on how you can make some of these books a part of a Christmas present for your child, if you so choose.

Our class is going to the Nutcracker Ballet on Thursday, December 4th. We are going with our buddy class (Division 2) and the grade 7’s.  The cost is only $5.00 as part of the cost is being subsidized by our PAC field trip money.  We will be travelling via school bus and will be gone for the morning and back by lunchtime.

We are also looking into going to Burnaby Heritage Village Museum during the second week of December.  I will let you know shortly once the plans are finalized.  The cost for this trip will be $8.50 and includes a trip on the carousel.  We will be needing parent drivers for this trip.

Mr. Olson has been working with all classes in preparation for our Christmas Concert.  This will be on Wednesday, December 17th with two shows; one at 1 p.m. and the other at 7 p.m.  You are asked to bring non-perishable foods, to be donated to the Food Bank, as your entrance fee.

During that last week before the Christmas break Mrs. Anstee will be holding a Scholastic Book Fair in the Library.  It will be open at lunch time and after school.  It will also be open before the evening concert.

I will be doing Gingerbread House building with my class – probably during that last week of school.  A notice will be coming home to let you know what is needed for this fun, and yummy, project.

If you have any questions, please email me or speak to me after class.

Thanks for your continuing support.

Mrs. Temple

 

Pattern Play

We have been exploring different patterns during our Math sessions this past two weeks.  [We also ‘do’ patterns every day during our Calendar time with both the daily picture pattern and the weather graph.]

Today students had fun creating their own patterns using some of our math materials in the classroom.  Check them out …

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Intermediate Colours

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During Art on Friday we reviewed colour theory and discussed the primary colours – red, blue, and yellow.  We used plastic coloured palettes to show how by putting two primary colours together that they made an intermediate colour. We put red and yellow together to make orange; blue and red together to make purple; and blue and yellow together to make green.

Students then created a tesselation in black marker on their paper.  They filled in all the spaces by using wax crayons. The instructions were to only use the three primary colours, but they were expected to create the intermediate colours from those three primaries.

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Students found it quite easy to create green and orange; purple was more challenging.  The students worked very well on this project and the end results are very impressive.

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