Song of the Week: May 6

Scientists in the School: Marvellous Machines Workshop

Both the morning and afternoon classes had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a Scientist in the School workshop. A "scientist" and special guest came into our classroom and led a program with the children that focused on all of the marvellous or simple machines that help make our work easier.

These are the simple machines the scientist focused on with the children.

The children learned about the usefulness of inclined planes by racing objects down them as they were positioned at different angles.

The children learned about gears by creating bubbles using an egg beater. It was much easier than mixing with a spoon!

More gear exploration. When you move one gear, all of the gears move!

The scientist works with the children to help them understand the importance of axels and wheels.

If it has an edge, it's a wedge. The children explored wedges, such as nails, pizza cutters, zippers and shovels. 

At home: Simple machines are found everywhere! Work with your child to locate simple machines in your home and talk about why they make our lives easier.

Song of the Week: April 22

Our Trip to the Valley

Both the morning and afternoon classes had the exciting opportunity to visit our local valley alongside the Grade 3 and Grade 4 children. The older children acted as guides, as they regularly have their outdoor education classes down in the valley and know the area well.

The weather cooperated and the morning class had a wonderful time exploring the valley with the older children and on our own. The afternoon class was not as fortunate! Despite this, the children made the best of their situation and had a great time splashing around in the rain.

Walking along the ridgeway path. This offered an amazing view of the surrounding area,  highways and C.N. Tower.

Here, we are inside a tree-branch shelter built and cared for by the outdoor education classes.

Looking at the river below and a couple of swimming ducks. 

The morning class explore a hidden trail and found some workers removing logs from the river. 

Walking up the huge hill with the afternoon children.

The afternoon children on their way down the stone path to the shelter. 

The Green Grass Grows All Around

Here is a fun Youtube video of The Green Grass Grows All Around from Barney.

Song of the Week: April 8

The Death of an Ant: geometry for real life

While tidying up, the afternoon class accidentally squished an ant. The children were so upset by what had happened that they decided to create a funeral for the ant to let it know that they were sorry. It was decided that we would bury it outside and that we needed a stop sign so no one would step on it and a box to put it in. In creating these items, the children demonstrated their growing understandings of shapes and spatial sense. 

                                         the stop sign

"I was making an octagon with a ruler to make sure the sides were the same length." 

"We were making a stop sign. We were cutting the paper." 

"I was counting the vertices and then I was counting the sides to make sure it was an octagon." 

                                                                          the box

"I cutting a paper square. 6 squares because it's a cube."

"I making the box. A cube. Squares. I drawing the squares. A cube because it's squares." 

"I done my box. I put squares."

The children and I buried the ant using leaves from our classroom and put up the stop sign and a sign letting everyone know that we had buried our ant on this spot.