Once Upon a School Day: April 2018

Wednesday, 25 April 2018

Making a Joyful Noise!

Today our room was filled with joyful noise!

We arrived to 9 sweet little babies who had hatched in our incubator!

Our kind-hearted parent helper, Mrs. Junck, who is guiding us on our hatching journey, popped in to share in our joy and excitement! We had a "chick party" and we played several games together!

Then Mrs. Junck helped us prepare a box of shavings, food, water, and a heat bulb for when the chicks are dry. Two fluffy little ones moved in this morning!

While some students spent time taking in the new life, others tackled the illustrations for a rhyming booklet called "5 Little Chicks". The chicks in our illustrations are made from torn construction paper. The creative juices were flowing and our budding readers are so engaged!

Tomorrow will certainly be filled with many soft fluffy cuddles!

Friday, 20 April 2018

It's Alive!

We are tackling our Needs of Plants and Animals Unit! This week we are focussing on what it means for something to be living.

We brainstormed ideas about what makes something living. Then we thought about something we knew for sure was living, such as a dog, and crossed off ideas on our list that didn't fit with what we knew about dogs. We also did this for other things we knew for sure were living, including a plant!

To reinforce what makes something living, we enjoyed a clip from our pal on Sesame Street:

Then we studied a few examples using our criteria for what makes something alive:

Partnered with our grade 5 buddies, the boys and girls began working on a digital presentation to share their learning! Using Google Slides, the students shared examples of living and non-living.

To conclude our week examining living and non-living, students tackled an an up-close, hands-on observation! Thrilled beyond measure, our scientists compared gummy worms and earthworms. We were able to see many examples that demonstrated that the earthworms are indeed living and gummy worms are non-living:

Now let's hunt for examples of living and non-living things with a photo hunt at home!

First, give your child a camera (your phone would be perfect!). Have him or her take some pictures of things that are living and non-living.

Then, to share your photo(s) and/or comment on our "wall":

(a) Double click on our Living and Non-Living wall below

(b) A box will appear. Type in a comment. Upload a picture. Ta da!

(c) Marvel at our learning!

(or just email me your photos/captions and I'll make it happen)

Thank you for not mentioning names as well as any other identifying information.

We will check this wall daily next week to see the pictures that we all post!

Friday, 13 April 2018

The Cross is Love

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."

We are learning about the Easter Story, and have focused on a very important symbol in our faith; the cross. Jesus suffered and died on the cross for each one of us. The cross is a powerful symbol that reminds us how much God loves us.

Father Joe visited us this week, action bible in hand, to share the story of Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection.

Using pastels, we created beautiful crosses, reminding us of our risen Lord.

We loved getting our fingers dirty as we smudged the pastels!

Then we tackled a special, yet challenging activity with some very helpful junior high students. We created beautiful burned matchstick crosses. Don't worry, the matches we worked with were already lit, cooled and very safe to touch, of course! We patiently counted out matches, glued, and checked and re-checked the intricate pattern. This took lots of patience and collaboration!