How strong is an egg?

We discussed how fragile eggs are. To test our theory, we took half egg shells, turned them so that the ends were pointed upwards. Then we began piling books on the egg shells. Each student was asked to predict how many books the 4 egg shells would hold.

We continued to pile books on, listening for the crack of the egg shell each time.  We kept track of how many books by recording with tally marks. 

We discovered that these eggshells that we thought were so fragile were able to hold a whopping 37 books before one of the egg shells began to crack!!!

At project time, many of the students continued to investigate this experiment on their own.

Eventually, someone got the idea to use blocks instead of books as a weight. 

Even then, the eggshells were able to support 12 blocks on top! Maybe eggs aren't so fragile after all!

Lost Toys

Please remember that we have an abundance of toys and items purposefully selected for the students to play with while at school.  Recently, more and more students are bringing toys or cards to class.  We have had regular incidents of tears when toys are misplaced, stolen, taken, lost, or broken. As a result, we continually tell our students not to bring personal items to school.  We would appreciate your assistance in ensuring your child is not disappointed and their toys remain at home.  Of course, this excludes the toys brought for outdoor play, as requested by Madame Wilson in her blog.

You spin me right round!

We have been playing with a lot of tops lately. The students are timing how long the tops will stay spinning, what the designs on the top look like when spinning, and the technique that is used that makes the tops spin best. 

We decided to bring that spinning motion to the paint centre. We brought our salad spinners and the students put drops of runny paint on paper inside the spinner. Once the students spun the salad spinners, the force had spread the paint, resulting in amazing artwork. 

If you have any spinning tops at home that you are no longer using, or wouldn't mind lending to us, please feel free to send in so that we can investigate further. 

Liquids and solids

We had 2 eggs in the classroom, one hard boiled, the other raw. I told the class, I wanted to enjoy the cooked one on my lunch, but could not recall which one was which. Each student had the opportunity to touch, roll, smell, listen to, and pick up the 2 eggs in an effort to figure out which was which. Accordingly, they made a prediction.

We discussed th consistency of a raw egg and the cooked egg, introducing the concept of liquids and solids. We then had to simulate a raw egg and cooked egg by using the plastic Easter eggs. In one we filled it with water and a small ball, the other, we tried to fill full of sand. When we tried to spin each egg we discovered that the sand filled one rotated quickly and for a long time. The one filled with water "sloshed" around and didn't rotate well.

We transferred this knowledge to the real eggs, concluding that the cooked egg was a solid, and the raw egg was a liquid. Once we spun the real eggs, we were quickly able to tell which was which!

Alphabet

We practice letter sounds on a regular basis. I use aspects of the Jolly Phonics program which uses both sounds and actions to represent each letter sound. Then, it is very easy prompt the memory of a student when they know the sound, but can't recall the letter ( or vice versa). I have attached photos of all the letters and the corresponding sounds and actions. Should you want this in hard copy to practice at home, please let me know, and I will happily do so, we practice this daily in the English classroom. 

Sight Words

We regularly practice sight words. It is important for young readers to have a list of words that they recognize upon sight, and that helps them as they begin writing. We have a variety of little rhymes and movements that help the students to learn and remember the words. Sometimes these words aren't necessarily phonetic, so recalling these words through movement can be helpful for some-especially those kinaesthetic learners.

We have taken photos of some children as they say these rhymes, however, it is hard to photograph the movements and songs. Hopefully, these can serve as a reference and your child can show you how the rhymes go.

The word "go".

The word "is".

The word "my".

Stay tuned as we post more words.

Not all rooves are created equal!

As mentioned in another blog entry, the students had been very interested in creating ramps, and then posed questions as to why rooves  were built flat as opposed to slanted or angled. One student decided to put his ideas to the test, creating 2 model houses with different roof types, one flat, and one peaked. He worked on these over several days. Upon completion of the 2 homes, he tested them today by pouring snow over each roof. Before doing so, we discussed with the entire class what we thought might happen. Some interesting information was discussed. 

Some students had noticed that he put on wax paper on his roof and he described that he needed to do so so that his cardboard roof would not get "mushy".

Another student explained that on the flat roof, when the snow melted into water, it could find it's way through the roof in tiny, teeny holes, and make the roof leak-just has happened in our gym!

Another student mentioned that although his roof was "slanted", his dad still had to go up and shovel it off, and he wondered why?  They listened to one another, and agreed that maybe it was because his roof was bumpy and not smooth!

What a valuable lesson in building, ramps and engineering!!

We may show our findings to our custodian!!!

Missing Shoes

Many students brought their shoes home for the break to check to and see if they fit.  Quite a few students forgot to return them today.  As a result, they needed to wear their winter boots all day in class.  If your child still has his or her indoor shoes at home, please remind them to return them to school tomorrow.  Thank you.

Pancakes anyone?

The last day before March Break began with a very exciting, fun-filled concert by Yaki. After, the blue group began preparations for our pancake making. We started by surveying the green group to find out if they liked blueberries in their pancakes. 

We tabulated the results and created tally charts and graphs that showed most people liked blueberries.

We were very excited to create and deliver an invitation for Mr. Thompson to join in our festivities.

We then began measuring and mixing the ingredients. 

Everyone had a small role to play!

Purple pancakes!!!!  Finally, the best part, tasting our creations...complete with strawberries, breakfast sausage and real maple syrup!

Licking the plate...it was sooo good!

We also served our friends in the green class some pancakes. Special thank you to Mrs Murray who assisted us for the afternoon. We couldn't have done it without you!

Calling all Builders

For quite some time now, the blue group has been investigating the nature of ramps, and rolling items down them, exploring how the height of the ramp impacts the travel of the items rolling.  We were discussing the leaking gym roof today with the green group and someone spoke up and asked why wasn't the roof of the school made on a slope (not quite the words they used), so that the water could roll off it.  We then read some books which inspired some of our young thinkers.  One of the boys then decided to build a model of a home from cardboard and see if the water ran off the roof. 

We would love it if we could have a guest come to our classes and speak about rooves, or ramps.  Any builders, architects or engineers out there who might be willing to come in to the class and share some expertise? Please let me know if you would be interested or know someone who might.

Prepare for lift off!

Today the green group met up with their grade 4 reading buddies to launch to rockets that they created last week. For fuel, we had a choice of Coke and Mentos, or Alka seltzer and water. After trying both fuel sources, we discovered that the alka seltzer tablet worked far better, allowing some of the rockets to launch quite high. Although we had discussed what attributes might make a good rocket (an aerodynamic tip, wings, etc), it seemed as if the simplest rockets worked best.

The tablet has mixed with the water, creating a chemical reaction, forcing the rocket into the air as the tablet starts fizzing.