For the past two days students have been exploring the unknown bio-fact that introduced to them last week. Many wondered what it could possible be! On Monday students had the opportunity to open the artifact and explore its contents. As students pulled hair and bones apart new curiosities and inferences began to emerge. Students began to wonder what animals the owls would haven eaten. Inferences such as mice and rats began to swarm the class as students tried to put bones together. Today before we started to classify the bones, we sat back and created many questions that will help guide our exploration into the life cycle and habitat of owls. Questions like: How many feathers do owls have? How long do owls live for? What do owls eat? Some students worked towards level three questions like: Which type of owl is the strongest? and Why do scientists need to to study pellets? Ask your student what a level 1 question, level 2 question and a level 3 question may be. We hope to ask our special guest tomorrow some of these amazing questions. After brainstorming the questions, students were given instructions to clean up the bones and start to sort the bones. They are to determine what mammal the owl may have eaten. Each group took this task of sorting differently. Some tried to match their bones to the chart that was given, others put skulls together, ribs together, vertebrates together, where as others just cleaned the bones and will sort tomorrow. We will soon find out what some of these mammals could be. Tomorrow we will be honouring PINK SHIRT DAY. Students are welcome to wear a pink shirt tomorrow but are not expected to. Students are encouraged to go out of there way to spark friendships, positive conversations, and invitations to new friendships. We had a deep conversation today speaking to what it mean to be supportful of our friends and others around us. We asked each other is we should be Julians, Jack WIlls or Summers. (Ask your student what that may mean).
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Yesterday students were given an artifact that to explore. This artifact was something new that some students had never seen before. Using a graphic organizer (Frayer Model) students had to understand the difference between an inference and and an observation. Through their observations of size, circumference, weight, appearance, and smell, students recorded the data and created inferences of what the artifact might be. Students were able to identify that the artifact was brown, squishy, bumpy, some small hard things inside, grass, hair and seeds. Students also measured the weight and found out some of the artifacts were 7g, 4g and 5g. Based on some of the observations students gathered, students made the inference that the artifact may be animal poop, a handful of mud and possibly an owl pellet. They continued to make inferences that there may be bones inside the artifact and they may have seen teeth. Ask your child what they think the artifact may be? Ask what the difference between an observation and an inference is as well as the difference between qualitative data and quantitative data. Reminders:
Students will be going to Fish Creek on Friday March 2. We have modified the time at the field study to be mindful of the weather. Students are still expected to dress for the weather and expect to be outside for up to 2 hours. Please send in field study forms. This field study will be more successful the more volunteers we have. If you are available, please let me know. The smaller the groups the easier it will be to provide feedback to the students. Students were sent home their bridge tests. Please take a moment to review the questions with them and then send the test back to the school signed. All presentations have been completed as every student signs a sign of relief. I was very proud of how brave all groups were when sharing their information on each type of bridge. During this experience students learned the importance of listening so they could ask good questions where information was not previously shared nor another student asked the same question. In addition, students recognized the importance of sharing only true information and it was okay to say "I don't know" or "I think I need to find out more information about that" or "that was not the direction our group decided to go".
We will be beginning our next inquiry in a couple of days. This will be a multi-disciplinary inquiry where we will combine the photographer in residence, science, social and narrative writing all together. Parents will be able to see some of the work during the Spring Gala! Field study forms were sent home today. This field study will be taking part outside where students will be using the information they learned from Mr. W and taking on the role of a nature photographer. Students will be placed in small groups to explore Bebo Grove in Fish Creek Park. If you are interested in volunteering for this field experience, please contact me or Ms. Ramsey and we will send you a confirmation email. The more volunteer we have the smaller the groups can be. This week is going to go by very quickly for some students being only 3 days of school. Students started (some completed) a written test on bridges this afternoon. I will have a peek at them over the long weekend and send them home for a signature so parents can be informed. We have 3 more presentations to complete this week so hopefully we can begin our next inquiry early next week.
Students have been asking about Valentines on Wednesday. I have allocated 30 minutes at the end of the day for students to exchange Valentines with each other. This is voluntary. Students do not have to participate by handing out Valentines, however as a class we spoke about kindness and acceptance when others give them to you. If students choose to hand out valentines to each other, please help by ensuring there is one for each student. Reminders no school Thursday, Friday and Monday. Six groups of students have had the opportunity to share their learning with their classmates. The questions and vocabulary that has been brought forward by the students has me astonished. For example . . .
"I noticed your bridge does not match your plan. Why is that?" - Isla "Why are some of the diamonds/triangles below and above the deck?" (referring to a cantilever bridge) - Sadie "Why does your bridge exist?" (rephrased to what is the purpose of your bridge?" - Ali "What is the maximum span of your bridge?" - Zoie "I wonder why the the truss bridge by my old house has a different shape on top?" - Isla Answers were always given, some were incorrect and some were on the right track, but needed refining. During the class discussion we shared that it is important that we do not give misinformation, but rather say "I don't know . . . that is a good question I need to get more information . . . . I think _______, but I would need need to find out for sure." The grade 4's have been invited to watch the students at RT Alderman perform their Musical. We will be walking across the field tomorrow morning. Students will need to wear appropriate clothing for the short walk. During this time the grade 3's will be preparing for their bridge presentations, working on mathletics practicing multiplication and division. Today was an unusually busy day with swimming intertwined with the daily activities. This threw a lot of students out with the daily routines being reorganized and shuffled to meet the new schedule. In addition, having a sub for three days last week means spending some time understanding what was completed and next steps for our week.
Tomorrow students will be starting their mini-group presentations sharing their new found knowledge about bridges. Students have had the past 3 days with a sub to prepared for this as well as an additional 30 minutes today after clarification of expectations was shared with students. I believe that many students thought the presentations would be bigger than what I expect so hopefully i was able to ease some anxiety for the students. Basically I want students to share everything they have learned about their specific bridge, the trials and testing they did when creating their prototypes and be able to answer some of the questions posed by peers. Because this is a group effort, I am also looking for shared responsibility where one person is not sharing everything and students work together to get their message across. Swimming - I have asked students to wear their bathing suits to school tomorrow to see if this helps with times in the change rooms. We found that students took a long times to change out of their clothes into their suits prior to the lessons. Because I suggested that students wear their suits in the morning (we leave at 9:45) to remember to bring their underwear wrapped in their towel for afterward. We will see if this helps gets students ready, and in the pool faster to make the most of our time at the pool. |