Our Backyard Bugs workshop presented by the Scientists in the School program was a huge success! The children had a blast being entomologists.
Thank you to all of our parent volunteers for making this fabulous learning opportunity possible!
The children were able to meet the insect family and discover their unique anatomy while developing a new appreciation of bugs by investigating how bugs behave, eat, see and hear.
We learned that insects have three body parts (a head, thorax and abdomen) and six legs.
We created insects of our very own!
We helped butterflies play hide and seek using camouflage and learned what it means to be symmetrical.
These are just a few of the activities presented to us by our scientist. The children and I have been inspired to look at bugs in a different light and will continue to explore the wonderful world of insects for the remainder of the school year.
At home: Search for insects around your home and neighbourhood and bring them to school as a specimen study.
The children pretended they were math detectives and used ten frames showing numbers from 1 to 10 as their clues. Their task was to figure out the fastest way to move from one number to the next. They were given a number card and asked to show this number on their blank ten frame.
Then, they were given a different number card and asked to show this new number on their ten frame. The key was not to completely clear their frame, but to add dots (to move from 6 to 10, for example,) or subtract dots (to move from 8 to 3, for example).
At home: Create your own ten frame by dividing a piece of paper into ten boxes. You can use circles cut out of construction paper as your counters, or any set of ten objects (e.g. beads, beans, cotton balls)
We are fortunate to play host to one of our school's SMART Boards. You have probably noticed the new large white screen in our classroom and this SMART Board is like a cross between a white board and a computer with many more neat features. The children and I are enjoying playing and watching educational games and videos on sites like http://www.abcya.com/ and http://www.sesamestreet.org/.
These are sites you can visit on your home or library computer, as well.
We have begun studying the art of the author and illustrator Leo Lionni. The children have become familiar with his stories and discussing the ways in which he creates his illustrations. One of the ways Leo Lionni illustrates is by using watercolour paints and the children are enjoying experimenting with their own watercolour paintings and designs.
Here are some books by Leo Lionni that you might want to look for at the public library:
After saying goodbye to a successful unit on water, we are now moving onto an exploration of another natural element, soil. As a jumping off experience, we decided to grow grass in soil, in our classroom.
First, we spread grass seed (rather generously!) over soil in a wooden planter and covered it up.
After about a week, and a good amount of watering by the children, we began to see grass emerging from the soil.
Later that week, we were very excited to see how much the grass had grown!
