-Monday is our spelling test.
-Tuesday - I would love a volunteer in the afternoon to help us water-colour paint in art. Let me know if you are available.
-Wednesday is early dismissal.
-Thursday is the Family Dance and Cake Walk.
-Friday is PD Day so there is no school.
-Skating is all done for the school year.
Language Arts: Tying our L.A., Science and Social Studies topics together, we have been studying the polar bear. The polar bear is an endangered species that is very good at adapting to extreme cold temperatures. Furthermore, it is an important cultural symbol of the Inuit people. We have been researching polar bears by reading about them and even taking part in a live streamed online conference on the International Day of the Polar Bear on Friday. The conference was aimed at elementary students and was led by young researchers who work front line with the bears near Churchill, Manitoba.
Exploring multiple means of representation, students began to demonstrate their learning by creating comic strips about polar bears using an online program called Storyboard That. It can be accessed under the Language Arts link above. Students know their passwords if you want to see what your child has created so far.
Last week we explored another way to share our thoughts and writing by using Kidblog. Students wrote a short paragraph about whether if given the choice, they would choose to fly or become invisible and why. They could then read each other's writing and comment on them. We used this as an opportunity to start talking about positive comments and constructive criticism. This time they were just getting used to the new format. Next time we will discuss what positive constructive comments sound like. This is an important skill topic that you too can discuss with your child to help them develop positive digital citizenship.
Math: The class decided that it would be a good idea to extend our unit an extra week and revisit the different strategies we can use to solve problems. Ask your child what their favourite strategy is and write it in their agendas so they get a prize. We not only reviewed the strategies but also brainstormed a list of words to look for when reading story problems that give us hints on whether we should add or subtract. This week we are going to write our own story problems and then create them for each other to solve using Kidblog again.
Social Studies: Continuing on our exploration of the Inuit culture, we made our own Iyaga toys which is a traditional Inuit toy usually made from animal bones. (We used chopsticks and toilet paper.) We also listened to and tried Inuit throat singing. The feedback from the kids was, "That was...umm...interesting."
We spontaneously started exploring the Acadian culture too by taking advantage of the snow falling outside to make snow pancakes. They were delicious. Thank you Mr. Wagner for helping out with that at the last minute. We are going to wrap up our polar bear projects before we continue with our Acadian study so we can give it better focus at that time.
Here is the pancake recipe we used: http://www.granny-miller.com/snow-pancakes/
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