Week 28: April 9–13, 2018
This week, the Grade 1-2s continued developing the framework of their original script for Junior Drama Night. They designed two characters each to help contribute to the overall cast options and by the end of the week, they had started to help map out the general plot of the play. Next week, we hope to work with the girls to narrow the cast list and continue filling out the plot. In math class, students continued to work with reading and calculating elapsed time. They worked in groups to pair analog and digital clock puzzle pieces together and were very vocal about how fun it was to be able to help read time at home and in the classroom. In CERES class, students started learning about habitats and imagining how the needs of a given living thing might dictate the habitat it needs. They even did some building to demonstrate their thinking. This week, we enjoyed hosting the after-school Math Mavens & Science Sisters event which gives our students the opportunity to share their space with family and community members as they explore math and science games together. We also celebrated a Linden Engineer's Day in All-School by working with our Linden families to complete a building challenge. During the challenge, the Grade 1-2s proudly took on the roles of project, mechanical, electrical, and structural engineers as they worked alongside older Linden girls. We are looking forward to enjoying another great field trip together next week as we visit the Toronto Symphony Orchestra!
The Grade 1-2s and Early Learners worked together to construct a "bus" out of chairs. They were very proud of their creation and asked that a photo be taken for inclusion in the blog.
In science class, students demonstrate their prior knowledge at the beginning of our life cycles unit by creating a diagram of a familiar animal or plant's life cycle. The subjects of the diagrams included dogs, cats, frogs, and butterflies.
M and M work together to pair analog and digital time puzzle pieces. They decided that sorting the pieces into analog and digital groups would help them with their pairing efforts.
In CERES class, students chose a toy animal and then used velcro shapes to create a home or habitat for the creature.
Z and M requested the opportunity to collaborate on a habitat for their stuffy. Collaborating on creative, open-ended tasks like this is especially challenging in terms of communication but these two worked together seamlessly.
K was very excited to make sweet potato fries in Cooking Club this week. She worked with an older student to chop sweet potatoes, so that she could take care of the cutting when the potato slice was large and her partner helped when the slice got a little smaller.
M works on a character design for our upcoming Junior Drama Night production. She designed a "caticorn" (a mythical cat-unicorn combination) who is a brave superhero.
S creates a character that is a pregnant pony going on a magical journey.
Z worked with K to design a habitat for a robot animal during CERES class. They think carefully about the ways in which their shelter can meet the animal's needs.
M has finished planning her habitat design with her partner and she begins building it using materials from the CERES lab.
Z and K work together to complete their analog-digital clock pairs. They plan ahead together to swap roles at each pairing so that one partner reads the analog clock and the other finds the digital pair. The two communicated so well throughout the task and were gleeful about their success at the end.
S and G celebrate finishing their clock pairings with an excited double high-five.
On Thursday, M asks if she can measure my belly to see how much the baby has grown. She remembers how to tell which side of the measuring tape is inches and which is centimetres by using the finger trick we learned in class.
M works with her Linden family on a structure that they have designed to lift a load (marble) 60cm in the air. M works on creating the bucket that will be lifted by the pulley.
G works with a Grade 10 student in her family to build a pulley system for Engineer's Day for our weekly All-School period.
K helps her Linden family attach a warning light to the top of their engineering structure to protect low-flying planes. She is excited to apply her recent learning about circuits to the task.
M presents the biography that her Linden family researched about the life of a famous female engineer. They even named their structure after her.
K, M, and Z work with Martha at our evening Math Mavens & Science Sisters event to construct hexaflexagons. They certainly involved a lot of folding!
M and Z work together to disassemble and explore the components of old electronics at our evening Math Mavens & Science Sisters event.
Z and G celebrate a break in the rain by incorporating their umbrellas into a spinning dance routine.
K is very proud of how quickly she can skip during recess. Look at that concentration face!
The Grade 1-2s often ask to work with the pentominoes in math class. It is great to see their enthusiasm for such a challenging spatial sense task.
After our plot brainstorming exercise in drama class with the Early Learners, here is a sneak peak of some plot elements that you'll get a chance to see in action at our upcoming Junior Drama Night.