Week Twenty Two: Heart Maps

It was a week filled with hearts, smiles, and investigating our questions in the classroom. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, we planned and drew our own "heart maps" to help us think about what we hold close to us in our hearts. As we continued to prepare for Science Fair, the girls designed and conducted their own experiments, and then reflected on them with the help of High School students. Finally, we had a B-Girl visit the school at the end of the week and teach us all about hip hop. Enjoy the photos below!

M and Z continue to work on their Valentine's cards. Z is making a list of all of the people she still wants to make cards for so she doesn't forget anyone. 

The girls brought our buckets in from recess and couldn't get all of the snow out of them. We decided to time how long it might take for the snow to melt (which ended up being over an hour for some buckets). The ice spheres are from another experiment looking at what would happen to water balloons in the freezer. We were trying to replicate what might happen to pipes if the water inside of them froze. 

M is all smiles as we prepare for Valentine's Day.

M uses the magnifying glass to look closely at the ice spheres. They were melting away so we had to move them to a space that would better handle the water. She notices how there are all of these little lines inside the sphere - very cool!

S carefully draws the pieces onto her Heart Map using her plan to guide her. She has included the kitten she wants to get as well as her mom.

M adds watercolour paints to the black outlined pictures on her Heart Map. We noticed that we each hold pizza close to our hearts!

Z is proud to share the creative structures she designed while at the Building Centre. She has incorporated a variety of materials into her structures, and has included details like gems with special powers, parking garages, homes for kings and queens, and more. 

G adds new details to the plan she is making for her Heart Map. She holds many family members close to her heart, as well as her two dogs, her old home, and tacos and cookies.

M and Z work together at Nature to create an aquarium using the water bucket. They are taking out the glass beads to make space for the shells they want to add to the container. 

G and G are hard at work painting their Heart Maps. As they paint, they share stories about the people and things that they've included on their maps - a great conversation to listen in on. 

G is thrilled to start her independent science experiment. She has decided to test different materials in water to see if the water changed colour. After adding in the blue block, the water had a blue tinge to it. 

M is also working on her independent science experiment. She has asked the question "how will water change the writing materials?". First she tested the writing materials, then dipped them in water, and finally tried them a second time. She was surprised to see that many of the writing materials still worked after being touched in water. 

G's independent experiment was to see if she could create a boat that would float while holding 3 marbles. She folded, unfolded, and refolded the aluminum foil many times before finally deciding that it was not possible at that time.

M tells me about the components of her Heart Map so I can post it with her art. She is curious to read what I have typed, so gets a glimpse at my computer to read through the notes.

Z works at math to sort and group a number of counting materials. She has found both "4", added in 4 dominoes, and 4 counting chips. 

G creates an interesting-looking grid of magnatiles on the floor. She spends time counting the tiles, as well as making sure that her design is symmetrical. 

The girls hover over the book that G brought into school today about interesting creatures that live in the sea. G is happy to share this book with them.

We are lucky to have some high school girls helping out in our classroom today to prepare for Science Fair. S is writing photo captions for pictures that were taken during her independent science experiment. 

M copies G's moves as they learn some hip-hop moves from a guest presenter "B-Girl". The girls all loved being active in the gym with all of the other students and teachers at Linden.

G dances with our guest presenter in the middle of the dance circle. She is eager to show off her moves to the rest of the school.

S and G collaborate on a marble building project. They had some initial problems with marbles "running away", but have solved that with a barrier.