Week Twenty: Snowy Days and Library Visits

It was a bit of an unusual week together because we had a snow day in the middle of the school week! The students loved playing in the snow on the day of the storm and some even used the weather to inspire their play throughout the week. We are counting down the days until STEM for a Better World and spending lots of our time preparing by making graphs, visiting other libraries, and reflecting on our learning. Our trip to the Toronto Reference library was eye-opening for the girls as many had never seen a library so big. The visit was also filled with surprises, such as the elevator and the indoor pond that we experienced. We welcomed in February on Friday with a new calendar and had another great week of hands-on learning.

N uses the titles from her surveys to set up the titles on her graph.

The Early Learners are loving our new "Little People Big Dreams" matching game. Not only do we get to practice matching faces and names of different women, but we also get to learn a little about the positive contributions that these women have made to the world throughout history. 

We made it to the ravine for our Outdoor Education class in this incredible snow storm. The Early Learners and Grade 1-2s had a blast "cross-country skiing" down the sidewalks, doing a "snow run" across the field, and then climbing up and sliding down one of the big hills in the ravine. We also realized that it was a perfect opportunity to catch snowflakes on our tongues and embrace the Canadian winter.

The girls are finishing up some of the labels on their graphs for our upcoming STEM Inquiry Fair. Tracing over their writing in pencil helps make their graphs more readable for both themselves and their audience.

O is proud to share the phone that she made using foam during "free art" time with Tonja. Notice how she cut out each button individually, added the numerals to the buttons, and then attached them to the phone - these details are impressive.

Today we took a field trip to the Toronto Reference library. Did you know that they have a book-binding machine onsite? The girls were curious about all of the wires, moving parts, and they were excited to see the final product.

The Early Learners found a private study/meeting space while touring the library. Luckily no one had this room booked, so the girls were able to spend a few minutes jotting down their observations from this floor of the library.

Our final stop before we leave the library is in the newspaper room on the lower level. O uses the special desks to prop up her clipboard and then she makes a few final notes to remember what she notices in this space.

At the Light Table this morning, O tells a winter story. She explains that the water has lots of pieces of ice and snow floating in it

AB and AK are back to building collaboratively. These two girls share the castle that they made with their peers, pointing out the pond, king and queen, and the djembes that are sitting on the top waiting to be played by the animals.

A takes a look at the data that we collected at the Linden library to determine how many grade 10 students used the library over the four days that we asked students and faculty to participate in our survey. She is almost done the graph that she is making about who uses the library, and she is observing that many elementary students visited the library, as well as some high school students. O, on the other hand, is graphing the data based on the day of the week, and she counts how many people visited the library on Thursday.

A uses recycled plastics to create a jellyfish during CERES. The jellyfish will be displayed at the STEM fair alongside information about reducing our consumption of plastics and the impact that plastics are having on the environment.

A is also designing a jellyfish, and she uses the glue gun to add colourful tentacles to the base of her jellyfish's body.

A takes the lead on making a February calendar for the class. She is confident making this calendar, even without a model to follow. She adds important events, like her Yaya's birthday, as she goes.

A spends her time during Learning Centres at Discovery, where she creates a water habitat using shells and animals in the water bin.

N begins to make a graph using math manipulatives that will represent all of the data collected about Linden students and faculty through her survey. The bar that she is working on represents the people who walk to the library.

A measures the bar that represents "novels" against her height after noticing how long it was getting.

O decides to use linking chains instead of snap cubes to make her full-school graph. After compiling the data from a few surveys, O is laughing away because the "yes" chain is much, much longer than the "no" chain.