Week 22: We Love Science
It was an exceptionally exciting week at Linden and in the Early Learning class because of the Science and Technology Fair. All week, the girls prepared photo captions to accompany their learning, rehearsed presentations, and could not wait to share all of their learning about energy with the community. Thank you to everyone who as able to come out, celebrate their accomplishments, and also participate as Willing Listeners on the night of Sci-Tech Fair. Despite being busy getting everything organized, the girls ensured they were also able to enjoy some of their favourite activities during the week. Take a look at what they got up to!
N is busy texting her friends from the Drama Centre. The smile on her face makes me curious about the plans that they are making.
A uses the clothespins to pin up "shower curtains". I am impressed by her creative use of the materials in the Drama Centre.
We are all surprised to see all of the icicles hanging off of Linden today at pick-up. M (in grade 2) asks me to snap a photo for the blog "so everyone can see how cool they are".
Our math game this morning is inspired by the upcoming Valentine's day. We are using our "heart addition" mats to practice adding two amounts together. First we practice adding small numbers with heart-shaped counters, and then G moves on to adding two sets of dots.
K is proud of the addition that she has done and poses with her work for a picture.
N works with Makedo in CERES to connect pieces of cardboard. Despite it being her first time working with this material, she quickly picks up the steps for successfully connecting pieces together (and then taking them apart again).
G designs eagle wings in CERES today, using the Makedo to connect the long cardboard pieces together. When the wings are complete, she draws on a face as her final touch.
The girls prepared some gifts for the people they care about at home in Art this afternoon. Look how excited they are to share these flowers and cards with their loved ones.
K designs a colourful creation at the Math Centre, carefully arranging the bears based on colour. She realizes that a different number of bears fits on each shape - an early exploration of the concept of surface area.
N counts how many blocks she has lined up, although she won't yet disclose what she is constructing to me. She is practicing pointing at each item as she counts them one-by-one.
The girls are excited with Valentine's Day energy this morning. P writes a card for her mom, expressing "I love you".
K writes out the title of the experiment that we conducted in physical education class with Ellen for one of our Science Fair boards.
P and G create a variety of 3D structures using 2D shapes in CERES. The shapes have velcro around their edges, allowing for them to easily be connected. Some of the girls compare them to the magnatiles that we have in our classroom.
G has spent an incredible amount of time painting this bag, which we are using to take home any Valentine's cards or treats that the girls receive today. She described how much care and patience it took to paint the outside and inside of the hearts different colours.
K practices speaking about her learning and the different experiments we have done this term to prepare for Science Fair. "These are my times and these are everyone else's times."
The warmer weather has begun melting the snow on the roof, allowing for new discoveries and play opportunities during recess. This morning A and N experiment with sidewalk chalk and snow, and the girls notice that when you colour on snow "it's almost like you're painting the snow".
K writes her post-test as a check-in to see how well she learned this week's spelling patterns - /pr/, /dr/, and /tr/. As usual, she gets all of the starting sounds correct in the words she is assessed on, permitting her to move onto a new spelling pattern next week.
G and P work together to complete a few more pages of our class book of letters and sounds. They love cutting out the pictures, glueing them down, and then adding the written words to each picture.
It is finally Science Fair! N tells Brie what she has learned about Solar Energy. She explains that the sun gives the plants energy, which give animals energy, which give Savannah energy (and that she, too, gets some of her energy from the sun).
At Science Fair, A tells her willing listener all about Sound Energy. As a class we measured the decibels of different sounds, planned and created instruments and measured their sounds, as well as leaned about pitch. I am so proud of the confidence that the Early Learners showed when presenting their learning to students, faculty, parents, and other volunteers. Well done!