Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones....

We focused on Skeletons on Wednesday.  Click on the link below to see one of the books that we read and used for a jumping off point for our work:

                                                                       Dem Bones

Our Grade Six buddies came to help us make skeletons using glue, black paper and q -tips!

It was the first time the Grade One students had used white glue.

Each and every skeleton, whether made by a Gr. 1 student or a Gr. 6 student is unique!

Check them out in our display at the front of the school.

My favourite part was when the Gr. 1 students read to their buddies.

They have come so far!

Here's a peek at the book that we focused on during our lessons on Thursday.

Click on this link you you can hear this book too!   Baby Mummy

Guess what we made??!!

Room on the Broom

This is the book that the activities for Monday and Tuesday are based on.  The children worked on sequencing.  What animal came first?  What fell off?  How did the story end?

Using the story, the students again worked collaboratively to see if they could balance the characters on a lever. (The ruler was the broom).  They had to see if both sides would have equal weight.

Actually getting all five characters to balance on the lever would have been nice,

but most important

was the discussions,

watching who took a leading role,

and who sat back and did not offer suggestions.

The students were proud of their ability to work together.

Collaboration is the key!

Making a house that the Big Bad Blowdryer can't blow down!

Being an engineer wan't quite so easy with today's challenge.  The basic idea was that we all knew the story of the Three Little Pigs and how the house of straw and the house of sticks could not stand up to the Wolf as he huffed and puffed.  Only the house of bricks stood up to the wolf.

Today each student again thought of how they could create a structure that could stand up to the wind (or in our case, a blow dryer).  We looked at the various materials that would be available in the teacher's hardware store.  The materials included drinking straws, craft sticks, pip cleaners, styrofoam bases, large index cards, string, coffee stir sticks, and lots and lots of masking tape.

The groups met and discussed their plans and decided what the structure would look like and what materials would be needed.  In this case, they were to label their drawings with the material names.

They would come to the 'store' and order what they needed.

Together, they were to work to try and create the structure that would not fall down.

There were groups that were a bit more haphazard in the approach,

and there were groups that had a plan and worked well in attempting to make the structure.

Whether the structure withstood the blowdryer test or not,

the idea was that they would be able to talk about the plan, what worked well, what was difficult and what they would try differently next time.  Being happy with the final structure was a bonus!

I've got no strings on me!

As the students work on using various materials, our discussion moved to how items are fastened together.  We talked about tape and glue and thumb tacks and nails and staples.  We looked at how alligator clips and paper clips are useful and how blue tac is used in our classroom.  The students then got a chance to use a fastener that many of them have not used before, a brad. 

We watched a small clip from the movie "Pinocchio" and identified that at the beginning he was a puppet.  His joints moved.  This was quite a long activity because it involved colouring, cutting, pasting the head onto the body, then having the teacher use the hole punch so that the brads could be

added.

 

They turned out beautifully and will be making their way home on Friday in the Take Home folders.

In math class, we hung up our 'laundry', and yes! one smart knew exactly what that difficult word meant! Hooray!

The students got a chance to choose to make a t-shirt, a dress or a pair of pants.  They chose stickers and used them to create a pattern and then labeled the pattern using alphabet letters.

They were all hung up at the back of the classroom on our shelf.

Using crayons, the students then created a pattern on a pair of socks.  We noticed that whatever pattern would be found on one sock, had to be repeated exactly on the other sock.

I do believe they are ready to help with laundry at home now! (tee hee!)

From beards to bridges....

I think Jesus has a sense of humour, especially when it comes to kids!

Today in our assembly, the words to morning song seemed to be a little bit changed....

perhaps our assistant principal had something to do with it??

It was all for a great reason though!

This brave teacher had his beard shaved off in front of the entire school body.  He offered this as a reward for meeting the challenge of selling tickets for an upcoming event.

First the beard came off,

then suddenly it was all of his hair!  Hope the weather stays warm!

The students and I have been talking about what an engineer does.  We know that both boys and girls can become engineers.

These are the steps that an engineer uses to try and solve a problem.

We are doing STEM activities all week long.

What is STEM?

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.

The problem for this project was based on the story of the Gingerbread Man.  How could he get across the river so that he did not have to rely on the wolf?

The students were placed in small groups after they had created their own plan.  They shared their ideas and they discussed which plan they would like to try.

The students worked collaboratively to create what they had planned.

The discussions were rich.  At this group I heard "We are going to have to change the plan because the marshmallows are so heavy that they are falling down."  Great insight.....

The students were focussed and worked well together!

I think that they really enjoyed themselves!

Look how this group checked over the original plan to make sure they were on the right track.

At the end, the entire class went from one group's project to another and each student got a chance to share their experiences.  They explained their thinking and even shared if they thought they were successful or not.  I was extremely impressed for this being the 30th day of school!