Leduc #1

I can hardly believe that it's been two weeks since I posted last!  It wasn't for lack of things that we are doing in class but somehow time has gotten away from me and I apologize!  Here's a basket full of our lovely pysanky, a nod to the Ukrainian culture at Easter time.

The students learned how to find definitions in dictionaries.  They learned that some words have multiple meanings and that you will have to refer back to the text to know which meaning is best for the word in the story.

The definitions are for words in our little novel study, using this lovely chapter book "Freckle Juice" by Judy Blume.

Thank you tons and tons to all the parents who assisted with today's field trip to the Leduc #1 Energy Discovery Centre.  I didn't even know that this place existed but thanks to our Grade Two teacher who asked us to join her class.  It was well worth it (no pun intended... Ha!)

There were many interesting photos and paintings and I loved the caption on this one:

"Imperial Oil drilled 133 dry wells before striking oil at Leduc #1 in 1947, a discovery that's often called the single most important event in Alberta's financial history."

Isn't that true

We had the opportunity to spend time in the science discovery room, looking at different types of rocks and silt through microscopes...

..learning about water power

...the separation of different liquids because of their density

...touching actual fossils

...then digging for some in the sand

..imagining that we were working at various jobs in the oil industry

before finding out that petroleum products are used to make many of the things we use every day.

Who knew that toothbrushes, fleece blankets, CDs, plastic toys, the scales on the Space Shuttle and even hockey pucks are produced with petroleum?  It definitely showed the students that our lives would be very different with out these products being extracted from the ground.

Come back and visit the blog tomorrow, when I'll share even more of this day with all of you!