Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather this weekend.
This week we continued our science inquiry on Insects and the children looked for "backyard bugs" in the playground. A big Thank You to my former student Angelina who donated a giant paper wasp nest. The children passed it around, learned how the wasps made it, and saw a science video on paper wasps. The nest is in our science centre now along with an ant farm and butterflies. They are also exploring the features of insects in our Insect centre, filled with life-like plastic insects. We watched a science video about dragonflies which the children found very interesting. We are also going to be learning, reading and writing about stick bugs, grasshoppers, fireflies, fleas, beetles, house flies, praying mantis, lady bugs, ants and, last but not least, butterflies. Our butterfly larvae are scheduled to arrive May 19!
This week we also read the lovely Eric Carle books The Grouchy Ladybug and The Very Busy Spider. Next week we will read more fiction and non-fiction books by Eric Carle such as The Very Lonely Firefly, and we'll save The Very Hungry Caterpillar and lots of learning opportunities for the week the larvae arrive.
This week was also Earth Day and the children did a colour-by-number Earth, and wrote "I care for the Earth when..." and "I love our Earth because..." and drew lovely accompanying pictures. Their ideas are posted in the hallway. Thinking about the Earth through the eyes of a child really makes you remember how precious it is.
In Numeracy, we discussed and reviewed Order Irrelevance, i.e. that no matter which order you count something in, the total remains the same. We also reviewed the fact that larger objects and small objects are counted the same (i.e. 3 giraffes is not more than 3 ants).
The Popcorn words this week are COME and LOOK. We practiced our A-P-R-I-L song and made daffodil art to go with the poem.
We completed the April calendar, numbers 1-30, and the children wrote about "This is me in April." They did a lovely job and their work is on display in the hallway. I am so pleased with how far they have all come reading and writing. They are definitely ready for next year!!
We also started our inquiry into Measurement. The children had fun as I drew a line around their foot. They cut the "foot print" out and will use it next week to measure different things around the classroom and the school. They will also use different lengths of yarn to explore measurement in the classroom and out in the yard. We will also learn what we use to measure things.
Thanks you Iris and Chloe for bringing in books about bugs. Thank you Chloe's dad for being Mystery Reader. Thank you Aaden's mom for helping with the Computer Lab. Thank you to Martel's mom and Megan's mom for helping with Pizza Lunch.
A reminder that April's Scholastic Order is due next week.
That's our classroom news. Have a great week!
