Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying the beautiful Spring weather!
A lot is going on in Room 166, most especially about backyard bugs! We learned, read and wrote about the habitat, features and diet of stick insects, grasshoppers, beetles, fleas, fireflies and ladybugs. We took our magnifying glasses and bug catchers outside and saw bees collecting pollen, ants coming out of their nests in the ground, and wasps buzzing around. In the classroom, a centipede scurried by and we caught it and it's now in the Science Centre. It was a real-life opportunity for the children to remember that centipedes are not insects because they have (a lot!) more than 6 legs. We also saw a spider in the bathroom and remembered that spiders are not insects either since they have 8 legs. Jack brought in a caterpillar (thank you Jack!) which will turn into an insect when it is an adult. Izzie brought in a spider and a ladybug. Dima brought in binuculars and we discussed how we would use them compared to a miscroscope, a telescope and a magnifying glass. I set up my husband's microscope from when he was a child and the children took turns looking at a bee wing through it.
The children played a numeracy game called "Ants in your Pants" and a sight word game called "There's a Fly in my Soup." They looked at their friends' faces through a "bug's eye viewer" which was like seeing like insects see, through compound lensess, and they drew a picture of what they saw. They also wrote and illustrated "It really bugs me when..." and watched a grasshopper jump in slow motion on the Smartboard. We also saw hundreds of beautiful and colourful beetles on the Smartboard, and learned that they come in all colours and patterns, "just like jewels." Izzie also brought in a butterfly chart. Thank you! The children are also making firefly art and finished making their caterpillars and dragonflies. Look for a buggy bulletin board next week!
In numeracy we also continued our inquiry on Measurement. The children had fun when I drew a line around their little feet with which we'll measure things around the school. The children also used measuring tape, measuring cups and rulers to measure items around the classroom.
The new Popcorn Words are HAS and WANT. We played a "Find Your Word Friend" game in which the children had to find the other children in their group that had letters that made their sight word, i.e. one child had T, another had H, another had E and they had to find each other to spell THE.
On May 6 in the morning, and May 8 in the afternoon, the children will be participating in a special event called "Aussie Rules Football."
Next week we'll learn about more insects and will finish our book "Dragonfly, Dragonfly, What Do You See?" as well as our "I Know Insect Facts" book in which the JKs will pick two insects to write about and the SKs will pick four. We'll also continue measuring and recording what we measure! Thank you so much to the children who brought in insects to share in the science centre. I think the kids are learning a lot and are enjoying this inquiry!
That's the news for this week. I hope you have a wonderful week!
