Week of May 16-20

Dear families,

This week we continued our learning about Dinosaurs and the children were Paleontologists. First, they practised excavating chocolate chips from cookies (they had to count the chips before eating them :) ); then they each removed hardened purple play doh from three clay "dinosaur" bones, using several tools; and finally they put the bones together in teams of 2 or three. At each step, they drew and wrote what they did. We also compared how many chocolate chips they excavated, using the words MOST, LEAST and SAME. I think they really enjoyed the activities! I made enough clay bones so that each child can each take 3 home. The children also learned a song called "I am a Paleontologist." All their learning and observations are part of a booklet called "Paleontologist" that will go home on Friday. I think they especially liked wearing the yellow hard hats that Paleontologists wear!

The children coloured a large paper "dino" egg, and then wrote about it; "My dinosaur egg IS... HAS... INSIDE THERE IS..." We also looked at what real dinosaur eggs look like on the Smartboard. They also made Triceratops Art and coloured and cut big herbivore and carnivore dinosaur puppets, looking at non-fiction books for reference. I loved all the details!

Our Dinosaur learning chart is almost done: we start with a SCHEMA (what the children already know), then NEW LEARNING, as well as MISCONCEPTIONS (i.e. all dinosaurs had claws). I will type up the children's answers and will send a copy home in their Dinosaur Folder.

The children also did some Dino dot-to-dot (numbers and alphabet) activities, and they completed 6 Dinosaur Numeracy activities. At each centre they had to read the math question and, using the objects, come up with the answer. For example, "There were 2 dinosaurs and six plants. How many plants does each dinosaur get?" I will send home a copy of the questions.

The children took turns doing a "Dinosaur Dig" in the classroom sandbox, and did a "Pet Dinosaur" activity with their Reading Buddies. They learned about Pangea (the "supercontinent") that the dinosaurs roamed, and how the Earth looks today, with 7 separate continents. They drew pictures of both, and learned a song called "Continents." They made a giant dinosaur floor puzzle as well as smaller puzzles (thank you Claire for sharing yours with us!), and painted dinosaurs and paleontologists at the painting centre. We also matched up beginning and ending parts of sentences, i.e. "Dinosaurs lived..... millions of years ago."

Thank you to Tessa who brought in her collection of mini dinosaurs, and to Dylan who brought in a fossil! The kids are excited about learning that the Earth is a big rock and about fossils, and they have been bringing in stones that they like as well. Maybe there are future geologists or paleontologists in the classroom! A trip to the ROM would be a wonderful follow up to this unit!

We are reviewing our learning about Habitats by matching animals with their habitats. The children are observing our plants' growth daily and are writing in the growth journal. This week they also wrote about why Springfest was fun and drew a picture (they are on display in our classroom). If they didn't go to Springfest, they wrote about why Mother's Day was fun.

The sight words of the week were THERE and THAT, and the kids completed a mini read-and-write THERE book. Miss Nisker also brought in bubble wrap for the kids to practise their small motor skills. Who doesn't love popping bubble wrap?

Thank you Hannah's mom for being our Mystery Reader this week! Thank you as well to Cole who shared a terrific habitats book with the class, and to Martel and his mom who collated the Scholastic order forms. The order is due by May 31st. This will be the last order of the year.

Our next Inquiry will be about Farms (getting us ready for the field trip in June), followed by Canadian Coins and their values. I'll change the dramatic play centre into a Farmer's market where the kids can "buy" healthy fruits and vegetables.

That's the news from our classroom. I hope you are having a relaxing weekend! Go Jays (Saturday and Sunday), and Go Raptors (Sunday)!