Week of April 24-28

Dear families,

I hope you're having a great weekend!

Last week we continued our learning about 2-D and 3-D shapes. The children built shapes with various building toys and took inspiration from photos of famous buildings and structures (the Golden Gate Bridge,the CN Tower, Stonehenge, Tower Bridge, the Tour Eiffel, for example). After building the structure with a buddy, they each described and drew the structure they built. Children love building structures and they are learning to build, identify and describe a cube, rectangular prism, cylinder, and pyramid. Thank you so much to Andrew who brought in his wonderful Lego Architecture book to share! We will complete this inquiry next week.

The children continued bringing in objects they made from recycled materials. They are fantastic!!!

We also learned about buoyancy in a little inquiry about Sink or Float. The children predicted which if several items would sink or float, which we counted, and then some of them played in that centre, and we came together and discussed which items sank/floated and why. We watched a short video on buoyancy as well and the children learned that density is a factor, too, not just weight (i.e. a ping pong ball floats but a golf ball sinks; a big cruise ship floats, etc.). Tied in with this inquiry on water is also a little science experiment at the Science Centre on absorption - the kids use water droppers to put water onto cotton balls, sponges, a chamois, etc. to observe different rates of absorption.

Also at our little Science Centre is a celery bunch that is regrowing in water. We'll also regrow a potato and we will start our Spring inquiry about seeds and plants next week. It would be wonderful if you could pack snacks that have seeds in them, so we can take the seeds, plant them indoors, and observe/record what happens. Strawberries and tomatoes would work well. I have several other kids of seeds (vegetables and flowers) for the children's "Kinder Garden."

Next Friday will be Pajama Day! Last week's Twin Day was fun! LKS has school spirit!

Thank you to Maya's mom who was the Mystery Reader, and to Mia's and Kate's moms for helping with Pizza Lunch day on Friday! Thank you as well to those of you who volunteered for the Science Centre Field Trip. Our Grade Parents will contact you regarding this.

The kids did a great job at the Sharing Assembly, singing "You've Got the Whole World in your Hands." Congratulations to Ethan, Henry and Menaal for receiving certificates for Cooperation!

That's the news for now - I hope you have a terrific week!