Countdown

Dear Parents,

Thank you to everyone who came to our holiday social. It was lovely to see so many of you (and your extended families) in the classroom. It was so interesting to see so many students head straight to their journals to show you the work they're doing in the classroom, but it's key to remember that learning is happening even when it's less visible. In fact, I think the biggest change over the course of the year so far has been students' ability to talk about their thinking and learning.

In the last week before winter break, we've done interesting new work every day (even as the general level of energy is rising). Check out our week:

We had the chance on Monday to participate in some coding lessons in the library. Ms. Greenwood has also blogged about it and she's included links to some of the programs students will be working with that teach fundamentals: irclibrary.blogspot.ca

Coding has to do with sequencing instructions. 

Which direction should the angry bird go first? This program is a lot like "Turtle" from my own childhood.

 On Tuesday, I was absent and students worked on graphing.

Yes, we have no bananas

On Wednesday, several students were working on title pages for their own storybooks: 

We also sorted pompoms for REASONS....secret reasons. 

Today, I introduced a seasonal science experiment you can also try at home. We took 4 candy canes and put them in 4 different liquids to see how quickly they would dissolve. The 4 liquids were vegetable oil, cold water, hot water and vinegar. This fit in nicely with our growing dinosaurs and crystalized christmas tree: we've been looking at absorption and how different substances react in water with a variety of different experiments.

You can see one pink growing dino in water, a growing fish aquarium, a crystal tree and today's candy canes. 

You can see biggest dino is from our dino egg on the left. 

Which one dissolved the fastest? The hot water

Which one dissolved the slowest? The oil. 

See if your child can tell you whether vinegar or cold water was faster. I loved this experiment because everyone was interested and involved. Students kept checking all day to see if the remains of the candy canes were still visible.

All this being said, the excitement is palpable. It's pyjama day and pizza day and also Lydia's special day and daycare students also have an event after school, so we've really jampacked it all into this last day before break. 

This is my last post before the new year, so I hope you have an amazing holiday!

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan