Wednesday 20 November 2013

Morning Math Activities

This year we are trying something different. In the past,  I have always started the morning with reading, either with families or just peers. This year we have Family Reading two days a week and math  activities two days a week. The other day is reserved for our weekly assembly. 
We love morning math. This is a time when we play math games or try math activities that we have previously learned. It is also a time where some of us are starting to create our own math games.  Math morning is a time where we work with others, either with a partner or in a group. We learn to listen to each other, problem solve, cooperate and take turns. We learn to work together and to value each other. We also build on our numeracy skills. 
We love our math mornings!
Do you have math mornings? 










Thursday 14 November 2013

Rocks are minerals

Today we had a fantastic workshop about rocks. We used our five senses to observe rocks. We scratched, streaked and washed rocks. We sorted rocks using various rules such as size, weight, colour, texture, hard, soft etc...We learned that:

Rocks are minerals
Some rocks are hard
Some rocks are soft
Some rocks float and some sink
Some rocks have holes
Some rocks have layers
Some rocks are conglomerates and some are sandstone
Some rocks came from volcanoes
Some rocks have been used as tools
Some rocks are magnetic
Observing salt.
Salt is a mineral 
Sulphur is a mineral and has an interesting smell

When we were finished exploring with our rocks we used them to create our own inukshuks.

We are so excited to learn even more about rocks.




Using a flashlight to observe rocks.


Wow look at all my rocks.

Observing rocks and sorting them.


Sorting rocks




Streaking rocks to see if they are hard or soft.


Streaking my rock to see if it is soft or hard.



Look at my rock!


Does the rock float?






Look my rock is floating!





Scratching a rock to find out if it is soft or hard.

Smelling sulphur.


Making inukshuks









Sunday 3 November 2013

Halloween

On Thursday we had a great time celebrating Halloween. We visited other classrooms to do different Halloween activities. We came to school in our costumes. We also brought lots of great food to share with our friends. In the afternoon, we paraded through the school and then joined our whole school for the Monster Mash. Our whole school danced in the gym. We also had a pumpkin carving contest. How did you celebrate Halloween?
Happy Halloween


We are dancing.

We are dancing.


Making toilet paper roll monsters.








We had so much fun painting witches.











Look at all of our yummy food.