Harris- Room 8

Today one of our students brought in a skull that they found while hiking. The children were fascinated with the artifact and it naturally lent itself nicely to making predictions about which animal the skull belonged to and why they made that prediction. This discussion will be a wonderful introduction to animal adaptations as well as physical features that an animal must have in order to ingest the food it requires. Our exploration will continue as we look more closely at the difference between the teeth of a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore and how scientists use this knowledge to identify an animal and its diet. 

This week our grade two's have started to focus on capturing their reader's attention by starting a story with a good opening sentence in place of the traditional "Once upon a time........" or "One day there was a ......"We have been looking at several examples using picture books and sharing which stories captured our imagination and hooked us into the story. Here are a few examples of story starters that our students used. "On a stormy night, lightning flashed and the moon was black". "It was on a stormy night when my brother disappeared." "Early one morning Ms. Bill woke up and heard the birds chirping". "It was in the green meadow that the adventure began."

We enjoyed our exploration of food chains in class. While reading the story Stellaluna the main character, Stellaluna was quite unsatisfied when she was made to eat worms. Upon further investigation, we explored and discover the role that a bat plays in a food chain and which foods it most desires. Many students were already aware of the words producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore and omnivore and used them with confidence while playing and creating their own food chains. Here is a link to the game that we played online;  http://plattebasintimelapse.com/ed/chapter/activities-food-chain-food-web/

Thank you to our three volunteers who joined us today at the National Music Center. Despite the last-minute change in plans once we arrived at the Center the students had a great time visiting the exhibits and getting having the opportunity to hear the amazing organ demonstration. The children shared some terrific comments and we had a great discussion about our own individual experiences and theories regarding how different instruments make a sound. The children were also very intrigued by the concept of movies that were once created in black and white without sound. Many ideas were shared about activities that they would like to as a follow up to our visit. Some of which were; making their own musical instruments, creating a story in a story workshop and adding a soundtrack to it. " I know that a violin makes sounds by strumming or plucking the strings because I take violin lessons" "A piano is played when you hit the strings and the strings vibrate" &qu

Developing our social skills including, patience, kindness and teamwork and a sense of belonging through cooperative games.

As we continue to benefit from our visit to Reader Rock Garden our attention has continued to focus on how clues from our past help us to understand in what ways our community has changed over time. One of our students shared an artifact of a key that she found in her backyard garden. This sparked lots of interest from the students as well as questions and imaginative stories. Who did the key belong to? Why does it look so big? What does the key open? Are there more keys or other objects in her back yard? As a class, we reflected on other artifacts that gave us clues into our past that we saw at Reader a rock Garden, as well as other artifacts we think would be good clues to our past. We also discovered that in Inglewood they recently had an archeological dig that unearthed wonderful evidence and artifacts that linked us to a time thousands of years ago. There were also artifacts that were more modern and from early settlers in the 1880s. Click on the link if you would like to se

Today we had the opportunity to reflect and journal about our trip yesterday to Ralph Klein Park. To help with this process the students have the opportunity to discuss and share their experience with each other by viewing photographs that were taken on our excursion. For those students who need a starting point for reflections, simple prompts were used: I saw.....I wonder...... I think..... I learned...... To support and enhance their writing, the students created a simple word wall with new vocabulary words.

Today we had a wonderful day discovering wetland wigglers at Ralph Klein Park. The students had such a great learning experience discovering the different kinds of invertebrates that can be found in this unique manmade wetland. Our pond dipping session did not disappoint as we found a handful of insects, crustaceans and arachnids. This day trip has been an excellent addition to our science unit; small crawling and flying creatures. 

School Council Meeting Tomorrow  Dear Ramsay Families,  Tomorrow evening (Thursday, October 3rd) at 6:00 p.m. you are invited to attend our School Council Meeting, followed by the Parent Association Meeting in the Learning Commons. There is babysitting provided. All are welcome.  Looking forward to seeing you then.