Harris- Room 8

The everyday materials around us generally fit into one of three categories: solid, liquid, and gas. Along with plasma, these three categories represent the different possible states of matter. A table is solid, while the air we breathe is a gas. Some materials can even transition between the different states. For example, water can exist as a solid (ice), a liquid (water), or a gas (steam or vapour).  In this lesson, we explored the properties of “oobleck” – a simple mixture of cornstarch and water. Oobleck is unique because it can behave as both a solid and a liquid. Oobleck is a non-newtonian fluid. That is, it acts like a liquid when being poured, but like a solid when a force is acting on it. you can grab it and then it will ooze out of your hands. Oobleck gets its name from the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck where a gooey green substance, oobleck fell from the sky and wreaked havoc in the kingdom.  Today the chil...

During the last few weeks, we have been talking a lot about estimation. The students have been using estimation to make a thoughtful guess regarding numbers. We have also discussed when we would use estimation in other situations. Here are some humorous quotes from the students; -"My Dad did not do a very good job at estimating when he was making dinner, instead of putting in only one hot pepper he used three and our dinner was ruined!" - When we went on a car ride this summer, my Dad didn't do a good job of estimating how far we were driving and how much gas we needed and we ran out. We needed to call a tow truck"! -"If you don't do a good job of estimating the temperature outside when you get dressed you may not have warm enough clothes on." "Sometimes we don't estimate properly how long it takes to walk to school and then we are late for the bell."

Today was our first of two days in our animation residency. The students worked hard learning the basic skills to create a short animation film. It was so impressive to watch how quickly they picked up on the software and technology. We look forward to our second lesson on the 21st of February. Until then we will be hard at work creating our background and characters for our second film.

Today our grade two class started to learn how to add two-digit numbers with regrouping. To break this task down into simple steps that are tactile as well as visual we started by learning the process using math manipulatives.

Using this wonderful picture that was taken on our field trip to the Calgary Zoo to introduce and discuss ordinals. A n  Ordinal  Number is a number that tells the position of something in a list, such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th etc.