Longer than... Taller than... Shorter than...

We learned what measurement is this week. Students used large popsicle sticks to compare it with several classroom items and used the terms "short", "tall", and "long" to compare the item to the popsicle stick. Students used phrases such as "my glue stick is shorter than my popsicle stick" to explain the difference between the two items. We compared and arranged some items from tallest to shortest as well. We learned a new poem about arranging tall snakes and short snakes and drew things that were taller than and shorter than our popsicle sticks in our thinking journals.

We continued with our animal research as well by continuing to explore each animal center and sharing what we noticed in our animal resources and what we wondered about as well. We kept adding our wonders and new knowledge we have learned as well to our KWL board as well.

After exploring each animal (bear, fox, mole, mice, owl, and snowshoe hare) students also made their final choice on what animal we are most interested in learning about. We represented our choices and formed our animal groups using a graph displayed in our classroom.

To continue to work on our research and documentation skills, we looked closely at hedgehogs and used different resources including videos, books, magazines, and photographs. We learned to label parts of a hedgehog and used whiteboards to draw them and their diet as well. We are learning how we can use information from non-fiction material to gather real information that we "know" and not information "we think we know."

Because it was an AM Friday this week, we read the book "In My Heart" by Joe Witek and used oil pastels to create a heart art in our visual journals. This helped us practice our cutting, colouring, drawing skills and also helped us work with different art mediums. AM students were also fortunate to watch a special performance by Calgary Opera of The Bremen Town Musicians. This was about farm animals that set out to become musicians. AM students also participated in twin/triplet day as well.

We also found a mystery outline of a mitten on our carpet. Students wonder why it is there, who left it there, and what we can do with it.

Researching Animals

We started our week by sharing with one another what we did over the long weekend. We drew pictures about our weekend and used them to talk about our weekends with our peers. We read "Not A Box" by Antoinette Portis and used our imaginations to think about common classroom objects such as markers and rulers to think about what else they could be. For example, "It is not a marker., it is a..." fishing rod, walking stick, magic wand. "It is not a book... It is a..." computer, bird, steering wheel, etc. Students applied their creativity and imagination and used whiteboards to transform different shapes such as squares, circles, and triangles into other objects as well. Encourage your child to try this at home with you. This can be done by drawing or simply through conversations with everyday items at home.

To start our research, we brainstormed ideas on what is important to learn about when looking at different animals. Together, we brainstormed that the diet, appearance, habitat, and interesting facts are what we need to look closely at to learn more about each animal. We then explored different artifacts about each animal such as photographs, books, puppets, etc to learn more about them. We also began to learn how to journal our findings in our thinking journals and tried drawing pictures and writing words as well.

We also practiced drawing the animals from the mittens using white boards as well.

We played Math Yahtzee as well to continue to practice counting and subitizing.

With a strong focus on Kindness this week, we wore bright colors, wore red and pink, wore our superhero shirts, and our PHS Spirit Wear as well. We thought about what it means to be kind in our classroom and tried to be kind KINDergarten students.