Fantastic Fours

Thank you to all of our families who took the time to meet with us for Parent Teacher Conferences. It was lovely to connect with you and share about your child's growth and learning. The students were excited to move into our unit on floor hockey in physical education. We have so many students who are involved in hockey outside of school. It was nice for them to have a chance to share their interest and skill with the class. This week we worked on skills such as stick handling, passing and shooting. Next week, we will move into playing games. Our focus was on the learning outcome; students participate in a variety of physical activities that develop various components of physical fitness.

This week we finished reading our first whole class read aloud novel, The Wild Robot. We loved the wonderful story of Roz, a robot, who learns to love and connect with the animals as she makes a remote island her home. We focused on the the learning outcome: students can paraphrase and discuss ideas. First we read a chapter and worked together to pull out the important ideas. We then worked to focus in on the main idea of the chapter by writing a summary. In order to truly focus on the main idea, our goal was to try to keep our summary as close to twenty words as possible. The students enjoyed the challenge of capturing the most important moments with a specific number of words.

This week, we looked at the meaning and importance of Remembrance Day. We discussed the impact of wars on soldiers and their families. This connected nicely to our social studies curriculum and the outcome; recognize how stories of people and events provide multiple perspectives on past events. The students created works of art connected to their learning.

This week we have been busy working on our first science unit, Waste and Our World. We began by focusing on the learner outcome: Identify plant and animal wastes and how they are recycled in nature. We learned about how natural waste can be broken down by mold, fungi, bacteria and earthworms. We then created an experiment asking the question, What will happen to biodegradable items that are left in soil for one month? Will all items decompose at the same rate? The students worked through the scientific process identifying variables and forming an hypothesis. Each week the students are measuring, weighing and recording their observations.