On Thursday, May 3, we cleaned up the naturalization area with our Grade 7 buddies. We are getting ready to plant and to create a beautiful schoolyard habitat for all students to enjoy.
We dug up trees that have been dead for some time. We spread natural fertilizers made from crushed rock and coconut husks. We planted seeds to start indoors and bulbs in the learning gardens. We even pruned shrubs and suckers from trees. After the frost, we have some exciting plants we are looking forward to placing in the ground and caring for.
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The Grade 3's went to Tom Campbell's Hill (TCH) on Monday, April 30. We went there to observe a natural grasslands habitat.
Before we visited TCH, we were assigned a specific grasslands animal to research. When we were at TCH, we had to use our observations and our prior knowledge to decide if TCH was a good habitat for our assigned animals. The black bear group decided that TCH was too small, too close to humans and dogs, and would not provide enough dense forests. They concluded that TCH was not a great place for them to stay. The sharp tailed grouse decided that because there were plenty of food sources, places to nest and it had a high elevation to look out for predators, TCH would make a suitable habitat. The jack rabbit group felt TCH was a perfect habitat for them. There was plenty of grasses and twigs for them to eat, a lot of crevices to hide in and they would camoflauge well with their surroundings. The mule deers said that TCH was not a suitable habitat for them. The closest water source (Nose Creek) was across a busy road and this meant they'd have to take their chances with cars. The skunks thought that TCH was perfect for them. It had all their food sources, holes to hide in and water nearby. They did admit though that dog owners who wanted them gone might call the city and have them trapped and relocated. Students learned a lot about the area. For instance, Tom Campbell's Hill used to be used by the Calgary Zoo for hoofed animals like zebras to graze. Bison used to roam there. Bison, fire and little rainfall helped shape the land. In the ice age, TCH used to be partly covered by a lake. A giant sign that read "Tom Campbell's Hats" used to be there. The Bridgeland Community Association had it protected as natural parkland long ago. One highlight of the afternoon was seeing all the beautiful prairie crocuses in their different stages of bloom. The students of Room 301 went to the Calgary Zoo on April 19, 2018. They observed animals in their different habitats and at various stages in their life cycles. We visited the penguin enclosure to see Cleo, the baby King penguin. We visited Kimani, the two year old gorilla and saw many butterflies in their chrysalis.
In the afternoon, students participated in a program called, "Croak! Life Cycles of the Young and Slimy". In this program, students learned about the Northern Leopard Frog, its wetland habitat, its life cycle and how humans can help protect this endangered animal. "I really liked how the blue heron in the play we did was shown as a natural threat." "I really liked when I got to see the gorillas pooping and smacking the glass." "I saw the baby gorilla trying to do parkour, but he kept on failing really bad." "I really like when I saw a butterfly moving out of its chrysalis." "It felt really nice and I liked it a lot when a butterfly landed on my arm." "What I liked about the penguins was Cleo's fluffy feathers. I learned that her feathers aren't waterproof yet." The students of room 301 went on a river walk and explored St. Patrick's Island on April 25, 2018. Students viewed the Bow River riparian zone from different locations and stopped to sketch and journal about the East Village wetlands. Students looked at what they expected to see in a riparian zone and reflected on things they observed that were unexpected. Finally, we moved to St. Patrick's Island to complete a riverside photo scavenger hunt. "I saw garbage in the air. People were littering. I think people don't care about earth." "I saw a lot of stuff in the river: garbage and clothing and all that stuff that's not supposed to be in the river." "I noticed that some of the trees were fallen. Maybe they were cut by humans maybe for paper and to get money." "I saw an osprey flying and an osprey poking its head out of its nest on top of the bloom." "I saw a northern flicker pecking at a tree." "It pecks holes so it can get some bugs to eat." "I noticed something about the trees while we were walking. I noticed metal fence around the bottom of the trees. I think it was there to stop the beavers. We saw beaver damage in the wetlands." The following update has been written by the students of Room 301:
The Langevin Science Olympics took place on February 14. It was amazing! We had to work with our teams to complete four challenges: building paper bridges, making and firing catapults, building a tower with cups, sticks and cubes, and painting a rainbow using only primary colours. The day began with an opening ceremonies and ended with closing ceremonies. We sat with our team colours and watched a grade 9 challenge, a dance, the lighting of the Langevin torch and were treated to a special visit from Captain Langevin. We celebrate the Science Olympics to create, problem-solve, cooperate and have fun. On February 5, we were challenged to dream up an invention for pets. The invention had to help our pets get a daily workout. Most of us thought up a type of treadmill. We wrote about it but we did not build it. In school we have been playing splat. Splat is a math game. This is how you play it. First you see a number of dots on the screen (like 6), then a big splat comes over the screen and covers up a certain number of dots. Then you guess how many our under the splat. Click here for an example and to visit the splat web site: http://www.stevewyborney.com/?p=893 In Phys Ed we have learned how to play four corner hockey. It's so much fun playing hockey and it teaches people communication and teamwork. We have been building sound amplifiers and silencers. Most of us have partners. A silencer makes the sound quieter and an amplifier makes the sound louder. We learned that in solids, there are lots of particles packed closely together, so the vibrations travel from particle to particle more quickly. Particles in liquids are more spread out and gas particles are the furthest spread out. One pair of students made a silencer that almost completely blocked the music coming from Ms. Keet's iphone. This pair of students used layers of insulation, foam and cardboard. We also talked about sound that is funneled through a cone shape can amplify sound. Ask me about my amplifier building plans and construction. On February 21st, we went to Crescent Heights High School. Before we left, we brainstormed and recorded questions to ask the band members from that school. We went there to learn about instruments like the trumpet, percussion instruments and many others. We took a bus there and spent a half day talking to the high school students, asking them questions about their instruments and listening to them play. On Thursday, Feb 22nd, we had a classroom debate. We were debating about which of the children's rights was more important: playgrounds and recreation, opportunities to share opinions, the right to practice religion and culture, the right to non-discrimination or the right to be protected from things like abuse. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate on Monday and and we had to postpone our trip to Studio Bell. Although we did not make it out of the school this week, we managed to keep very busy.
We made several trips down to the school's learning commons to observe our rainbow trout eggs. The eggs transitioned from eyed eggs to alevin this week which was super exciting. Some of the students observed what appeared to be a conjoined twin - four eyes emerging from one egg. Sadly, many of our eggs were either unfertilized or has a fungus which required them to be removed from the tank. Please visit out FInS page on this Weebly site to read more and see photos of the eggs and alevin. We talked about how to select a "just right" book from the learning commons. It's important to select a book that is not too difficult (the five finger rule) or too easy. It's also important to select a book with age-appropriate content that's written about subjects we are interested in. We shared a lot of laughs writing Wacky Web Tales. Google Wacky Web Tales to try and write a silly story yourself. It's excellent review of parts of speech. We have continued to review spelling and grammar conventions and practice this regularly by correcting all the errors in Mrs. Keet's morning message. Students are also spending time proofreading and revising their own written pieces. During writing time, students do not have access to erasers but are encouraged to make their editing marks directly on the page. Not taking the time to search for an eraser and then erase has increased the amount of writing most students are able to produce. The students in Room 301 have many creative ideas and are proud to read their written compositions to their classmates. Students have worked through several problems in math as a large group, with partners and alone. Most recently, students worked with a money set to come up with as many ways to "build" one dollar as possible. They also worked with number lines to solve addition and subtraction sentences. The students have been exploring and investigating materials and how sound travels by working to construct a device that dampens sound. So far, their most successful devices have been able to reduce an amplitude by 20 dB (decibels). In a knowledge building discussion, students came to the conclusion that materials like foam and cork dampen sound, that the container needs to surround the noise-producer entirely, and that a lot of layers are all important. Students will have time to modify their devices and test them again next week. The Langevin Science Olympics are almost here! Students know their team colours and have been hard at work constructing our class flag. We are all excited for Wednesday, February 14, to put our science skills to work solving challenges! We visited the whale exhibit loaned to Telus Spark by the Maori people of New Zealand. In the exhibit, we enjoyed participating in a whale backpack adventure. Each group had a backpack and in their pack, they had materials and some pamphlets, models, photos and measuring scales. We answered the questions written on the pamphlets and completed the activities described. For example, we built phytoplankton models from buttons, pompoms, pipecleaners and toothpicks. Some of us tested our models in the water to see if they would float.
We also participated in a presentation in the theatre called Good Vibrations. We like watching a sound wave of fire. We also enjoyed the part where the presenter called up a volunteer from the other school to show how you can make wine glasses sing at a low, medium and high pitch. We also saw a giant oscilloscope on the big screen. Our visit to Telus Spark inspired us to investigate these topics:
The grade 3's are reading a poem at the Winter Solstice assembly. Each student has been practicing one stanza.
Winter by Barbara Vance 1 When the geese are flying south And the sky is grey, my dears, Close your eyes, and lift your nose; Listen with your careful ears. 2 Feel the winter coming on, Hear it in the crackling trees; Note the crisping, quivering wind Sharply snapping at their leaves. 3 Feel it on the windowpanes – Chilly glass on fingertips – Mark the biting of the air, Heated breath on numbing lips. 4 See it in the early eves, In the glowing sunset where Shadows of the naked trees Rattle in the biting air. 5 Watch the nuthatch and the wren; They know it is time once more To abandon careful nests, As they’ve done each year before. 6 Let the frost rest on your face, Sense a shiver on your skin. See how pretty nature is When she ushers winter in. On Thursday, December 21st, students may bring in a donation of $2 (or more) and may choose to not wear their uniform. Our theme for that day is "Dark, light and sparkly."
We are currently collecting donations of money, gift cards, and items for the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter. And Thursday, December 21st is our official Winter Solstice celebration. On Thursday, December 21st, the day will run as follows: 8:15 – 8:50: In Homerooms 9:00 – 9:45: Buddy winter STEAM challenge 9:45 – 10:00 Recess/Nutrition Break 10:00 – 11:00: School gathering in the gym 11:15 – 12:00: Potluck Luncheon with families in classrooms We are inviting parents and family members to join their children for a potluck lunch in their classroom from 11:15 am – 12pm. We encourage families to bring a cultural or favourite family recipe. Please remember that all items must be nut free. In order to be as environmentally conscious as possible, we ask you to send your child with a reusable plate and cutlery on that day. Regular classes will continue until our 3:00 pm dismissal, however parents are free to take their student home after lunch if they wish to do so.” Minerals
When we visited the Treasures of the Mineral World gallery, we learned about the difference between a rock and a mineral. Minerals usually are one colour and mostly have easy to see crystal shapes like cubes, triangles and needles. A mineral is one material; it's like a single Lego brick. It is different than a rock because a rock is made up of two or more minerals (it's like adding on more Lego bricks). We also learned about features of different minerals and carried out tests to help us identify different minerals. Some tests we performed to identify minerals were: Moh's scale of hardness tests, magnetic tests, light tests (light can pass through it or light makes a rainbow), and streak plate tests (looking for the colour a mineral makes when dragged across a streak plate). Here are some of the minerals that grabbed our curiosity: "Calcite because most samples have really cool needle crystals." - Max "Apophyllite because it's so beautiful and it has sparkly needles." - Harveen "Halite because it is the salt we eat." - Sydney "Millerite because it looks like it has feathers on it." - Liam M. "Rhodochrosite because my mom and me found a lot of it and we've never seen one as cool as we've found the others." -Lexi "Geodes seem cool to me. Geodes are a rock and the cool thing about it is you can flip it onto one side and it just looks like a whole rock. Then you can flip it around and inside it looks super cool. Like crystals inside." -Dexter "Tourmaline because it has beautiful colours." - Jyotsna Learning to Draw To learn how to draw, we sketched some African artifacts in the West Africa Gallery. Some of these artifacts included masks, costumes, jewelry, chairs, benches, sculptures, and pots. An artist guided us through our sketching. She showed us how to sketch without erasing, a new way to hold a pencil, different shading techniques and how to do a quick contour sketch (getting a quick outline of the shapes first before adding in the details). Our instructor said she thought we were amazing artists and a wonderful group of humans! "Bow Habitat was the best field study so far this year!" - Liam M
"I really enjoyed sketching the fish from the aquarium and learning about them." - Annika "Why were the fish so often laying on the ground of the aquarium looking like they were dead?" - Clayton "Maybe they were heavy and they can't lift their selves." -Jyostsna "Maybe because they were tired." - Kyra "I enjoyed fishing because we got to practice fishing for real fish and we got to pick out the colour of the fishing rod (the lures at the end of the hook) and see if it was our lucky one." -Layal "The lake sturgeon was here before the dinosaurs." - Devon "I wonder why the fishes didn't come to our rod in the water. Maybe because there were a lot of them (lures landing in the water). So they probably got a little scared/surrounded."-Taeya "I wonder why it's so hard to catch one fish?" - Maddalyn "I think that fish were laying on the ground (in the aquarium tanks) because they needed more room (they didn't have enough space to move around)." - Liam M. "Why do some fish have their mouths on the bottom?" - Ayla "Because some fish swim at the bottom because they eat their stuff out of sand and spit it out. That's where their food is and they just stay on the bottom. Their mouths are on the bottom because it's easier to eat for them." - Oliver "Why does the white sucker suck things?" -Harveen "Because it has to suck algae." -Sam "How come the fish were going around the fishing rod but they weren't trying to bite it (the lure)? -Jalal "Because we fished in the afternoon. Maybe they weren't biting because they were already full from lunch." - Max "Does anybody know what rainbow trout eat?" - Mrs. Keet "They eat minnows." - Liam M "They also eat algae if they're really hungry." - Clayton "How could you find out what rainbow trout eat? This is your homework." - Mrs. Keet |
Room 301
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