Caterpillars!

The students are very excited to have caterpillars in the class!  They have been observing and documenting the changes of the caterpillars in their Inquiry books and are amazed at how quickly they are growing.

 

 

Food Revolution Day

On Friday May 17th, the students in both Ms. Hammond's and Ms. Gourgiotis' classes along with our Grade 4 garden buddies had the exciting opportunity to participate in the "2nd Annual Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Day."  Food Revolution Day is a day to raise awareness of cooking and eating fresh produce and healthy food.  Two chefs, Jazmine and Kim came to cook with our students.  Students learned that what we plant we can make into food.  The students planted basil, tomatoes and sunflower seeds in the school garden.  They then moved into the kitchen and were shown what can be made from the food we planted.  The students made basil sunflower seed pesto pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes. YUMMMM!!!  Students rotated to 2 other stations, one of them being an educational area where they drew pictures of what they planted and cooked and read books about gardening and nutrition. The other station as a nutrition workshop cooking a tasty sugar-free treat teaching the kids that healthy can still be yummy!  We all had so much fun!!

Planting tomatoes and basil.

Taking the seeds out of the sunflower head.



Planting the sunflower seeds.

Cleaning the basil to make the pesto sauce.

Blending everything together.

Pasta and sauce are now ready!

We all sat and enjoyed the basil sunflower seed pesto pasta that we made ourselves, with the help of our chefs, Kim and Jazmine.

Surveys

Our students love to tell us what they like best. We have started to use surveys in our classroom. The boys and girls make up a question to ask their friends (e.g., Do you like pizza? or Do you like water centre?). They enjoy walking around and asking everyone in the classroom their question, they record their answers using tally marks and then share what they observe (e.g. "Three people like cars and two people don't!"). Some boys and girls have asked to take home a survey to use with their family. It is not homework, they simply want to share what they've learned with their family.

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Gourgiotis

Scientist in the School: Backyard Bugs Workshop

Last week Ms. Gourgiotis' class participated in the Scientist in the School workshop called "Backyard Bugs."  A scientist came to our classroom.  The students had a lot of fun being entomologists (someone who studies insects).

Thank you to all the parent volunteers for helping out at the various centres.


Students used magnifying glasses and microscopes to observe bug specimens.



 

 

 



  

The children learned about the unique anatomy of bugs.  They investigated how bugs behave, eat, see and hear.

 

Bugs have compound eyes (many eyes).  Students wore goggles which showed how bugs, with compound eyes, see things in their environment.
 

 



We learned that insects have three body parts (a head, thorax and abdomen) and six legs.  Students created their own bugs using playdough.

Students learned about CAMOUFLAGE.  Insects camouflage themselves to protect themselves from their enemies.  We helped butterflies play hide and seek using camouflage.



These are just a few of the activities presented to us by our scientist. We had a lot of fun!!  The students and I will continue to explore the insects outside for the remainder of the school year.

What's Growing in our Garden?

Here are some photographs of our gardens. We often take out our Lab Books to record the changes we see and talk about what the plants and animals in our gardens need to survive.

 

 

 

 

 

The Snails are Back!

The boys and girls have been exploring our classroom gardens, watching as all our plants change and grow. Last Thursday we were outside on a wet morning and found some snails on the pathway. We were excited to see them back in our garden.

 

 

Pigeons!

Dear Families,

The children have been enjoying listening to the funny stories by Mo Willems. As a treat, we've attached two versions of the story "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the bus". Enjoy!

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Gourgiotis

Storytelling

Dear Families,

We've begun to tell stories to the children without books. We call this Storytelling Time. The stories focus children on language instead of pictures in books. (We still read picture books in the class as well) They imagine their families and their homes when they listen to the story.

We've attached one of our stories. Please click on the play button below. This one was read aloud by Ms. Hammond and is about Brother and Sister and Mother and Father and Cat and Dog and what they do every Saturday morning in their home.

We hope you enjoy listening to the story again boys and girls.

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Gourgiotis

Family Thursday

Dear Families,

On Thursday January 24th we will be having Family Thursday from 9:00 to 10:00. You are welcome to stop by and visit the classroom and see the children engaged in their learning.

 

We will continue on with our learning and our normal routines while you are visiting.  We hope to see you on Thursday.

Ms. Gourgiotis and Ms. Hammond

Frederick

Last week during our Library visits we watched a short film based on a book by Leo Lionni called "Frederick".

The children really enjoyed this tale. We've added the link below so they can share it with their family.

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Gourgiotis

Fredericks' Story


Also you can visit Leo Lionni's website and see a video about how he creates his mice!

Leo Lionni's Website

Books!!

Dear Families,

Please check out the new page we've added above called Class Books it's linked to a list of books that we have read in the classroom. We plan to add more books to our list each Friday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!


Ms. Hammond and Ms. Gourgiotis

Full Day Kindergarten

Dear Families,

If your child is currently enrolled in JK this year, they will be going to full day Kindergarten for their SK year.

The pink registration form is only for NEW Junior Kindergarten students for next year.

Hope this clears things up,

Ms. Hammond and Ms. Gourgiotis