Plants, The Number 9, & Interconnectedness

Yesterday was a busy, wonderful Wednesday! Here are the highlights:

Free Choice Centers & Morning Meeting:

It is interesting to see what students will choose for an activity every morning when they have the chance to explore any and all materials in the classroom. Yesterday was a big day for the art center!

I had to switch up our Proud Wall as new artwork was being produced that needed to be displayed. Art was going to be a theme that would come back later in the day.

 

During our morning meeting, we always discuss the morning's yes/no question that also serves as a means for taking attendance. The students are also now printing their names every morning rather than just locating the paper with their name on it. Yesterday morning I decided to introduce a style of painting that would be discussed in our afternoon's lessons. It turned out to be a really great way for them to practice viewing art and expressing their connections to the artwork.

 

Science: It was time for a culminating lesson for all of our knowledge that we have gathered about plants. So, we watched two videos on YouTube. One was about the needs of a plant and the other was about the different parts of a plant. Then, we brainstormed all of the information that we have learnt about plants so far. Next, students recorded their observations of their bean plants and then also filled out a part in their booklet about what they've learnt and three things that plants need to survive.

Some were getting bigger. Some have huge leaves. Some are big and some are small. One plant had a small, medium, and large stem!

Scientists at work!

 

Math: We moved forward to talking all about the number 9! So fitting, as in our countdown, we only had 9 days of school left after yesterday!

 

We filled out our All About The Number chart. Then students had to find 9 math manipulatives and create the number 9 in two sets (such as five and four, which was the most common set).

 

Some finished more quickly, so we also worked on patterns. The big challenge: make a pattern using 3 colours!!

 

Phys.Ed: We had a mixture of our warm up, including tag, and practicing manipulative skills of throwing and kicking. We played a game where the students had to try and knock down the other teams pylons.

 

After lunch we had a mixture of Social Studies, Art, & Health (it's all interconnected!):

We worked together with the Grade 1 class to learn all about an exciting project that has started at our school; the mural project.

 

We learned all about the project and what it represents. This included talking about interconnectedness and how what we do effects everyone around us. To demonstrate, we used dominos. As we were waiting for the Grade 1 class to join us, I was able to witness just how interesting dominos are! The students were quite enamoured. It began with experimenting with how to make them all fall down and then turned into building patterns and 3-D structures (math IS everywhere!).

 

The student's also viewed and discussed Leah Dorian's artwork, which some students recognized as the painting that we were discussing during our calendar meeting. After explaining the symbolism and importance of the mural project, students were broken up into 3 groups. They rotated through 3 states. The first station focus on what a promise is and included a reading of the Robert Munsch story A Promise is a Promise. The second station taught students about the medicine wheel. The third station had students brainstorming all of the connections that they could make to the our schools four core values:

 

 

The afternoon flew by with these activities! We will continue discussions about the mural project leading up to the day when students are able to paint their own leaf on the mural. There is so much great learning that can and is happening around the mural project! I am excited for this new addition to our school that will reflect our values and our interconnectedness.