Our Big Buddies' Simple Machines

At our school the grade 5 classes do a yearly project around Simple Machines.

This year they designed them around the theme Carnival Contraptions.

They were built at home and brought to school this week to share.

And since they are our big buddies we got a tour

and demonstrations.

The big buddies were able to describe how their contraption worked

and point out the simple machines they used.

The little buddies were enthralled with listening to the big buddies

and playing each game.

A bonus was that the games had edible prizes.

Well done, Big Buddies!

Book Play with Goodnight Gorilla

 Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann is a minimal text story.

It lends itself well to children reading the pictures to explain what is happening.

 
Sharing a story and then retelling it are important steps in learning to read.

Adding props encourages interest in the book and can lead to further 

language development.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   For example this child who noticed one animal had a tail, she then searched each animal and discovered they all have tails.

Reading together is a wonderful way to spend a few minutes with your child

and can encourage a life long enjoyment of reading.

Monday at the Pond

Our focus this week, at the pond, was water.

Some of the questions the children thought of last week were;

What is in the water?

What happens to the water?

Why is grass in the water?

With those questions in mind we started to explore.

The first thing we did was check the water level.

We measured with our feet how far from last weeks sticks, that we laid,

to this week's sticks, that we just put down.

When asked what happen to the water one boy responded 'it evaporated'.

Then we grabbed our equipment.

Nets, magnifying glasses and containers.

 Nets in the water and they quickly found the first bug.

I brought a library book for reference.

 Next we found a really squiggly insect.

 
                                 

A worm was found but the child was quite confidant that it was dead.

But she put it on dry land just in case.

And we continued exploring.

 

 Then one of the parents spotted a clump attached to a blade of grass.

We took a closer look and almost tumbled in.

 But we scooped out the jelly blob and put it in a container.

We think they are salamander eggs.

To finish off the morning we drew our observations.

 

This morning we were able to answer all three questions

from last week and came up with a few more.

Next week we'll focus on bugs.

Catkins at the Art Table

During Spring Break I went for a lot of walks.

One day I found a pussy willow tree that was shedding it's catkins.

I brought home a bag full and decided to put them at the art table this week.

 I added the book Bunny Bunny Catkin for inspiration.

 But the children didn't need it.