Aboriginal Dot Art

To enhance our studies of Early Settlers, we thought it would be fun to study the art of different groups of Aboriginals. For these dot paintings, students chose a symbolic animal -one with which they related or shared similar traits. We researched animal symbolism to help inspire us.

Students made a stencil, and coloured it in using black paint. They then created a design or pattern using only dots. These dots were made easier by the use of a Q-tips! The results were pretty amazing.

Making Clay Float!

The tigers have been eagerly exploring forces. During this lab, we were trying to understand buoyancy and balanced forces. Students were given a piece of tinfoil and were asked to make it float, and carry a load.

 

We learned that keeping the structure balanced was key. We also learned that it was important to have edges.

We then had to take a piece of clay that does not float, and make it float!

This proved to be very challenging.

Real scientists record their observations!

Exploring First Nations Settlements in Ontario

We have been learning about the First Nations people living in Canada in the late 1700's. We looked at maps of Canada and talked about how Canada has changed over the past 200 years. We looked at Ontario, and found Brampton on the map. We learned that the Wendat people were living in Southern Ontario at that time. Students explored the challenges facing people living off of the land and did some comparisons to life today. We compared our home to the longhouses of the Wendat people.

As we explored Ontario in the north, we learned about the Anishinabe who lived near Algonquin. We researched their way of living and added Wigwams to our homes posters.

 

By creating villages, we were able to see first hand the similarities and differences between the two First Nations communities and our own. 

Exploring Forces

It's been a busy week and these Wild Tigers have been busy scientists. We began our forces unit by exploring what pushes and pulls are. We explored how things move by either being pushed or pulled, and that more force is needed to push and pull an object that is heavy. Students brainstormed and acted out how they would move a heavy object like a car, by pushing with a large group, pulling and pushing with a large group, or my personal favourite, by calling a tow truck.

We then looked at pictures of familiar actions/objects and decided whether or not the object was being pushed or pulled. Some of the actions included water skiing, throwing a football, raking, mowing the lawn, bowling, flying a kite, skating etc. We sorted by push and pull.

Then we explored science centres.

Centre 1: Will It Bend?

In this centre, students inspected a variety of objects and determined whether or not they thought they could bend them. They recorded their observations, then experimented by attempting to bend the objects.

Centre 2: Will It Float?

In this centre students made predictions about which objects would sink and which would float. After recording their predictions, they conducted the experiment by dropping the objects into a bucket of water. Students recorded the results. They talked about the invisible force of buoyancy that was pushing on the objects that floated.

Centre 3: Using Pushes and Pulls

In this centre, students used pushes and pulls to create a plasticine snail. Students learned that they could manipulate a material and change it's shape by using muscular force and a combination of pushing and pulling.

Centre 4: Magnetism

In this centre, students learned that some forces can push and pull such as the forces conducted by magnets. Students learned that magnets have north and south poles, and experimented with pushing the north and south poles together. Students experimented with magnets that attracted and magnets that repelled, and learned how an invisible force can make objects move.

Next week we will explore balanced forces and buoyancy, gravity and friction!

Teaching and Learning with Shadow Puppet

We have been having way too much fun using Shadow Puppet in our classroom. We have used it to share and organize our research and create a presentation, and more recently to tell a fiction recount. Some students work best choosing pictures first and then brainstorming the story, while others work well with an organizer, planning what they want to say and choosing the pictures to go along with their words. Having some sort of a script made for a better told story!

Harini and Ruhani tell a fiction recount: The Day I saw A Ghost

Jessica and Josephine share what they learned about how the Wendat people preserve meat and fish

Harshit and Matthew discuss How the Wendat People Used Corn

Coming soon:

Josephine, Aaron and Nathan's fiction recount: The Day A Zombie Came To School http://get-puppet.com/s/6787F2FF-4100-4A2F-A57C-6949F1FF51FC

We're a little excited for Halloween. Can you tell?

Hands On Math Centres

I find it challenging trying to create a math program that is an equal balance of inquiry and exploration without completely abandoning the writing component to math: solving math stories and equations on paper. I try to do a mix of hands on problem solving with partners, in groups and independently, as well as exploring centre games and activities. We start each morning with our arrival activities which are generally math oriented based on what strand we are currently learning. I also try to incorporate as many math centres as possible. These centres are pretty low-maintenance. Many can be completed with number cubes, playing cards and paper and pencil. The ipad centre was my first math tech centre, borrowed from the wonderful Mrs. Wideen.

Many of the games and activities I have in my bins and centres I have borrowed from other fabulous teachers I have met either in person or through endless google searches. Today we explored addition and subtraction in 5 hands on centres!

Centre 1 "Race to a Unit"
This centre came from my fabulous grade three teaching partner. She originally introduced me to this game as "Race to a Flat" where students roll a number cube and trade in their ones for rods as they add up to 100 (a flat). In "Race to a Unit," students do the opposite. They start with a flat and subtract each number they roll. Now they are trading the flat in for rods, and the rods in for units as they try to get down to 1. Great way to introduce borrowing!

Centre 2 "Find the Missing Number"
This centre requires 3 players and 1 leader. We decided that Aces would be worth 1, and Jacks, Queens, and Kings are worth 10. The players are each dealt one card that they don't look at. They hold the card up to their foreheads facing out. The leader calculates the sum, and tells the players. The players look at their opponents cards and try to figure out what number is on their heads by using the sum and adding, counting up or subtracting.

Centre 3 "Roll up to 50"
Here, students start with 0. They roll a number cube and add the number to their total each time. The first person to add up to exactly 50 wins! However, if you go over, you have to start again! The fun never ends!


Centre 4 "Make the Greatest Difference"
We have played this game with addition as well trying to find the greatest sum. We used UNO cards. Students are dealt 4 cards and need to create two 2-digit numbers. The goal is to arrange the numbers, so that when they are subtracted, they are left with the greatest difference. The student with the greatest difference gets a point. Students learned that they needed to create a large number on top and a small number on the bottom. Wild cards were free cards. Students could make them be whatever number they wanted (9's and 0's became popular choices as the game caught on).

Centre 5 "Fact Family Stories"
This activity comes right from Mrs. Wideen's Blog. Here students drew a fact family card, took a picture of it, explained it on the ipad using Educreations. They uploaded their Fact Family Stories to Kidblog.

 

Arshdeep's Fact Family Story

When I can figure out how to attach documents, I will add the instruction sheet.

These were done well. We had issues with the technology, that slowed things down a little. I had to continually log in and out of my Educreations account in order to save and get a link to their Fact Stories. It was somewhat of a nuisance, and meant that the students couldn't do it independently, but overall, I'd do it again.

Warm and Cool Colours

I adapted this lesson from one I found on Pinterest. Here students experiment with the Artist's Toolkit, exploring warm and cool colours. We discovered which colours are warm and which are cool, and how we can use these colours to show temperature, time of day and even emotions!

We used pencil to draw, black oil pastel to outline and chalk pastels to colour in the scenery. 

We discussed the characteristics of a landscape and the differences between the background and foreground. Students learned that by layering objects in our pictures they appear further away. 

Students had the choice to use warm colours in the sky (background) and cool colours in the (foreground) valleys and mountains. 

We faced some challenges along the way. Some students needed more explicit modelling when it came to making concentric circles. Some made the connection to the circle continuing behind the mountains and around the other side invisibly. Others did not see this connection and drew "C's" that were disconnected. Some students made their concentric circles very skinny, and therefore plentiful. This made it very difficult to colour in.

Blending and smudging pastels is very messy. Students were advised to hold onto a paper towel to rub their fingers on, and to wash their hands often. They were reminded not to rest their hands on the paper while colouring so as to not smudge the colours across the paper.

When I saw similar lessons on Pinterest, the first thing I noticed was that there are many examples of the same artwork, in that the students simply reproduced the teacher's example. I try not to do too many examples, for hope that they will apply the skill taught and make their artwork their own. Then, I worry afterwards that the pictures are going to become the same pictures kids usually draw, and the skill will be lost. 

I had to take a step back and ask myself what I hoped my students learned from this assignment. Did I want them to learn to simply copy a design style, or actually create a style of their own? I wanted them to learn the difference between foreground and background, I wanted them to layer objects so that objects that were further away were hidden behind objects in the foreground, I wanted them to learn the difference between warm and cool colours, and I wanted them to experiment with pastels. If the pictures became full of birds, trees, and flowers, then so be it!

My suggestion to the students who wanted to add their own spin to the picture was to make their elements pop by using the opposite warm or cool colours. If they chose cool colours for the foreground, then I would like them to use warm colours for their accents. Where students had difficulty was when it came to the mountains further back. Some started colouring those in the same colour as the sky, rather then the same colour as the rest of the hills.