This week we researched and understood more deeply the different ways the animals and plants adapt.
We discovered that body adaptations are not the only way that plants and animals adapt. They also change their behavior and habits in order to survive in their environment.
We began this week by brainstorming the different animals we knew. We then got on to the internet and searched the map to find out where some of these were majorly found.
We started researching and learning about the different adaptations that animals make in order to survive in their environment. We are finding it very intriguing to learn the different ways the animals are built in order to be able to live in their surroundings.
In Math, we are learning to interpret graphs and create bar graphs. We now know that a bar graph is a graph drawn using rectangular bars to show how large each value is. The bars can be horizontal or vertical.
To understand better how plants adapt we conducted a potato experiment. We placed a potato in a dark box with just a tiny hole in one corner. We want to find out of this potato will grow, die or adapt.
Stay tuned to find out the results of the experiment.
We went around to the grade 4 and 5 students to see what they thought would happen . We collected their opinions and made a tally chart. We used this data collected to make a bar graph.
S.P.E.L.L. time
To celebrate Diwali, we worked hard to put together a small celebration for our helping staff without which our school days would not be as smooth and clean as there are. This is our way of saying a big THANK YOU to our entire helping staff for working way before we come and long after we are gone from school to make sure everything is organised for us, to have a lovely day at school.
Thank you Ms. Amanda for helping us put together this lovely sing and dance performance.
The second song was composed by us!!!
Our french students singing a song in French for the staff on the occasion of Diwali célébration...
And last but not least, wishing everyone a safe and HAPPY DIWALI!!!!
After a looooong 5 day weekend, it was time to get back to work.
We began our second unit of inquiry this week. Our new unit is under the theme - Sharing the Planet.
When we came back we found the chairs in our class missing and that made us think of what action we need to take now, as class has to go on and we can't stand the whole day. So our young thinkers put on their thinking caps and came up with different suggestions. We thought of having our class out in the open on the playground. Soon, we released that it was too big an open space and we all had to shout to be heard. The other classes were having PE class there and that distracted us too, besides the dragon flies and the scorching heat.
So it was time to think of another place! We came up with the idea of using the cafeteria. So off we went to the cafeteria. Well there we met with another set of problems. Our voices echoed there and we didn't have pencils or colors to draw and color with!!
This did not deter our thinkers. They found some coal, beetroot, flowers, turmeric and mud and got set to work.
Post this activity we came back to class and reflected on the experience we had just had. We concluded that the changes in our environment forces us to do things differently and we had to ADJUST.
The next day we discussed and brainstormed what it means to be living.
We made a list of all the living things we could think off and then bundled them in groups.
We realized that different animals have different habitats.
We worked at different stations to explore what are the different ways animals adapt in their
surroundings.
Finally we unfolded our central idea and rewrote them to show our understanding of the same.
I would like to thank the parents for making time to attend the PTSM. It was an eventful conference! Appreciate your continuous support.
This week we have been working on our summative task of designing our dream island project. We began by making a blue print of the same. Stay tuned to see the complete project.
In Math, we have been working on mastering the different strategies of addition and subtraction. We are learning to use the number line and 100 grid to help us calculate faster.
B.U.I.L.D. time
This week we had our class assembly. Along with our Grade 2 friends we shared our learning of the current UOI through music and movement, a presentation and a quiz. It was a lot of fun. We would like to thank Ms. Amanda to help us put the song in a rap and record it for us. We would also like to thank Durgesh Sir to help us with all the technical difficulties.
We began this week by reading the story 'A drop in the lake'. Through the book we learnt how we affect the environment and pollute the lakes, streams and rivers. The book inspired us to make a water filter using everyday things. We decided to make the water filter ourselves and see if it really worked.
We used an empty bottle.... cotton.....sand .... gravel and some dirty water to make out water filter. Click on the videos below to see how we made -
http://wecort.com/archives/53
Did it work????? Click to find out.
This week, we had a sharing session with one of our ex students Siya Jain. She joined us from Singapore to share about the land forms and climate in Singapore. We shared all about Maharashtra and the land forms that we are blessed with. We realized that Singapore is hot all the time and it rains there through out the year as it is an island. Singapore does not have many land forms and most of the things there are man made. Thank you Siya for sharing with us all about Singapore and the climate there.
We opened our mystery jars this week to find words with the short 'a' sound in them. We said them aloud to understand the sound and then sorted them as per the sound the words made. The mystery jar is going to be teaching us different sounds, spelling patterns, sight words and new vocabulary each week. Wonder what is in there for next week??????
In Math, we are learning the concept of carrying over and borrowing (regrouping ) by using our understanding of place value. When adding two digit numbers, children will be looking at them and deciding if they can regroup ( or borrow) them for a ten.
We completed our salt map of Maharashtra. We were surprised to find out about the numerous rivers we have in Maharashtra, the forests...the hills....the mountain ranges..... the plateaus.....the water reservoirs.....beaches..... We truly are blessed with a range of land forms in our state.
We shared our learning with Grade 2 students and showed them how these land forms help us in our lives. Take a sneak peek through the final journey of our project -
We continued working on our land forms journal. We marked out the major lakes found in the world. We researched about how the land forms impact different settlements around them. Learning about how we are affecting these wonderful creations of God was an eye opener for us.
In Math, we learnt about co ordinates. Once we understood that coordinates are set on values that show the exact location we moved on to understand what are latitudes and longitudes. We tried to find the exact location of few places.
This week we started our Math B.U.I.L.D. centres.
So what is B.U.I.L.D.
B = Buddy games
(Pretty self explanatory)
U = Using manipulative
At this station we will be using math manipulative to work with . ( snap cubes., base ten blocks/cards, playing cards, counters, coins, dice etc)
I = Independent Math
We will work with math task cards or journal prompts at this station.
L = Learning about Numbers
At this station we are going to be working at strengthening our number sense and /or fact fluency. We will include math computer time here as well!.
D = Doing Math
At this station we will reinforce the current topic of Math that we are working on through a variety of activities.
In Language, we are learning about letter writing. We began with comparing two letters written by the same person. We discovered that the two letters were very different....the purpose ...the format...the language all were different. A small glimpse into what we discovered while we were comparing the two letters.
This week, Grade 5 put up an assembly sharing with us what they are learning in their class. They shared with us about affirmations. We are going to tell ourselves everyday - I am special..I am beautiful.....I can do everything. Thank you for such a positive message Grade 5 and Ms. Cecilia. We will surely try and implement this in our daily lives.
We have started the mystery word jar in our class too! Stay tuned till next week to know what its all about.
The month of August seems to be full of short weeks. In these short spans of time we have been busy learning about some of the major land forms in the world. To portray our understanding of land forms we got into groups and used our bodies to show different land forms. It was a fun task that made us think.
To understand how the land forms are distributed in the world, we began by tracing the map and identifying the various oceans and continents. We researched to find out which are the major land forms in the world and began by marking out the mountain ranges and the rivers in the different continents.
Take a sneak peek here ......
While working on this we get very curious to know about the land forms that we have in our country. So we made a salt map of Maharashtra and shaped up the different land forms we have in our state. Stay tuned to look at the completed map. Maharashtra Salt Map coming soon.....
A short glimpse till you wait ....
A big thank you to Ms. Nirmala and Ms. Siya for sharing about Ganesha in the assembly. It was very interesting.
This week in Math, we have been focusing on comparing numbers and understanding greater than less than and equal to.
