Tuesday March 7

Notice:

I was away yesterday and the students had a sub they really liked.

We began the day writing.  I gave the students a choice between a compare and contrast or an explanation.  The students chose to write an explanation.  The topic was 'What is you favorite room in your house.'  Some students also turned it into an adventure story by going under their beds into another place.

This was followed by gym where we played a game with Mrs. D's class.  It was lots of fun and the students worked together in groups.

After recess we continued Science from last week from the new Science Curriculum

Grade 3:  all matter is made of particles
Grade 4: matter has mass, takes up space, and can change phase

We watched videos, and discussed the basic building block of matter, the atom.  In Ancient Greece a man named Democritus figured out that every single thing in the universe must be made up of tiny particles.   Democritus believed that the universe is composed of matter (Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space) and the Void (empty space). 

The students created a one page report in their Science books.  

After science we had about 15 minutes before we had to have early lunch for the grade 3's who head off to swimming lessons at 12:10.  The grade 4's head over to Mrs. Chase's class and wait until they go to the library and get trained in the GAFF program suite and learning the tools they will need in grade 5 and middle school and high school. 

When we got back at 130 we moved onto Social Studies where we are exploring aspects of the First nations peoples.   Today we are looking at the super cool canoes that opened up Canada, the birch bark canoes.  The birchbark canoe was the principal means of water transportation for Aboriginal peoples of the Eastern Woodlands.

It was the perfect craft for hunting beaver and made the fur trade possible.  The birch bark canoe was perfect because it is light and easily maneuverable, so it was  perfectly adapted to summer travel through the network of shallow streams, ponds, lakes and swift rivers of the Canadian Shield

We watched several great videos on the history and the making of the birch bark canoe.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OVUIvpiQkw

We then had a few moments to learn how draw using the youtube site draw so cute. 

see you all tomorrow... I will add the pictures later.