Halloween

We had a great day! 

Today we:
-had a school parade to see all the costumes
-read 'Room on the Broom' and wrote about it
-talked about how to make a 'wow' picture to go with our writing
-we did a bone bridge building challenge
-travelled to all 3 grade one rooms for art and building activities

 Tomorrow is our community walk. We will only be out for a short time but please dress for the weather.

Have a safe and fun night!

Pumpkin Life Cycle

Reminder: Tomorrow the kids are welcome to wear costumes. Please remember no masks, weapons or really scary costumes. 

We will be going for a community walk on Thursday around the neighborhood of Maple Ridge. Please make sure students have mitts and hats as it will be chilly.

Today students:

-learned the parts of a pumpkin

-used watercolors to create a life cycle of a pumpkin. 

-looked at arrangements of seeds and find different ways to count them. (eg. by 2, 5, and 10). Ask your child what strategy they used. 

Pumpkins

Today students were busy measuring and observing pumpkins. Our morning started with students measuring the height and circumference of their pumpkin in groups of 4-5. They worked together to create a poster, providing information about their specific pumpkin.

Students were then asked to draw what they thought their pumpkin would look like inside, and predict the number of seeds they would find. After drawing their ideas, the pumpkins were cut open and the students cleaned them out, separated the fibrous strands and the seeds and then began counting!

Reminder:
Halloween is on Wednesday. Students are welcome to wear their costume to school for the day. Costumes should not include masks or violence.

Building bird feeders

This afternoon students were busy building bird feeders. Their challenge was to build a bird feeder that a squirrel could not get into. After reading a story, and watching some videos, about squirrels trying to get into bird feeders, students worked with a partner to come up with a solution.  Together, they created an iLab plan to show their design. Their iLab plans needed to include a blueprint and a material list. Here are some examples:

Reminder: Tomorrow is a PD Day. There will be no school for students. Have a great weekend!

Tints and Shades

Today the boys and girls in room 15/16 were busy learning about tints and shades. These pictures helped us learn the difference between tints and shades. Can your child remember what happens when you add white to a colour? Is it a tint or a shade? What about when you add black?

Then, we made paint chips, using black, white and red. We even created names to match our colors, just like on real paint chips! Here are some examples of our work: 

This afternoon, students were given a painting challenge! We were exploring our gourds and pumpkins. The students were excited to paint them, but the only paint we could find was red, yellow and blue! Students quickly figured out that we could make the colours we need (green and orange) using the primary colours! Here is the beginning of our project: 

Halloween Update:

Next Wednesday is Halloween! Students are welcome to wear costumes to school for the day. We ask that students do not wear masks, or wear costumes that have weapons or violence. In the morning, there will be a small parade through the school, where students will be able to see all of the other children's costumes. The rest of the day will be spent in the classroom completing learning tasks, including building and stem challenges! 

Bird feeder supplies

Students will be building their bird feeder on Thursday and we are hoping to collect some supplies from home. If you have things in your recycle bin like paper towel tubes, cereal boxes, plastic containers etc, please send no more than a small grocery bag full to school with them on Wednesday or Thursday.

Mrs. Pittman sent home scholastic order forms today for room 16. If you are interested in ordering books, you can either order online and use a credit card or fill in your order and send it to me with a cheque. No cash please. The website is scholastic.ca then choose:

1) Parent

2) Scholastic club order from the dropdown box

3) Parent connect to a teacher. Then you can search Maple Ridge school

Ms. Fraser will be sending book order forms home early November for room 15. 

Today we looked at pictures of different types of bridges including the 2 we saw at Weaslehead yesterday. Students were challenged to design and build a bridge that spanned 30cm, can hold the weight of a container using only cotton swabs and tape. They reflected by thinking about what they might change next time, what worked well and problems they encountered. 

Picture Retakes Tomorrow

Reminder: Picture retakes are tomorrow. Please email your child's teacher and send in the original photo envelope you received if you would like your child to have retakes.

Today was a beautiful day to explore the Weaslehead nature area. Topics of discussion included:
-who uses this space?
-how do you know who has been here?
-how is the space used?
-what are the positive and negative impact of people?

Students sketched and took photos of evidence of people and animals in the area.  Below are some photos from their walk along the ridge and down into the valley.

Thank you to the volunteers who joined us for this special learning experience.