Oceans

On Wednesday we had our ocean party! 

In the morning we made sandcastles and played ocean games including, shark island, octopus tag and sharks and minnows! 

We were supposed to have a picnic outside but it was moved to the gym due to the rainy weather! The students enjoyed their lunch and a jello snack! 

In the afternoon we enjoyed watching the movie, Dolphin Tale, on the big screen in the gym! 

Oceans

The students have been working hard on their ocean animal posters! They finally completed their research, posters and presentations on Wednesday. 

Each student chose an ocean animal they were interested in learning about and they were split into groups accordingly.  They had to work with their group to research their animal and organize their information appropriately. The students used a variety of non-fiction stories and the internet to help find specific information. They learned how to use a table of contents, an index and a glossary to find information in a book. I guided them through this process but they did most of this project independently! I am very proud of how well the groups cooperated! 

After the students were finished their research they worked very hard on their posters! 

Finally they presented their learnings to the class! 

Great job grade 1's and 2's! I am so proud of how hard you worked on your posters. 

Oceans

Last week we learned about different types of sharks! We read various non-fiction stories, looked at websites, and watched videos to gather information about sharks.  

 After learning about sharks the students wrote down their favourite facts! 

We compared different types of sharks using a venn diagram. How are they different how are they the same?

In art we created a silhouette painting! 

Oceans

The K-3's enjoyed making sea horses and dolphins with tissue paper! They turned out great. 

Oceans

For the past week we have been exploring different types of whales. We read various non-fiction stories and looked at websites to gather information about whales. 

On the first day we explored what we already knew about whales. The students were split into groups and rotated to jot down what whales have, what they look like and what they are. After they presented their chart to the class. Then we read a nonfiction story to confirm the information we wrote down and to add new information. 

After reading a few non-fiction stories the students wrote down their favorite whale facts. We also discussed the difference between a fact and a opinion. 

The next day we used a venn diagram to compare different types of whales. Each group was given a whale they had to research. After we came together to discuss the similarities and differences between a humpback whale, a blue whale and an orca whale. We learned that some whales are much bigger than other whales. We used yarn to measure out how big the three whales are.

A blue whale is the biggest animal in the world! The average size of a blue whale is 31 meters. (From the student in the blue shirt all the way down to the student in pink pants.) 

A humpback whale on average is 13 meters. (From the student in the blue shirt to the student in the striped dress). 

The average length of an orca whale is 9 meters. (From the student in blue shorts to the student with a blue shirt). 

Then we watched videos of different whale movements. We learned that breaching is when whales jump out of the water and twirls around, spyhopping is when a whale pokes its head out of the water to look around, lobtailing is when whales stick their tails out and slap it on the water and logging is when a whale lies still at the surface of the water, resting, with its tail hanging down. 

The last thing we did was compare whales to fish. How are they different, how are they the same? 

We had lots of fun learning about whales...but the kids are definitely excited to learn about sharks!