Among several skills, scientists have to be able to write procedures and hypothesize (try to guess) what is going to happen to their experiments based on what they already know. So in order to become scientists the students started to write a hypothesis for every experiment performed in the classroom.
Year 2.3 also started to understand units of measurement after they received a visit from a member of our community. Mr. Beto works in the maintenance department and visited us to show the students how he measures objects and what are the units of measurement used often by the school. With their previous knowledge and what they learned from Mr. Beto, students started to estimate and measure length for different objects in the classroom.
In our Unit of Inquiry How The World Works we reached the subjects of force and motion and the students were very excited to try different experiments with motion. Also they identified the main forces (push, pull, gravity) and were trying to explain how these forces are applied in our daily activities.
Still this week, year 2.3 went to visit their buddies from year 5.1 in the library and had a great time working on strategies for reading. Our buddies are amazing teachers and are working very hard to help year 2.3 to become better readers.
Check some pictures of our adventures:
Another week has flown by us and all the LIS community will have the opportunity of spending 1 week with family.
During this week in language 2.3 started learning and engaging in procedural writing, noticing how important writing procedures are for a scientist when creating and performing experiments. Students wrote procedures for “How to brush your teeth” and Mr. Enderson tried them out to check if they really work.
In order to write procedures, students were initiated on experiments. After being introduced to new tools and equipments students went off in groups to create their own experiment. Some really interesting and smelly experiments were created and tested. Also in the same week, Doctor/Scientist Nazneen visited our classroom and challenged the students to create a way of moving a box without touching it.
During mathematics 2.3 began to search for ways of measuring things. They are currently trying to find ways to measure one table and come up with the same number.
Check some of the pictures from this week:
Last week was busy but full of discovery. In language lessons students started to use conventions for writing (ex: spaces between words, capital letters, lower case letters and periods/a.k.a. full stop). During the language lessons they partook in an activity when they had to be principled and assess themselves on their own writing.
In mathematics students discovered that they can organize objects by attributes. For it to happen they had to visit and search for words to describe the object’s attributes. Besides the sorting out activities, they were also keen to organize numbers and had their first experience with place and value (ex: units, tens and hundreds).
Our new unit of inquiry (How The World Works) is about science. Students are trying to understand what science is and how forces work. They were extra keen to be in touch with all the “science objects” brought to the classroom and are now working to understand what a scientist is and how they make a science experiment.
If you are a scientist and would like to join us in one short lesson about what you do for living, please send me an e-mail: email@example.com
Also, the nature of this unit is trying things out, making observations and taking notes. Please encourage your little scientist to try things out and ask them how things work. We will work with forces: push, pull and gravity. Feel free to ask questions to your child. The goal is to have them thinking about the different ways things work.