We’ve been pretty artsy
these past few weeks in Grades 3 & 4. Long ago (like, really long ago; a
throwback to second year university, in fact) I bought a book called
Scribbleville and I packed it away and totally forgot about it. But then I
stumbled across it at the beginning of the school year and saved it for a line
art lesson.
The book does double duty:
it’s about people who live in Scribbleville where everything is made of
scribbles. Then a stick man moves in and the citizens of Scribbleville need to
learn how to accept people with differences. That triggered a great
conversation. Then we made our own scribble art.
Then it was time to dive
into our Thanksgiving Day art. We read the story Turkey Trouble. It’s about a
turkey who is desperate to find a good disguise so that the farmer won’t find
him and eat him for Thanksgiving dinner.
It was our job to take our
own little turkeys and create a good disguise. Some of them were hilarious and
very creative!
Santa Turkey
Queen Elsa Turkey
Georgina Blaze Hockey
Turkey
Magician Turkey
Traditions and
celebrations are part of the Grade 2 curriculum but I still think it’s very
important to talk about and teach other celebrations that occur at this time of
year. I have one little girl who celebrates Eid so I basically let her be the
expert and tell the class what her family does for that holiday. We then traced
our hands and arms and decorated them with our own henna designs. It was a hit.
And then my sweet girl brought me in some left over food from her Eid celebration
so I could try it.
Science
For those who teach split
grades, it can be challenging to teach subjects like science because unlike
language and math where the expectations are very similar, the units themselves
can be very different. Not always; sometimes they go hand in hand quite nicely.
This year, I’m only assigned to teaching my Grade 4 science because another
teacher teaches my Grade 3 science while I’m on prep. So my Grade Threes
receive the content as I teach Grade 4 science, but I just don’t assess them or
evaluate them on what I’m teaching. Shhh, don’t tell them, though ;)
We started our Grade 4
unit on Light and Sound. This first week was spent specifically on learning the
properties of sound. We have
learned that sound is caused by travelling vibrations and we did some fun
experiments and games (Broken Telephone was a fun warm up; putting our ears on
the fence posts and soccer nets and hearing how the sound travels through metal;
and creating echoes with cardboard tubes and a metal cookie sheet)
And of course, no science
unit would be complete without a little help from Bill Nye the Science Guy.
My SSC (student support
centre) kids join us for science and I need to be mindful to teach to their
needs and most of them respond well to watching videos, so Bill Nye was a hit
with them.
The Ontario curriculum
also puts a big focus on societal impacts so we talked about the wind turbine
farms and how they have had mixed reactions. Although they are good for the
environment because they provide clean energy, some people think they are
awfully noisy. This debate sparked a great discussion in our classroom.
I spent a lot of time this
past week planning with my grade partners for our new math and language units.
I can’t tell you what they’re about right now, but I can tell you that I’m
extremely excited about them. We’ll be kick starting both of those on Tuesday
and then I can fill you in.
Well, that’s it from me…for
now. I need to go get ready for Thanksgiving dinner 2/3. I may just have to
wear stretchy, comfy clothes when I go back to school on Tuesday…
Happy Thanksgiving!
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