Mrs. Garlow's Classroom Blog

Science

We have wrapped up our unit on Strong and Stable Structures.  Students were busy building their dream playgrounds over the last few weeks and presented their structures to the class.  Our young scientists proudly showcased their knowledge, ingenuity, and problem solving skills.  They worked collaboratively in teams and utilized their individual strengths.  

Some of the playground designs included a snack stand to sell harvested produce from the school garden, solar panels to generate electricity for the school, a zip line for student use, outdoor washrooms, large rainwater containers to collect fresh water for the garden, etc.  

Have a look at some of the work over the past few weeks...

  

  

  

           


Our new unit will be Force and Movement.  The overall expectations for this unit are:

• assess the impact of various forces on society and the environment
• investigate devices that use forces to create controlled movement
• demonstrate an understanding of how forces cause movement and changes in movement

For our first investigation, please have your child bring in an object from home such as a toy that demonstrates how force is used to cause an object to start, stop, or change direction.

Math

Students have been learning early multiplication skills by using real life contexts such as inside a grocery store, sets of postage stamps, buildings, doors, and busses in a cityscape.  

The expectations for this unit are:

• relate multiplication of one-digit numbers and division by one-digit divisors to real life situations using a variety of tools and strategies

• multiply to 7 x 7 and divide to 49 ÷ 7, using a variety of strategies

Literacy

Students are learning how to read expository texts (non-fiction texts) by looking at a variety of different structures such as the table of contents, subtitles, photographs, captions to grasp main ideas.  They have also started writing about their topics of expertise.  

Remember that students will experience greater success if they choose topics they already know quite a bit about and if they are able to find a lot of information that is age appropriate from research texts (library books) and using online databases.

Through various mentor texts, students will analyze how non-fiction texts are structured, read to grasp main ideas from their research texts, and transfer these skills by writing their own chapter books. 

If you haven't already, please visit the community library with your child to sign out a few books on their topic of interest.  The librarians can assist by finding books that are written for children.  Please have your child bring their library books to school on Monday as they will begin using these books for research writing.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we will begin our new unit on Living and Working in Ontario.  Students will learn about the physical and municipal regions of Ontario.  They will investigate the relationship between the natural environment, land use, and employment opportunities, and how different uses of land and resources affect the environment.