Mrs. Pols' Fantastic Fours

This week we began a variety of different new reading activities. In guided reading, We looked at articles from a Calgary newspaper from 1882, learning about some of the early fossil finds in Alberta. It was interesting to learn about the understanding and perspectives at the time and how they differ from what we know and feel now. It is wonderful how engaged the students are in our guided reading discussions. Reading together provides a wonderful opportunity to share our ideas and personal connections to texts.  We also began our next whole class read aloud, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Before revealing the book to the class, the students were shown a variety of artifacts connected to the book. As the artifacts were presented, the students shared predictions using the artifacts as clues. We had predictions of train travel, fairy godmothers, families from the past and time travel. As we read the book, we will look to learn how the artifacts connect to the main character...

In science, we have been working on the units, Matter:  Understandings of the physical world are deepened by investigating matter and energy as well as the unit  Scientific Methods: Investigation of the physical world is enhanced through the use of scientific methods that attempt to remove human biases and increase objectivity.  We learned about waste in nature and how decomposers help waste break down naturally. We worked through our first science investigation. The students formed the question, do all items in nature decompose at the same rate? We went through the procedure of the experiment and identified the variables that should be kept the same and those that should be changed. Each student then wrote their own hypothesis sharing what they believed the rate of decomposition would be. Groups then selected a fruit or vegetable. Next, we created scientific sketches and recorded our observations. We will return to our experiment each week and record our findings. This w...

Over the past weeks, the students have been working within partnerships and small adult-led groups to read and discuss a variety of non-fiction texts. The texts have been connected to our work in Social Studies as they have been focused on the natural regions of Alberta. As we read we worked to learn and understand a variety of subject specific vocabulary related to the grasslands region. We then worked on the skill of scanning text for specific information, highlighting information that fit into different categories such as landforms, places of interest and wildlife. The students then each created a visual representations the different elements of the region. We utilized the index and a variety of maps to help us to determine where in the Grasslands each image should go. We also connected our learning in Social Studies to Remembrance Day and Indigenous Veterans Day. First, we discussed symbols that we associate with Remembrance Day and the significance of the poppy. Then, we discussed...

The excitement of Halloween made this a busy, energetic week. We had a great time celebrating Halloween, with many excited to share their costumes. The students were eager to have their first opportunity to meet and work with their grade one buddies. They were fantastic role models and they collaborated and supported their buddy variety of Halloween related tasks including building a spider with a specific amount of materials and racing their spider with other buddy group. In math, the students collaborated with a partner in the bubbling cauldron challenge where they worked on their mental math addition skills. The students did a fantastic job of persevering when the task felt challenging. In art the students we examined a variety of examples of art by Tim Burton. We looked at the common features of his characters and applied this knowledge when creating our own Tim Burton inspired portraits. In French, we listening to a variety of French songs, learning different Halloween vocabulary....