Exploring with Measurement and Shadows

Room 10 has been learning about non-standard units of measurement. This week we decided to combine what we know and wonder about shadows and practicing our measuring skills. Our challenge was to figure out how to cast a shadow with our bodies on the snow and measure and compare our shadow to our actual bodies. We used yellow school rulers. We noticed:

"Our shadow is our double"- Lucien
"Shadow are made of light and shade"-Elise
"The light shines on your body and makes the shadow"-Malin
"If the light (sun) is really bright it makes the shadow very long"

Measurement

Room 10 is exploring with measurement. We used the story How Big is a Foot to guide our learning. This is a story about a King who gets a bed made for his Queen. He tells the carpenter that the bed is 3 feet wide and 6 feet long. The carpenter gets to work. When the Queen gives her new bed a try they soon realize that it is too small. What went wrong? The carpenter measured with his feet 3 across and 6 long? The students tried this out on their friends and soon realized the problem.

"It's because the King has bigger feet!" Georgie

The students then explored with different units of measurement like markers, floor tiles, blocks, string... We measured everything from the length of our classroom, to ourselves and teachers to our friends. We discovered that we need to start the measurement at the end of the item (baseline) and we need to use the same unit each time until we reach the end.

"What tool do we have that would make this easier and accurate?"

" We use a ruler to help us measure accurately" Remi

Building Past and Present

Grade 1 has been investigating structures around Calgary. We had the opportunity to see what Calgary looked like in the past while we were visiting Fort Calgary. We also looked at all the interesting buildings when we were driving through down town Calgary on our way home. Today we were given a photo of Calgary in the past and in the present and had to write what we see, think, know and wonder. Later Mrs. McCaw gave us pictures of buildings in and around Calgary from the past and present. We are working in small groups to recreate iconic Calgary buildings and we will be working with an artist at the beginning of March that will be teaching us how to scientifically sketch buildings like an architect. Check out what we have done so far!

Fort Calgary

Grade 1 had the opportunity to visit Fort Calgary today. We learned a lot and had so much fun. We got to experience what Calgary looked like in the past and who lived here, we even had the chance to dress in clothing from the past. We learned about the pioneers, First Nations People (Blackfoot), RCMP and our fist Prime Minister Sir. John A. MacDonald. We learned that Fort Calgary is built where the Bow and the Elbow river meet and that this is called the Confluence. We had the opportunity to be involved in a play where we all had very famous characters to play like John Ware and his wife Mildred, RCMP, Mary Greene (School teacher), and many more. We learned a lot today and are grateful to our volunteers who joined us!

Off to Bow Habitat tomorrow!!!

Happy Valentine's Day and Family Day

Room 10 would like to remind you that there will be no school Thursday and Friday due to Teacher's Convention and Monday is Family Day. Enjoy your time with your families and we will see you back  on Tuesday when will be heading out to Fort Calgary. If your child has not returned their forms please send with them on Tuesday morning.
Thanks!

Looking Closely at Snowflakes

This cold, wintery weather inspired us in room 10 to look closely at snow flakes. We revisited the photos of snowflakes that we took a few weeks ago and used them to inspire our writing. We used the I see, I think, I wonder writing prompt to get us started. We noticed the details, shapes and light on the snow flakes and many of us wondered where they come from? If they change shape? And what makes them all so unique? We decided to do some investigation into this and discovered that all snowflakes are six sided (hexagon shaped), the points are called arms or branches, the colder the temperature the more detail each snowflake will have, snowflakes are a group of snow crystals, they are formed from the temperature in the air and the water temperature in the clouds, and they change shape as they fall to the ground. In the afternoon we explored with tissue paper and water making our own beautiful and unique snow crystals.

Estimating

Every week in room 10 students work on their estimation skills through mathematical problems and our VIP estimation jar. This week Malin brought in a jar of multicolored buttons. After showing the students what 10 buttons would look like in a group they had to come up with an estimation that would be too high and one that would be too low. We then passed the jar around and with the help of the group of 10 the students we able to make their estimation. Students then decided that the best way to count the buttons would be to make groups of 10. We discovered that there were 410 buttons in the jar!

Chemical Reactions

Room 10 was using our scientific skills to explore chemical reactions today. Our question was: What will happen when we add alka-seltzer to coloured water?

Hypothesis #1: The Colour will spread
Hypothesis #2: The water will rise
Hypothesis #3: It will change colour

After the experiment the students realized that the alkaline-seltzer dissolved in the water. We heard words like fizzed, bubbled, dissolved, disappeared, moved... We then added some baking soda and vinegar to see what the reaction would be.

"Wow an explosion!" "There is hardly any water left!" "The water doesn't like the medicine (repelled)!"

During this experiment we were learning about the Scientific process:
Question
Hypothesis
Procedure
Observation
Conclusion

Fort Calgary

Hi room 10 families!
First of all we had a great day swimming today and look forward to tomorrow. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped us today.

We have two upcoming Field Studies:
1. Fort Calgary on Feb. 19th
2. Bow Habitat on Feb. 20th

Sorry about the back to back days, its all we could get. :(
We have enough volunteers for the Bow Habitat on the 20th but we don't have enough for Fort Calgary on the 19th.
If you are able to join us please let me know at sdmccaw@cbe.ab.ca

Thanks,
Stacy McCaw