Last Friday, the “Star Dome” visited our school. I arranged for the mobile planetarium to come and present to all four multiage 1/2 classrooms. Our classroom was so excited to go into the dome and learn about space. We shocked our presenter with our knowledge and questions. We learned about the moon, planets, constellations, and oral traditional storytelling about the stars. It was a wonderful field trip and we didn’t have to go anywhere!
One Super Kid said …”This is the best day ever! We get to lay under the stars together.”
This was a week full of creativity! We started the week learning about the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh. The class loved looking at his paintings and admiring his use of colour.
I told the class my story about going to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There was a class of young kids sitting in front of Starry Night learning about the painting. Of course there was also a bunch of adults standing behind straining to hear all the details. I was one of them. It was fascinating to me that these lucky kids got to go there for their class field trip. They were surrounded by so many masterpieces. I got to take a picture beside the famous painting and even got yelled at by the museum guard because by purse bumped the frame! Mortifying!!!! Can you imagine if this priceless piece of art was knocked off the wall by me? That day changed my teaching. I decided right there, surrounded by some of the most famous pieces of art in the world, that my students would learn about them. That my students would know art appreciation and create their own masterpieces influenced by Van Gogh, Matisse, Pollock, Picasso and many more.
We created our own versions of Starry Night using shaving cream, watercolour paint, and pastels.
Our Spaceship is really taking off! 🙂 We’ve cut our hatch, drawn and painted our NASA sign, and even made our cone on the top. It has turned into a great place to curl up with a good book.
Thanks to those families that brought in old electronics for us to take apart. The Super Kids love the take apart centre. They are busy dismantling old computers and even a stereo. Great questions are coming out of this activity. Why are wires made of plastic with metal inside? Why are circuit boards so pointy? How does all this actually work?
A huge thank you to the four volunteers that helped us paper mache on Friday afternoon. There was plenty of laughs, cooperation, and of course a huge mess! We let them dry over the weekend and plan to paint them this coming week.
We continued to learn all about the solar system with the help of the YouTube channel “Crash Course Kids”. Check out the links below:
I finally figured out how to get the NASA links working from a pervious post. I’ve included them below.
The kids had a great week and so did I! I can’t wait to see how our planets turn out and to continue to work on our research projects. 🙂
On Friday, we welcomed our new friend all the way from China! The Super Kids were thrilled to have her join us. They even made her a welcome sign for the door that our new friend took home with her. I’m sure the new country, school, language, and friends were overwhelming. Not to mention the freezing temperatures this past week! I’m so proud of my amazing class for their big hearts and generosity. The most important thing was that our new friend felt welcomed and was happy to join us.
Our word work this week included a focus on contractions and vowels. One centre involved matching the snowman words to the contraction hat. I’m noticing as the students become more comfortable with contractions, they are starting to experiment with them as they write. Even my grade 1 students are making connections and noticing these words in books.
We began our research projects this week on the solar system. Using our classroom books and the Pebble Go website, the class began learning about their topic. Pebble Go is a website that students can read or they can click on the speaker icon and the site will read it to them.
Thanks to one Super Kid’s family, we have a very large box that we are turning into a spaceship! We started painting it on Friday and plan to get creative with it next week. We’re still figuring out how to make our cone top. If you have any suggestions let us know. The class is brainstorming some ideas and would love your suggestions.
This coming week we will be learning about the artist Vincent Van Gogh and creating our own Starry Night inspired art pieces. On Friday we plan to get messy and make our own paper mache planets! Thanks to those brave parent volunteers that are joining us for our messy afternoon.
Happy New Year! Vacations seem to fly by. I hope that all of my Super Kid’s families had a wonderful holiday season. My family went to Orlando after celebrating Christmas, and enjoyed some time in the sun.
The Super Kids were thrilled to see each other on Monday and shared their vacation stories. Getting back into routine can be challenging, so most were exhausted by the afternoon. To tell you the truth, I was too! 🙂 We started our day on Monday with a “Find Someone Who…” activity. This got us up and moving. I was very popular for the find someone who went on a plane. Even our fish Jeff go in on the action. The student’s family that were kind enough to take him for winter break, even gave him a stocking and a gift! Many wrote his name on the “got a generous gift” box.
After reading the books “If You Decide to Go to the Moon” by Faith McNulty and “The Darkest Dark” by astronaut Christ Hadfield, we started a conversation about space.
So many questions came out of this discussion. What is the moon made of? How do you become an astronaut? Are aliens real? Why does the moon change shape? When I said, “I don’t know. Wouldn’t be great to find out!” I had them hooked!
One Super Kid suggested we look for videos about landing on the moon. We found the first moon landing, a shuttle taking off, and many Chris Hadfield videos from his time on the International Space Station. The class liked the fact that he was Canadian. For some reason, I am not able to upload the links to these videos. If you are interested in checking them out, then search for Chris Hadfield brushes his teeth, makes a sandwich, and sleeping in space.
The class is excited to get started, find the answers to their questions, and learn about universe! Stay tuned…:)
