Catching Up With The Super Kids

October in the Super Kids’ classroom ended with a pumpkin inquiry. Student’s practiced their estimating skills by making estimations and then measuring how much a pumpkin weighs, how many creases it has, how tall is the pumpkin, and if it will sink or float.

Next we learned how to draw a pumpkin using oil and chalk pastels.

Around Halloween it’s always fun to learn more about spiders!  The Super Kids learned about the difference between spiders and insects through information books and videos.  Did you know that some spiders have up to 8 eyes! After researching we created our own spooky spider webs with pastels and watercolour.  Learning how to draw spider webs was a bit tricky, but the Super Kids practiced on whiteboards first before they felt confident in trying it with pastel.

Halloween was a busy day!  Planning for this year’s Halloween classroom activities took a bit more planning due to our distancing and current situation in Winnipeg.  The traditional “party” was a bit different but the kids had a blast!  The class “coded” a friend with Halloween themed movements, played themed tic tac toe, had a dance party to Halloween themed music, and worked on a pumpkin candy STEM challenge.

Halloween Costumes video

Each student was challenged to create their own 3D pumpkin structure with pumpkin candies and toothpicks.  We had learned earlier using QR code videos on structures that the triangle is the strongest shape and kids were encouraged to use 2D and 3D shapes for their creations.  Each student was given their own baggie of supplies and had 10 minutes to complete their first structure before measuring it with unifix cubes.   Then they were given another 10 minutes to modify their designs and create new structures.  WOW! This was a hit!  Once time was up, we took a gallery walk around the room to look at each other’s structures.  We they recorded what 2D and 3D shapes they used in their structures and how tall it was this time to compare.  Below are a few pictures of the process.

 

PJ day was on Friday and Super Kids came to school ready for bed.  Ok…not really, but they had a stuffed animal and a flashlight.  🙂   The Super Kids graphed their bedtimes, used flashlights for reading, and measured their stuffed animals.  We even read bedtime stories for story time!

The beginning of November starts conversations about peace, kindness, and working out our problems using our words.  Remembrance Day is coming up this Wednesday and I always take the time in my classroom each year to help explain why this day is so important.  It’s hard to explain to 5-7 year olds why there is war in our world.  I always find that relating our world to a playground helps.  The world is like a playground.  Sometimes countries don’t get alone.  They have a disagreement or maybe one country is bullying the other.  Even after trying to talk it out sometime it can result in fighting.  Canada is like the recess supervisors.  Canada is peacemakers.  Canada tries to help these countries talk about their problems peacefully. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work.   Sometimes Canada has to help countries that need help defending themselves.  Just like sometimes we have to stand up for our friends and tell another student to stop.  I try to use simple language and terms that they can understand.   We learned about why we remember on November 11th, why we wear poppies, and how we can be thankful.  We watched the commercial below and then rewatched it.  The second time we paused it and I asked the class to explain the story in their own words.

 

Our class created plasticine poppy art which is displayed on our window ledges in our classroom.  We listened to calming instrumental music while learning how to manipulate plasticine to create our scenes.

This year we are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to write to a World War II veteran.  One of my student’s great grandfather is a 98 year old veteran who I have had the privilege to met when I taught his other great grandchild a few years ago.  Mr. Jim Mcgill is a Legion Of Honour Medal recipient.  He was honoured a few years ago by being knighted for his service to the liberation of France.  Mr. Mcgill has been a visitor to my classroom in the past for Remembrance Day  and grandparents day. He is just the sweetest man!  Due to Covid restrictions this isn’t possible this year, but our class is writing him letters!  The class brainstormed ideas and got to work.  Mr. Mcgill decided to write us a letter too!  The Super Kids were so excited to get it.  He has a lovely way of explaining Remembrance Day to the kids and they felt so proud to receive it.

Our letters will be sent to him on Monday.  A few samples will be posted in our next blog post.  Some students have a few details to add to their letters. 🙂

Check out our video about what peace means to us and thanking Mr. Mcgill below

 

 

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