The students also read a passage titled The First Games and answered written comprehension questions about the reading. Some of the things the students learned were when and where the first games took place, what some non-sport competitions were and how often the games take place.
We completed an Olympic themed Dictionary Dig where the students had to search through the pages of a dictionary to find words, record the definition and use the word in a sentence in the right context. Our class loves using the dictionaries!
To go with the Dictionary Dig, the students read a passage titled The Winter Games. This passage gave them specific information about the Winter Olympics and the comprehension questions were multiple choice format. We marked this together as a class and discussed how to choose the best answer when more than one choice seems to be correct.
The students read about an Olympic event called the "steeplechase" from the 1900's and asked to draw a picture based on the description.
We enjoyed reading about your child's Family Day weekend. The quality and quantity of writing our students are doing has improved in their weekly journal writing. We even have students choosing to complete their entire journal entry in cursive writing!!
In our cursive writing duotangs, we have some extra practice left to complete. This week we completed the ascenders, lines and loops and practiced writing the months of the year.
For Math, we started mixed addition and subtraction mad minutes. We will work through plus and minus 1 - 10 and then we will begin multiplication. We complete the same sheet Monday - Thursday and the students are offered blank sheets to take home for practice each day. If your child brings home a sheet for extra practice, please give them 2 minutes to complete the sheet.
We also completed some extra practice with word problems. The math questions were both addition and subtraction, some required regrouping and the final answer needed to be in a complete sentence.
The students started to learn about rounding and estimating. They completed some practice on rounding to the nearest multiple of 10. After they were confident with this skill, they partnered up and completed word problems where they had to round the numbers to the nearest ten and estimate the answer.
They were taught a new game to help master their rounding skills. Students rolled two dice and then decided on a number to use for "rounding to the nearest ten". (For example...if a 3 and an 8...was rolled then 38 would round up to 40 OR 83 would round down to 80. ) The student would then choose the best number to help them advance in the game and added a marker to their game board. The first person to place 5 markers in a straight line, wins the game.
In Science, we completed a couple of Survivor challenges...
Testing Arches Lab
YAY!!! The beams for the foot bridge are strong enough for us to cross the fast moving river. We are finally able to enjoy a few bananas. Now that we have full bellies, we can concentrate on building some shelter. The fierce storm is still heading our way and we need somewhere to keep dry and get some rest for the night. John has a brilliant idea and takes us back to our aircraft. We see that a few pieces of tin have come off the side of the plane during our emergency landing. Olivia and Rhianna decide to haul the tin to a small clearing in the trees. Brodie decides to bend the tin to make an arch for our shelter. The clouds look dark and heavy with rain. We need to make sure our arch is strong enough to hold the downpour. Does a wider gap cause the arched shelter to be stronger or weaker than a shorter gap? We need to test this so that we can stay dry for the night!
Conclusion - The arch spanning a shorter gap is stronger because the weight is more evenly spread out.
Pillars
What a success! We haven't been on the island for very long but have already found a bit of food and now we have some shelter. We do have one problem though! The rain has started to come down quickly and it is beginning to make small puddles around our sleeping area. We are also worried that with the amount of rain falling, the river not far from us may begin to flood. We need to raise the area where we are going to sleep so that it is not on the ground. We head back to the plane and grab another large piece of tin for the floor of our shelter. It won't be the softest place to sleep but at least we will be out of the puddles and safe if the river floods. We drag the tin back to our shelter and start thinking about how we are going to raise it above the ground. Brooklyn decides that we should use some tree stumps near by to make a pillar to hold up the floor. Which design will hold the most weight? Should we use one larger pillar in the center or four smaller pillars in each of the corners of our tin floor?
Conclusion - Four pillars held the most weight because the weight was distributed evenly.
Our class did some buddy reading with 3A this week. They enjoyed sharing their books and reading with someone new.
For Art this week, we learned about different types of bridges. We watched a few videos that focused on the arch, beam, suspension and truss bridge. Then we talked about the design and shapes of bridges. The students picked their favourite type and sketched it onto watercolour paper. Once they were happy with their design, they were given a Sharpie marker to colour and outline their shapes. We will finish the project next week with a watercolour wash.
Look at these young architects...
The students were excited to rotate through Olympic stations this week in Phys. Ed! They participated in curling, speed skating, biathlon, bobsled and figure skating.
Congratulations to our new Student of the Week!
