Can't get me!!

Insects are the most prolific animals on earth, but they also have many predators!!! Today we explored different defense mechanisms insects have against those who want to eat them.   

Some of these strategies included:

-playing dead

-camouflage (and looking like other things in nature like sticks, leaves or even bird poop!)

-being poisonous (warning colours and patterns to show you are not good to eat)

-having warning colours, pretending you are poisonous even though you are not

-losing a limb if a predator grabs it

-being really fast like a fly

-spraying predator with stink spray, acid or a sticky substance to trap it

-working as a team (like ants and bees)

-having a stinger or biting

-having a strong exoskeleton or pointy spines

-building a shelter or protection like the caddisfly case, beehives or anthills 

-mimicking the appearance of a dangerous animals (looking like a wasp even though you are a moth)

 

Boats and Buoyancy

Students have completed their boat building in learning commons. Questions to ask your child - what materials did you use? Can it carry a load? Did you test it and have to make improvements? If you were to do it again, what would you do differently?


Music Monday was a success! Thank you to everyone who came to watch and our students who were fantastic performers.


We are starting story writing. Students have created a character and placed him/her into a setting. They are now developing a problem for their character to solve. Please talk to you child about his/her story. The more conversations we have about our writing the further we delve into the details, therefore making a more interesting story!

Seeing connections in our world

Today we took a more in-depth look at the interactions that happen in an ecosystem.  We watched a short video on Food Webs, which showed more complex connections between the components in our environment than food chains alone.  Next, we made a circle and each received a picture of an organism. We used yarn to demonstrate a connection.  It mostly showed prey-predator relationships but also showed habitat connections.  For example, Katie was a tree and Nowellia was lichen.  The lichen grows on the tree.  We showed if we removed an organism from the web the other members of the community were affected.  So if Katie Tree, was cut down that would affect Nowellia the lichen and Autumn the deer who ate the lichen and wolves who ate the deer.
Later, we went outside and showed good citizenship and helped our buddies clean up litter in our school grounds.  Kids connected that as members of our environment, it was important for us to help take care of it.  Mrs. Ross and I were very proud of the children's hard work.

The children also worked hard practicing for Music Monday.  Our class will be performing in the afternoon.  Look at the message yesterday for the details.

Music Monday Update!

Thank-you for being patient and flexible with our Music Monday dates and times. We have made a decision. Due to the weather, we will have 2 Music Monday concerts on Monday, May 6^th inside the gym. Half of the school will perform in the morning and half will perform in the afternoon. Our morning concert will start at 10:00am and the afternoon concert will start at 1:45pm. Choir, handbells, and other small ensembles will perform at both concerts. Please bring blankets, so that you can sit comfortably! 

Our class will be performing on Monday AFTERNOON. We hope you can join us!

Monthly Math Game

Story Writing

  

We've been exploring storywriting/telling. We've talked about different story elements and today we looked at how good stories begin. We learned that most stories start with a sound, action, thought, or dialogue. We listened to the beginning of a number of books and sorted them based on their interesting beginning.
Students then created their own interesting beginnings that would fit with a variety of characters and settings. Next week we'll begin drafting our own version of a story.

Grade one trees and Food Chains

 Grade ones received trees in honour of Arbour Day.  There are instructions on the back of the tree.  It is super important to keep the seedling cool and to plant it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!  If you cannot plant it tonight, ensure your keep the root bundle damp and to store it in a cool place over night.

Today we explored energy cycles using models of a food pyramid and food chains using the beautiful story Pond Circle by Betsy Franco.  It follows a pattern like the old lady that swallowed the fly shows a food chain:  algae-mayfly nymph- diving beetle-bullfrog- garter snake- skunk- owl (eggs)- raccoon-coyote.


This pyramid model, shows the distribution of organisms with the producers being the most numerous.  Reflecting back to our Great Lessons, we talked about how the SUN is the source of all energy on our planet.  The producers use the sun to create food energy.  We also discussed how decomposers break down dead animals and plant material so that their nutrients can be cycled through the food pyramid again.

Some of these words are challenging for grade one/ two students.  Breaking words up into their parts can be helpful.  

Decompose (take apart) Decomposer is an organism that breaks apart material into its base components.    De: negative of:  Compose (like composer who puts music together)

We also talked about how producers produce (or make) food.  We then connected this to the produce section at the grocery store.  Finding connections for root words can be helpful.

The children then created their own four part food chains: producer-primary consumer-secondary consumer-tertiary consumer.

Next we will explore the concept of food webs and how the life in an ecosystem is interconnected.