Just like that, Week 2 is complete! It’s crazy how fast time is flying by for me. This week at school has been super eventful. Below I will cover these subjects in more detail: Math, Unit of Inquiry (Science), and Physical Health and Education.
Math:
We were very fortunate to have a couple sunny and dry days this week. I took advantage of the beautiful weather and brought math outdoors. The students engaged in a math bean bag game! We are still learning subtraction (currently without regrouping for Grade 2s). As this is a combined Grade 1/2 class, I paired students off within their grade. I drew two separate grids for each grade. Grid #1 represented the minuend numbers while Grid #2 represented the subtrahend numbers. In pairs, one teammate would throw their bean bag onto the grid. Where the bean bag landed provided the minuend for their subtraction equation. Then, they would shuffle over to Grid #2 to throw their bean bag. Where the bean bag landed provided the subtrahend for their subtraction equation. As Grade 2s have been practicing solving subtraction equations with a Place Value Mat and base-ten blocks, they were required to solve each of their subtraction equations with them as well. For Grade 1s, their minuend and subtrahend numbers on the grid were much smaller in value, of course. Once they created their equation, they had to work together to draw and solve it. The students were engaged and they seemed to have fun taking turns to throw the bean bag. I thought this was a hit and will most likely do this again in the near future.
Grid #2 subtrahend numbers for Grade 2s.
Grid #1 minuend numbers for Grade 1s.
Unit of Inquiry:
Our current unit of inquiry is Living Things. This week we got duck eggs! A very exciting opportunity for not only the students but also for myself! My School Advisor (SA) got duck eggs two years ago and has the equipment and experience. I decided to take this project on because having my SA as a mentor/guidance to support me in this amazing learning journey is such a privilege. I think taking care of a living thing within our own classroom, if that’s possible, is an opportunity I shouldn’t miss. We got six duck eggs on Wednesday, April 7th. They take 28 days to hatch. Since the incubator we have is small and intended for chick eggs, I have to manually rotate them four times per day. There is a required minimum humidity and temperature level to keep the eggs healthy. Hopefully all six will hatch (crosses fingers)! When my SA and I let the students in on the surprise, they were so excited.
Six duck eggs in the incubator.
We also learned about camouflage and why it is important for some animals to survive. As an activity, the students cut out an outline of a duck’s body. Then, I asked them to choose a spot in the classroom that they could tape their duck onto, while I stepped out of the classroom, to camouflage it. They would have to colour their duck accordingly and add any details, such as patterns and textures, if desired. The students were excited to choose a spot and kept telling me, “don’t look at mine, Ms. Mah!” when I was making my rounds to each table group as they were colouring. I still have yet to find all 21 students’ camouflaged ducks. The pictures I’ve posted below are some that I have found. Aren’t they creatively camouflaged?
Not only did we get duck eggs and learn about camouflage this week, but the students also planted pumpkin seeds and other types of seeds! Back in October 2020, we went on a walking field trip to a nearby grocery store to purchase one pumpkin per table group. As a math activity, the students took out all the pumpkin seeds and grouped them by 2s, 5s, 10s, etc. My SA thought in advance and kept some pumpkin seeds for me to plant with the students when I start my long practicum. Now that I’ve started my long practicum, I thought it was a great time to have the students plant them. Each table group got one pot to plant a handful of pumpkin seeds in. For our other planting activity, we used newsprint (compostable) and rolled it into an individual garden pot using a cylindrical container. The students had a choice of planting swiss chard, green onion, cucumber, or carrot seeds in their pot. We made a class terrarium and will eventually take them outside, once seeds have sprouted, to our community garden.
A table group’s pot of planted pumpkin seeds.
Our classroom terrarium.
This week we focused on learning about birds. Since we got duck eggs, I thought it would make sense to learn more about ducks. I made a PowerPoint presentation on duck parts, a duck’s life cycle, and interesting facts about them. This was a follow along activity as I created duck flip-books for each student to complete. Did you know ducks are known as waterfowls and are part of the Anatidae family of birds?
Student’s drawing and labelling of a duck’s life cycle.
Interesting facts about ducks.
We ended the week off by making Eggheads! This science experiment entails each student drawing a face on their eggshell and adding soil and planting grass seeds inside the eggshell. (Note that I had to begin collecting eggshells since February in order for me to execute this lesson! Lots of planning and thinking that goes into teaching.) Hopefully with the help of the sun’s energy, water, soil, and air the grass seeds can sprout into a plant. Then, it’ll act as hair for each student’s egghead. Since this was a science experiment, students exercised their ability to ask questions, share their wonders, make predictions, and draw observations. I’m excited to see how these eggheads will look in a few weeks! This was such a fun activity to do with the students; something you can do indoor or outdoor that invites multimodal learning.
Our eggheads!
Physical and Health Education:
This week I picked up a new unit, PE, to teach. I’ll be focusing on throwing and catching with them for the next few weeks at least. We are fortunate to not only have a gravel field but also a grass field. I usually like to use the grass field for PE because it’s a softer landing if someone falls or trips, for example. This week I organized a developing activity that involved pairs running to a cone, pausing, and making eye contact with your partner before throwing a ball to them. We went over how to throw a ball (knees bent, opposite leg stepping forward, arm holding the ball following through, etc.). As a culminating (main game) activity, we played Fire and Ice tag. Overall, I thought the students enjoyed my PE lesson. I always find PE goes by super fast. We allot 30 minutes twice a week for our PE schedule.
That concludes the second week of my long practicum! Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog post. Check back next week for my Week 3 reflection!
-Ms. Mah