We had another great week that was filled with lots of engaging activities. Continue reading to learn more.

Art:

My SA suggested the idea of an animal mash-up art activity as she already had a lot of animal pictures and background cardstock that was available. As an introduction, I showed the students an example I made combining a geese’s head and wings with the body and legs of a cheetah. This art activity required students to justify why they created their animal mash-up as a way to focus on animals’ structural features. For example, I wanted to create an animal that could run away fast from predators, run fast to catch prey, and be able to fly and look from high above. Students were extremely engaged in this activity and their animal mash-ups were fantastic! Which ones make you smile?

Animal Mash-Up

This week’s main fairy tale was Jack and the Beanstalk. After reading one version of the fairy tale, the students engaged in a hula hoop Venn Diagram. We compared the fairy tale Chicken Little to Jack and the Beanstalk. Sitting in a community circle each student got one piece of paper that stated something that belonged somewhere in the Venn Diagram. I liked this format more than using paper and pencil because students were invited to engage in discussions regarding where they thought their piece of paper should go, building off of others, and making connections.

Unit of Inquiry:

It was a bittersweet week as we had to say good-bye to the ducklings. From receiving the duck eggs on April 7th to watching them hatch out of our their eggshell and taking care of them, we were sad to see them go because they have become part of our class community. For our last activity with the ducklings, we sat in a community circle on the grass field and let the ducklings roam around and eat the grass. So many of the students thoroughly enjoyed it!

The students made cards to give to the people from the farm where the ducklings went back to. They were very thoughtful in their messages and grateful to have had such an amazing and humbling experience. 

I introduced and retold the Squamish Flood Legend to the students while we sat in a community circle. As a follow-up activity, the students were instructed to work together in their table groups to create one part of the legend. We discussed the beginning, middle, and ending of the legend thus, reiterating elements of a story. Each table group was assigned one significant scene from the legend to illustrate. This was another successful collaborative activity!

After reviewing Jack and the Beanstalk, by reading the students another version of the fairy tale, the students pretended they were the giant or ogre and had to devise a plan to catch Jack. As this was an individualized activity, students had to write how they were going to catch him and accompany it with a picture. This activity invited lots of creativity and the use of imagination. As a wrap up, we sat in a community circle and each student got the opportunity to present their work.

The students engaged in a STEM activity. We pretended that Jack, from Jack and the Beanstalk, was scared of heights and was too afraid to climb the beanstalk. So, in table groups, students had to work together to create one object that would help Jack get to the top of the beanstalk without climbing. I made an example to show the students which was a rocket backpack. I made the backpack out of construction paper and tape and used two pipecleaners as the straps. I coloured and taped on fire that came out of the backpack and added four cotton balls to the sides of the backpack. The cotton balls were for if the rocket failed, they would make contact with the ground and serve as a soft landing and bounce him all the way to the top. The students were very created! Check out their creations below.

Clockwise from the top: Dragon transformer, 2-part rocket ship, a sled with a seatbelt, UFO, teleport, and trampoline.

Math:

As we wrapped up the unit on subtraction, we moved on to reviewing various math units. This week we focused on Measurement. Connecting it to our Unit of Inquiry, we created a height beanstalk. The students cut out a leaf template and paired up to measure each other’s height using a tape measure. Each student used the unit, centimetre, to measure their their partner’s height. Our beanstalk was made out of construction paper and we rolled it up and taped it to a wall. I forgot to take a picture of it and have taken it down from the wall as we are moving on to a different math topic next week.

We also engaged in a paper airplane activity whereby the Grade 1s made theirs with construction paper while the Grade 2s made theirs with newspaper. The students made a prediction on which material would fly the farthest. We went on the grass field and the students helped me make a baseline and benchmarks using cones. I used a tape measure to describe the importance of a baseline and on each side made benchmarks of 1 m starting from 1-10. Each student had four attempts and after each of them, they had to think of a way to change their airplane to improve their distance.

Next week will be my final week of full-time teaching before I start decreasing my teaching time and responsibilities. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, it’s crazy how fast time flies! 

-Ms. Mah