Franken-slime

More experiements with a Halloween twist.
1 bowl:

1 tsp borax

1 cup water

 Another bowl:

1 cup liquid glue

1/2 cup water

food colouring

 


Pour the ingredients from the first bowl into the second and mix...

massage the slime

 
 Taa Daa! Slime!

Congrats

Closest guess on our candy corn contest...

Experiments...

In Science we have been experimenting with Solids and Liquids! Your children are Science Professors! Ask them what happens when we mixed...
Liquids + Liquids

 syrup and milk

 oil and vinegar

 food colouring and oil

 dish soap and water

 syrup and oil

 oil and milk

Then we mixed Liquids + Solids

coffee crystals + water

pudding mix + water

flour + water

vinegar + baking soda

Can we un-mix them???

Time to Look Through the Recycle Box...

As part of our Science unit on the properties of liquids and solids, we will be making rafts in class on Wed. November 1st.
When the students were introduced to this stem project, I described it in 3 main sections: 1.Brainstorming, 2.Designing and 3.Building/Testing/Evaluating. Students will make a plan to design their raft.  This project will be done totally in class.  However, your child may require some materials from home in order to make their raft.  Please allow your child to choose materials independently, since they will be getting participation and creativity marks for this assignment. It does not matter whether your child’s raft sinks or floats since this is a learning experience for the whole class.  If the raft floats, then the student will get the chance to examine the raft, learn and teach others why it floats.  If the raft sinks, then students will learn how the materials used and the shape of the raft play an important role with buoyancy.

Here is a list of materials your child may wish to bring:
-milk carton
-egg carton
-plastic food cartons (eg. mushroom cartons)
-corks
-toothpicks
-straws
-sticks
-aluminum tins (pie plates)
-aluminum foil
-paper bag
-plastic bag (ziploc bag)
-glue
-string
-Styrofoam
-tape

Healthy Living

This week students had a "hands-on" learning experience on germs.

Students rubbed "germ" lotion onto their hands then washed their hands.

Washing your hands with soap and water while you sing the "Happy Birthday" song is good practice.

I used a black light to see if they washed all the "germs" off. Trouble areas were around the nails and wrists.

Fire Safety

The Lakeshore Fire Department came to discuss fire safety, safe practices in the kitchen and being safe on the playground.

Stop! Drop! and Roll!

The Fire Department strongly recommends

 -that each child knows their address and home/parent-cell phone numbers,

 -that every family has a meeting place (eg. neighbour's house),

 -that each family have a safety plan put into place as soon as possible.

The next unit of our Health program is making healthy food choices.

I rented a sugar kit that teaches and explains how much sugar is in everyday drinks. It was a complete SUGAR SHOCK!

Students were surprised over the amount of sugar in Arizona iced tea and Pepsi.

Candy Corn Contest

Our second book study is on the book, The Candy Corn Contest written by Patricia Rielly Giff.

It's almost Thanksgiving, and Richard Best can't stop thinking about Ms. Rooney's Candy Corn contest. Whoever can guess the exact number of yellow-and-orange candies in the jar on Ms. Rooney's desk gets to keep them all. The only problem is Richard has to read a page in a library book for each guess. Smelly Matthew, who sits in front of him, knows they'll never win. "We're the worst readers in the class, " he says. But Richard won't give up. He can already taste those Candy Corns. And before he knows it, he has. Three fat juicy ones.What will Ms. Rooney do when she finds out? 

This book inspired us to make our own "Candy Corn Contest". Students can make a guess for the candy corn jar (which they would win the jar and candies). We also agreed to change the rules a bit. Students can make a guess everytime they read a chapter (from a chapter book) or a whole book from our classroom library. To make sure they are really reading and not just skimming through the pages, they will be randomly asked comprehension questions about their book. If they answer the question correctly they can print and estimate for whichever jar they wish. This flows nicely with our number sense and numeration math unit as we are learning to make educated estimates of large amounts.

May the Best Estimate-r Win!

The Important Book

What is most important about many familiar things -- like rain and wind, apples and daisies? We read this book and the kids debated and shared their opinions on the importance of some items. Is an apple really important because it is round? This spurred a creative extension to the story. Why is candy important? Here is what we came up with: 

Then, in small groups, the children came up with more examples on the importance of a variety of things using the same template the book used. 

This is what they came up with...(clicking on the photo will enlarge it so you can read their work)...