Balance and Harmony
Science- Balance and Harmony in Nature
I can understand and give an example of the importance of nature and humans working in balance and harmony with one another.
Since the beginning of the school year, room eight has spent a lot of time on our weekly community walks observing nature and in the classroom and discussing the importance of balance and harmony. Unfortunately, we have seen many examples of how nature or humans can easily affect this balance. An example of this has been the beavers along the Elbow River. We have been watching firsthand how the beaver population has altered the landscape by gnawing down very large Cottonwood trees. As a class we debated if we should leave the beaver well enough alone to remove the trees. Or, should we prevent the beavers from accessing these trees (putting wire around the tree's base) so that other animals can use them for their habitat use?
Nature's balance and harmony was also debated regarding crayfish living in the Elbow River. Thanks to humans intentionally moving this species from other water bodies to ours here in the city, the crayfish is now considered invasive. It is not requested that if one finds a crayfish, they should be killed to support the decline in its population.
This week an interesting newspaper article was posted in the Lethbridge newspaper, highlighting a population of ducks that froze and died in a lake in the city. Once reading the article, we were saddened to find out that the demise of these poor ducks can be linked once more to humans' actions that have disrupted balance and harmony. By feeding the ducks in these lakes, they have learned to rely on us to provide them with a food source and, in doing so, did not see the need to fly south. When the cold temperatures began to drop, and the open water was decreasing, these ducks fought and had to compete for open water to survive and consequently many died. We also learned that by feeding them food such as bread with its poor nutritional value, the ducks did not have the physical strength and ability to engage in the physical task that migration entails. This fact was a valuable connection to the nutrition lessons we have been learning about our food intake and how it relates to the importance of consuming nutritious food to sustain us.
Below is the link to the article if you would like to read it and further discuss it with your child.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8517992/dead-birds-freeze-lethbridge-henderson-lake-mortality-event/
Physical Education
I can learn how to hold a racquet and perform and return a forehand serve.
Thank you to Fist Serve Tennis Residency this week for providing such a wonderful introduction to tennis. The students were so engaged as they learned to hold a racket properly, implement a forehand pass and receive a pass. I know that many of the children expressed an interest in continuing to play tennis, so if you have a court in your community and access to a racket, this is another wonderful way to spend time outside being active.
Literacy
I can create a paragraph that describes a setting using my senses.
I can create a paragraph describing the traits of a character.
We have been working hard to support our story writing abilities in literacy. Our focus has been on creating a detailed setting and learning how to identify a character by his or her character traits. Below are a few examples of works created by our grade two and three students.
Character development write-ups.
The suspicious man was in a cave. He had an oval body and eight legs. He has two arms and two black eyes that look like beetles and legs that are like sideway rainbows. He had black tips on his arms and legs and a disappointing smile. Gr. 2 room 8
In the middle of the garden, on a dusky evening, a shy gardener was caring for some tender young shoots. Tired from the day's work, she was still determined to finish what she had started. Gr. 3 room 8
Setting descriptions
Above me I spotted a dragonfly. In front of me there used to be a blue pond that got drained. Hoovering beside me there stood a great big grapefruit tree. Tall green leafy vines surrounded me. I feel nervous and scared like something was watching me. Gr. 2 room 8
Underneath me thick snow is going crunch crunch. There is bright colours inform of me. Swaying trees are all around me. Inside of my nose, the hairs are frozen. The calm wind whooshes all around me. It feels like the frosty trees swallow me up. The steep hill's underneath me make me feel small. Some shiny rocks below me make me trip. I can't stop starring at the shimmering stars above me. I feel so calm and peaceful. Gr. 3 room 8
Literacy Circles
For the last month, we have been engaged in Literacy Circles with the wonderful support of Ms. Yasin. This has been a terrific time to read together in small groups to develop our decoding skills, fluency, and comprehension. We also use this time to revisit lessons relating to phonetic development. This week we continue to learn about root words and the suffixes "ed" and "ing".
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