Fly Butterflies Fly!

We released our butterflies last week. We will miss them. We know they will enjoy the outdoors as much as we do!

Here are our thoughts:
I liked releasing the butterflies. One stayed on my finger. I had to go to the flowers and try to get it off my finger. Desi helped me. -Adria
It was funny that they flew all over the place. Some stuck on the flowers and fingers. -Marshall
It was sad because we had to release the butterflies, but I liked holding the butterflies. -Bianca
We released our butterflies. It was exciting to see them fly away. -Ava
I got the butterflies on the plate. It had sugar water to feed them when they were in our class. -Charlotte
I didn't want to hold the butterflies so I did not. I saw some of them would not get off the students' fingers. -Arianna
I got a butterfly and I saw another one. I put it on my finger. -Chase
I liked when we released the butterflies because they looked pretty when we saw them fly away -Theo
We did our butterfly release. It was fun. I did not get to take a butterfly out, but other friends did. One flew so far that I could not see it. -Brody
I didn't like letting the butterflies out. We had to let them out because we had no flowers for them. -Lily
I helped the butterflies fly. I put sugar water on my finger. I did not touch the wings. I feel happy because I love butterflies. -Desi

I liked releasing the butterflies, but I didn't want to touch any. -Andrew
It was good that we got to release the butterflies today. They don't live in the cage now and now they live outside. -Tyson
The butterflies flew away. -Dominic
I tried my best to get a butterfly on my finger, but it didn't get on. That's okay. -Blake
When Mrs. Tresoor got one of the butterflies out it came on my arm and it stayed on. When we were going back in, I put it on a flower. -Jack
I did not want to hold a butterfly so I decided to watch. I saw some butterflies fly away -Brooke
I feel sad because I miss the butterflies very much and it was cool to have one on my finger. -Ben

It was amazing to see how our caterpillars went through all the changes to become beautiful butterflies! We can only wonder where their wings will take them . . .

-Mrs. T :)

IBL Research

We have been working with Mrs. Dent Scarcello during IBL (Inquiry Based Learning) to research a Canadian animal. Our research has been completed and here is a our google map showing information we discovered. We are currently designing habitats for our animals to complete our project. Click on a marker to read about some of the amazing animals we have researched. '
Thanks Mrs. Dent Scarcello for helping us throughout this process!

Crawling Visitors in Room 2

Painted Lady larva arrived to our classroom today. We had some interesting wonders about the changes we may see. Everyone was excited to have a closer look.

Here are our thoughts:
I think it might turn into a caterpillar, a cocoon and then a butterfly. -Theo
I think the larva will turn into a bee. -Charlotte
I think it will turn into a beautiful butterfly in 10 days. -Ben
I think it will turn into a caterpillar. -Bianca
I noticed that it is moving and trying to get out. -Arianna
The larva is moving around. -Brooke
I like that it is moving. -Marshall.
I noticed that they move slowly. -Blake
I do not like bugs. They are scary. -Chase
I noticed they don't move a lot. They eat a lot and they take bits of food off the container. -Brody
I think it's going to turn into a butterfly. -Lily
They have a lot of spikes on them. -Tyson
It is a larva. It will turn into a butterfly. -Adria
It was eating and it goes night, night. -Dominic

I can't wait to see what we will observe over the next little while. Stay tuned.
- Mrs. T :)

Design Process in Action

We have been learning about objects and materials in science. For our design project, students were given the challenge of creating a card holder for Valentine's Day. We saw some examples, talked about criteria and appropriate materials, and began to plan our holders. All drawings were labeled and materials were collected before the building could take place. It was a hub of excitement with so many ideas being shared and explored. Students were involved in lots of problem solving as some original ideas didn't work out quite like they expected. It was wonderful to hear compliments being given as students shared their learning.

Here are our thoughts:
I learned to connect easy pieces to hard pieces by using glue. -Chase
I put paper over it and I used tape. -Arianna
I learned how to trace my box to cover it with paper. -Tyson
I liked stapling all by myself for the first time. I stapled paper. -Lily
It was hard to cut open the big hole to put my cards in. -Bianca
I learned how to cut out a heart and to use the stapler. -Brooke
I used glue on my paper. -Dominic
I never used folded paper before to make hearts. It worked very good. -Adria
It was harder than I thought to close the ends of the box. I used glue, but it was too runny. I will use more tape. -Theo
I never tried using staples ever. Staples are really good for holding paper together. -Jack
It was hard to get the glue stick on the box. Instead I used white glue. -Charlotte
I learned how to stick paper to cardboard. I used white glue. It really stuck. -Ava
It was  hard to cut the paper to fit my box. I used white glue and not a glue stick. -Ben
It was easy to make the small hearts out of paper. I folded it and made a heart. -Marshall
I learned that you can cut holes in the middle of boxes without cutting the top off. The cards will go in the hole. -Andrew
I made a heart out of paper. I stapled my heart and I tested it with dominoes. -Desi

What amazing work grade 1s! We can't wait for our card holders to be used on Valentine's Day.

-Mrs, T :)

Gluing station

Testing station

Can it hold 20 cards and 10 dominoes?

Shadows

We have been talking about shadows and how they are made. On Monday we went outside to create shadows on the grass and on the tarmac. We were able to trace the outline of our bodies using sidewalk chalk.


Here are our thoughts:

When something is in the way of the sun or any kind of light it makes a shadow. -Levi
I liked my shadow because it looks like I was jumping. -Callum
When I made my shadows, it looked really creepy because it looked like I was a monster. -Anna
Shadows can be made in sunlight when the sun is behind you. -Josh
I made myself really small. My shadow looked like a circle. -Cody
When you turn yourself around the other way the shadow is still there. You can make you shadow shorter and longer by moving back and forward. -Bapreet
People made shadows outside. -Russell L.
If you block sunlight you make a shadow. My shadow was a flexing shadow. -Zachary

Whatever you do, your shadow does it too. -Jake
Shadows do not have eyes. They just show what your body outline looks like. -Landyn
I liked my shadow the best because it doesn't show your clothes or your shoes. -Brady
If you do something your shadow does it too. I stood straight and so did my shadow. -Eliza
Some shadows could be really scary. -Russell A.
Some shadows can be different and some shadows can be cute. You make your body like an animal or you can use your hands to make an animal. Cady
Some times shadows can be bigger and some shadows can be small. When face the sun, the shadow is behind you. When you face away from the sun, the shadow is in front of you. -Sierra
I made a shadow with my body, -Ethan
I made a caterpillar and a butterfly shadow with my hands. -Naomi
I made a shadow with my oruside. -Jay Dee

It sure was a good thing we did this activity at the start of the week because there is no sign of the sun today. The rain has washed away all of our chalk drawings. At least we have pictures to show off our hard work.

-Mrs. T :)

Marble Run Wrap Up

Last week we had a gallery walk as we shared our marble runs with our big buddies. They were able to go to the table groups to see how our designs worked. Today we went to see the design projects our Big Buddies made. Some projects were games that used magnets and other projects made sounds. It was very neat to see all the creative minds that were able to share their inventions!

Mrs. Dent Scarcello made an ebook of our IBL project.....have a look! Thanks Mrs. Dent Scarcello. We enjoyed spending time with you and learning about objects and materials. 

Design Process

We created marble runs during our IBL time with Mrs. Dent Scarcello. The unit we worked on was called Characteristics of Objects and Materials. There were many recycled materials that were brought in to help us with our designs. The students had to do lots of planning and problem solving during the process.

Here are our thoughts:
You don't have to give up or quit because you could make it work. -Callum
I had trouble building the marble run. Plan A did not work, Plan B I made a change and it worked. -Jake
The marble run I made was fun to make. I had trouble with the marble going through and coming out, but then I changed it to be taller. -Russell A.
I liked putting the marble down my marble run. -Cody
It was really fun building my marble run because I got to tape things together. -Levi
The marble went all the way down. I had to pull out the magazine roll to get out the marble. -Gavin
It was hard to make it because there was tape that was sticking onto the marble so I had to put a marble down and the other marble hit the stuck marble and then it went down. I took part of the tape off so the marble would not get stuck. -Brady
I liked when I made the marble run. It was fun to put the tape on. -Landyn
I had to put some new tape on the bottle so the toilet paper roll would stay on. -Zachary
I used a box, toilet paper rolls and tape. -Russell L.
It was hard to put some stuff together when the marble got stuck in places. I took toilet paper roll and the solo cup and I left one cup on and it ran down. -Sierra
I liked when we put the stuff on. I used toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls and tape. -Eliza
I made a marble run. -Jay Dee

I learned to not staple popsicle sticks because it won't work. -Naomi
I learned to not tape the toilet paper roll because it won't stay on properly. We hot glued it on and it worked. -Anna
I used a cereal box. I put tape on it. I used toilet paper rolls. -Ethan
The marble goes fast. It lands in an egg carton. Josh
My marble didn't fall down to the bottom. I made straws to make it like a game. The marble doesn't go the same way every time. -Bapreet
We made marble runs. We had to make changes. I didn't know how to make a loop in the middle so I changed the plans. -Cady.

Wow, what creative thinking. It was great to see that many students realized their original design was not possible, but were able to make necessary changes to meet the criteria. We had to think like real scientists. Could you imagine what it would be like if inventors and designers gave up if things didn't work the first time? Maybe some of our grade ones will be future designers.
-Mrs. T :)

Inquiry Based Learning

We started our IBL (Inquiry Based Learning) work in science with Mrs. Dent Scarcello. We are looking at the characteristics of objects and materials. We made predictions and saw a video about how gummy bears are made. Mrs. Dent Scarcello had some really neat building blocks and materials for us to explore.

Here are our thoughts:
The wood blocks were hard. -Cody
I liked to find out what the objects were made out of. -Cady
I felt the foam blocks and they felt squishy. -Brady
I like building and feeling the different blocks. -Landyn
Gummy bears are made in a factory. I like to eat gummy bears. -Levi
I built a tower with plastic blocks. -Josh
All of the materials felt different. -Callum
We learned about how to make gummy bears. -Bapreet
At IBL we learned how things are made. -Jake
I built the Children's Museum. -Russell L.
I enjoyed looking at how things are made. -Gavin
Blocks are hard. -Jay Dee
I liked when I was feeling the toys and at the end I built a tower out of foam blocks. -Zachary
I liked it when we were working on what stuff is made of. -Eliza
I built the zoo. Ethan
I found out how some things are smooth and rough. -Sierra
I enjoyed building tower of blocks. We made the Eiffel Tower. -Anna