Madame went to the pumpkin patch on the weekend with her own kids and it was the perfect inspiration for some science and math activities with the class! We compared the pumpkins with some apples and "hypothesized" (a new word!) about which would be bigger when we measured it, which would be heavier, which would float... Then naturally, we had to test our hypotheses! We even had to do some metric conversions. Madame says that if we found that part confusing, not to worry - we don't actually have to know most of those things until Grade 6! But it's fun to get little tasters of it now. Our favourite hypothesis to test was definitely the one about which would roll faster down a hill - the pumpkin or the apple? We made some predictions and took a vote on which one we thought would win. Many of us were surprised that the pumpkin won the race! We decided to test it in another setting - the slides! On the slides, it was the apple that kept winning! But why was it so different from our results from the hill? We talked about how in science, there's a word called "variables" that could change our results. Some variables that we brainstormed that either were present or COULD have been present: - On the hill, it was Madame that released both the apple and the pumpkin at the same time and with the same amount of force. On the slides, different kids released the apple and pumpkin at different times and may have pushed one or the other. - The stem could have slowed the pumpkin down. - Either the pumpkin or the apple could have been slowed down by objects or even holes in their path on the grass. It was a pumpkin kind of week as we also completed the art we began with our big buddies. In Math, we have been continuing to learn about patterns. Madame even taught us how to create patterns using musical notation. We were so interested in the different types of notes and loved trying out the rhythms both solo and as a group. We also learned about "increasing patterns" this week and Madame had us start out by demonstrating with our bodies what those might look like. ...and then we built them with blocks! And we finally got some scores on the board for our class teams! Madame gave us a group challenge - make a boat using tinfoil and popsicle sticks, and whichever boat holds the most nickels before sinking, wins! But the REAL embedded challenge is: Can you get along with your group? Can you compromise? Can you listen to other people's ideas? Can you all work together to produce ONE project? Madame front-loaded us with all of these communication challenges we might face and told us that if we could overcome them well, we would get 10 points for our teams just for demonstrating teamwork. She explained that arguments are normal, even for adults! We will all disagree... and often! But how we manage our disagreements and how we learn to de-escalate rather than escalate our frustrations - those are key skills to learn. We started by making plans... Then we executed those plans, usually adapting from our original ideas as we tested our designs and listened to others' suggestions. Some of us felt a little overwhelmed at first: "But I don't know how to make a boat!" But we quickly realized that it didn't actually need to look like a traditional boat. It just needed to be functional. Then we began to see the creativity flow. And the winner was "Corbeaux" (crows), whose boat managed to hold 38 nickels! Their team got 2 bonus points for the most effective design, and we all got 10 points on the board for teamwork. Some of us even got an extra point for cleaning up our group's area really well. Extra photos...
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