April 9

I deeply apologize for the length of time in between blog posts. It sounded like everyone had a great Spring Break and we got right back into the swing of things this week! 

We continued to work on developing our story writing skills this week- specifically in "showing not telling". This means that students are learning how to describe using details that create images in the readers mind. For example, instead of saying "Bob was happy" a good writer would say "Bob skipped down the hall with a smile spread from ear to ear". We are also beginning to explore interesting ways to start a story to get the audience hooked in and wanting to keep reading. The 3 ways we are looking at are starting with a sound effect, an action, or by describing the setting/character. Students are applying these strategies as they write their Pourquoi story (the how or why an animal got its______). 

In Social Studies, students brainstormed thoughtful questions about how Inuit people lived in the past. The main topics of focus this week were Shelter, Clothing, and Food. Students had some basic background knowledge (from previous read aloud books) of how early aboriginal people of Canada utilized animals to meet their basic needs and that some Inuit used Igloos for shelter. I was impressed by the depth of some of the questions that students came up with to investigate. Here are just some of the questions that students asked and researched in a variety of books. 

 Shelter

-"If much of the snow melts in the spring and summer, did they still have igloos or did they have to use something else for shelter?"

-"How did they get the snow and ice to stay up on the top of the igloo and not fall into the middle?"

-"If their house was built out of snow and ice, how did they stay warm?"

-"How did the Inuit keep animals from coming into their igloo?"

Clothing

-"what types of animal fur did the Inuit use most often? Did they use different animals for different articles of clothing?"

-"how long did it take to create their clothes and what tools did they have to sew with?"

-"How did they clean their clothes?"

Food

-"How did they hunt animals if they didn't have weapons back then?"

-"Did Inuit people cook the meat that they ate? How did they cook if there weren't trees there for firewood?"

-"If they couldn't plant anything because of the permafrost, did they ever eat any fruits and vegetables?"

Students did a great job of exploring non-fiction texts to try to find more information about these concepts. We looked at features in these texts that help narrow our focus when researching such as the index, table of contents, labels, and headings/subheadings. 

I will update where we are at in Math and Science later this week. Just a reminder that Student Led Conferences are coming up very soon- next Monday April 17th. There is no school for students that day and you are able to sign up for a block of time on conference manager now. The blocks of time go from 1:00 pm- 8:00 pm. These conferences will be the same as last time- up to 4 families may be in the room at a time and your child will show you some of the work they have been doing. If you would like to have a private conversation or if you are unable to meet on this day, we can set up an alternative time. Feel free to email or call me to arrange this.