Good day! Eventful, freezing cold week. With the weather, we had to resort to indoor recess all week. The kids did really well, considering. I think by today, though, cabin fever was starting to kick in. We did get outside briefly, early in the week. Our class went outside for a short spell to make snow.

Before we went, we made a hypothesis concerning cold versus hot water. There was general agreement that cold water, being that much closer to 0˚ C, would be more likely to turn to snow than hot water, which had to cool down to zero before it could turn to snow. After our hypothesis was made, we ventured into the -28˚ wasteland. Everyone was quite surprised by the results. So, after we got back inside we went online and investigated why exactly hot water and not cold water turned into snow. Given our just-ended minerals unit, the crystallization of water fit nicely.

Enjoy our videos:

COLD WATER

HOT WATER

In math, we are now into multiplication and division. We will keep tying in what we're already studied, of course. Too often a unit is done and then we move on. Not a good strategy with anything, but especially math. So, our math will progressively get more involved, tying together all we've been doing. At home, you can help your student with the math games and number sense activities which I've posted in the past, as well as continuing to help them master their chosen algorithm for addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

In literacy, we've been continuing our ongoing Field Guide project, adding camels now that we are in Tunisia. We will also start doing some more creative writing this week. I'd like to start some poetry, using similes and metaphors to describe winter. An apt time, given our current weather. Here's an example of what I'm hoping for from a previous student. I think it's quite beautiful, and I'm excited to see what we can do this year.

The Northern Lights

The northern lights

Are a blanket covering

The earth. It keeps me

Warm when it's cold, fading like

Snow when it melts, the shadow like sunlight

on a warm day, colourful like beautiful flowers

moving with the wind.

In Science, we had a bit of a gong show with our last test. The students were prepared, but our technology wasn't (we were trying to use Google forms). We'll work on this, and we'll have this assessment done as soon as we can. Assessment is, obviously, important; but pushing it just to get it done isn't a good idea. I want to know what they know, not if they're able to fight through glitches.

We have moved on to our next topic: simple machines. We've introduced the topic, started a bit of work, and discussed our main project. We'll be working in groups to build our own Rube Goldberg machines. We watched the video below to give them an idea of what it could be like, and to inspire them. We'll discuss the parameters, expectations, and build our rubric, and then get building, with mini-lessons about each machine as we go. This should be a great unit! Expect lots of videos....unless I forget! Oh, yes: we'll need lots of materials, so please help your student bring anything they feel they could use for their machine.