Unit Updates, Xmas Plate Orders and Music

 Last week the student continued working on their Organs and Body Systems models and presentations and should be ready to show their finished work to the class this week.

On Thursday, Simran and Yua's mothers kindly joined the students in the class to guide them in a Christmas plate decorating activity. Thanks so much for joining the Grade 3 and 4 classes.

If you would like to order the plate that your child created you can do so online.

 CLICK HERE to ORDER!! 

All proceeds from the sale of the plates will be donated.

Last week, we started to get in the Christmas spirit and did so by choosing a Christmas song to perform for Santa's visit on December 18th! This year we will be performing, "Welcome Christmas" from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." We will be practicing as much as possible on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays so I ask that any students who have chosen to bring their own instruments please remember to bring their instruments on those days. Our first couple of practices have gone really well, so look forward to hearing our version of the song in a few weeks.

Ready...Set...All Systems GO!!

 As we approach the end of this exciting unit on Body Systems, we really dove in deep this week as we tried to round out our knowledge of the different systems. 

Having spent the last couple of weeks looking closely at the Skeletal and Muscular Systems, we had a couple of opportunities to put them to use this week as we resumed our morning Wake Up Shake Up dance in the classrooms. 

Students also had the chance to feel how hard their hearts and Circulatory System works by learning how to check their pulse and heart rate.  We put our body systems to the test on Wednesday as we went to the greenfield for a unit-themed P.E. lesson where they played tag and participated in a couple sprint races.

We also explored the Nervous System and tested their reflexes by trying to catch rulers dropped by a partner. Students could measure how long it took for their eyes to send a message to their brain, and then for their brain to make a decision and then send a signal to their hand to catch the ruler! This was a really fun experiment that they can also try at home!

Towards the end of the week, we began working on our final project for this unit. Each student chose a random organ from inside a mystery bag. Once they had the organ they had to draw a picture of it, figure out what organ it was and which body system(s) it was a part of, as well as the organ's function, and how we can take care of it. They also had to figure out where it went in our anatomy model, Ms. B (aka Ms. Body).

When finished their individual research, students had to find the other members of their body system group and start comparing the similarities, differences and connections between the organs in their group's body system and put together a presentation using GoogleSlides or Seesaw. They were also tasked with creating models of their body systems to use in their presentations! Stay tuned next week to see what incredible projects they create!

Mystery Bone and other Experiments

 This week was all about science as the students began thinking like scientists as they examined some real bones!

They began by looking closely at some small bones and took their time drawing them as accurately as possible. They also thought like scientists and wrote down what they observed as well as any wonderings they had about the bones. Some even noted that the bones looked very similar to the metacarpals in the palm of our hands or the metatarsals in our feet! 

Fortunately, they figured out that it was neither of those when I told them that the bones were from my dinner the night before!

Next, some students had the chance to use a vice and saw to dissect a bone by bisecting it. Before sawing open the bones, the students predicted whether the bones would be hollow or solid. They based their predictions on an experiment that we did to test the strength of a hollow and a solid cylinder (an empty paper cup and a paper cup filled with dice). We tested the strength of each by placing heavy books and some weights on top of each until the cup eventually collapsed under the weight. Even I was surprised to see that the little hollow cup that weighed a mere 4.6g held up to 20kg before collapsing under 22kg! The 'solid' cup filled with plastic dice, which was 40 times heavier than the empty paper cup (165g: 4.6g) didn't do much better as it only held up 23.6kg, before collapsing under 25.6kg. 

The students were intrigued by the mushy brown stuff inside the bones and were even more surprised to see that it had hardened and changed colour overnight! So far, no one has figured out what it was...perhaps someone will make a connection when we discuss the circulatory system...which we started to when we had the microscopes out as they examined the bones as well as some of Mr. Brabant's blood! That's right, I bled for these students' benefit! (And no in case you were wondering, I didn't cut myself with a saw.)

The students once again did a great job observing and sketching what they saw through the microscopes and made some keen observations and asked some great questions!

On Monday, we will see what happens to the floating bone that we left in the vinegar as the schedule switches from swimming on Monday afternoon to 3 blocks of unit!

All Muscles and Bones

 This week we welcomed a new student, Tsukasa to Grade 3. During unit time, we took an in-depth look at our Skeletal and Muscular Systems. We inquired into how the two systems work together to allow us to move the way we do. We began by looking closely at our hands and fingers and drew some x-ray images of our hands by using some coloured paper, crayons and cooking oil!

We also had a lesson learning about how our muscles work by pulling on tendons that pull on our bones to make us move. We put that theory to action in an extra special PE style lesson with Mr. Waite as he helped us to identify the different muscles working as we exercised.

We also compared our human-machine to robots to understand how we really work. On Friday, the students built their own working robot-finger! Next week, they'll work with others to join 5 fingers together to make robot hands!