On Monday and Tuesday, we continued investigating sound as the students constructed their own cardboard box guitars and experimented with pitch by changing the thickness or tension of the elastic band strings. Even though they didn’t turn out to be very musically accurate the students were still very proud of their creations and had fun strumming them!
On Tuesday, we joined together with the Grade 1 students to experiment with sound. In the hallway between the two classes we set up 4 small science experiments to demonstrate the properties of sound. One experiment demonstrated how sound is a form of energy and could make grains of salt dance on top of Saran Wrap when music was playing inside a cup. Another showed how sound can travel through water as well as another which showed how sound waves travel through different materials. They also experimented with pitch by creating a pan flute out of straws.
In math, we have been focusing on addition and subtraction skills for the past two weeks. On Monday, the students practiced regrouping tens into ones using manipulatives to help them understand what is happening when they borrow from tens when doing long subtraction. We also learnt different strategies to help us subtract such as how to subtract by adding, or by using empty number lines.
This week things took a festive turn as we began preparing for the Christmas Market. We had Maria, Amalia and Emily’s mothers join us for baking cookies on Wednesday. We were so lucky to have them! We listened to Christmas carols while rolling out the cookie dough and cut out all kinds of Christmas shapes- gingerbread men, trees, snowmen and reindeer, along with a few Halloween bats and more!
The students and moms did a fantastic job following my grandma’s recipes for gingerbread and shortbread cookies. They also did a fantastic job helping clean up the dishes, and make all of the signs for Santa’s Sweets Shop!
At the Christmas Market today, the students did a nice job of dancing for the parents and then they had the chance to buy some of their cookies and some of the other goodies! We finished off our advent calendar activities with a game of Ho! Ho! Ho! How’s Santa feeling? And some of the students shared some gifts with their friends.
Oh I almost forgot! On Thursday we had a special visitor! All of the students were happy to get a new book to read over the holidays!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. I hope you all enjoy some probably not so quiet time with the kids at home! I know my home won’t be quiet! See you back at DSKI on January 10th!
