Healthy Living Week at Pythagoras Academy
November 21-25 is Healthy Living Week at Pythagoras Academy. Students started the week off by wearing athletic clothing and attending an assembly all about how to live a healthy life. Grade threes started the assembly off by getting everyone moving with a fun warm up. Next they performed many different skits demonstrating the importance of many healthy habits including drinking water, exercising, getting lots of sleep and eating healthy food.
Each day of the week, students are participating in a smoothie challenge. Classes are paired up with another class to create a smoothie consisting of three fruits, water and ice. The team who wins receives an extra PE class on Friday.
Skeletal Systems in Grade Five
The students in grade five are working on their science final assessment project for the term. Jason made a bone out of clay for his skeletal system presentation.The students have been working on writing a report. This writing contains facts, written in the present tense and written for a specific audience. All of the students will be presenting how our body systems interact and survive in their environment.
Research Projects in Grade Two
The grade two students are working on research with technology in both their science and social studies classes. Specifically, they practiced using QR codes to help them get to resources quicker. Using websites, videos, and articles, the students are gathering information to complete independent and group projects.
Biodiversity Dioramas in Grade 3
In grade 3 science, students have been studying biodiversity. They have explored the big idea that living things are diverse, can be grouped, and interact with their ecosystems. Applying their knowledge of animal and plant adaptations, basic needs, and facts about different habitats, students created a diorama of their ecosystem of choice. They have included facts about their ecosystem and the animals and plants that interact with it.
Art Experiment in JK
For this Artistic experiment, students used a golf ball, Tempera and a plastic tray. This process oriented activity encouraged children to focus on their eye-hand coordination as they tilt, tip and move the tray to get the ball rolling in different directions.
Learning about Growth Mindset and Neurons in Kindergarten
Students in KB are learning about how to cultivate a growth mindset in their words and actions. After participating in a very difficult paper sculpture activity, children shared how being faced with challenges made them feel along with their reactions to confronting difficult tasks. The students worked together to brainstorm positive ‘self talk’ for when they feel discouraged or intimidated by a task. After the discussion on how positive thoughts and language can help your brain development, students were eager to learn more about these ‘neurons’ inside the brain. We identified the different parts of a neuron, then they constructed our own!
Learning About Weather in JK
Students in Kepler class are learning about weather. Students participated in a Wind Vane Project. They were asked the questions like:
1. Do we have a lot wind in our area?
2. What makes wind blow?
3. How does wind power energy work? How can we use wind energy?
Go Canucks Go!
Students in grades four through seven were invited to attend a Canucks game at Rogers Arena. The tickets were donated by the Canucks through a program called Community Partnerships. The purpose of the field trip was for students to Canadian cultural experience of watching a live hockey game. Students saw professional athletes display their talents and athleticism; maybe one day students will try the sport out for themselves!
Co-operative Community Building in Kindergarten
Kindergarten students are learning about people and places that are found in the community. Students brainstormed different places found in a neighbourhood and why these places are important to have. Then, students were divided into planning teams to design their own community. Students then created a blueprint to plan how they were going to build their community and used it to guide their construction. Each group focused on creating buildings, houses, parks or roads.
Whats the Matter?
Students in grade one participated in a science workshop all about matter. Students reviewed the forms of matter: liquid, solid and gas. They learned about volume, cohesion and how molecules move in each form. Students participated in three science experiments. To explore cohesion students used a pipette (eye dropper) to see how many drops of water they would fit on top of a penny. The second experiment involved two secret ingredients that created an irreversible reaction. The secret ingredients were vinegar and baking soda. Ask your child what happened when they mixed the two! The third experiment involved children making “oobleck”, a gooey substance that takes the state of a solid and a liquid. Lastly, students learned about water pressure by watching a plastic looking squid move up and down in a bottle full of water as they applied pressure to the outside of the bottle.
Science and Math in Grade 4/5
Grade four students (left) played a game to reinforce addition skills. Adding ones, tens and hundreds was computed to reach a target number. The students used mental math and regrouping with standard algorithms. Following the game, they wrote an assessment to demonstrate their understanding. The students in grade 5 are working on their science summative assessment. On the right a student is working on the Mind Map component. The students are using a rubric to guide their completion of the components of the entire project.
Learning about Hibernation with Puppets
Students in Michelangelo are learning about hibernation. To illustrate hibernation, students created puppets; one side of the puppet shows an animal that is awake (representing the season of fall) and the other side of the puppet shows the animal asleep (representing the season of winter).
Singapore Math in Grade Three
Students in grade three have been using their Singapore Math textbooks and workbooks to complete addition and subtraction work. The students record their answers in their math journals. They have learned how to set up a page and record answers clearly, ensuring they show their work and thinking. A large focus for this unit in Singapore Math is finding the missing number. For example ____+ 25= 40 or 23 – ____ = 6. Students warm up their brain for math class and complete practice questions on whiteboards.The previous math units about patterns and place value are helping the students see patterns in numbers.
French at Pythagoras Academy
In grade 2, we listened to the song La poule Maboule. The song is linked to the play we are learning. It tells the same story, but in a different way. The students have sung the song several times. On Friday, we listened to the song again and wrote down all the words that we could hear. Students wrote down words such as: la poule Maboule, caverne (cave), ferme (farm) ciel (sky), ça va (it’s going), marche (walk), mal (bad), tombe (fall), loup (wolf), fou (crazy), and chat (cat). Wow! The students were very proud of all the words they were able to recognize and write down. C’est fantastique!
In grade 6/7, we did a similar activity. We listened to the song Qui a peur du méchant loup? It is linked to the play Les trois petits cochons. Students wrote down words that they recognized from the song. Students wrote down words such as: méchant (mean), grand (big) loup (wolf), entre (enter), fou (crazy), petit cochon (little pig), souffle tellement fort (blow so hard), tombe (fall), monsieur (Mr.), au revoir (good bye), sur le feu (on the fire), maison (house), je ne suis pas (I’m not), la soupe (soup), il est grand, il est fou (he’s big, he’s crazy), la maison ne tombe pas (the house does not fall down) among many others. Madame Severloh was very impressed with their writing.
Pumpkin Exploration
Prior to our field trip to the Pumpkin Patch, the Donatello class began a pumpkin investigation. Students explored the different properties of a pumpkin in order to learn more about pumpkins and practice scientific questioning. Students placed the pumpkin in a bucket of water to see if it would float, measured it with cubes to see how tall it was, cut it open to see what was inside, counted the seeds and the lines on the outside, drew a picture of the pumpkin and labeled the different parts.
Art, Art, Art!
Grade 2 students viewed and discussed artist Vincent Van Gogh and learned about still life. Students created their own still life image by observing flowers on a table and using chalk pastels to blend and smudge colors. The result is a beautiful impressionistic piece of art!
Miss Simpson’s grade one class learned about still life by carefully observing live plants and flowers and drawing using willow charcoal. Children had lots of fun learning how to smudge the charcoal to add shadows to their work.
