Term 4 has gotten off to a rollicking start with the Prep Worm Farmers releasing their livestock back into the wild. After upending our habitats, we were curious to learn what changes could be noticed. First and foremost, much of the food that had been left in before the break had already been digested. In addition to a few new worms, there were several new additions to our farms including several slaters (aka Rolly-pollies, woodlice, sowbugs or pill-bugs) as well as flies and the occasional millipede. There was much enthusiasm and excited exclamations of ‘look at this!’ and ‘this one’s so big!’ etc.
Later, upon our return to the classroom, we noticed a strange bottle with a coded message tied around its neck. The children cleverly remembered the Morse Code we’d explored in the first term and with their help we managed to decipher the message. It read, ‘please open me’. So that is just what we did. There were mixed emotions upon reading the message from Greybeard. It was a very serious and sombre occasion. As it turns out, he has taken all the pirates on their greatest adventure yet – to investigate outer space! This got us all thinking about what he intended to do ‘up there’ and what we knew about our solar system. Perhaps a visit to the planetarium is in order?
We also got to catch up with our grade 5 buddies on Friday and they took us to the library to read. They shared some favourite stories and even read from some chapter books. Afterwards, we took turns sharing real life stories about each other’s Term 3 holidays. At the end, David volunteered to read ‘The Book With No Pictures’ by B.J. Novak. He did a great job and everyone really enjoyed his rendition.
Worms, pirates, and buddies aside, we’ve continued to look at our maths goals (adding together two collections, counting on from a larger collection, sharing evenly, etc.) and literacy goals (leaving spaces between words, spelling high-frequency words, having a go at writing new words on their own, etc.). By this stage, most of the children know what they are focused on and can tell you what they are, so feel free to quiz them at home.
Thanks for dropping by and we’ll see you again in the next instalment.