What an exciting week! I think a highlight for everyone was our field trip to the National Music Center on Tuesday. We started our morning with a hearing and sound program, where we reviewed all of the concepts we learned earlier this year, and built on our understanding of pitch, volume and vibration. Then we had the opportunity to explore different types of instruments. Cam, our instructor, taught us the four ways that instruments make noise. See if you child remembers them! We also go to see a demonstration on the Kimball Theater Organ and go on a scavenger hunt on each of the floors of the music center. It was great to see so many students being able to extend their learning and explore hearing and sound through Canadian music.
Back at school we have been busy as well. We have been combining math and science this week as we learn about shapes in Math and structures in Science. This week we started talking about 3D shapes and how to identify them by describing the number of edges, vertices and faces they have. Once we knew more about 3D shapes we were able to experiment with them and find out which shapes are the strongest, making them the best to build with. We tested cylinders, triangular prisms and rectangular prisms. One was strongest when used as a column, and one was strongest when used as a joist or beam. See if your child remembers which worked best in which scenario. They can also recreate this experiment easily at home with paper, tape and a few books! Keep your eyes peeled this weekend for a small science activity for homework! Social Studies and art also came together this week as we started learning how to weave! Weaving is part of the Peruvian culture and we have been learning about the art of weaving so we thought it would be fun to try it out ourselves! Also in Social Studies we have continued to talk about water scarcity and how we might be able to help people in the world who don't have access to clean drinking water. We brainstormed ideas, and talked about what could help the most people, for the longest amount of time and discovered that building a well in a community can help them access clean water for a very long time. We also discovered that if we raise money we can give it to an organization who will pick a community in need and build the well for us! This project is in the beginning stages as we are just starting to think of how we could raise money, and how much money we would need to raise, but if we are successful it would be a very powerful legacy for our grade 3's to have! Check out Charity Water for details about the organization we have been learning about, and stay tuned for more information! As the warmer weather arrives and summer creeps closer it is becoming harder for students to stay focused, but we are trying our best in room 74 to stay on track. Our last units in science, math and social studies are really fun and can involve a lot of hands on activities, which is great for our restless kiddos this time of year. I hope everyone enjoys another sunny weekend! Ms.Brett Comments are closed.
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