How Do Penguins Stay Warm?

This was a wonderful way to learn how penguins stay warm as they slide on ice and dive and swim in icy water.  The students got a kick out of putting one hand directly in the bowl of ice water, followed by their other hand (wearing a glove in a bag of Crisco).  The hand that went in the water in the bag did not feel the chill of the ice water!

An Interest In Penguins

The interest in penguins was sparked by some non-fiction reading material from the library.  The children were fascinated by the photographs. This interest has grown as penguin-related activities have been introduced in Room 106.

Our Dramatic Play Centre Is Now The Site Of A Birthday Party!

It was time to take down the New Year's decorations but the children didn't want to stop the party.  We have many birthdays in Room 106 during the month of January so we decided to continue the party with a birthday theme!  The children love writing out invitations and making phone calls to organize the parties.  Each child has a card with his/her phone number listed so the students are getting a lot of exposure to numbers!

We Made A Snowflake Snack!

Our gr. 7/8 Buddies taught the children how to make paper snowflakes by folding and cutting paper, coffee filters, and cupcake liners.  The children were excited to use their snowflake-making skills to make yummy snowflake treats! The tortilla snowflakes were a huge hit!  

We Made Snowflakes!

This is 1 of our beautiful snowflakes! 
The snowflakes only stayed in the
solution for 1 night.

Moving On To Testing Cylinders

Making Spheres With Flubber

Will The Spheres Roll?

Using Shapes To Create Pictures

Jack Frost Visited Our Windows

New Year's Activities Continued

We watched an amazing video showing New Year's Eve fireworks from around the world.  This inspired us to make fireworks with our Big Buddies.  We had "a blast" making fireworks by blowing paint with straws.

Here are some of the finished products!

We did this activity with our Big Buddies as well.
This involved filling the jars 3/4 full with water.
In a separate bowl the students mixed 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil with drops of food colouring.
This solution was added to the water in the jar (without mixing).  The students were amazed as they watched the droplets of food colouring explode into fireworks!

We Are Celebrating The New Year In Room 106

More Gingerbread Fun

This classic tale sparked so many interesting activities.  The graphing activity shown above was a hit! As well, the children thoroughly enjoyed going on several hunts for the Gingerbread Man in our school by following hints left behind by the sneaky character.

Gingerbread Fun

After reading one version of The Gingerbread Man, the children were hooked! They wanted to make gingerbread cookies and that idea evolved into having a gingerbread house.

In the Gingerbread House the students "made" hot chocolate, posed for pictures and enjoyed gingerbread cookies of course (made of ginger-spiced play dough)!

The students were very interested in the ending of the classic story. They wondered what may have happened had the Gingerbread Man become wet.  We conducted an experiment to find out!

Beautiful Seasonal Art

A Math Activity - Festive Patterns

The students did a wonderful job creating and extending patterns.