May 10th

Soil Layers

Students watched two videos on soil horizons and made a flip book to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.

Start this video at the 1:40 min mark, the stuff before is not relevant to curriculum content

After watching video for the second time through, students and I did a Mind Map on the whiteboard of all the vocabulary words and concepts from the horizon levels that were discussed in the video.

Next students received a Soil Horizon flipbook and worked in groups to assemble the information inside the booklet correctly.

They drew a picture on the front to depict the characteristics of each soil layer!

Next week they will create Soil Horizon Cups with their group members!!

Because I don't want the students to be on a sugar high all day from candy/food soil cups, I will have the groups brainstorm what materials they can use to represent each layer from the craft supplies that I have and from materials gathered outside (ex. buttons for the Bedrock, grass for Organic Layer). 

They will plan as a group what materials to gather, they will then go gather up supplies and will lay them out on a desk and place a label by each object/item. I'll snap a photo from each group to assess understanding/thinking/communication/knowledge skills.

They will be able to assemble their Soil Horizon Cups as a group! filling out one of these afterwards!

May 8th

We have been exploring Numeration in Math, we started with different ways to represent numbers.

Students did an integrated Art/Math piece with a number they chose from 1-100!! We also talked about grouping numbers together and skip counting to make counting faster! We talked about Arrays, Number lines and brainstormed other ways to show numbers; like money, dice and time. 

We've moved into talking about Place Value in Math and using our Base 10 Blocks to represent numbers.

Students demonstrated their knowledge by building numbers given to them (ex. 567) with the blocks.

Next students worked on becoming more familiar with these Math Manipulatives, completing the following tasks!!

May 3rd

Today we had a 'Community Meeting', which I believe helps improve the culture and climate of the school and classroom. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Set a tone for respectful learning
• Establish trust
• Motivate students to feel significant
• Create empathy and encourage collaboration
• Support social, emotional and academic learning

During our morning meeting we talked about what we had done while away from school and talked about getting into routine again. Then I gave the students a challenge!

Standing up back to back with no hands!

In Science we reviewed: "What is Soil Made of" and "The 4 Different Types"

We watched a video and talked about our 4-fold activity from before the break.

Students could use their 4-fold activity and the informational posters to match the types. This worksheet below was cut into parts that the students had to match back together correctly.

Then we made Soil Profile Bottles

1.  Students got into pairs and were given their soil samples that they had previously collected. Students then filled their bottle half way with each soil sample.
2. They then filled the rest up with water, leaving about 1" of air.
3. They put the lids on and began to shake the jar vigorously, until all big clumps had been broken up.
4. We set our bottles aside to examine the results tomorrow morning. 

After 24 hours our bottles's contents will have settled into distinct layers; Silt, Clay, Sand, Loam!

This one is already starting to settle into distinct layers after our experiment!

Tomorrow Morning: By examining the percentage of each layer we can determine the type of soil!!!

We will learn how to use a "Soil Texture Triangle" to classify our soil types with accuracy! 

May 2nd

Soil Unit

We've begun to investigate our soil unit in Science: We've learned the difference between soil and dirt.

Soil is made up of these main things:

1. Minerals
2. Water
3. Air
4. Organic Matter (insects, worms, bacteria, dead leaves, fungi)/ Nutrients = Humus layer

Next we looked at the different types of soil:

Students made a 4-fold organizer after doing a "Gallery Walk" of the information posters above

Next I posed an Investigation for the students to problem solve through:

I showed them these 4 containers of dirt and told the students that they had been taken for a ecological study. The city wanted to know why some areas where experiencing certain problems.

The problem was that they forgot which sample came from which location and needed help matching the sample to the specific area based on the problem/soil type.

Problem 1:

Problem 2:

Problem 3:

Problem 4:

One group of students discussed the 4 types of soils and their properties based on the 4-fold activity we did earlier, my EA lead this activity. The other group of students came outside with me to investigate the samples.

This was the worksheet to accompany the investigation:

We went through each soil sample and explored properties of each one (Colour, size, texture, water absorption, tight or loose packed)

We then met as a whole group and discussed what sample came from which problem and why (based on their observation of the samples and knowledge of how that soil acts)

We had a final vote and then I revealed the Answer:

1 = Loam     C. Plants and vegetables low on nutrients

2 = Silt           B. Runoff in a lake is causing fish to die

3 = Clay                    A. Flooding near a farmer's field

4 = Sand                     D. Nothing growing in sector 5

Students checked their vote and made corrections!