Let's BRANCH out and learn about trees!

Happy Friday everyone.

This week, we started learning about trees and began by taking a very interesting walk.  On Monday, we focussed our attention towards the sky and noticed many interesting things about trees such as...

 

 It's easy to find nests during winter time,

 

trees don't have just bark on their trunks and branches - they have strange things like moss and even ferns!

 Trees also have big bumps on them.  The students decided this was a very bad sign and that the trees were not healthy.  Stay tuned for next week because our tree expert Mr. Mark Boyland (Sage's dad) will be able to add clarification to this theory!

Trees can be very tall and they are also very functional as shelter, gathering places and "free" zones in tag games.

After our tree exploration walk, we discussed uses of trees in our world and then searched for things in our classrooms that were made from trees.  Then we made collages of "Things That are Made From Trees" by cutting pictures out of magazines (also made from trees).

On Thursday, we learned about the seasonal changes that deciduous trees go through year after year. We looked at an illustration of a tree and talked about why this tree did not make sense in nature.

The students then illustrated a deciduous tree's appearance during each season.

 During that afternoon, our student teachers Olivia and Sarah taught a lesson about the parts of a tree.  They began with a story, a brainstorm, and then a tree-ish version of "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes".  Here are a couple of photos of students drawing a tree and then labelling it's parts.

 

Today, some students who work with Jill throughout the week performed puppet shows for the rest of the students in Divs 1 & 2.  The first show was based on the story "Little Red Hen",

The second performance was entitled "The Gingerbread Girl".  Our puppeteers decided there needed to be some gender equality in the show so the traditional character was changed from a boy to a girl.

That's the week at a glance.  Thanks for checking in.  We hope you have a restful and wonderful weekend.

Homework:  Hug a tree :)

Important dates:
-Scholastic Book Club order forms went home today.  We would like them back by Tuesday to give time for Valentine's books to arrive.  Remember, there is no obligation to purchase books!
-Monday, February 11th is the new B.C. statutory holiday - Family Day.  Schools will be closed.
-Tuesday, February 12th marks the beginning of our two week Hip Hop program.  Performances will be held on Friday, February 22nd. Time TBA.