Week of Oct. 23rd

 On Wednesday, we had a lovely trip to Bow Habitat. Our day was filled with wonderful instruction and exploration as we became acquainted with this amazing facility. Our learning objectives for the day were to:

1. Observe and describe the growth and development of a rainbow trout from egg to adult. 

2. Study the physical characteristics, behaviours, adaptations, and needs of fish to survive in their habitat. 

3. Identify examples of environmental conditions and habitat preservation that can help maintain trout populations. 

4. Explore the science of mimicking nature: understanding the technology of a fish hatchery and how it meets the natural needs of the fish.


Below is a list of a few of the new vocabulary words we learned through this hands-on experiential process: 

· Adaptation: A change in a plant or animal that helps it survive in a particular place or situation. 

· Camouflage: When animals use their shape, colours and patterns to blend into their surroundings. 

· Carnivore: An animal (or plant) whose primary energy source is animals.

· Characteristics: A quality or trait that describes the way(s) in which a person, animal, thing or group is different from others. 

· Ecosystem: A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. 

· Food Chain: A sequence of organisms, each depending on another for food. 

· Habitat: A place or environment where a plant or animal makes its home. 

· Life Cycle: The stages of growth of living things, from the beginning of their life until their death. 

· Redd: A nest made by female trout to lay their eggs in. 

· Predator: An animal that eats other animals for energy. 

· Prey: An animal that is hunted by another animal for food.




Bow Habitat was a wonderful experience, and we are so very grateful for the parents who were able to join us for the day. Our excursion will be an excellent springboard opportunity as we build on our Interactions of Living Things Science unit. 

This week, we have been focusing on our writing; specifically, we are beginning to address the difference between complete and fragmented sentences. We introduced the concept of nouns and verbs and the importance of having a period, exclamation or question mark at the end of our sentence. To support our writing and to make it more interesting and detailed, we have been learning to use the 5Ws and H question words ( who, what, when, where, why and how). This writing strategy helps to expand their sentence with meaningful details. 

We continue to review letter formation and apply our understanding that letters can be formed or present in the sky, grass or dirt (see attached photograph). Greater knowledge of upper and lowercase letters will be our goal to ensure our printing does not contain uppercase letters in the middle of a word and is only present for now when we write "I," a person's name and at the beginning of a sentence. As we become more proficient with these concepts, they will be added to the student's self-editing checklist to be cued to correct these errors independently. 

Please continue to review  with your child this week's spelling list:

made, could, part, come, has, day, long, find, call, first


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