Brampton Wilderness Centre Trip

1. Fabulous Fours Ms. Duffenais’ Classroom Newsletter Brampton Wilderness Centre Trip On Thursday, October 17, the grade fours ventured to the Brampton Wilderness Centre for a day of habitat discovery. The students began their day with a fun warm up game called “Atoms”, that allowed them to mix with friends from other classes. The game led them into four separate mixed-class groupings that rotated through a variety of interactive activities linked to our Science unit on Habitats. The activities were each run by leaders from the centre. One activity the students participated in was an island game, which simulated the threat of habitat loss to polar bears. Students took turns using a rope to get from one platform (iceberg) to another. Once to the other side, they were to stay and make space for the other incoming “polar bears,” which became very tricky with the limited space. Another activity was building nests. Students learned about how birds use things from their habitat to create nests, such as twigs, mud, leaves, in additional to their own saliva! Students worked in small groups to try to build their own nests, which proved to be challenging, giving full credit to birds as amazing creatures! Other activities include a pond study, where students were able to dip containers into the water to see if they can find any plants or animals; a scavenger hunt in the forest, looking for objects common to that environment; and a food chain game, where students were given cards with an animal, and life cards (food and water), and had to stay away from predators, or else they would lose their life cards and possibly die. It turned out to be a gorgeous fall day, perfect for learning in the great outdoors. All the activities were excellent compliments to our current Science curriculum. As a result, we were able to bring back rich dialogue to each of our classrooms. Shoeboxes Please! In the next couple of weeks, students will choose a Canadian endangered animal to research. Part of their research will be to get a thorough description of their animal’s habitat, which they will use to create a diorama in class. They will require a shoebox or a small box similar in size, to create their dioramas. If you have more than one box that you can donate, we will graciously take them for students who are without. B.Y.O.D. The students have been eager to bring their devices to school. We have been using the school iPads to aid Science and Social Studies research. At this point, if you would like to allow your child to bring their own device to school, you may do so. For safety purposes, your child may give me their devices to store in a locked cupboard in the classroom. Coming Soon: Kidblog I am in the process of setting up a blog account for our class. Once set up, students will be able to publish posts and participate in academic discussions. It is a secure classroom blogging community, that I have complete control over, previewing posts to insure content is appropriate. It will also be a means of sharing class photos, which will be accessible to our class only. More information to follow. Please keep posted.