Peeking into Division 10: January 2015

Monday was an exciting morning in our class. We received mail from Yellowknife! Our Northern buddies wrote us a letter to tell us all about life in the knife! The told us what they like to do in the summer and winter. Some of the things they like to do are the same as us but others are very different. In the winter the lakes freeze over and they can go ice fishing, ski-dooing, and skating on them. Lots of people build outdoor rinks to play hockey. In the summer they go to the beaches near the lakes and play in the water. They go tubing and swimming!

They told us how Yellowknife came to be a city. It started as a mining town. They mined gold and diamonds!

They also wrote postcards to us and showed us what life is like and what they like to do. They showed us the northern lights, dog sleds, and the foxes that roam around their city!

Can you see the Northern Lights in these pictures?

Mrs. Betts has been to the Wild Cat Cafe! It is a famous place to eat in Yellowknife!

We liked seeing the sled dogs! Especially because we are called the Huskies!

A fox outside of WalMart????

Then we brainstormed for what we like to do in our community in the summer or winter and made postcards to send back to them.

Can you tell what we like to do from our drawings?

Today we reread their letter and then created a class letter to send back to them. It was wonderful to
connect with another class in a different part of Canada. We were amazed that we have so much in
common but that we live so far away from each other!
Have you ever been to Yellowknife or seen the Northern Lights? I wonder if we can Skype with them sometime soon?

After learning about the different groups of animals that live on our planet, we are starting to learn about the different habitats that they live in. First we were put into groups of 3 and given a set of pictures. Our task was to sort the pictures into groups according to where animals live.

I know it is a bit noisy but hopefully you can hear how this group sorted their pictures!

After we were finished we met as a large group and made a web of our findings.

After learning about the various habitats animals live in, we were put into small groups and given a planning sheet to help us find out more about their specific habitat. We spent time researching to look for the types of grasses, plants, landscape, animals, water features and colours that you can find in each habitat. The habitats we focused on were the: polar/ arctic, temperate forests, tropical forests, coastal oceans, desert and grasslands/ savannah .Our job was to discover what the landscape was like and what animals live there. We used books and our iPads to research our habitats.

Mrs. Betts gave us some QR codes to use that took us right to some websites that were perfect for us! This is what a QR code looks like. You scan it with a QR reader and it takes you right to a website! We love using them. Have you ever used a QR code to help with your learning?

Once we had done our research we spent a few days creating a poster showing the habitat that we had researched and the animals that live in it. Here are some in the making. . .

Once our posters were finished we took a picture of them and uploaded it to our blog. Then we wrote about our learning! Please click on our individual blogs to see our posters and to learn a little bit about animals and their habitats.

Have you every seen any of these animals when you visit the beach?

Have you ever been to a tropical rainforest? Would you like to go?

Notice the camel? We learned that camels have long eyelashes to help protect their eyes from all the sand in the desert!

This group even showed the snow that falls!

Can you see the Northern Lights? Our friends in Yellowknife have told us all about them! Mrs. Betts has visited Yellowknife and seen the Northern Lights!

We have a big forest/park close to our school and many of us ride our bikes or go walking through it. Some of us have even seem some of these animals in it. Have you ever gone walking in a forest and seen all the animals that live there?

Mrs. Thorvaldson, our principal, came to see what we were learning and she was very impressed! Here she is talking to a few of us. We are explaining our poster and showing her how we are putting it on our own blogs.

One of the highlights of this unit was our trip to the Vancouver Aquarium. We traveled by bus which was very exciting for us! Once we arrived the staff and a group of wonderful volunteers met us and took us into a room where we learned all about animals and what they need to survive. We learned that all animals need food, shelter, oxygen and water to survive in their habitat and that many animals have special features that help them to do this. One of the interesting facts we learned was why sharks are lighter on the bottom and darker on top. Do you know why? It was an exciting day for us, and everyone had different highlights at the end of the day. Do you know of any adaptations that animals have that help them survive in their habitat?

Our visit to the Aquarium!