Oct 28 - 31

Monday was cold. cold, cold.  With it being minus 22 with windchill we stayed in side for recess.  We had some fun though & tried to be active. It was a good reminder to come prepared for a drop in temperature - boots, coats, snow pants, mittens & scarves are needed.

In word work we are looking at word families as well as the different sound that short & long vowels make.

We had a visit from Mrs. Watkins, our Indigenous Learning Leader.  She shared the story "The Sharing Circle" by T. Larsen Jonasson. 

When two red foxes have an argument which breaks apart their community, a gentle buffalo decides to take a braid of sweetgrass to a local elder and asks her to help with a sharing circle for all the animals.

In Math we learnt a new game called Addition Wars.  

Ask me to show you how to play it!

I can apply mental math strategies for basic addition facts to 18.

In Science we looked at the different density of liquids & objects.  We used maple syrup, water & oil. Then we predicted which objects would sink, semi-surface or float between a grape, a tiny cork & a piece of lego.

0. I can compare water with one or more other liquids, such as cooking oil, maple syrup, honey or rubbing alcohol. Comparisons may be based on colour, ease of flow, density, tendency of drops to form a ball shape (bead), interactions with other liquids and interactions with solid materials.

On a side note....
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a 1/2 day workshop about learning from the land at Fort Calgary. Mohkinstis - is the Blackfoot name for Calgary & means elbow. It is the name given where the Bow & Elbow Rivers meet. 

As part of the afternoon we saw a new statue called Wolfe & the Sparrow.

The artist Brandon Vickerd called the piece a gateway to Inglewood — the “identifiable landmark” is transformative and doesn’t celebrate a historical figure. “It talks about nature and how this urban centre also is connected with the nature around it — not just with the Bow River here and the parkway but also with the birds and other animals that occupy the city with us,” he said. “At its core, it’s addressing the notion of a monument and how we relate to monuments in our culture and the types of myths that they perpetuate in our culture and what we think about when we walk by them and connect with them,” he said.

Next we saw "The Ripple".

This nearly 10 metre diameter walking circle is designed to be a meaningful way to consider the river. It consists of an east entrance facing the rising sun. Seven walking pathways wind in towards a central meditative space which has a buffalo, eagle, otter and beaver motif, representing the four compass directions and the four seasons: birth (eagle/east), youth (otter/south), middle age (beaver/west) and wisdom age (buffalo/winter). The seven paths also represent the seven teachings of humility, respect, truth, courage, honesty, love and wisdom. The artists spent several days meeting with various members of the Inglewood community, representatives from The City of Calgary, Blackfoot and Cree Elders and local historians. The intention was to better understand the community’s relationship to the river and to create relationships for the extent of the project.

We finished the afternoon at Esker Art Studio. They offer free art programs for children & families.  Check out their site.