It was a wonderful week filled with reflecting on our Fish Creek trip, festive spirit days, exciting concerts and conversations about the Winter Solstice.
Learning Intention: (Science - Earth Systems)
- Understandings of the living world, Earth, and space are deepened by investigating natural systems and their interactions
I Can:
- represent various components of Earth (land, water, air, plants, humans, animals)
- discuss how the various components interact to support life
- describe the relationship between time and Earth revolving around the sun
As we prepared for our second trip to Fish Creek, we reflected back on our October trip, looking at photos and sharing our understandings of the park area during the Fall season. With the Winter Solstice a week away, we were excited to make some predictions and have the opportunity to head back down to the park to observe and record the changes we would be noticing to the land, water, air, plants, animals and humans.
- "In October some of the water had a little bit of ice floating on it...I think there will be more ice and it will probably be thicker now."
- "There were lots of ducks in the water when we were there last time...I don't think we will see them this time though because they migrate when it gets cold."
- "Remember I saw that really big beetle...it was black and it was on the path...We definitely won't see any bugs like that beetle because it's too cold and the ground is snowy...I wonder what happens to all the bugs?"
- "Lots of leaves were falling off the trees and the grass was turning yellow and brown because it was dying...I think all the leaves will be gone and the trees will have snow on them instead."
- "We could see the beaver dam from the bridge on our first trip...I think the beaver dam will still be there and it might be bigger because they've probably been working on it while we've been at school the last few months."
- "Last time there were lots of people in Fish Creek walking their dogs and riding their bikes...I think it's too slippery to ride your bike now!"
It was an absolutely gorgeous day for our trip to Fish Creek last Friday, December 13th and students were eager to start exploring the changes that had taken place in the park. They quickly got to work looking closely for clues on how Earth's components had been impacted by the changing seasonal weather. Like scientists, they searched for evidence to prove their predictions were accurate as well as were inspired to ask questions and make new wonders.
When we returned to school students shared their discoveries -
- "The ground was covered in snow and ice and it made it trickier for us to get down the hill!"
- "I noticed that it wasn't very colourful down in Fish Creek. It was mostly just brown and grey and white."
- "In my group we saw that the plants were wilting and mostly dead and there was some frost on them."
- We could see that there was more ice on the water and it was thicker."
- "Our group noticed there were lots of deer tracks and also some animal scat on the snow and ice."
- "When we saw the tracks I was wondering if they were from a coyote?"
- "We definitely saw less people there. Snow and ice make it hard to do activities like biking, jogging or walking your dog in Fish Creek Park."
- "The snow was covering the rocks and holes and hill and so it was hard to know where to step so we didn't fall."
- "We only saw a few birds and we didn't see any ducks, because they already migrated south. We also didn't see any other animals either probably because they are hibernating."
- "We noticed in our group that the ground was covered in snow but some plants were still sticking up through the snow. My Granny told us that the deer eat those plants in the winter!"
As an extension to our seasonal observations of the components of Earth, we talked about the upcoming Winter Solstice happening on December 21st. Students watched and reflected on both of the videos shared below.
