Grade 4

We had a special trip to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Jyotsna says that:  It was a late return trip, it was a two hour drive to go and another two hours to come back!  Both classes had a First Nations guide.  One of then was Shane and the other one was Stan.   First both of the classes went into a room and we all got or back packs off and our coats off.  Then one class went inside first to see the museum  and  the other class went out to see the jump first.   Ms. Finlay's class went to a room  where  there were artifacts placed in the middle of the room We needed to sit down with girls on one side and boys on the other.  We got turns to pick one of the artifacts   and the guide would tell what it was used for.  Miss Tempest's class learned about the actual jump, like how they had to prepare for it and how some people dressed in buffalo skins and one dressed as a buffalo calf and some dressed as wol...

We planted some hyacinth bulbs in the area near the playground.  It's fenced off, but squirrels can EASILY get in there.  We experimented:  some bulbs have a layer of burlap between them and the top of the ground - will that protect them from squirrels digging them up?  Will it stop them from growing very well?   Other bulbs have no burlap.  It's looking good so far.  It takes a LOT of patience now, as they won't come up until the spring time! While digging, room 306 found an earthworm and named him Khabib.  Khabib was a class pet for many, many weeks.  Sadly, he died in November from too much mould (probably too much water) in his habitat.  Rest In Peace, Khabib.    

It was amazing to think of the technology that can allow a car to drive down a street with no driver.  This is the way the world's vehicles are moving into the future, and it takes a lot of programming skills!  ELA is Canada's first autonomous (driverless) vehicle that the public is allowed to go onto.  We learned about this technology and its good and not-so-good parts.  We had a special guest speaker, engineer Rod Schebesch from Stantec Engineering.  He and his company were part of making the ELA testing happen in Calgary.  After that, we walked to Telus Spark and the Zoo, to catch a ride!  It was short, and safe.  ELA is also an electric vehicle, and uses no gasoline, so there's no pollution from the exhaust.    

Making Crab Apple (or Crabapple) Jelly was a great time!  There were many steps.  First we gathered donations of apples / crab apples, but we needed to get some more.  Some of the donated ones were rotten because we didn't have enough refrigerator storage space.  We went on a field study to find an pick apples around the neighbourhood. Then we prepared the apples by cutting out any bruised or rotten bits (sometimes just getting rid of the whole apple), and taking off the stem.  For larger apples, we cut out the core. We boiled the apples in some very large pans of hot water, and put them through a sieving system with some cheesecloth.  This drained overnight. The next day, we had a parent volunteer help us.  Thanks so much to Kirsten!  We had delicious juice, but now needed to boil it, stir in a whole lot of sugar, a bit of lemon juice and some pectin to help it set.  All our jars had to be boiled so that the jelly could last for a longe...

September 14th, 2018