Journée de Francophonie



Here we are in Senegal!



 On Thursday, March 31, Pregny celebrated le Journée de Francophonie.   Rosalina organized 6 workshops representing France, Senegal, Morocco, Belgium and Switzerland.  Each workshop had many fun and interesting activities with CAS students from Saconnex, parents, and teachers serving as presenters.

In Senegal, we learned where Senegal is located in the world and played some fun games.
    

                                                                    



Morocco

When we arrived in Morocco, we learned about camels, gazelle and foxes which are native to Morocco.

We also found out that there are many interesting musical instruments from Morocco and that the official language is Arabic, although French is also spoken.

 During our visit to France, Tom's mom read us an exciting story about Beaugency, a bridge, a devil and a cat.

We were excellent listeners!

Congratulations to table 3 who won Val's Francophonie Day quiz with a near perfect score!





Many thanks to Rosalina for the great organization and a truly special morning.

Changing Materials

From chocolate bar to chocolate spoon

 One of the most popular activities during our Materials unit is the changing of materials.   Solids to liquids, liquids to solids, it usually turns out delicious.


We began our journey into the world of solids, liquids and gases by changing a chocolate solid into liquid chocolate and back again.  We melted the chocolate, poured it into molds, added a wooden spoon, let it cool and, voila, it changed back into a solid.  These chocolate spoons were meant to be changed back into  liquid chocolate by adding them to hot milk once they arrived at the childrens' homes. 

Only one or two made it home....the rest were changed into liquids in the stomachs of class 2b just before dismissal time.

         

From Food to Fun

 Our next challenge was to change a mixture of solids and liquids into a "mystery material".  Would it be a solid, a liquid or a gas?

It was very important to follow the instructions carefully and, despite the ensuing chaos, it was a successful experiment.

There was a flurry of measuring, stirring, kneading and...............

BOUNCING!!!!!!!

Our "mystery material"  turned into bouncy balls!

Up next, more edible experiments.  We will continue to change materials into things both cold and creamy and warm and delicious......

Materials Museum

Welcome to the Class 2b Virtual Materials Museum.

Here you will be able to browse, at your leisure, our display of items from each of the main categories of materials involved in our current Unit of Inquiry.

Here are some things we already know about materials.....


"They use flames to make glass."     Tom

"Trees make paper."      Tavonga

"Trees give us paper."    Stefan

"Metal is hard and rock-ish and comes from the ground."            Kyle

"We find metal underground."      Olivier

"Fabric can be made from cotton."    Elias

"We get wool from lambs."      Beenish

"Some fabric comes from wool."    Heloise

"Wool comes from sheep."     Luis

"My juice maker is made from plastic."     
                                            Gabriel

"They use oil to make plastic."    Zubair

"Rubber comes from rubber trees."    Arissa

"Wood comes from the forest."  Akshaya

"Wood comes from trees."    Sona

"Clay comes from the earth."     Irene

"Clay comes from the ground."   Matthew

"You get clay from dirt."      Kevin
                                                                              

   

"Gold comes from rocks."       Mollie

"Gold comes from deep, deep underground."      Libby

Celebration of Learning

 Just before the break, Class 2b invited parents and friends to a morning of presentations followed by a potluck lunch.  We were celebrating the end of our Unit of Inquiry on Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm.


We demonstrated our skills through songs, poems, skits, and sound and movement patterns.

Akshaya helped Beatrix act out her original poem about beans, mushrooms and slugs, while Kyle assisted Matthew with his limerick about a travelling polar bear.  Arissa was on hand to help Shahzeb deliver his poem featuring the cow with the blue shoe.

Kyle and Zubair shared  ideas of what their "Backwards Town" would be like.

"A shrimp is eating a boy.  Ahhhhh, said the boy."  Kyle

"People are in the trees."    Zubair

There was so much quality entertainment, we should have asked to see tickets!

Parents were also involved in the presentations.  After hearing our versions of popular nursery rhymes, they were asked to guess the original.  Tom's mom was quite the expert!

Following our presentations, the children were able to share their written work with their parents.

Color patterns, number patterns, picture patterns.....skip counting, tallies, graphs, and hieroglyphs... parents were asked to choose a piece of work from their child's pattern folder to be included in the end of year personal portfolio.

 When the parents had completed their assignments, it was time for our potluck lunch.

There were so many interesting contrbutions that it turned out to be quite a feast!  Our cafeteria chef, Robert, delivered the children's hot lunch main course with his usual creative flair.  Who knew you could make a swan out of an apple?

A big thank you to everyone who made our Celebration of Learning such a success!

Smarties Math

One of the toughest assignments we had recently was a math worksheet involving tallies, sorting, and addition.


Of course, no one really wanted to do this, but after  a lot of begging and pleading by Miss Mills and Val, the children finally agreed to force themselves to eat their math equipment.


In the end, it was successful and delicious!




 

Olivier Has ESP!

Our clairvoyant with Bob, Jimmy and the bodyguard, Spike.

Congratulations to Olivier!  His prediction of when Bob would bloom was 100% correct (December 5).  No one was quite sure what color Bob was going to be, but he hasn't disappointed us.

Snowy Day Photos

Here are some photos of break time today.


We were all having such great fun; some of us in the snow for the first time.


This puts everyone in the mood for our upcoming skiing and sledding outings. Let's hope there is plenty of snow in the Jura in January.

Snow, snow, and more snow!

Yesterday, Geneva recorded the third largest snowfall on record for the first of December.  Today, we celebrated the 30 plus centimeters of the fluffy white stuff during break time

Arissa and Beenish were joined by Osuto for the construction of their "snow castle".  Watch how it started to take shape.

It's Friday Again.......Can You Tell??

Today, Geneva welcomed the first snowfall of the season.  Our excitement level has been on high alert and no one thinks that there was enough of the fluffy white stuff.

Next week, we continue our new Unit of Inquiry, "Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm".  There will be special newstime assignments, in-depth art projects, table activities where groups rotate through the classroom and, of course, LOTS of stories, poems and songs.  (Don't you wish you were here?)

We will put the finishing touches on our Plant unit but continue to "watch Bob grow" as his flowering display is growing (get it?) near.  Who will have predicted this special occasion spot on?

The Many Faces of "Bob"

Osuto's prediction

What will Bob look like when he blooms? 

Here are some predictions.

Gabriel's prediction



Akshaya's prediction




Is It or Isn't It???

In preparation for our next Unit of Inquiry, Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm, we opened a discussion about odd and even numbers and some of us wondered if 0 was an odd or even number or both.

After lots of thinking, there were strong opinions on the matter.

Luis:  "I think that 0 is even."

Beenish:  "I think it's an odd number because no one gets anything."

Matthew:  "I think it's odd and even because people don't know if it's odd or even."

Beatrix:  "I think it's an odd and even number, just like Matthew."

Irene:  "My mom and Dad say it's not odd and it's not even; it's really a magic number."

Kyle:  "Yes, and there are more odd magic numbers, like negative numbers; -1."


As you can see, it is a subject that needs more investigation.....

What do you think?

Thumbprint Art

by Sona

 In art on Tuesday, we made personalized creations using our thumb and fingerprints. 

We were lucky this year (we have washable ink pads!) that our art lesson didn't last all week on our fingertips.

As you can see, some of us chose to make sports pictures; others used a nature theme and a few of us decided that underwater creations were right for them.

by Heloise

by Patrick

 The next time you are in the classroom, have a look at the rest of the thumbprint art. 

by Alyssia

by Kyle

Famous "People" in Our Class

Meet Robert Plant (Bob for short) and his friend Jimmy (Page)

 If you have been in the classroom lately, you may have seen our celebrity, Bob.   Bob is an amaryllis whose full name is Robert Plant.  He invited his friend, Jimmy Page for a visit and they are camped out by the window.

We are tracking Bob's growth (he grows very quickly) and are anxiously awaiting one or more flowers.    We each made a prediction about when this might actually happen:  anywhere between 4 and 100 days!

To celebrate the arrival of Robert and Jimmy, we discussed their legendary
rock band, Led Zeppelin.  Because some of us were not familiar with Led Zeppelin's work, we turned on our SmartBoard at lunchtime and had a look and a listen.   EVERYONE was impressed, especially Bob!

I wonder who will show up when we study Materials....(Ronnie Wood and the Rolling Stones, maybe?)

  

Ta-da.....class 2b spaghetti

Not much in the bowl...some on the chin.

   After spending some time at Val's house, the pot of vegetables returned to the class as (wait for it...) delicious spaghetti sauce. 

We cooked some spaghetti and had a pre-lunch plant feast.

  Up next, more plant cooking.  Since we decided that pizza AND pancakes are also made mostly from plants, we will be putting on our chef hats once again in order to complete our trilogy (3 special snacks made from plants). 



Lots of sauce!



Bean Baby Update



Look at Luis' beans go!

Here is some bean news....................


Kevin likes his beans.




Matthew's beans are doing well.


As we follow the growth of our beans, we are becoming real thinkers. 

Each day, we observe our beans and record any changes that might have occurred .  Some of us wonder what will happen next while others describe what has happened so far.

Irene's recent comment about her bean:  "It's like a worm.  It's beautiful.  How I wonder what they eat?  Or maybe they only drink?  Or maybe not?  I don't know, does it need a lot of water or not?  Maybe yes or maybe no."

"Plant" Sauce (also known as Spaghetti sauce)

 In a moment of weakness, Miss Mills and Val decided that Class 2b should do some cooking.  What better way to get involved with vegetables than a big pot of homemade spaghetti sauce? 

After brainstorming a list of sauce ingredients, we each chose an ingredient from a "hat" and then brought it to school the next day.

There was a flurry of peeling, chopping, slicing and dicing; no injuries but a few watery eyes.

Our pot of plants and vegetables was ready for cooking.  Val took it home to simmer and we are anxiously awaiting the final product....spaghetti with Class 2b sauce!

Down on the Farm

Class 2b recently took a trip to an apple farm in Collex-Bossy.  It was a lovely day and, although there was frost on the ground when we arrived, the sun was shining and we were ready to learn about apples.


We met Olivia who explained how the apple farmers care for their trees throughout the year and what is necessary in order to have healthy, delicious apples.

After a walk through the orchard, we were able to taste 4 different types of apples that Olivia grows at the farm.  They were delicious!