Bringing a new program into Calgary schools
Available Units
Grade 1
Creating Colour
Learn about mixing colours; how to sort colours; understand transparent, translucent, and opaque; how paint goes onto different surfaces; how to make colour from plants; and how to separate sunlight into colour. We’ll act everything out – so much fun!
Building Things
We’ll build backyards and parks and lots more. We’ll be different materials, and we’ll populate what we build with animals and people. We’ll create parts and put things together in different ways. We’ll create magical worlds as play our way through a world of building things.
Seasonal
Changes
Students will learn about changes in sunlight and weather; we’ll look at how to track changes in weather; we’ll act out how seasonal change affects animals and birds; and what it means to hibernate, grow a thicker coat or turn colour – all as adaptations to seasonal change.
Grade 2
Exploring Liquids
What liquids mix together? Which liquids are heavier? How do we describe liquids?How do liquids get absorbed? How does evaporation work? What are the states of water? How do we change water from one state to another? How to do we keep our water clean? What contains water? We have ways to act all of this out in the classroom.
Magnetism
Acting out magnets is really “attractive”. Students will be the magnetic force, they’ll learn that the force can go through materials. They’ll learn how a magnet’s force diminishes over distance. Students will learn what kinds of things are attracted to magnets and which ones are not. They will also learn how to compare the strength of magnets.
Hot and Cold
Temperatures
Students will learn how materials can be changed by heating and cooling. They will learn that thermometers can be used to find out the temperature of something. They’ll measure the temperature as they travel around the world to places hot and cold, experience temperature changes and learn how to stay comfortable in them.
Grade 3
Rocks and Minerals
Students will have a blast learning about the rock cycle and how it involves big forces as well as little ones – from wind and rain to volcanoes. Students will learn how igneous, metamorphic and Sedimentary rock are formed. They learn how to describe rocks and talk about their qualities.
Hearing and Sound
From echolocation to the properties of sound waves, we have it covered. Students will be sound waves travelling, bats sending out sounds, sound being absorbed, sound being reflected; they’ll be sound waves making it through the ear to the eardrum, and they’ll surf the sound waves’ amplitude. It will be “gnarly” dude.
Animal Life Cycles
So many lifecycles to act out. So many things that affect them. Short cycles and long ones. Students will act out the cycles in connection with each animal’s surroundings. Students will learn that certain animals only exist in specific conditions. They’ll learn what environmental situations support or weaken animals. They’ll learn how human activity affects animal lifecycles.
Grade 4
Light and Shadow
In this unit we become light rays and interact with the world. We see what happens in a prism – how light can be broken into different colours. We’ll look at the path of light and how it is directed by the shape of a mirror. We also explore how light is affected by transparent, translucent and opaque materials and casts shadows that are predictable. Light and shadow – a world of cause and effect.
Waste in our World
In the land of waste the decomposers play a big role. Students will learn how nature creates waste and then processes. it. They will also explore how humans create and deal with waste, including waste that breaks down easily and waste that is toxic. From recycling to smokestack scrubbers, water filters to composting facilities, we’ll look at the challenges of dealing with waste in our world.
Plant Growth and Changes
Being a healthy plant means you need a lot of things to go right. Students will be the plants and the “conditions” that affect them – the light, the soil, the temperature, the water. We’ll also look at how humans use plants for food, clothing and shelter as well as windbreaks and erosion control. Another really fun thing to explore is how seeds get moved from place to place. There is some great drama there.
Grade 5
Electricity and Magnetism
Students get pretty charged up when they act out things related to electricity. We’ll be making circuits, adding fuses, changing batteries from parallel to series and adding switches as we power up boomboxes to make sound. We’ll also take a look at how power is generated from various sources like water, gas, coal and the sun. Of course we’ll also act out amps., volts and watts. Shockingly fun.
Classroom Chemistry
Mix it up and see what happens. That’s what we are doing when we explore classroom chemistry. What mixes, what doesn’t- why? What happens when liquids evaporate and leave behind the solids? When things change, can the original components be recovered? Discover your lab scientist personna as we explore the inner world of chemical reactions.
Weather Watch
What is a hurricane, a tornado, a storm front? How does a Chinook Arch form? How does hail form? Find out in the this unit. We’ll also look at how to measure weather, understand the difference between weather and climate and take a look at how humans affect weather by things like greenhouse gas production.
Grade 6
Air and Aerodynamics
Students will go to Air molecule boot camp to learn the properties of air. They’ll get compressed in the compressor, heated up in the hot air ballon and they’ll provide resistance and lift. Students will also learn about Bernoulli’s principle by acting it out. Get ready to fly.
Evidence and Investigation
If there ever was a unit that was suited to acting things out – this is it. Teams of students will provide clues for other students to solve the investigation by providing types of evidence. Get your Sherlock hat on and have fun.
Sky Science
Acting out phases of the moon makes this science so understandable. Students will act out an eclipse of the moon and the sun, look at the affect of the moon on tides and look at the phases of the moon and how they are created. It’s a stellar way to learn these things.