Orange Shirt Day

Today we celebrated Orange Shirt Day. We watched the following video (also been sent via email yesterday)

Some of the students came in with background knowledge of what Orange Shirt Day represents, others were curious why we were wearing orange today. The message we wanted to give was that EVERY CHILD MATTERS. Your child may want to talk more about the meaning of Orange Shirt Day and Phyllis' story at home.

Have a great weekend,
Danielle

#Free-ishChoiceFridayMath

Today we did a free-ish choice in Math! One of the activities that students were doing last Friday was combining their love for the classic hangman game and Math. We got a few demonstrations of how students were using Math as part of hangman and also came up with a few other variations to try out. The choice was this...which Math hangman game will you play with a partner?
Here are a few examples:

Hangman: Math Edition!

It was great to see/hear the students thinking of new ideas, trying them out, adjusting what wasn't working the way they wanted, sharing ideas with friends and using Math language to explain their thinking. This might be something you want to try out at home!

Until next time,
Danielle

Terry Fox Run

Today we did the Terry Fox run at school. We watched a few videos, read about Terry and had a conversation about him being a hero (in Canada and around the world). Even though Terry is gone, his efforts are still making a difference today! I really wanted the students to push themselves and run as much as possible, thinking about how Terry never gave up...even when it would have been easier to quit. It always feels so powerful when an entire school runs together in support of this important cause. It was special to run with, run past, get passed by all my kiddos...great job everyone!
Thank you to everyone who was able to send in a donation for the Terry Fox Foundation. It is greatly appreciated :)

This Heritage Minute of The Marathon of Hope reminds us that we can all make a difference. Terry Fox will live as inspiration to all who hear his message.

Writer's Festival Field Trip @MTYP

We had an exciting morning...it was our first field trip of the year! The 3/4 team went to see author Kevin Sylvester at MTYP as part of the Winnipeg International Writer's Festival! We were not sure what to expect of this festival. I think many students were thinking that it might be "boring". However, I think those opinions had changed by the time we left! Kevin was engaging and funny. He kept the students' attention and inspired many to want to write and draw more!

Here are some pictures of our day!

The stage!

Meet...Kevin Sylvester!

These are the books he has written!

There was a draw for a book...and we won. Helen went to pick up our winnings ...

AND get our books autographed!

Not only is Kevin an author! He is also an illustrator!! He went through a 'cartoon clinic' with us and this was his message: use basic shapes in your drawings, never erase, turn "mistakes" into something 'cool' by adding lines and darkening other lines to make them stand out. We are going to work on this because we don't need to make our art "perfect"-that doesn't exist! He wants us to stay loose with the marker/pencil, etc. and 'go with the flow'!

We've read The Super Duper Monster Viewer in class, and might want to look into the Neil Flambe series!

Thanks for being good listeners on the field tip...I'm glad you had fun!

Until next time,

Danielle

Friday Already?!

What a week!
We were super busy this week and next week is already shaping up to be super busy as well! You know what they say...time flies when you are having fun :)
*I have added some reminders to the bottom of the page that I hope you find helpful!

Here is a photo of our "Zoom" art bulletin board I was talking about in yesterday's post. We are calling this Zoom because we zoomed into our favourite part of our own work...then zoomed out to create the same look on a larger scale!

 

Thank you to the 3 students who have their work on display in the class. Sorry we couldn't fit all of them in the hall, but it is also nice to be able to see some of our work anytime we want!

FYI...

-Field Trip note went home today. Please sign and return ASAP (thank you in advance)

-Please help your child to remember to being his or her reading log (purple folder) each day

-Terry Fox note also went home today

Have a great weekend!!!

Until next time...

Danielle

Meet the Teacher!

Today was Meet the Teacher at school! It was great to meet so many parents as well as be reintroduced to many again! I'm trying my best to remember everyone...thanks for your patience:)

We really wanted to show our families some of the great stuff we've been working on since school started, so today we focused on finishing up a few projects and tidying up for our special company.

Families have been given information on our blog...please feel free to make comments on the posts. During our morning meeting we will look at the blog fairly regularly! Also-the students will eventually be the ones making the posts!

Working on letters to our families!

Ready to be read and taken home!

A Snicker of Art-named after the book we are reading called A Snicker of Magic!
What an amazing collaboration! Everyone did awesome work!

The final step! We used a zoomed in picture (which was actually the favourite piece of the student's own puzzle piece) and turned that into a large representation! If you get a chance check out the bulletin board in the hall (by the Music room) called "Zoom".
*Not all of our work could fit on the board so we have 3 displayed in the classroom :)
 I will try to remember to take a picture of the bulletin board and post it tomorrow!

 Thanks again for coming tonight. No worries if you couldn't make it...come and chat anytime!
Until next time!
Danielle

Zentangles!

After talking about different types of lines during our Community Art Project, we have decided to continue with the theme of lines to create some Zentangles! These are images that you can create by making structured patterns. Many people find this relaxing and enjoyable...and the results are really quite stunning. The Zentagles we are creating had the following criteria: make your art 'personal' (designs, patterns, lines that feel like you!), take your time and create something you are proud of because we will use it for the cover of our learning logs, and have fun!

Here is what we have been working on so far!

Can't wait to see the finished products!

Pi Pie Run!

I'm back from spending the weekend with my family in Ontario! I don't often visit on 2 day weekends because it is a long drive for a quick visit, but this weekend was a special one. It was my hometown's 2nd Annual Pi Run! Run 3.14 miles and get a homemade apple pie! It is a nice fundraiser for the community. There are about 200 people who live in/around town and there were 97 participants this year! Not too shabby of a turnout! The word is spreading and people from other communities are already planning on participating next year!

I love my little community! It is important to me to still be connected to where I grew up and continue to support the place that helped shape who I am as a person.

Room 123 was impressed that I was going to get a pie at the end of this run! Maybe I should've taken a picture of us eating the dessert we earned!

My 3 year old nephew crossing the finish line!

Post run sweaty selfie!

After the race! From Left to Right: My mom, (myself), my nephew, my sister, my niece and my brother in law!

Community Art!

Our class has been working on a big art project since school started last week. It's so awesome to have support from an Art teacher! Ms Woods has great ideas and a wealth of knowledge. We really appreciate her help!

Day One! We started with a discussion about different types of lines. We looked at pictures of lines and talked about how so many types of lines occur in nature, in famous art pieces and pretty much anywhere you look! We noticed thick lines, thin lines, short lines, long lines, curvy lines, straight lines, vertical lines, horizontal lines...and a lot more! The next step was to practice making lines in different stations. We used paint, oil pastels and chalk pastels. We also each created a line on a big paper for a whole class project (well 4 pieces of paper taped together actually!). This line: had to go across the whole page, it had to be different from everyone else's line, and you had to use a warm colour (after a discussion about warm and cool colours).

Day Two! We cut the big piece of paper into 27 pieces! One for each student and each teacher. First we used some of our paper from the first day to cover some empty spaces. The paper had to fit in a space where it did not go over a line. Next we used oil pastels to outline the painted lines on our own piece. We filled in thereat of empty spaces with oil pastel. We used warm colours for the oil pastel parts. When we were ready, we used some cool colours to paint over the oil pastel spaces. Before the paint dried we used the other end of the brush to scratch lines into our painted section. The final task for the day was to select a favourite part of our own section and zoom in for a picture...you'll see why another day!

Today (after all the pieces had dried overnight) we had the task of putting the puzzle together. Let us tell you that it wasn't easy! We worked together to solve the puzzle and really loved the whole piece that we created as a community!

We aren't finished yet! Stay tuned!

Look what we've created together! It's a Room 123 Masterpiece :)

Classroom Library Makeover!

Today's inquiry was all about rethinking our classroom library! We have a lot of picture books...but they were all crammed on one large bookshelf. There was no way that anyone wanted to choose a book from there because it was overwhelming to even look at!
It is a work in progress!
First we set some criteria about the task at hand: Work together to sort the books, listen to each other's ideas, compromise if needed, etc. The kids did a great job thinking about what made sense when sorting the books. It may have looked like a mess in the room, but it is all coming together now!
We will post more pictures once we are all finished!

Mid Sort!

Some of the groupings

Almost empty shelf...ready for some organized books!

I'm really impressed with the way the class worked together. They were really engaged in this process. We decided that not all the books need to be out at one time. Some of the books are put away in their organized piles. We can get them out as we need them. Now we at least know what books we have available! The books we kept out for now are based on the topics that some of us are most intrigued to learn more about (Culture, Canada, Animals, Math, Structures and Poetry). We all wrote down our interests on post it notes yesterday. That helped us to narrow down which books could stay out and which books we can put away for a bit!

#FreeChoiceFriday (in Math)

The first week of school went by so quickly! By Friday afternoon we actually remembered to slow down and take some pictures of what we've been up to!

On Fridays our Math focus will be to choose your own Math adventure! We are calling it #FreeChoiceFriday. The task is to choose a Math activity and use Math language to explain what we are doing and learning. The intent is to realize that Math is all around us and is ready to be explored in many different ways! The criteria is to use what we have in the class: all the manipulatives we have in the room, paper, whiteboards, etc. to explore different Math concepts. 

Here are some pictures showing what one of the groups decided to do.

Step 1: Build a structure using place value blocks.

Step 2: Make an estimate of the value of the structure and write it down.

Step 3: Find the actual value of the structure and see who had the closest estimate!

The Estimates!

The Actual Value of the Place Value Blocks

#FreeChoiceFriday was a hit! The group was really excited to get some hands on learning and explore the room a bit since everything is still quite new. Looking forward to next week!