Tradition Celebration

The students in Room 1 and in Room 8 have been learning about their holiday traditions. Over a few days, the children wrote about their traditions with help from their teachers and Mrs. Atcheson, our literacy coach. The writing included great beginnings, details with description and a clear ending. In art class, paintings were created to compliment the writing.

Today was our Tradition Celebration. We visited Room 1 and the children shared their stories in partners. Then we enjoyed a delicious "Hot Chocolate Bar" full of yummy choices!  Finally, we watched a holiday movie together. In the words of Marcus, "This is the best day of my life!"

Our Trip Around the World

We have been travelling around the world to learn about winter celebrations in different countries!  We have travelled to England where we made wassail (hot apple cider) and went wassailling (carolling) to different classrooms.  We made stained glass art in France and learned about La Befana in Italy.  In Germany we made Christmas ornaments and gingerbread cookies.  While in Mexico we made poinsettias and tasted Mexican hot chocolate!  We also visited the Philippines where we made a beautiful patrol and tasted lumpia.  Next week we get to travel to Israel and learn about Hanukkah - we can't wait!

Smudging Ceremony

Today was our last Talking Circle with our school division's Indigenous Liason, Pam.  Along with Room 1, we had a smudging ceremony.  Those who wished to participate did, while others observed while being a part of the Circle.  We then went around the Circle and gave one word to describe the smudging.

Bannock

Today we had a treat!  During Talking Circle, Pam brought in some of her homemade bannock for us to try.  It was delicious!  Below is the recipe if you would like to make it at home.

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup tenderflake shortening

3/4 cup milk

Mix the first 3 ingredients then cut in the tenderflake.  Add milk and knead into a ball.  Flatten ball and cut into squares.  Bake at 425 for 12-14 minutes.

Talking Circle

A talking circle allows people to share their thoughts and ideas in a safe environment. We are very lucky to have Pam come and visit with us every day for three weeks to show us ways to use a talking circle and talking circle protocols.   We have been learning a lot!

Making Mental Images

This year, we have been learning that brains THINK when we are reading or listening to a story read aloud.  By wondering, making predictions and connections from the book to our life or even to another book, we better understand the story.

Today, we practiced a new comprehension technique called: "Making Mental Images."  When we listen carefully to the words in a story, the children are able to make a picture or movie in their mind using their powerful imaginations.  A story was read aloud and the illustrations were not shown.  Instead, the children drew what they imagined.  Soon, we will start listening to a chapter book and wonderful mental images will be created!

Seven Teachings

Our class will be learning about the Seven Sacred Teachings this year.  Each teaching helps children to learn how to live a good life and is partnered with an animal to represent the value.  We learned that the bison represents the teaching of respect.  We have read stories about respect and the children each wrote and illustrated one page of a classroom book about respect.  Each page tells how we can show respect in different places.  Here are a few examples:

Arabella wrote about showing respect at the dinner table:
Chew with your mouth closed. No playing at the table. No spilling at the table.

Tess wrote about showing respect in the lunchroom:
Do not go out of the lunchroom without permission. Be quiet. Clean up.

Lizzie wrote about showing respect on the playground:
No pushing. Go up the stairs. No Kicking. No yelling. Play politely. Don't go away from teachers. Play with everyone.

Matthew wrote about showing respect for your parent"
I will say, "Please pass the salt." I will clean up the living room. Listen to your mom. Be nice to your mom.

Different Kinds of Smart

Did you know that there are many ways to be smart?  

We are learning about the different kinds of smart (Gardner's Multiple Intelligences)!  Some of us are word smart or number smart, while others are music smart and body smart.  Some of us are people smart and some are self smart.  We can also be smart about art and smart about nature! 

 We know that everyone is smart and these are our smooth roads.  Our challenges are our bumpy roads and we have learned that with work and practice we can make our bumpy roads smoother!

  We made a class brain to show how smart we are in Room 8!  What kind of smart are you?

Buddies

This year, the students of Room 8 have wonderful older buddies from Rm 15.  Cross-age buddies promote respect, care, valuing differences, responsibility, friendship and including others.  Older students develop leadership skills and the younger students feel a safe and caring connection with an older child.  Our buddy time is scheduled every Day 5, period 8. We will engage in outdoor activities, literacy, art, technology and play.

After meeting our buddies for the first time, we went on an outdoor nature scavenger hunt.

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Fall Celebration

Yesterday we celebrated the first day of fall in connection with the science topic of "daily and seasonal changes". A word web was created to represent the children's knowledge of fall. Beautiful art was created, including leaf rubbings, leaf prints and spray paint leaf pictures. The children wrote fall poems and enjoyed an apple taste test. Finally, the students learned about the types of leaves. Happy fall!

Daily 5 - Read to Self

Today was our first day of Daily 5. We learned "Read to Self" today and practiced twice. Today we read for 3 minutes and we plan to get stronger every day and build our reading stamina. During Read to Self, we stay in one spot, read the whole time, get started right away, read quietly and keep our eyes on the book. Sometimes we read the words and other times we read the pictures. We are off to a wonderful start!

Our Chick

It took Nemo two long days, but he finally made his way out. Here is Nemo, our baby chick!

Tabloid

What a beautiful day for Jellybean Tabloid!

Tabloid

What a beautiful day for Jellybean Tabloid!

Living Prairie Museum

We had a wonderful field trip this morning!
We took the city bus to the Living Prairie Museum.

We then learned why it is important (and interesting) to know about animal poop!

We explored the interpretive center and got to look out at the prairie from the observation deck!

We went for a walk through the actual museum - which is outside!  We saw giant anthills, butterflies, dragonflies, deer and learned about many prairie plants!

We then took the city bus back to school just in time for lunch! It was a great morning!

Butterflies!

Our caterpillars have emerged from their chrysalis and we have beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. It has been exciting watching them come out slowly and pump blood in their wings to dry them. Now they are flying around in our net.

Teagan says: "I love butterflies."

Julie says: "Some are hatching out of their chrysalis."

Ethan says: "Their wings are moving - opening and closing."

Mackenzie says: "One injured their wing. It is resting on the bottom."

Chantel says: " When they walk, they flap their wings."

Outdoor Challenge - Best Day Ever!

Today we got to play in sand, water and best of all - our mud kitchen! We enjoyed the rubber duck races and seeing how high we could get our water!

What most of us really enjoyed in Room 8 was getting our hands dirty and working with and creating with mud!