Spring Break!

It's hard to believe how quickly time has flown, but here we are at spring break already! I have been very impressed with how hard the students of Room 18 have worked... even right up to the end of the day today. I am so proud of how far they have come this year with their learning, and I feel very lucky to be able to come to work and spend my days with such a fantastic group of kids! Having said that, I think we are all looking forward to a week off from school. So, whether you are heading out of town for a trip, or sticking close to home, I hope you all have a great spring break... and as always... GO, JETS, GO!!!!

 





Mystery Motivator Day!

Today we had Phys. Ed., and we got to do whatever we wanted to in gymnastics. Most of us did pyramids. Ms. Hanna was testing us for our forward roll, and she said I did great! - Sydney

Yesterday we got our 20th marble, so today we watched Monsters, Inc. and we had pretzels - Mr. Hoeppner is awesome! We got to watch a special feature after the movie called 'Mike's New Car', where Mike's new car went all crazy and then he kicked Sully out of the car. After he kicked him out, he crashed and all six wheels came off, and he flew in the air and Sully caught him like a baseball. - Cam H.

We had our Mystery Motivator today, as the class earned their 20th marble yesterday (the class earns marbles when they get a compliment from another staff member, and when they're doing a fantastic job at working diligently, quietly, and cooperatively during class). The Mystery Motivator this time was that they got to watch Monsters, Inc. while munching on a snack that I supplied. I'm really proud of my class for earning their Mystery Motivator - they've been working really hard lately (especially in Writers' Workshop), and have been getting compliments from other staff on how well they've been behaving. In fact, they've already earned two marbles today towards their next Mystery Motivator - I wonder what it will be...

The Daily 5 in action

Today, the class continued to work on their 'Mysteries of Harris Burdick' stories that we started some time ago. The students are at various stages of the process: some are still working on their first draft, a few are waiting for me to edit with them (after they finished editing with a peer), others are working on their second draft, while a final group has finished their second draft. When there are 23 students, and only one teacher to help them edit their work, it can be hard to manage. However, since implementing The Daily 5 this year, this task has become much easier. The students all know they have tasks they need to work on, while I'm working one-on-one with students, helping them with their writing. The students independently make their choice and mark it on the SmartBoard, and then get down to work - it's fantastic! In between editing sessions with students today, I moved about the class and took a few photos of the students working independently. They're not all working on the same thing, but everyone is engaged and learning (through reading to self, reading with someone else, writing independently, word work, or listening to reading), while I am able to spend more time meeting one-on-one with students (and less time managing the rest of the class). I was so impressed and so proud of my students as I observed them hard at work, and being so independent - I love The Daily 5!

Listening station!

Today was the debut of our brand-new listening station! Listening to reading was the final piece of our Daily 5 work (read to self, read with someone, listen to reading, writing, word work) that had yet to be implemented, so the students were quite excited to try it out! It was great seeing the students listen to the books together (4 at a time) while reading, and having a great time! It's yet another tool to help develop their literacy skills... and it's fun! Right now, we have 10 Robert Munsch books and CDs - I'm looking forward to adding more books on CD to our collection as the year goes on...

Bulletin board refresh

With the snow rapidly disappearing outside (what an amazing week it's been!), it was very apparent that it was definitely time to change the bulletin board outside our classroom - the snow globes needed to go! So, it was time for one of my favourite spring traditions - the 'Spring Scenes in Plasticine' that I have my students create in the spring. It involves making images on a paper plate by thinly spreading pieces of plasticine, ala Barbara Reid - if you're not familiar with her work, you can check it out here: http://www.barbarareid.ca/ The students aren't quite done yet (I've attached some preliminary shots), but they'll finish up tomorrow, so check out our bulletin board if you come down for student-led conferences!

Report card day!

Today was a big day, as everyone received their report cards! The students were all excited to bring them home, and share them with their families. We talked about what the students thought that they had improved on since the first report card, and here are their responses:

I am getting better at Science. - Gal
I am really good for flexibility in Gym, and I'm really good at Science and Daily 5. - Alexandra
I think I'm getting better at writing. - Jenna
I'm getting better when we do 'groups of' on Math sheets. I'm getting really fast on all the times Math sheets. - Joey
I am really good at writing and Daily 5. - Marie
I am getting better at writing because when we got our journals, I usually didn't write a lot, but now I'm writing a lot. - Cam. H.
I am getting better at writing because I am writing a song. I remember to put uppercase letters at the beginning of a new sentence. - Dylan
I am getting faster at Writers' Workshop because before I was one of the last ones to finish. - Jett
I'm getting better at Science and 'groups of' Math sheets. - Ava
I'm really getting better at writing because I started remembering to start using capitals and periods. - Mikayla
I'm getting better at my writing, because last time I was at the third writing goal, and then I got on to the seventh writing goal. - Markus
I'm getting better at Science, I think, because I've been paying attention more. - Robyn
I am getting better at reading because I'm reading more. - Jacell
I am getting better at writing because I could only write one page before, but now I can write four whole pages. - Kaynen
I'm getting better at buddy reading. - H.K.
I'm getting better at writing because at the start of the year, I'd always write big and messy, but now I write good. - Logan
I am getting better at writing because at the beginning of the year, I could only write a half a page, and now I can write one whole page and a half. - Cameron W.
I'm getting better at my reading. - Hailey M.
I am getting better at Number of the Day because I just know I'm getting better. - Tyler
I'm getting better at doing 'groups of' because before I didn't know any times, and now I know a lot of times. - Dasia
I'm getting better at Social Studies. I know lots of borders between countries. - Lexi
I am getting better at my writing because at the beginning of the year, I couldn't even write a whole page. But now, I can write three whole pages. - Sydney

A day at the Museum!

When we went to the museum, some people got to do a bungee jump, and others got to do the tightrope. - Mikayla
At the museum, there was a dress-up place, where you could dress up in costumes and perform. - Jett
I went bungee jumping, and I did 3 back flips and 3 front flips. - Dasia
We had to follow these arrows, and my favourite part was when we went on the ship. When you go downstairs on the ship, you couldn't breathe well because of the hot air. When you were on top, you had to be careful, so that you didn't slip off. - Markus
We had volunteers that came to help us with our 4 groups. One group went with Braylin's dad, another group with Jett's mom, another group went with my mom, and another group went with Mr. H. The grade 3 kids from the Grade 3/4 class came, and went with our groups. - Cam H.
Today, we went to the Manitoba Museum. We split into 4 groups, and I was with Jett's mom. We saw a movie in the movie theatre in the old village, and it was the best movie ever! - Sydney
Today we went to the museum, and it was really fun because we got to go in a really old ship. We even got to see the bottom of it, and the bedrooms on the boat. We even got to see some wolves, and cute wolf pups. It was kind of sad, because they were stuffed. - Dylan
At the museum, there was a circus place with a tightrope, a box you tried to fit in to, bungee jumping, and lots of other cool stuff. I got to go on the tightrope - it was scary, but fun! With the bungee jumping, the first one to go was Dasia. At the end, when we were about to leave, Mr. H. did it. - Braylin
In the circus part, I got to bungee jump, and I did 11 front flips in a row, which I think was the highest. On back flips, I did 8 in a row. - Robyn
My favourite part of the Manitoba Museum was when I saw the dinosaurs, and the water area, and that's it. - Kaynen
When we're close to the dinosaur place, and we finished, we went to the screen that showed underwater. It showed a giant squid attacking and eating a beetle - it was so cool! At the circus, I balanced on a rope, and I was kind of scared. I almost fell off, but I was connected, so I didn't - it was so fun! - Joey
At the museum, we split up in to two groups, and I learned that in the olden days, there was this knife that only girls used for cutting skin off of animals to make coats. - Hailey M.
When we got to see the polar bear who killed the seal, and we got to see the stars at night, it was really cool! After we came out, we saw a dinosaur bone and a dinosaur turtle. - Alexandra
My favourite part of the Manitoba Museum is the bat cave, but we didn't have time to play there because it was lunch time, and we had to go upstairs. - Marie
We went to the circus, and I went on the tightrope. I was scared, but I had fun! - HK
At the circus, it was really funny when Mr. H. bungee jumped. - Tyler
Today, at the museum, we walked through this polar bear cave, and we saw this polar bear. It showed a night picture that has the northern lights. There's a day picture that has the sun, and the polar bear was eating a seal. - Lexi
There was a dress-up place, and behind that, there was a little place that would play a movie. we watched it - it was a guy in a devil suit, and it was fake because he wasn't even on the track, and he rode right into a tree! - Logan
At the circus, there was bungee jumping and a tightrope, and I went on the tightrope. It was scary at first, but then it was fun. - Ava
At the circus, there were some games in a room. There was a small box, and some kids went in it. There was one game where you would put a sword down, and the hand would go down. - Jenna
At the museum, we got to see a statue of a native person hunting bison. - Jacell
At the circus, Gal and me went in a big red tent, and you had push this sword down, and the screen shows it going into her throat. - Cameron W.
When Cam and me went into the tent, there was this thing that showed how strong you were, and Mr. H. made it go to 199, and I had more than 100! - Gal

Today, our class (along with six Grade 3 students from Ms. Parisien's Grade 3/4 class) went to the Manitoba Museum. It was an action-packed day, as we took part in three programs: free time to explore the museum gallery, the Circus exhibit, and learning about the Inuit people. The kids (and adults!) had a great time, and learned a lot. The students were great ambassadors for Radisson, as we received numerous compliments on how well behaved our group was. In fact, at the Circus exhibit, they told me that our students followed directions better than any group they'd ever had before! I feel so priviledged to be able to work with such a wonderful group of children! I also feel very fortunate to have such great parent volunteers in the class - thank you so much to Jett's mom, Braylin's dad, and Cam H.'s mom for giving up a day to spend with our class!

Here are some photos of the different activities we did today - enjoy!

What a day to be outside!

I had the pleasure of being on outdoor recess duty this afternoon - it was fantastic! The sun was shining, the temperature was in the minus single digits, and a front-end loader had just cleared all the snow from the hardtop around the building and deposited it on the playground. It was fantastic to see the students flock to the snow piles, and work so cooperatively to build some fantastic snow forts - they were like busy worker bees! Check out the photos!

BTW, how great is technology?! I wrote this blog post and posted it, along with the photos, from my iPhone, while waiting at the tire shop for a leaky tire on my car to be fixed!

A super-busy day!

What a busy day! We started off with music...

...followed by Library (here's Mrs. Solar reading to the class).

After recess, we had Math...

...and then went and read with the Grade 1 classroom.

After lunch, we had a nutrition fair! Here's a picture of all of the students, gathering in the gym in their family groups, listening to instructions from Ms. Hanna...

I wasn't with a group, as I was running the Family Feud Supermarket game on the SMARTBoard in our classroom. It was fun, because I got to see all of the students in the whole school!

What a great day... but boy, am I exhausted!



Agriculture In The Classroom

Today we learned about seeds, and two people came in to tell us what they do. The lady said her job was really cool, and the man was telling us what his job was - he makes food for people around the whole world. - Joey

We got to put seeds in a grinder and everyone got a turn to push the button. - Jenna

When Ed was talking about the grain elevator, all the wheat was being carried in on machines and trucks. - Alexandra

IT was really fun touching the seeds because it felt like sand. - Gal

When I grow up, I want to be a farmer. - Kaynen

It was fun listening to Ed talk about the seeds because they are interesting and awesome. - Robyn

When we watched the video of the grain elevator, he was so strong because he could push the train car. - Markus

Ed read a book to us about seeds. - Jacell

It was fun when we took the canola seeds and put them gently on the table. We taped the seeds to paper and took a roller and crushed the seeds. They broke and the oil went on the back of the paper. - Logan

In the video, the guy was showing the people watching how a grain elevator works. - Cameron W.

We made canola oil with canola seeds by crushing them. - Tyler

When we crushed the canola seeds, we would hear a crunch. Once you were done, the paper had oil at the back. - Hailey M.

Making the canola oil was fun because we got to crush the seeds to make the oil. - Dasia

Ed read us a book called Seed Soil Sun. It talked about how to grow fruits and vegetables. - Lexi

After Ed read us the book, we got to fill a little tray with seeds and we got to

Today we made flour with Dianne. She showed us how we do it properly, and we got to make our own. -Sydney

At Science, we got to learn how to farm. It was very fun because we got to see how to make flour and how to see seeds smushed up to make oil to go into suncreen and fries. - Dylan

Today in Science, we crushed up canola and it made oil. We got to split up into four groups and some people wanted to take it home. - Cam H.

A farmer named Ed came to our classroom, and brought a bunch of seeds. - Mikayla

Ed read us a book about seeds and after that we got to press a button to grind the seeds. - Ava

We were fortunate enough today to have some special guests come into the classroom. Diane from Agriculture In The Classroom came to visit today, and brought along Ed, who is a grain farmer from Starbuck. Ed read a story about how plants grow from seeds (and left a copy for the class - thanks!) and talked to the class about what he does on his farm, while Diane talked to us about all the different things that are made from agricultural products. Then, the students got to grind wheat to make flour, and crush canola to make oil - how cool is that?! After they left, I showed the class a 15-min. NFB film called Grain Elevator. You can watch it below, as well as see some of the photos of our fantastic classroom visit today.