Last day of school!

Wow! I can't believe how quickly the year has gone, but here we are! On this last day, I just want to say what a great year I've had! I've been blessed to have such great students to teach, and parents to support them! I am even luckier in that I will be able to keep a lot of those same students for next year, as I move up to teach Grade 4! Thank you to the students and parents of Room 18 for a great school year - have a fun and safe summer, and we'll see you in September!

PS: Thank you to all the students and parents who graciously provided me with gifts today - they were totally unnecessary, but very greatly appreciated. You are all too kind...

Surprise walk to DQ!

Even though it's the last week of school, we still have a lot of work to do (contrary to what a lot of people think!). The students have been working really hard at finishing their Grade 3 entries in their My Memories of Radisson School books, over the last couple of days - in fact, they have impressed and surprised me by just how hard they have been working, and how quietly they have been doing so (which makes it easier for everyone to finish their writing!). I decided that they needed a break this afternoon, from all of the hard work they have been doing lately, so we all walked down to the neighbourhood Dairy Queen for a treat. Everyone was definitely ready for some cold DQ-goodness, as it was a really warm afternoon!

Canola Learning Centre

Today we went on a field trip to the grain factory. It took us half an hour to get there, and half an hour to get back. We learned some about animals, but more about plants. When we got a question right, Lisa gave us fake $100 bills. All together, we raised $5900 as a class - we used it to get prizes for our class, like frisbees. We went on a tractor ride, and we got to see plants. There were different kinds of roots, and different kinds of weeds. - Robyn

We had a great field trip to the Canola Learning Centre, located just south of Winnipeg. We've been learning about plants and soils in Science, so this was a great tie-in to the learning that has been taking place in the classroom. We spent the morning inside, doing cool activities like crushing canola. For the afternoon, the rain held off, so we were able to get a wagon ride to and from the field, where we learned about good crops, weeds, root systems, soil, and wetlands. To top it off, the students got to sit in a (very expensive!) tractor. It was a great day of learning and fun... made even better by how great a job the students did of listening and following Radisson expectations. Bravo, Room 18!

The power of one child's blog

I'm not sure if you were following the news at all this weekend, but a big story from Scotland involved a 9-year-old girl and her blog. Martha Payne began her blog Never Seconds in April, as a fun way to show her family and friends what she was being fed in the school cafeteria for lunch. She was also hoping to raise over $11 000 for the charity Mary's Meals, which helps to feed children in Africa. She rated the food she got for lunches for taste, healthiness, portion size, price, and whether she found any hairs in her meal, and also posted pictures of her meals. After celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (who has been a champion of changing school lunches to make them healthier and tastier) tweeted about her blog, the popularity of the blog increased. After pressure mounted on the local school council in the media, due to some of the food being served, Martha was told she could no longer take pictures of her food. The backlash against the council both in the UK and around the world was so strong, that the council reversed its decision, and Martha is now once again blogging about her lunches, and taking photos of them. Her blog has received over 6 000 000 hits, and Martha has helped to raise over $120 000 for Mary's Meals! In addition, a celebrity chef is now going to help the school overhaul their lunches - incredible (you can read more about this story here)! I shared this story, and the blog, with the students this morning because I wanted them to realize (a) how powerful blogging can be, and (b) how kids CAN make a difference. I'm not expecting them to all change the world and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars tomorrow... but I want them to know that they can all achieve great things... and to think about how they might be able to use their blogging skills to do something for someone else...

Skittles Day!

Today at Skittles Day, there were 22 stations, and some extra ones. If you get a sticker on your card, you go and get a Skittle. You have to win at a station to get your Skittles. - Joey
Skittles Day is the same thing as saying you get candy, but you don't have to buy it with your own money. It's free, but you have to do stations for it. - Gal
It was really fun medicine ball wrestling. I wrestled with Evan, and I was flying everywhere! - Tyler
It was the best Skittles Day ever! - Hailey K.
At ball wrestling, I wrested Gal. It was our second time wrestling, and he rolled over my head! I was fine. - Dylan

Paper slide videos on Fractions

About two weeks ago, after we had been doing some work with fractions, the students began to work on creating paper slide videos of their learning (the initial post where we talked about beginning the process is here). After the students completed filming yesterday, I sorted through their takes to find the best ones. The videos you see here are their finished products. The videos had their world premières this morning, as we watched them together after the students worked on today's Number of the Day (which was 848). I'm very proud of all of their hard work, and for a first attempt at these, I think they are really well done! After we watched the videos, the students came up with a list of ideas of what they would do differently next time (I've included a photo of their ideas, at the bottom of the post), in order to make their great paper slide videos even better. The students are very excited to share their videos with the world, so please watch them, and feel free to send us your comments (just click on 'comments' at the bottom of the post). Enjoy!

Introduction to fractions - by Cam H., Sydney, Mikayla, Logan, and Gal from Jeff Hoeppner on Vimeo.

Introduction to fractions - by Joey, Lexi, Dasia, and Dylan from Jeff Hoeppner on Vimeo.

Introduction to fractions - by Ava, Jacell, Tyler, and Marie from Jeff Hoeppner on Vimeo.

Introduction to fractions - by Braylin, Jett, Cameron W., Hailey M., and Hailey K. from Jeff Hoeppner on Vimeo.

Introduction to fractions - by Robyn, Kaynen, Markus, Jenna, Alexandra from Jeff Hoeppner on Vimeo.

(list of ideas that the students thought would have made the videos even better)

It's AWESOME! to publish!

Way back at the end of April, the students began working on their AWESOME! writing, based on The Book Of Awesome by Neil Pasricha, published in 2010. If you recall our original post (which can be found here), the idea of the book is to look all around you and see that, even if things are not going so well, there are many, little awesome things in your life. Some examples of things he describes as being AWESOME! are: the last day of school, sweatpants, going through the car wash with little kids, fixing electronics by smacking them, bedhead all day long, dangling your feet in water, the smell of freshly cut grass, and so on. The students were challenged to write about one AWESOME! thing, using the following structure:

- A title

- A hook/lead

- A paragraph (or more) describing the thought

- A closing (which is always 'AWESOME!')

Well, after brainstorming their own list of AWESOME! things, narrowing their great ideas down to one, writing, editing, and typing, saving, and sending me their final copies, the students have finally finished! They are very excited (as am I!) to share their AWESOME! writing with you. Please take the time to read them (they can be found by clicking on the AWESOME! writing tab at the top of the blog) - we dare you to make it through them without cracking a smile!

Paper slide videos - filming!

Today was a big day, as the groups finished rehearsing their paper slide videos on fractions, and used the cameras to shoot the finished product. All of the students had jobs, whether they were paper sliders, narrators, camera operators, or directors. All of the groups finished shooting, so now I just need to go through them, and get their final takes ready for 'prime time'. I'll do that later this week, and when I do, I'll post them on our blog! For now, here are some shots of the filming process:

Dioramas and fractions

Today we worked on our Social Studies, and we worked on our Mexico dioramas. All of the dioramas look awesome, and they're almost done! I think about one or two more times, and we'll be done. - Cam H.

The dioramas are so awesome! There are waterfalls, and plasticine houses (I did one), and hotels, and roads. But, the thing I like the most is that you can use sand - it looks so cool when you use it to make a pathway. It looks like a real pathway where you could walk... if you were a lot smaller! - Gal

We had Math, and it was fun. We got ready to make our fraction videos - we organized the papers we're going to use, and then we wrote our scripts and we practised pretending we had cameras in our hands. - Cam H. and Gal

Prepping for fractions videos

Work continued in the students' groups, as they continued to prepare to shoot their paper slide videos about fractions. Today, the groups were preparing the papers they will need for their videos, which include:

1. Title and group members
2. Parts of a fraction
3. Fractions as part of an object
4. Fractions as part of a set (or group)
5. Fractions as whole numbers
6. Thank you

The groups either have completed all of their papers, or are near completion, so we are almost ready to move on to the next step. Here's a sneak preview of what you'll be seeing in the videos:

Starting dioramas... finally!

After a lot of talking and planning (and anticipation!), the class finally began working on their Mexican village dioramas today. There was a lot of excitement as groups started to see some of their ideas come together - we must have all been having fun, because those two periods went by in the blink of an eye! Here are some photos of the work in progress:

First Friday of June

Today we were planning a numerator and denominator video. We watched some of the videos from Mrs. Malkoske's class to have some ideas of planning our videos.
This morning in Gym, we had Ms. Moster, and we did a fitness test. There were push-ups, sit-ups, long jump, and sit and reach. Yesterday in Gym, we had to do an 8-minute run for the fitness test.
In Choir, we did a song for the Grade 5 farewell, and everyone in Mr. H.'s class are excited to go to Grade 4. - Alexandra and Jacell