Student-led conferences

I just wanted to say a quick 'Thank you!' to all of the students and their family members that came to Room 18 for student-led conferences last night and today! It was great to see everyone (and meet you for the first time, in a few cases), and I know the students were thrilled to be able to share some of their learning with their parents and/or grandparents - they have worked hard this term, and they wanted you to see that! Next up... getting ready for the Christmas concert (it's hard to believe that there's only 3 weeks of school left until the break!)...

 

 

Another Graph of the Week

Today we made a graph about how many pets we have in the class. So, we added zero, one, two, three, and four and over. Also, Braylin and me both made it, and I have 11 pets, and Braylin has one pet. - Dylan

This morning, Dylan and me made a graph and it was about how many pets the whole classroom had altogether. I hope I'll get to do graphing again this year because it was really fun, and I liked working with Dylan because he always has great ideas. - Braylin

 

As you've seen in some earlier posts, our class has been working on surveys and graphs. Previous to this, the graphs had been done first by me, then by me working with the class, and next by pairs of students working with the class. Today was the first graph done solely by two students. Bravo to Dylan and Braylin for coming up with the survey topic, carrying out the survey, and creating the graph, all on their own - it looks great!



 

easel.ly

Grey Cup Graphing

Today, Jade and me made a graph on what team we think is going to win the Grey Cup. Making the graph was fun. - Michael
In Math today, we got to do a graph of which team would win the 100th Grey Cup - Toronto or Calgary. Nineteen picked Calgary, and three picked Toronto, so most of us think Calgary has a better chance than Toronto to win, but we don't know yet because the game is in two days. - Dylan
Michael and Jade made a graph today. It was about the Grey Cup: who will win the Grey Cup - Toronto or Calgary. I picked Calgary to win the Grey Cup, but I don't know who is going to win the Grey Cup yet, because it is on Sunday. - Joey
In Math today, Michael and I made a graph about who is going to win the Grey Cup. The Toronto team had three votes and the Calgary team had nineteen votes. - Jade
Mr. Hoeppner is going to the Grey Cup, and he got very cool tickets. On the tickets there are football players and they look like hockey players, and the football players are made of words that are hard to read. - Gal

easel.ly

Everyone Loves Bill Nye!

Today we got to see our art on Artsonia. We got to write our names on little cards to place in a box in French, and next month we pull them out for prizes. - Alexandra

Today in Science we watched a Bill Nye video on light and rainbows. - Lexi

When we watch the Bill Nye video, at the beginning, a bunch of people were singing the theme song, but like disco. The class got six out of ten on the quiz at the end - we usually do better. - Jenna

In Science we are going to be learning about how white light is made up of other colours. - Hailey M.

 

2-digit Multiplication

Today we had a desk-changing plan. I'm sitting with Denisse, Evan, and Kurt now. At Daily 5, Braylin and me were buddy reading. - Kyra

Before we had Phys. Ed., we had a desk change. I have Michael's old desk, Jenna has mine, Michael has Jenna's, and Hailey has her old desk. In the class, we all sit in groups of 4 now. - Joey

Today in Math we were trying to break numbers apart with multiplication. Let's say it's 34, you break it apart into 30 and 4. - Jenna

This afternoon, we had a recognition gathering, and we had the Kindergartens to Grade 3's recognized. One of the teachers came up and recognized the walking club. - Logan

This morning, we had Math, and we were talking about pulling apart numbers to see what number we'd get. If it was 23x2, then we would put 20x2, in brackets, plus 3x2, also in brackets, and we would add them up to get the answer. - Braylin

 



The students continued their multiplication work in Math this morning, where they once again were working to learn how to multiply a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number. Every day, the class is showing they understand this concept better and better - they are really impressing me with their learning!

 

After Math, the big excitement of the day was a new seating plan - we didn't just move students to different desks, though... we moved the desks into an entirely new arrangement! Previously, the desks were placed in a semi-circle sort of plan, with some additional desks in the middle of the semi-circle. The students are now sitting in pods of four, and the room feels much larger. It is easier to move around the room, and we have a bigger meeting area at the front... which shows off the awesome Winnipeg Jets carpet much better!

 



 

 

 

One Musician

Art was fun today. We got to make a picture of a musician, and we were allowed to do different instruments, but we weren't allowed to do any drawing. - Jenna

When we did the musician, some people did guitars and some people did microphones. Dylan did a boxman and bagpipes, and I did a country person with a guitar. - Alexandra

It was really fun to make the musicians, and it was especially fun to make my singing salamander. - Mikayla

Art was awesome! I did a musican that was a ghost, and he had arms and he was holding a guitar. For his face, I made a snowflake and glued it to the body. - Gal

 

Today's Art project was based on Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians (pictured below). The students studied the picture, and were then challenged to create their own musicians using construction paper, wrapping paper, glue, and by following the criteria below. I've included pictures of the some of the students' work in progress, but you'll have to check out our Artsonia page in the next few days to see the finished works... which are very impressive!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grade 10 visitors in French class!

Today in French, some kids from grade 10 wrote stories in French about sportsmanship. They read them to us in French and there were words that we didn't really recognize in French, so we learned new big, long words. - Jenna
When the grade 10 kids came to read their French stories, our partner's story had a picture of the Hulk and it said "Don't lose your temper!" in French. After he read the story, we played 'I Spy' with our partner until the other groups were done. - Joey
When the grade 10's came, Evan, Braylin, and me had a partner who was a girl. When she was showing us her project, there was the stick people that she put in the book. She couldn't draw the hands, so the stick people were having legs and a stick and a face. The only thing that the referee had was a referee's sweater. - Gal
One of the new words that I learned in French is 'justice'. The way to say it in French is 'justement'. - Dylan
Hailey K., Erica, and me learned to say 'compétition' in French - that means 'competition'. - Alexandra
Jade, Hailey M., and me learned the word 'scream' in French - it is 'crieras'. - Mikayla
We learned a bunch of new words in French: 'partner' is one - it is 'partenaire' in French. - Jade

We had a special treat in French class today, as Ms. Bedard brought her Grade 10 Basic French class over from TCI (next door to Radisson). They had written comics in French, based on the theme of 'fair play'. The students loved having the high school kids in our classroom, and share their French knowledge with them. The feeling from the students was unanimous - they hope that Ms. Bedard will bring her students back again soon (and me, too... as I forgot to take some pictures for the blog!)!

Graph of the week

It was cool that we got to do pumpkins on the graph with the pumpkin stories that Mrs. K's class wrote. - Mikayla
Today Mikayla and me made a graph about pumpkins. We had to pick pumpkins to make into a Jack-o-lantern. - Kurt

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how we were almost ready to start working on our weekly graphs. Today, Mikayla and Kurt (with some assistance from the rest of the class) created the first (of what will be many) student infographic of the week, using easel.ly (a great place to 'easily' make your own infographics!). What do you think? Leave a comment, and let us know!

easel.ly

Broadcasting/podcasting

OK... sometimes as a teacher, you have to really stretch yourself out of your comfort zone to try new things, and it looks like I'm about to embark on another trip out of my 'comfort zone' with my class (who, as usual, are all fired up to try any idea I throw at them - they're such an awesome group!)! I've been toying with the idea for a while now of doing some podcasting (or something similar) with my students. What is a podcast? Well, it's basically an audio recording that you can download off the internet, and listen to at a later date. As I mentioned, I had been thinking of doing this for a while, as another way for students to use and hone their researching and writing skills. Then, I went to hear a speaker at the ManACE (Manitoba Assoc. of Computer Educators) SAGE session in October who spoke about live broadcasting, and the extra challenges and learning opportunities that arise from live broadcasting vs. pre-recording your takes, and I became quite intrigued with that idea, too. So, I told the kids today that, while I wasn't sure exactly what form it would take (live, with an archive of previous broadcasts, or simply pre-recorded), that I wanted to do some sort of project like this with them. We brainstormed of ideas that we could talk about on our broadcast/podcast, and below is a photo of what we came up with. It's kind of scary, but kind of exciting, too! Stay tuned (no pun intended!)...

 

Layering

Wow! We've been so busy lately, that I forgot to finish this post from last week! We were working on layering different pieces of paper to work on perspective in our art (that is, showing what objects were nearer to the viewer than others). Here are some of the pieces as they were being created - you will find the finished ones on our Artsonia page in the next few days... promise!

 

 

 

 

Remembrance Day

Today we went to a Remembrance Day ceremony. All of us started singing 'O Canada' and it made my eyes water a bit when the guy was playing his trumpet because it might be sad if your great-grandpa died in the war. - Dylan

 

Some kids in the school wrote postcards for the soldiers who died for our country. - Jenna

 

Today we had a SLC about Remembrance Day - we couldn't have it on November 11th because there's no school that day. There was a moment where we were quiet - while we were quiet, our classes were getting up with no sound and going to their classes. - Gal

 

Mrs. Cross read a story called 'Can You Say Peace' and the Kindergartens to Grade 3 sang some songs about Remembrance Day. - Logan

 

Today was our Remebrance Day ceremony, and some classes sang song for us, and a few kids shared their post cards. We had to stay silent for a minute. - Kyra

 

Mystery Motivator!



Today we earned our Mystery Motivator. It was playing games for 2 periods, and I played Twister and Trouble. - Lexi

Today we got our Mystery Motivator, and it was so fun because we got to play games for 2 periods. We got to play Twister, the head question game, and tonnes of other games. - Dylan

In Room 18 today, we earned our Mystery Motivator as a class. They games I played were Headbandz, Trouble, the one where you beat the timer, and Crazy 8's with Gal. - Joey

We earned our 20th marble yesterday, and then we played Headbandz (me, and Erika, and Joey). Then Erika and Marie started picking people's cards. - Kyra

 

Way to go, students of Room 18 - you've been working super-hard in class lately, and setting a great example for the rest of the school on how to meet expectations in the hallway. Your 20 marbles were well-deserved - I hope you enjoyed your Mystery Motivator today!

 

 

 

 

Squares Challenge!

A few weeks ago, a few students from Mrs. Steinhoff's class dropped by Room 18, and passed on a math challenge to us. The challenge? Find the total number of squares on the sheet pictured below. The students worked on their own for about 10 minutes, and then joined together in small groups to compare notes, before we worked together as a whole class. Before we started, some of the predictions of how many squares there were ranged from 36 to as high as 72. In the in end, we found a total of 110 squares! We're still waiting to hear from Mrs. Steinhoff how many there were in total - we'll let you know when we find out. In the meantime, check out some of our work below:

We Scare Hunger!

In Tuesday's post, I told you how our class watched We Day and that some of the students wanted to participate in the We Scare Hunger challenge. Well, eight students took it upon themselves to donate some of their trick-or-treating time (and strength!) last night for collecting healthy, non-perishable food items for Winnipeg Harvest. I have to say, I am so proud of those students! They gave time to help others, and learned that one person can make a difference, especially when they pool their resources together. Here is what six of those students collected last night (two more forgot their 'bounty' at home, and are bringing it in tomorrow):