Rocket Launch!

Good evening Room 18! I hope you have been having a great week back in Winnipeg while I've been away for my conference. I'll tell you more about the conference soon, but I wanted to tell you about something super-exciting that we did tonight - we went to see a rocket launch! Ever since I was a little kid, I have been really interested in space and rockets - in fact, it was my dream to be an astronaut when I was in elementary school! I wasn't able to follow through on that dream, but I never lost my interest in space. So when I saw NASA's launch schedule earlier this month, and that there was going to be a launch when I was in Florida for my conference, I knew I had to be there - we even went to Kennedy Space Center the other day to get 'psyched up' about space and the launch (we got to met an astronaut, but that's another story!). So today, after our conference finished for the day, Ms. Welbergen and Mrs. Malkoske (the two teachers I came to the conference with) and I packed a picnic supper, and made the drive (just over an hour) to Port Canaveral to watch the rocket launch. I was really excited for the launch, but I was a little nervous that they might have to cancel the launch at the last minute (like sometimes happens). We pulled off the road at a spot we had read about on the Internet as being a good spot to watch a launch from. We ate our dinner, and were amazed by how many people were pulling off the highway to watch at the same spot. There were hundreds of cars there, and there are a number of spots like this all around the launch site. We talked to people from all over the USA who were there to watch the launch, and even a man from England! You aren't allowed to get too close (for safety), so we were about 11 miles away. However, even from that distance, we could still see the launch site all lit up. The rocket was scheduled to liftoff at 8:48 PM EST, and that's exactly what happened. It was a clear night, so we were able to watch the rocket for about 90 seconds, until it disappeared into the heavens. It was an amazing experience that I won't forget. I've attached a few photos to my post, to show you what it looked like. Although the pictures can't fully do the launch justice, they will be great reminders of this wonderful night! Make sure you also check out Mrs. Malkoske's blog posts about the launch at http://200awesomedays.blogspot.ca/2013/01/rocket-launch.html and http://200awesomedays.blogspot.ca/2013/01/321blast-off.html - while I was taking pictures, she was taking video of the launch. You can also learn more about the launch by going to the NASA home page at http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html.

Les trois petits cochons... Gaga style!

The students have been learning a lot of vocabulary in French to help them with what will be their end-of-year project - performing the play Les trois petits cochons (or The Three Little Pigs, in English). I found this video that someone had created of the The Three Little Pigs, and had adapted the script of the play to work with the music from Lady Gaga's song Poker Face. The kids loved it (they begged me to play it a second time), and wanted to share it on our blog... so here it is! Enjoy!

Comic Writing

For the past week, we have been working on using comic writing to work on writing narrative pieces. We began talking about plot elements (introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution), as the students came up with a personal experience to write about. Then, we used a planning sheet to decide what to put into each panel of a 6-panel comic: the scene and actions that occur, characters present, landscape and props, and captions/dialogue. Once the planning sheets were done, we went into the lab to use the online Comic Creator to transfer what we had written into a comic. The students worked really hard to create their comics, and everyone in the class finished that part of this project yesterday. Today, as a class, we looked at some of the students' work, and talked about the really great things they had included in their comics, and a few ways of how to further improve their comics. The students worked at putting in more description in their captions, or more dialogue, and will be using the comics in the coming weeks to write a narrative story - I'm really looking forward to the finished products!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Workout!

We went outside today, and we did a winter workout. Everybody had fun - they were laughing! - Hailey K.

 

Today we went outside because we were getting too squirrelly inside sometimes. We did jumping jacks, running on the spot, and we had to run to the first soccer net and back and to the far net and back. - Joey

 

After our original indoor recess, we went outside to get some fresh air and to run off some energy. After the winter workout, we were all tired except Mr. Hoeppner. - Jenna

 

When we did that workout, I was running very fast, and then I slipped and flipped myself. Mr. Hoeppner made me keep on running, touch the soccer net, and run back - I wasn't allowed to walk back because I had to run. - Gal

 

It has been a loooooooong week of indoor recess at school, and although my class has done quite well considering how long they've been cooped up for, a lot of the students were definitely starting to get 'squirrelly' today. So, we all bundled up really, really well, and had a 3-minute workout outside after their afternoon recess. Some jumping jacks, a little running on the spot, and running to the soccer field goalposts and back did the trick! After, the students were smiling and laughing (albeit with a bit of huffing and puffing!), and agreed that the fresh air and sunshine was definitely needed... and I agree! Just two more days of this, and then it looks like the cold snap will break - thank goodness!

 

A cold Monday

In Writers' Workshop, we got to start making our own stories. I started to write about camping. - Jacell

Today in Computers, we did blogging, and I blogged about monster trucks. Most of the people were putting pictures first, but I didn't. - Gal

Before recess, in Writers' Workshop, we were trying to build our stories up. There was the introduction, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. - Jenna

At last recess, we had Family Bins. We did Daily 5 after that, and Mr. H. told us the Daily 5 Must Do's, and some people were on the Must Do list. - Alexandra

It looks like we're going to have a lot of indoor recess this week, because of all of the cold weather - boo! However, kudos to the students in our class for doing a good job today during all of the indoor recesses - keep up the good work!

Your Power To Choose!

We were lucky enough to have Mrs. Klymkiw from Elections Manitoba stop by our class today (along with six of my former students, now in Grade 4, from Mrs. Steinhoff's class!) for a workshop called 'Your Power To Choose'. Last week in Social Studies, we started learning about how government works in Canada, so I thought this would be a perfect activity to further the students' understanding of our democracy. Mrs. K. did a great job explaining to the students how we pick our government in Manitoba, and after some fun Q&A activities, she helped our class run our own election. Candidates volunteered to run on the platform of how if given $1000 (I wish!), what would they buy for the classroom to make it a more comfortable place. Other jobs the students had were official agents, scrutineers, reporters, ballot makers, poster makers, enumerators, a returning officer, and a deputy returning officer. Everyone did a great job, and we were able to have a successful (and very close!) election! Thank you to Mrs. K. from Elections Manitoba for a fabulous afternoon of learning... and fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonhommes de neige are complete!

As we told you back in December, our class had been working with Mrs. Steinhoff's Grade 4/5 class on making snowmen in French class. This week, the class finally finished, and they were put in the display case by the office. To check out the individual snowmen, click on the Bonhommes de neige tab at the top of the page - Merci!

Introduction to Edmodo

Today in class, I introduced the students to Edmodo. Edmodo is a free and secure learning network for teachers, students, and schools. It provides a safe and secure way (just like with the Kidblogs, any comment the student posts on our classroom Edmodo 'wall' needs to be approved by me) for us to connect, share content, access homework, participate in discussions, and receive class information. You don't have to worry about forgetting your homework at school, because you just log on to your account, and you'll find it there - so handy! Not at home? No problem - you can download the Edmodo app for your smartphone or tablet, and access it anywhere you go! Parents can even have an account, so that they can check in on their child's progress at any time... and perhaps give them a gentle reminder that they have an assignment due...

The students are really excited about using Edmodo for school work, and so am I. It's great to be able to continue to incorporate the meaningful and appropriate use of technology (through our classroom blog, the students' Kidblogs, Artsonia, and now Edmodo) into our classroom curriculum, and into their lives.

To give you a better idea of some of the things Edmodo can be used for in the classroom, check out this video...

Learning about the government

Today we were talking about if Mr. Hoeppner bought a class pet, so we could figure out ways to make a fair decision about a class pet. One of them were to play a game and the winner gets to choose - it's a kind of fair way to choose. - Joey

Today in Social Studies we were talking about elections, and how to keep it fair for who decides to pick. - Jenna

In Social Studies we learned about if we picked a class pet, how to do it in a fair way. We wrote down some ideas in groups, of fair ways to pick a class pet. - Ava

In Social Studies, we got to learn about the government and stuff, and we picked out bingo chips (there were three different colours) - blue had 12 votes, green had 4 votes, and purple had 6 votes. The colours were the vote teams, which is another way to say political parties. The blue is the party in power. - Dylan and Gal

Today for Phys. Ed., we had a substitute. We got to pick which game we were going to play - Michael picked dodgeball and Hailey K. picked Dr. Dodgeball, and Jade and Logan were the captains. - Alexandra

First day back... and Hello 2013!

It's the first day of school, and we had Library, Music, and Art. We painted lots of things and I painted a watering can and flower garden, and some other people did too. - Alexandra

 

Today we got a new student in our class. Her name is Emma and she sits at a table with Alexandra, Dylan, and Marie. - Lexi

 

For Art today, we painted pictures. There was a list we could choose from for what to paint, and one of them were a ball in the sea at the beach. That's the one I chose. - Gal

 

It was great seeing all of the class back today. I had a great holiday, but I was really looking forward to getting back and spending my day with this great group of students. Speaking of students, as Lexi mentioned, we were lucky enough to welcome another one into our classroom today - Emma transferred to our school today, and the students were thrilled to welcome her into room 18. We look forward to getting to know her even better over the coming weeks and months.

 

For Art today, the students were challenged to paint pictures using only the three primary colours: blue, yellow, and red. Their choices for subject matter were:

 

-       A beach ball rolling into the sea

-       A rowboat on a lake on a sunny day

-       Red, blue, and yellow fruit

-       An airplane zooming over a circus tent

-       A watering can in a flower garden

-       A child with an umbrella walking in the rain

-       The wind vane on the top of a barn

-       A child with a wagon

 

The students finished, and their work will be on our Artsonia page later this week - make sure to check it out (click on the Artsonia link on the right-hand side of the page).