Room 18's Cardboard Arcade - introduction and planning

This week, we have begun the process of creating a cardboard math arcade in Room 18 (parents/guardians: this is what the note that I sent home earlier this week, which asked for your child to bring in supplies, was in regards to) What is this, you ask? Well... I could tell you, but the videos below do a much better job of explaining what it is, and where the inspiration came from. I strongly encourage you to watch them - I guarantee you'll be glad you did!

This first video is the amazing story of a boy named Caine, the cardboard arcade he created, and the incredible chain of events that took place when one person, by chance, stumbled onto his creation, and made a short film about it.

The second video shows what happened after the world began to see and be inspired by Caine's story, both in his life and in the lives of others.

Last year in my class, we took part in this initiative by participating in the first Cardboard Challenge/Day of Play last year, and it was a huge success! As a result, we are once again taking part this year in the 2nd Global Cardboard Challenge, and will be having our arcade 'open for business' on Monday, October 7th. The students have already started planning their games and bringing in supplies (check out the photos below), and are super-stoked... especially the ones who came and played at our arcade last year!

Terry Fox Run

The Terry Fox Run was not outside, it was in the gym. We took turns running around the gym - I had fun! - Faith

We did the Terry Fox run in our family groups 2 by 2. It was awesome! - Brady

We were running with partners, and I was with Braedon. - Nolan

The Terry Fox Run was fun because we got to run with partners. - Taryn

Since it was raining, we stayed in the gym so we wouldn't get all wet. It was fun because the Grade 3s got to run with anyone in their family group. - Kayleigh

I was running with Nolan, and we ran fast. - Braedon

Unfortunately, the afternoon rain we experienced today meant that we had to do our Terry Fox Run inside. However, the students didn't let that dampen their enthusiasm, as they ran a relay in their family groups. The money is still coming in, so we don't know how much the school has raised, but we are all excited to do our part to keep Terry's legacy alive, and to help fund cancer research!

Social Responsibility SLC

We had our first SLC of the year today, and it was fun to think of all the ideas of how we can help others. We got to dance to the Terry Fox song. - Kayleigh

We had to bring plastic bags for our SLC, and later on they will get turned into frisbees. - Kaelyn

Today was our first SLC of the year, and me and Taryn and a bunch of other students did a speech about things we did at school last year to be socially responsible. - Faith

The SmartBoard is up and running!

Thanks to the good people in our school division's IT department, we finally had our SmartBoard repaired yesterday. The students were excited to find that out, and to get some hands-on experience with it this morning, as the students got to try their hands at 'Stop The Clock'.

Observations from the Bioreserve

As you saw in yesterday's post, we walked down to the Transcona Bioreserve for our Plants and Habitats Science unit, in order to make observations on what plants and animals we could find on our own. After coming together and comparing notes, I was blown away by how much the students observed - they did a great job! Here is the list we came up with:

Studying Plants and Habitats at the Bioreserve

As part of our Science unit on Plants and Habitats, we walked down to the Transcona Bioreserve (we're lucky to be just a short walk away!). In pairs, the students took some time to observe the different plants and animals around them, and to record them and sketch them. It was a blustery, but fun outing! Here are some photos from our excursion:

 

What can you make with two lines?

Today in Art, we worked on creating images by starting with two vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines per quarter page. The lines could be straight, curved, zig-zagged, dotted, dashed, etc., just as long as they both travelled across the page in the same direction. Here are some sneak previews of some of the great ideas that the students came up with - you'll have to wait a while until we post the finished products!

 



Infographics

In Math this morning, we talked a lot about how effective it is to share information using a graph. After our discussion, we surveyed the class to see what they had to drink with their breakfast this morning. We started by creating a simple graph on the whiteboard, using sticky notes and markers. After, I showed them how to make a quick infographic using the site easel.ly - here's what we came up with:

 

 



Provinces and Territories

We have been working on Canada in Social Studies. I learned that there are 10 provinces in Canada, and 3 territories. - Taryn
We did a paper about what we know about Canada and what we want to know about Canada. - Braedon
Today we wrote on the board to tell everyone where we have been in Canada. - Faith
We are learning about Canada so that we can know the provinces better. - Riley
We are learning about Canada, and it is really fun. We had to write about some of the facts we know about Canada. - Kayleigh
I learned that Prince Edward Island is a province. - Zoey
I learned that Nova Scotia is a province. I thought it was an island. - Jaida
I thought that Quebec wasn't that big, and that the map was making it look bigger than it really was, but it really is big. - Austin

Writing letters

Tomorrow evening at the school, we are having a BBQ/open house, where students and their families come together to eat, socialize, and meet the staff of Radisson School. A brief note went home to families last week, but we thought it would be much more personal if we wrote letters home to our families to invite them to the event. We worked hard as a class to come up with a letter we could write to our families, and here's what the students came up with:

Today is the start of the second week of classes. It looks like everyone survived the first one, and is ready to keep going. I had lots of students who wanted to tell you what we were up to during our school day today - here is what they had to say:

So far we've had lots of math and gym. - Kayleigh
Today we had our first Science class and Choir. - Maegehn
We had our first Health class. We did a running relay. - Easton
I've sat beside Riley twice. - Austin
We got new spots where we sit in class. - Kaylynne
For Science we watched a Bill Nye The Science Guy video about Plants. - Nolan
We got a new piano in the Music room, and it can record. - Taryn
We did Number of the Day in Math. - Jaida
This class has lots of posters in here - Jets posters, Bombers posters, and space posters. - Brady
Today we did Daily 5 and I wrote about camping. - Faith
In Health we've been learning about safety in the gym. - Kaelyn
Our class has an electric fan that really cools it down. - Braedon

Welcome back!

Today is one of the most exciting days of the school year - it's the first day of classes for the students, AND it's the first day I get to meet my new students! We had a lot of fun getting to know each other today, and I'm looking forward to doing more of that this week and beyond. Today is the first time that all of the students in my class have had the chance to take part in a classroom blog, so I gave them a chance to tell you some thoughts from their first school day of the year - here they are:

We're in a new class, and we're happy. - Kayleigh
This is an awesome classroom. - Taryn
First day of school: awesome classroom. This rocks! - Jaida
This class is fun. - Easton
I wish that school would never end. - Kaylynne
This is probably Mr. Hoeppner's best class ever. - Maegehn
This classroom is cool and awesome. - Zoey
There are Magic Treehouse books, and number one of the series is the dinosaur one. - Austin
Right now we are reading the 'On The Run' series. - Josh
This class has two iPod Touches. - Brady
Our classroom is rockin' the Jets carpet! - Emily
I like how much sports stuff is in the classroom. - Braedon

(For those of you who have never been to Room 18, here are a few pictures of it, so you know what it looks like.)