Kite Making

Last Friday we participated in a kite making workshop. We had already decorated our kites with our big buddies the previous week and we were very excited to learn how to actually make the kites ourselves. We were lucky to have so many parent volunteers there to help us. Ms. Lirenman took a lot of photos to document our fun. Please look at our photos and let us know what you think of our kites. 

 

We learned about many different kites.  

 We had to listen very closely to learn how to make our kites. Then we got to work (and also had a lot of fun)!

 

 

We really, really, really wanted to fly our kites right away, but since our big buddies helped us decorate them we decided to wait until we could fly them with our big buddies. We thought we had a lot of fun making our kites, but I think we had even more fun flying them. Ms. Will made sure to takes lots of photos of our kite flying adventure.

We need to make sure our shoes are tied so we can run properly.

It's easy to get a little tangled.

Here are some action shots of our kite flying.

Ms. Will also filmed us flying our kites. Enjoy!

Learning About Frogs - Acting and Creating Using iPads

We have been busy learning about frogs. Last week we watched a movie about the lifecycle of a frog and then acted out the changes from eggs to tadpoles, growing back legs then front legs, and finally growing lungs to breath out of the water. After we acted out the lifecycle we worked in partners to draw the lifecycle on the iPads. We had a lot of fun drawing the pictures and talking about the changes a frog goes through. Here are some of the videos we made. Enjoy!

We enjoy working together while learning. 

It's important to check our facts to make sure we are recording the correct information. 

Making Jam

Our last cooking project for the Flat Classroom project was making raspberry jam.  This jam was originally made by Ms. Pih's prep (kindergarten) class in Hong Kong.  Making the jam was pretty easy to do but the best part of it was how delicious it smelled as it cooked, and how excellent it tasted.  Here's a little video of our jam making adventures.  Enjoy.

Another Voice Message!

Yesterday we received another voice message on our blog from Mrs. Allen.  Mrs. Allen works very closely with Mrs. Kaput, the teacher of the class that taught us how to make applesauce and salsa.  If you're curious to hear what she had to say just listen to this little audioboo recording.

We'd love to have a voice mail from you too.

Using Screen Chomp to Show Number Stories

As we mentioned Ms. Will has us working through some pretty fun math rotations as we learn more about number stories. For one of the rotations we work together using the Screen Chomp iPad app to draw and tell our number stories. While we only have one class iPad and usually have to work together,last week we were lucky enough to have the district loaner set of iPads in our room so some of us got our own iPad to work on.  As you can see by the number of videos here, Paul was really keen to make number stories.  Here are some of the ones we made.  *Please note last week a lot of our class was sick so this group only had two students in it which is why we can only show you Screen Chomp videos from two students.

Acting Out Our Math Problems

Ms. Will has us working through some pretty fun math stations as we explore number stories.  For one of the stations we get to act out our number stories and someone in the group films us.  We are using Ms. Lirenman's iPod touch to do all the filming.  Since this acting and filming is pretty new for us we must admit that we can get a bit silly.  But if you look past our silliness you can see that we are actually having a lot of fun acting out our math number stories. Here are a few of the number stories we've been acting out.

Our FlatClass Final Collaborative Video

One of the components of the Flat Classroom project that we are a part of is that we need to co-create a product with the schools we are working with.  We are actually working on TWO co-creations. Our first co-creation project is a video that has all three classes in it.  It's finally ready and we are please to share it with the world.  Here it is!

Learning About Plants

For the past few weeks we have spent a lot of time learning about plants.  We grew plants from seeds, looked at how water, soil, and light affect plant growth, and saw how the stem system works.  We have read many stories about plants, and kept a complete plant log too as a place to document our learning. We've learned on line, and used our class technology to better understand plants.  We even contributed to a Wiki with other classrooms studying about plants too.  Please check it out, it is a really cool way to learn. PLANT WIKI HERE.  Needless to say we've learned a lot. Here's a short video, made on our class iPad, showing some of the things we've been up to.

Making Salsa

Yesterday we made Mrs. Kaput's Salsa as another component to our Flat Classroom Project.  Here's our little video.  Enjoy.

Do We Know Our Frog Facts?

Ms. Will planned a super fun frog lesson for us but she was at home sick so Ms. Lirenman taught her lesson.  At first we watched a really cool science movie about frogs.  Ms. Lirenman told us that we needed to get as much information as we could from the  movie because we were going to be playing a game with the new knowledge that we had.  Once the movie was over we got a chance to turn and talk with one another and share all the new facts we learned.  We also shared what we already knew about frogs.  Then it was time for the fun game.

Ms. Lirenman put out green pieces of paper all around the classroom.  Each paper represented a lilly pad.  If we got our frog facts correct - if the fact was true we bent down like a frog on the lilly pad and if the fact was not true would stood tall like a person - we then were allowed to jump to another lily pad.  It was a ton of fun and Ms. Lirenman was pleasantly surprised by how well we knew our frog facts.  She'd often ask us why we thought something was true or false and we always had the answer for her.  It was a super fun activity.  Here are some photos of us in our frog positions.

Here are some movies of us jumping from lily pad to lily pad.

Making Stained Glass Windows

The other day we replaced the rainbows from our window with special "stained glass" windows.  Here's a little video of us making them.  Maybe you will make them too?

Check out our video.

Creating Number Stories

Today Ms. Will was very sick and so Ms. Lirenman had to teach us for the day.  Our whole class has been quite sick in fact.  On Monday we only had 8 of our 17 students well enough to come to school.  Tuesday was a bit better with 11 students, and today we had 12.  Today was also the Musical Theatre show.  Julie in our class has been attending morning practices since January and she has been practicing at home a lot too.  It was a fantastic show and Julie did a wonderful job in the choir.

Unfortunately because the show went over recess time, our music, and then math times were a bit shorter than normal.  Ms. Lirenman knew that Ms. Will had spent a lot of time planning and teaching some incredible math stations so instead of rushing through them she decided not to teach them and to do something different with us instead.

Here are a few of the math stories we created using our white boards, and counters.  Enjoy. We had a lot of fun making them too.

This is Where We Learn

At the beginning of our participation in the Flat Classroom project we were inspired by a video made by Mrs. Cassidy's class showing us around their classroom.  We wanted to make one too.  While it's taken us a bit longer than we had hoped our video is finally ready and we are excited to share it with you.  Before you check out ours be sure to check out the TWO videos on Mrs. Cassidy's class blog.  There you will find the original video they  made, plus a video made by a class in Greece.  These global connections are pretty incredible.  Click here for the link to those videos.

Now enjoy our video too.

In Honour Of Maurice Sendak

This past week very famous children's author Maurice Sendak died after living a long and full life.  He is best knowing for his book entitled Where The Wild Things Are.  In honour of his life Ms. Lirenman discovered a very cool web site that allows you to "Build Your Wild Self". She gave it a go and created this:

If you are interested in creating your wild self too please follow this link.  Once your picture is created you can put it on your desktop then load it into your individual blog.  

Build Yourself Wild

Cooking Again! This Time Crepes with Ms. Will's Mother!

This past Friday Ms. Will was lucky enough to have her mother visiting from Calgary, Alberta.  Ms. Will's mother also works in school so she was pretty curious about learning about our school, and about the wonderful children Ms. Will has been teaching.  She also volunteered to cook with some of us as part of our Flat Classroom project.  What a treat for us!

Here's a video showing you how to make crepes. Again you will see that we had a lot of fun making the crepes, and even more fun eating them.  Cinnamon sugar makes everything taste better.  Maybe you'll try to make Ms. Will's mom's crepes in your classroom too?

Making Baclava with Cream with Lawrence's Mom

Yesterday Lawrence's mom came and taught us how to make Baclava with Cream. It is a special recipe from Iraq and it was very delicious. Again, we have made this special dish as part of our global flat classroom project. Here is the video of us cooking. As you can see it was a lot of fun, and pretty easy to do too. Maybe you will try to make it in your classroom or home.

 

Making Applesauce

For the past few weeks we have been cooking with some of our parents. It has been a really fantastic experience for everyone. We still have at least one more family coming to cook with us too. But today we did something a little different. Today we worked on the collaborative/sharing aspect of the project and we cooked something one of the other classes in our group made. Today we cooked Mrs. Kaput's classes applesauce. First we watched their video to get our directions.

Then we made our own applesauce. As you can see from the movie below we really enjoyed the applesauce.  We also learned that it's really great to learn from another classroom in another country.  Hopefully soon we will get to try other things that the classes have made and maybe they will be able to try to make something we've made too.  In the meantime enjoy our movie.

Flat Classroom Update - Cooking with Menura's Mom

Yesterday Menura's mom taught us how to make Sri Lanka Coconut Toffee as part of our Flat Classroom project.  As we were making it we were naturally curious. We made many connections and asked a lot of questions.  The final product (for those that like coconut) was very delicious.

Here's a little video of us cooking.  Maybe you'll try to make this in your homes too?

This Plus That

A couple weekends ago Ms. Lirenman was at workshop and she learned about a book called This Plus That by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  

Ms. Will knew about this very special book and wanted to do a writing lesson with it.  As you can imagine we loved the book. We were so inspired we created our own little equations.  Here is a small sample of some of the writing we did.

Oreo + crumbled + jello + cool whip + gummy worms + pot = dirt and worms

by Paul

Three sides + three vertices = triangle

by Eric

Hockey + killer whale = Canucks

by Lawrence

Red + orange + yellow + green + blue + purple = rainbow

by Soeun

Gym + learning + fun = school

by Julie

Pencil + paper = writing

by Lawrence

Moon + stars + dark = night

by Soeun

Mom + dad + sister + brother = family

by Julie

Adrian + Paul + Jesse + Lawrence + Eric + Marcus + Menura + Alicia + Christine + Koden + Huda + Brooklyn + Julie + Jennica + Urim +Trista + Liliana +Soeun + Ms. Will + Ms. Lirenman + Ms. O  + working hard = best class ever.

by Paul

Working with 3D Shapes

Ms. Will has us working through 2D and 3D shape centres as we learn about those different shapes. For one of the stations we have been creating towers with 3D shapes then filming one another talking about our towers. Here is a small sample of our learning videos.







In another centre we have to sort 2D and/or 3D shapes by a sorting rule that we create. We have to write our rule, then demonstrate our sorting rule by cutting and gluing shapes into our notebooks.  We've come up with some very creative sorting rules.

In our third station we have been trying to cover a predetermined shape with 2D shapes.  This has been a lot of fun too. Here are a few pictures of us hard at work.

In the final centre we are looking for shapes around the room. We have searched for both 2D and 3D shapes.  We're sure you're not surprised but we have found MANY shapes around our classroom.

Flat Classroom Project Update - Cooking with Brooklyn's Mom

Today we had the pleasure of cooking Adobo chicken with Brooklyn's mom.  While Brooklyn's mom is not Filipino Brooklyn's dad is.  Her mom has learned how to cook Filipino dishes and today she taught us how to make Adobo chicken.  Boy was it ever delicious, and so easy to make that Ms. Lirenman is thinking that she may make it for her family too.

We are hoping that maybe our Flat Classroom friends will try to make this recipe too.  Stay tuned as we will be cooking some of their dishes as well.  In the meantime here is a video of us making Adobo chicken.  In this group of six children we have four different cultures being represented.  Quite a multi ethnic class we have and we LOVE IT!

Enjoy the movie recap of our cooking experience.