"Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write and count. It is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace that is right for each individual child. Earlier is not better" Magda Gerber
Wednesday 26 December 2012
Yikes! We're behind on our comments.
Over the holiday break Ms. Lirenman was looking at some of our past projects. In particular she was looking at our "What Can You See" project where we shared what we see in our school yard with other classes and schools around the world. Ms. Lirenman even made sure to add our movie to the official website - We Can See Project. But while she was checking it out she noticed that a class has left us questions and comments which we need to respond to. Hopefully we'll remember to do that in the new year but if anyone has time to answer some of their questions Ms. L is sure they are curious to hear what we have to say.
Sunday 23 December 2012
Special Community Read
On the last Thursday morning of the term Ms. Lirenman hosted a special Community Read. Like every Tuesday and Thursday she invited our families into the classroom to read with us. This time though she provided treats for everyone. There was coffee for the grown ups, chocolate milk and juice for the kids, and muffins, fruit, and cookies for everyone. We also had two special guests from the school board office Dr. Elisa Carlson, and Mrs. Lilah Martin. Here are some photos from this special event.
Saturday 22 December 2012
Our First Attempts at Using the My Story App
This week a few of us finished our first books using the My Story app on the iPad. As you can imagine we were very excited to see our drawing. writing, and in some cases our voice in a book. Unfortunately we can't put these books on our blog so the next best thing we can do is add screen shots of our books to our blogs. To give you an idea of what our books look like here are screen shots of Kaleb's book.
Please check out Maryam's , Elma's, and Eldon's too.
Please check out Maryam's , Elma's, and Eldon's too.
Friday 21 December 2012
Santa's Coming To Town
On Wednesday we were suppose to sing Santa's Coming to Town with the other grade one classes but our school had a power outage so we had to cancel. Then on Thursday afternoon we tried again. Ms. Lirenman filmed us in front of the entire school but we were in the back row so we were hard to see. So today Ms. Lirenman filmed us singing and doing our moves in our classroom. Unfortunately Ms. Lirenman didn't have the music but you'll see we are pretty good even without music. Enjoy.
Thursday 20 December 2012
The Gingerbread Man
Today we watched a really great on line version of the Gingerbread Man. Ms. Lirenman learned about it from one of her friends on twitter - though she is sorry that she can't remember who. If you are the teacher that showed this to her please leave us a comment so Ms. Lirenman can give you some credit. Anyhow we really like it and we think you will too.
Wednesday 19 December 2012
Decorating Gingerbread Cookies and Creating Gingerbread Houses - It Starts and Finishes with Math
On Monday while doing our math, Ms. Lirenman called us over one at a time to help make gingerbread cookies. Math was involved as we measured, mixed, and timed. Unfortunately we were not able to bake them at school but thankfully Ms. Lirenman took them home and baked them for us.
Yesterday was a super busy day and we had no time to decorate them. Today we did. Instead of everyone decorating them Ms. Lirenman gave us a choice. Ayyappan gave our class a gingerbread house kit to make and Ms. Lirenman let us decided if we wanted to be a part of making the gingerbread house, or be a part of decorating our cookies.
Many of us couldn't decide and Ms. L said it was okay if we did booth if we wanted. So we made our decisions and got started.
Curious how they all turned out?
Now you're probably wondering if these cookies or this house made it to the end of the day. Well to be honest we ate many of the cookies in the afternoon but we've left the house for now. Tomorrow we have our parents coming for an extra special Community Read. Ms. Lirenman has morning treats for all of us.
But we didn't just eat the cookies, we did some math with them too. After we all took our first bites Ms. Lirenman had us record which body part we ate first. Then we looked at the data and discussed what we could learn from it. We thought like mathematicians, and shared our thinking behind our answers. It was a great way to learn math, and it was a tasty way too.
In the past few weeks we've had a lot of fun learning about, and with gingerbread!
Meeting our Google Hang Out Friends
Yesterday we went on a field trip to Sullivan Elementary school. Since October we have been working closely with Sullivan students in Mrs. Leech, and Mrs. Sarchet's classes as part of the Global Read Aloud project. We have had many google hangouts with them (and Mrs. Wideen's class in Ontario) but we've never met them face to face, in person. Yesterday we changed that.
For the past few weeks we've been involved with an adventure with two little gingerbread stuffies - Gingerbread Candy, and Gingerbread Sandy. They belong to Mrs. Leech and Mrs. Sarchet and their students. Those little stuffies got themselves into a lot of trouble. First they caused havoc at Sullivan Elementary. Then they showed up at Pacific Heights Elementary. Next they snuck away from there and showed up at our school, Bonaccord Elementary. They escaped from us and ended up at MB Sanford Elementary. Finally they returned safely to Sullivan Elementary.
Yesterday some of the classes involved with this adventure met up at Sullivan Elementary. These classes included our class, Mrs. Morrison's class from Bonaccord, Mrs. Fadum's class from Pacific Heights, and of course our host school classes Mrs. Sarchet, and Mrs. Leech.
At first we were worried we wouldn't be able to go because of our snow, but thankfully the roads cleared up nicely. With our wonderful parent volunteer drivers able to brave the elements we arrived safely at Sullivan Elementary. Immediately we were greeted by wonderful welcome signs. Once we were all settled in the gym we all got to see that Gingerbread Candy, and Gingerbread Sandy were safe. What a relief.
Then we were broken into five multi class groups. This is where the fun began. There were five rotations to take part in. The first two were in the gym where we played musical hula hoops, and guess the winning hoop colour. There were also activities in the library, a craft in a classroom, and time on the iPads.
Unfortunately our time was short so we didn't get a chance to get to every rotation. It did however leave us wanting to meet again soon.
On the ride home Ms. Lirenman loved listening to two of us chatting about the adventure. We kept saying that we "know" Mrs. Sarchet and Mrs. Leech now. We liked meeting kids from other schools.
Without e-mail, twitter, or google hang out none of this would have been possible. As you can imagine we are very thankful that technology is part of our learning.
For the past few weeks we've been involved with an adventure with two little gingerbread stuffies - Gingerbread Candy, and Gingerbread Sandy. They belong to Mrs. Leech and Mrs. Sarchet and their students. Those little stuffies got themselves into a lot of trouble. First they caused havoc at Sullivan Elementary. Then they showed up at Pacific Heights Elementary. Next they snuck away from there and showed up at our school, Bonaccord Elementary. They escaped from us and ended up at MB Sanford Elementary. Finally they returned safely to Sullivan Elementary.
Yesterday some of the classes involved with this adventure met up at Sullivan Elementary. These classes included our class, Mrs. Morrison's class from Bonaccord, Mrs. Fadum's class from Pacific Heights, and of course our host school classes Mrs. Sarchet, and Mrs. Leech.
At first we were worried we wouldn't be able to go because of our snow, but thankfully the roads cleared up nicely. With our wonderful parent volunteer drivers able to brave the elements we arrived safely at Sullivan Elementary. Immediately we were greeted by wonderful welcome signs. Once we were all settled in the gym we all got to see that Gingerbread Candy, and Gingerbread Sandy were safe. What a relief.
Then we were broken into five multi class groups. This is where the fun began. There were five rotations to take part in. The first two were in the gym where we played musical hula hoops, and guess the winning hoop colour. There were also activities in the library, a craft in a classroom, and time on the iPads.
The multi class groups allowed us to talk to the different children we had met through the computer.
Unfortunately our time was short so we didn't get a chance to get to every rotation. It did however leave us wanting to meet again soon.
On the ride home Ms. Lirenman loved listening to two of us chatting about the adventure. We kept saying that we "know" Mrs. Sarchet and Mrs. Leech now. We liked meeting kids from other schools.
Without e-mail, twitter, or google hang out none of this would have been possible. As you can imagine we are very thankful that technology is part of our learning.
Outside Our Window
Today we had even more snow! Here's what we saw outside our window.
What did you see outside your window today?
What did you see outside your window today?
Tuesday 18 December 2012
Teaching Mrs. Cassidy's Class About Hanukkah (And Mrs. Wideen's too)
Today we Skyped with Ms. Cassidy's class. They had many questions for us about Hanukkah and we did our best to answer them. After our call was finished we had a few minutes to blog about the experience. Here's what a couple of us had to say. To find out more check out our individual blogs.
Update: Now that we are comfortable sharing about Hanukkah with other classes around the world, we skyped with Mrs. Wideen's class today too. Sharing with others has been a lot of fun for us this year.
Update: Now that we are comfortable sharing about Hanukkah with other classes around the world, we skyped with Mrs. Wideen's class today too. Sharing with others has been a lot of fun for us this year.
SNOW!!!
Today when we woke up we were surprised to see snow on the ground. After Community Read Ms. Lirenman told us that she has a tradition. On the first real snow fall of the year she likes to take her class outside to build either a community snow fort or a community snow person village. We liked the idea of a snow person village and so outside we went.
At first some of us were keen to make snow angels, but then we all got down to work.
After twenty minutes this is what we created together.
At first some of us were keen to make snow angels, but then we all got down to work.
After twenty minutes this is what we created together.
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