Happy Halloween! We kicked it off with a costume parade... It's the Mario Team! (...with Teddy and special guests: Mme Mustvedt as Mario, and Cole, Mme Van Sickle's son, as Bowser). We also enjoyed watching our big buddies and some other intermediate friends perform special Halloween dances in the gym. It was so exciting with the loud music and flashlights! Then there was pumpkin carving with Mme's special tools. (Don't worry, they're not real knives and won't cut our fingers!) For some of us, this was our first time carving a pumpkin! We took those pumpkin seeds that we extracted and did some estimating. How many seeds did we think were in the bowl?? Madame wrote down all of our answers. We had a huge variety of answers from 19 to 99 (which, mental note, we need to spend some more time on the concept of estimation). Final pumpkin seed count: 155. But that wasn't the end to our pumpkin seeds! It was time for a team challenge - who can create the most effective catapult out of nothing but popsicle sticks, spoons, and elastic bands? Once again, a huge underlying challenge was - can we contribute to the group? Can we speak kindly to our group members when we disagree? How can we compromise? Can we come up with one, unified project to present at the end? This definitely proved to be difficult in the days after Halloween when we were still recovering from a sugar comatose and lack of sleep. Emotions were running high. But we made it through and learned a lot about communication and leadership in the process. We were very proud of our final products! After we'd launched pumpkin seeds all over the classroom, what more could we do but cook them and eat them?! We LOVED the flavour with just a little margarine and garlic salt. There were a lot of exclamations of: "This is the best EVER!" Halloween always calls for Science experiments, too. We couldn't leave out Madame's favourite: "Which ice cubes will have the biggest reaction when mixed with juice?... normal frozen water, frozen Coke, or dry ice?" We made some hypotheses and took tallies of our opinions. In the end, there was no doubt that the dry ice won for biggest reaction! And we were all too happy to partake in the cold juice it created. We also had a special visit from Nana Kesler on the 31st, bringing special, personalized Halloween bags for us all. She also brought her husband with her this time and we were so excited to meet him, too! We swarmed him with questions: "Are YOU our adopted GRANDPA?!" He may still need time to consider this question... ;-) But the holidays didn't end with Halloween. We learned about the French holiday "Toussaint" (All Saint's Day) on November 1, and Día de los Muertos ("Day of the Dead") originating from Mexico, also celebrated from November 1 to 2. It seems the 31st to the 2nd is a time to celebrate the dead in cultures around the world! Extra photos...
In the spirit of Halloween, we got a little "batty" this week, with some fantastic chalk pastel art! But if we're going to do art with bats, we really should learn more about them! We began our investigations by first reviewing what we know already. We had so many stories about bats and lots of great facts to put on the board, but we still had plenty of lingering questions to investigate. Madame: "Where can we find the answers to our questions?" Us: "Google! Siri! Alexa! YouTube! ...Facebook?" Madame: "Ok, yes, perhaps... but can you think of one more?" Us: *silence* *confusion* Madame: "Do you think we could find some answers in a book?" Us: *shrugging* *shifting in seats uncomfortably* ... "Maybe?" Clearly, we needed to backtrack a couple of decades to when books were considered a valuable source of information. So the next day... BOOKS! Us: "But Madame, we can't read!" Madame: "Maybe not, but you can look at the pictures for clues!" So out came the sticky notes and we were tasked with getting with a partner to find 3 interesting pages. It was amazing how much information we were able to learn just from those pictures that had intrigued us. From all of our discoveries, we were able to summarize some of our findings and pose for some pictures to create a little book of our own. Here's a little teaser before the big publishing date... "Bats eat fruit, insects, frogs, mice, and even other bats." "La chauve-souris mange des fruits, des insectes, des grenouilles, des souris, et des autres chauves-souris." "Bats use echolocation to find food at night." "La chauve-souris utilise l'écholocation pour trouver la nourriture pendant la nuit." To be continued... Also in the spirit of Halloween, we did a spooky ghost experiment this week. Which film canister ghost would fly the highest when we put an alka seltzer tablet inside?... the one with hot water, cold water, or lukewarm water? We made some great hypotheses, but surprisingly, the winner was lukewarm water! It flew way up into the tree! The hot water seemed like it should fly the highest, but the pill dissolved so quickly that Madame couldn't even get the ghost back onto the ground before it exploded! So in the end, the warm water was the winner! And then there were...leeeeeeeaves!!!!... We had so much fun running through them, jumping in them, rolling on them, and throwing them. Extra photos...
Madame went to the pumpkin patch on the weekend with her own kids and it was the perfect inspiration for some science and math activities with the class! We compared the pumpkins with some apples and "hypothesized" (a new word!) about which would be bigger when we measured it, which would be heavier, which would float... Then naturally, we had to test our hypotheses! We even had to do some metric conversions. Madame says that if we found that part confusing, not to worry - we don't actually have to know most of those things until Grade 6! But it's fun to get little tasters of it now. Our favourite hypothesis to test was definitely the one about which would roll faster down a hill - the pumpkin or the apple? We made some predictions and took a vote on which one we thought would win. Many of us were surprised that the pumpkin won the race! We decided to test it in another setting - the slides! On the slides, it was the apple that kept winning! But why was it so different from our results from the hill? We talked about how in science, there's a word called "variables" that could change our results. Some variables that we brainstormed that either were present or COULD have been present: - On the hill, it was Madame that released both the apple and the pumpkin at the same time and with the same amount of force. On the slides, different kids released the apple and pumpkin at different times and may have pushed one or the other. - The stem could have slowed the pumpkin down. - Either the pumpkin or the apple could have been slowed down by objects or even holes in their path on the grass. It was a pumpkin kind of week as we also completed the art we began with our big buddies. In Math, we have been continuing to learn about patterns. Madame even taught us how to create patterns using musical notation. We were so interested in the different types of notes and loved trying out the rhythms both solo and as a group. We also learned about "increasing patterns" this week and Madame had us start out by demonstrating with our bodies what those might look like. ...and then we built them with blocks! And we finally got some scores on the board for our class teams! Madame gave us a group challenge - make a boat using tinfoil and popsicle sticks, and whichever boat holds the most nickels before sinking, wins! But the REAL embedded challenge is: Can you get along with your group? Can you compromise? Can you listen to other people's ideas? Can you all work together to produce ONE project? Madame front-loaded us with all of these communication challenges we might face and told us that if we could overcome them well, we would get 10 points for our teams just for demonstrating teamwork. She explained that arguments are normal, even for adults! We will all disagree... and often! But how we manage our disagreements and how we learn to de-escalate rather than escalate our frustrations - those are key skills to learn. We started by making plans... Then we executed those plans, usually adapting from our original ideas as we tested our designs and listened to others' suggestions. Some of us felt a little overwhelmed at first: "But I don't know how to make a boat!" But we quickly realized that it didn't actually need to look like a traditional boat. It just needed to be functional. Then we began to see the creativity flow. And the winner was "Corbeaux" (crows), whose boat managed to hold 38 nickels! Their team got 2 bonus points for the most effective design, and we all got 10 points on the board for teamwork. Some of us even got an extra point for cleaning up our group's area really well. Extra photos...
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." We took inspiration from Harry Potter this week and divided our class into "house teams". But instead of a magical sorcerer's sorting hat, we used a magical CHEESE hat. Because French people, cheese... you know, it's a whole thing. We put the cheese hat on our heads and let a spinner decide our fate for the rest of the year. (...with perhaps a bit of "tweaking" from Madame at the end to make things balanced). We have four teams, each represented by a different animal with Indigenous symbolization: - Les corbeaux, known for wisdom and creativity - Les castors, known for perseverance and teamwork - Les ours, known for courage, strength, and humility - Les grenouilles, known for wealth, being good at change/adapting, and being good communicators We began colouring some Indigenous art from the Salish, Haïda, and Haisla Nations to represent our animals. Madame said that she will make our art into wearable buttons so that we can display our team spirit! This week's Math lessons have been brought to you by... PATTERNS! We've been doing them with blocks, on paper, in nature, and on the drums. We also got officially assigned to a big buddy this week! (The last time we got together, it was just to be introduced to one another. Our teachers hadn't actually created partnerships between us yet). To get to know our official buddies better, we did a fun one-on-one discussion activity with a page that said ME on one side, and WE when flipped over. We wrote things we had in common with each other on the WE side and things where we differed on the ME side. We were all very pumped to spend time with the big guys and even got to spend some time playing on the playground with them again. Extra photos...
We ended up with fabulously warm weather for our Terry Fox run and neon themed day. Bravo to all of the kids for their amazing efforts on the run! It was also pyjama day this week! It was great to come back from a long weekend in our comfy clothes. We have been talking a lot about using our "WITS"- a strategy we will continually practice using throughout the year to resolve conflict. If someone is bothering us, we should first try to Walk away and/or Ignore them. If that doesn't work, then we Talk to them ("Stop! I don't like that!"). And if that still doesn't work, then we should Seek help. If we try to come to Madame about a conflict before we try our W, I, T, then she will start sending us back to try using these strategies first. The goal is to empower us to work through our conflicts independently, with the knowledge that an adult WILL help us if our independent efforts aren't working. We shouldn't have to resort to using our hands or feet to solve our problems. In French news, we are loving celebrating our friends whenever they move up to a new reading level. Sometimes reading, math, and writing can be really tricky! But Madame worked with us this week on the message from the back of our classroom: "Je jeux faire des choses difficiles". (I can do hard things). We are capable of anything if we don't give up and keep on practicing! An equally important message: "Mistakes are how we LEARN!" And we have someone to celebrate in our classroom - Claire! She persevered with the vowels challenge and found an actual English word (that is NOT onomatopoeia) without ANY vowels! She will go down in history, along with one other student of Madame's, who has actually found a workable word! Félicitations, Claire! (Hmm... Madame may have to reduce the cash prize next year. Haha!) With Thanksgiving this weekend, we learned a song all about what we're thankful for. And with the song in mind, we brainstormed our own list of things we're thankful for, then created paper chains with one item listed on each piece of the chain. Some of us got really excited about this activity and wanted to make our chains as LONG as possible! Extra photos...
"I want to acknowledge that I am currently on the unceded territory of the Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations..." On this "Orange Shirt Day", we have been reflecting on the Indigenous children that had to leave their families and go to schools far away, often forgetting how to speak their own language while they were gone. We learned, to our surprise, that our school is on what was once Katzie land! We have begun to practice a land acknowledgment in French and hope to recite it to our families and at an assembly at some point this year. We have also spent the days leading up to Orange Shirt Day learning how to do some Indigenous drumming! Last year, a young Katzie woman named Lilly Teare Cunningham from the Katzie First Nation came to our school and taught some of our classes a song that she had written in her people's language of Hul'q'umi'num', all about her ancestors. She gifted us the song so that we could continue singing it. ![]()
We learned this week about what it means to respect the drums since real Indigenous drums are made out of animal hides. Whenever an animal loses its life for our purposes, it's customary to thank the animal and to treat the objects made from it as if they were living things. We only place our drums upright, never upside-down. And we don't hit our friends with them or put them on our heads. In this case, the drums that we are using are not authentic Indigenous drums, but we will soon be able to use a set of authentic ones so it's important that we develop these habits now. Drumming also has the benefits of teaching us how to keep our eyes on the leader (Madame) and watch closely and quietly. As she changes the rhythm, we need to be aware so that we can follow. There are many self-regulation strategies that we can develop just from a simple drumming lesson! As an activity on Orange Shirt Day, we met with our Big Buddy class for the first time and made dream catchers! Dreamcatchers were originally created by the Ojibwe, but they have been widely adapted by other peoples. And while it would be cultural appropriation to SELL a dreamcatcher that is not made by an Indigenous artist, it is okay for us to MAKE our own for personal use. We loved learning about the idea that dreamcatchers would "catch" our bad dreams and had so much fun working and playing with our Big Buddies for the first time! Some of us even found our buddies again at recess to play and get piggy-back rides. We spent some time playing outside with other friends today, too! (Thank you, Mme P, for these photos!)... It was a musical kind of week because, on top of the daily drumming, we also had some mini impromptu piano recitals! Madame played "Bonne fête" (Happy Birthday) for Wyatt on the piano and then some of us wanted to show off our OWN piano-playing skills. We loved listening to several little performances. We definitely have some budding musicians! In Math this week, we took a closer look at a hundreds chart and noticed that it's FULL of patterns! We enjoyed trying to count to 100 in French and learning about the weirdness of French numbers. (The word for "80", for example, actually translates to "four twenties", and the word for "91" translates to "four twenties eleven"... we're doing Math just by saying a number!) We had fun working with partners to try different counting strategies and ways of adding numbers together. The "building corner" This may become a regular section of extra photos that we tack on at the end since this group seems to LOVE creating and having me document it for their families! "Send it to my mom!" is a regular phrase. So here you go, Mom. ;-) (...and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa). Behold, the "tickle machines"...
This week has been all about setting and practicing our routines. We are getting more adept at completing our Math work independently, showing how to arrive at numbers of slowly-increasing difficulty. In French, we've continued working through our letter-sound review and have begun journaling with those letter sounds. We also had a lot of fun with a new "orthographic mapping" activity that Madame introduced. She calls out a word or sound and we have to try to write the sounds that we hear in the boxes. Some of us have started doing this activity one-on-one with Madame, as well. And the biggest development in French Literacy for us this week has been the kick-off of our home reading program. Madame has been pulling many of us aside each day to go through our flashcards with her and when she thinks we're ready to move to the next level, we get to honk a funny bike horn. The whole class stops what they're doing, sings a celebratory song, yells "Bravo!", and sometimes there are even high-fives and hugs involved. We're all on different flashcard levels, but Madame assures us that it doesn't matter! She brought out one of her marathon medals from Paris to show us and asked, "Do you think I got this medal because I WON the race?" Some of us thought that must be why, but then she explained that she was nowhere CLOSE to winning the race. Marathons are really long and they're hard... a lot of people give up, either in training or during the actual race. So if you cross the finish line, you automatically get a medal. It doesn't matter what the person in front of you is doing, or the person behind you. All that matters is getting to the end. Madame explained to us that it's the same with reading... It doesn't matter if one friend speeds ahead or one friend is getting there a little more slowly. What matters is that we keep on going and don't give up, even when it's hard. If we do that, we WILL be able to read by the end of the year! And that's definitely something to celebrate! And speaking of marathons, we spent some time talking about Terry Fox this week and his "Marathon of Hope." Madame was impressed with how much we already knew about Terry Fox, but we read a couple of books about him and watched a video to learn more. We also had a great time looking on Google Earth and Google Maps to find the country of Canada, where we are in Pitt Meadows, and how that compares with where Terry started and ended his run. We talked about how WE can be brave just like Terry! Extra pics... Many of these extras are the result of: "Madame, can you take a picture and send it to my mom??" ;-)
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood,” Fred Rogers Welcome to Grade 1/2! In our class, we love to learn through play. It's amazing how much more our brains and bodies can absorb when we're fully engaged in a task. It's also during play that we learn lessons about sharing, develop strategies for talking through conflict, work on self-restraint, deepen friendships and even discover new ones, develop new interests, and so much more. We've begun doing some pencil to paper activities this week, including practicing our Math skills using different methods to show a number. We also really enjoyed making a "Math About Me" page. We learned that numbers are everywhere in our lives! Some of us also learned a new Math card game this week called "Garbage", which helps us become familiar with 10-frames and stretches our strategy skills. In French, we've begun reviewing letter sounds with the help of Madame's trusty "Mystery Box" (Boîte à mystères). Every day, we sing a song and then learn a new letter sound by taking turns pulling out items that begin with that sound. We also work on blending our new sound with all the previous sounds we have reviewed! We are very excited about our class pets - two guinea pigs named Biscuit and Pépite (Cookie and Chocolate Chip). Madame says they LOVE to eat vegetables and dandelions, but those things are special treats for them so we have to ask before we can give them some from our lunchboxes. BUT... we can feed them as much hay as we want throughout the day. More pics...
And that's a wrap! What a great last week! So many fun activities, beginning with our 10km round-trip walk to Osprey Village for ice cream with our Big Buddies. We stopped at Bonson Athletic Park first for a picnic and some play time. We even had a DIY spray park! This is a single scoop??! We think it may have been helpful that we know the owners. ;-) And when we got back to the school, a special surprise awaited us!... a couple of our chicks (who have now become chickens!) came back to visit! We were amazed at how soft their feathers are, but also how sharp their little nails are, too! Thank you so much to Crystal and her family for sharing this experience with us!! The next day definitely called for some chill activities. PJ day and Minecraft Education/Scratch Jr! And we ended our chill day with a slurpee surprise! We won the slurpees because of all the points that our teams collectively earned throughout Term 3. But one team took the prize for most points - the "corbeaux" (the crows). They also received a medal for their efforts! Other highlights... ...performing our play one last time for Mme Sweetnam's class! ...receiving super personalized chip bags from Nana Kesler! ...celebrating birthdays with interesting hats. ...watching the intermediates' colour party from afar. ...and finally, planning out and creating obstacles for our "Guinea Pig Olympics". Not all of us appear in this video because Madame said she took the best footage of the guinea pigs and compiled it. If we had tried to get each student in there, too, it would've been a very long video. But all of us did get a chance to be in the guinea pig course and feed them some lettuce. It was more of an eating olympics, really, than anything. Madame also shared this cool car video with us this week and many of us wanted the link. Maybe a teacher gift for next year??? ;-) Happy summer, everyone! Bon été!
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