Music exploration

The red group had a special musical guest today! Mrs. Burgess' uncle, Don, came to the school to show the kids a few instruments. He taught us that we have a few built in instruments (our hands and mouths) and that we can make simple instruments from found objects like spoons! We enjoyed listening to, and playing with, the autoharp. We learned that pressing different buttons changes the sound when strumming the strings. 

We enjoyed listening to a few songs on guitar as well, and even got to help sing "I'm a little teapot" with our outside voices! We sang our Music Monday song for Don and he was very impressed with the kids' ability to memorize all of those words! There was discussion afterwards about musical instruments, and we will continue this exploration next week!

Iskwew Performance

Written with the Blue Group:
We got to go on stage- Jaia
I liked going on stage- Kate
They were different languaged people. We learned that "hiy hiy" means "thank you" - Griffin
They were very nice- Katy
I had fun going on the stage- Georges
I learned that some of the drums in their country are made out of animal skin- Isla
(They live in Canada. Two of them lived in Vancouver and one of them lives in Saskatoon.)
The rattle was made of turtle shell- Isaac Y
The drum was made of buffalo skin and they eat the inside of the buffalo too- Georges
I think they are Metis- Isaac Y
I liked looking at and hearing the music and clapping for them- Nova
They were very good singers- Jaia
I liked going on stage- Jaxson
They were great singers- Griffin
I think they make everything out of animal skin- Isaac Y
I also learned that where they live, there's a man who would come around and wake them up in their teepees by singing -Isla
I liked their names- Krystle and Sandy -Aylan
They also were loud- Katy
I liked watching them- Georges
I liked when they were all singing together with the kids- Claire
I learned that before than men went out to kill the big animals, all the women had a big celebration-Griffin
They sung in different languages- Isla
I liked when I was clapping- Aylan
It made a really cool beat when everyone was clapping- Isla
I liked when Isaac Y was watching me (on the stage)- Nova
I liked Krystle when she danced (fancy shawl dancing)- Shaylyn
One of them said there is a type of place where anyone can go dancing there. -Isla
That's called a pow wow - Erin/Jaxson
I learned that when you go all around the world you find different people and they speak different ways- Alexis
They dressed in furs and all different colours- Alexis
Their clothing was made out of skin. Maybe deer skin.- Griffin
One was a wedding song- Kate
I think one of the songs was for a ball- Isla
One of the songs was a water one, waves- Nova
You have to ask permission to sing their songs- Isla
It's not nice to just sing their song, you might not remember them right- Katy
Their clothes were wavy. There was strips of material cut in parts of their clothes- Isla
Some of them were pattern songs- Griffin
(They repeat four times in their song because there are four seasons, directions, elements, and races.)
The words we used to describe how the music made us feel: happy, awesome, dancey, made everyone clappy, lovely.
We did our own fancy shawl dancing when we got back to school.
Hiy hiy Iskwew performers!

 

 

David Suzuki 30x30 Challenge: May 1-30

The staff at Marysville Elementary School are excited to be taking part in the David Suzuki Foundation’s 30x30 Nature Challenge for the second year in row! Over the last decade, researchers have documented what most of us know intuitively: nature is good for our health and well-being. Being regularly immersed in a natural setting, like a park, field or forest can reduce stress and symptoms of attention-deficit disorders while boosting immunity, energy levels and creativity. The message is clear- kids need nature!

During the month of May, staff and students will join Canadians coast to coast in spending at least 30 minutes a day in nature every day for 30 days. We will kick off this event on May 1 with a school-wide community walk!

You can help by making sure your child comes dressed for the outdoors each day. This might require sunscreen, hats, or raincoats- we’ll try to get out no matter the weather.

And why not join the 30x30 Nature Challenge as a family? Spending time outside together is good for everyone, not to mention lots of fun. You can sign up at www.davidsuzuki.org/30x30. Participants will receive simple ideas for incorporating green time into their busy schedules. 

If you have something that you love to do in nature and would be willing to share it with your child’s class, please let us know!

Thank you for your support!

Marysville Staff

Fairy Gardens and Visiting Chicks!

We came in this morning to an amazing surprise from the wonderful Mrs. Keiver. She and her family created a beautiful fairy garden for us to enjoy in our classroom until it gets warm enough to take outside. The kids marvelled at the beautiful plants, the cute fairy land items and the incredible birds in the tree! This gave us awesome inspiration for our own fairy land building that we are planning. A HUGE big thank you to Mrs. Keiver :)

We also had the amazing opportunity to go to the Grade 2 classrooms, where a Grade 2 buddy walked us through a variety of Chick-related stations. We were able to see live chicks under the heat lamp,

learn about how a chick grows,

read stories about chicks,

look at the reports the Grade 2's wrote about the chicks, 

and even touch the chicks!

The grade 2 teachers even created amazing videos for us to watch of the chicks hatching from their eggs and moving around at night! Thank you to the Grade 2's for sharing your chicks with us today!

Earth Day 2015

Blue skies, the sound of water rushing by, and a warm wind carrying laughter along the trail and through the field: the blue group had an amazing time celebrating Earth Day today! After getting equipped at the school with our adventure packs and a picnic lunch, we took off for the trail. We headed through Marysville and down the trail towards the water treatment plant and the river. We loved the trail, picking up hiking sticks along the way and chatting to our friends. Once we reached the field, many students enjoyed some food, while others got busy exploring. We had a great time exploring in the water buckets provided, along with the “meteor with space bugs crawling on it”. So many activities took place in the field- drawing, writing, experimenting, taking pictures, digging, finding deer hair, and of course, lots of talking! We spent longer than we planned down there because everyone was having so much fun! Everyone did a great job getting back up the hill and were so excited to talk about their adventures. Once we were back in the room, we looked at the pictures we all took and had lots of laughs!

We talked about our favourite parts of the trip:

Claire: when we were digging at the meteor and eating

Nova: there was 3 things- digging and climbing on the meteor, eating almost my whole lunch and playing Star Wars with Wyatt and Aylan

Giffin: digging on the meteor and having lunch

Isaac: when we were digging up the meteor and I wish there was a transformer in it

Katy: having lunch (a picnic lunch) and going back

Erin: digging on the meteor and colouring

Isla: digging in the meteor and colouring and eating lunch

Alexis: eating my lunch and finding the little bugs

Sophia: eating lunch and looking for deer hair

Jaia: eating lunch and digging at the meteor to look for an alien crab

Kaden: playing on the meteor

Aiden: digging up the meteor and having lunch

Georges: digging the meteor

Wyatt: finding the space spider and watching the scaredy cat ants in the water

Matthew: the same as Wyatt’s

Jaxson: adventuring

Shaylyn: having lunch and playing with my friends

Kate: taking pictures

The unanimous decision: “Let’s come back here every Earth Day!”

Thank you again to our five fabulous parent volunteers who helped make this day such a success!

I have to say a big thank you too to the whole blue group for making this my favourite Earth Day so far J

Mrs. Burgess

There are two slideshow links here- one is the pictures I took during our trip, and the other is all the pictures taken by the students. It was fascinating for me to look at the trip from their viewpoint!

Spring is here and so are many animals!  We have started learning about animal classification.  First we learned about vertebrates and invertebrates.  Then we started exploring how vertebrates are classified as mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles.  During the winter we explored winter animals and built a bear den.  During our exploration of birds we watched a short video, read a book "Feathers for Lunch" and went on a bird hunt outside.  We learned about different species of birds that live in our area and what they enjoy eating and where they live.  We even tried building our own nests!

Join us for Music Monday- May 4th

Monday May 4^th at 12:45 we are having a celebration of Music in the Gym! All families are invited to come watch the children sing and perform. We also have guest musicians from the community! It’s a great way to show support for Music programs in schools.

Students are to wear jeans and a white shirt if possible. Thank you in advance!

Mrs. Hammond

Visualizing

Jaxson brought in a very special "Sign Of Spring" for the blue group to see. We put the nest and egg under the document camera to take a closer look!

During K/1 time, we practised visualizing and describing skills. Grade 1 buddies described a picture to their K buddy, and the K buddy had to try to make a picture in their mind and ask questions to help them visualize the image. Then students switched, having the K buddy tell their Grade 1 buddy about a picture. Both groups did a great job! We then took this activity to the tables with lego, having one buddy build a tower and have to describe how to build it to their buddy without them seeing the tower. The kids had a great time trying this out, and realized it was harder than they thought!

A fluffy visitor and Bingo!

We had a fluffy surprise visitor today! Buddy, an 8 day old lamb, came trotting in for some petting and love today with his owner, Kelsey. 

The Blue group then headed off to Garden View Village, where we played a few games of Bingo. Our Senior friends were late joining us, but the ones that did join us had a great time!