A snapshot of our last two weeks!

The last two weeks got away on me! We have been busy...

Mrs. B came in as a Mystery Reader last week and read us a story about peace. She is our Community Links worker, and we are excited that she will be coming into our classroom most Tuesdays!

We have also had our first mornings with tea! We have now tried two different kinds of tea, and have been great about trying something new! We were very responsible with our beautiful cups and drinks, and enjoyed this "fancy fun" way to start the day!

In preparation for Remembrance Day, we discussed the concept of Peace and what it means to each of us. We used the book "What Does Peace Feel Like?" to guide our discussions, and we worked with the school board's Early Literacy Coach, Barb Carriere, to draw and discuss our ideas about what peace looks like. We were inspired to learn about poppies and to create our own Flander's Field on our hall bulletin board (complete with a gardener and mountains).

We have really appreciated having Miss Lizzy come in to teach us about music! During our last music class with her, we especially loved learning about quarter notes and quarter rests, and have had fun creating our own patterns and beats ever since!

We also started our Live 5-2-1-0 Challenge against the City Councillors, and a few of them came down last week to get a picture with us. We have focused on eating 5 fruits and veggies and having less than 2 hours of screen time each day so far. Over the next two weeks, we will focus on getting at least 1 hour of exercise and drinking 0 sugary drinks each day. 

We revisited our Marysville Fairy Gardens and found that although many homes had been preserved, a few had fallen apart. This sparked great discussions and questioning- maybe some people stepped on them by accident, perhaps the fairies did some renovations, maybe some animals travelled through there. Some students spotted bear fur (piles of pine needles in the distance) and worked hard to create a bear trap to protect their Fairy Garden.

We also started skating! The children showed perseverance and patience out on the ice on the first day. It was great to see the children who have had lots of skating practise helping the ones that were new to skating. 

It is always amazing to see the vast improvement in just a couple sessions on the ice! There was a leap in confidence and ability during our second session at the rink, and I am really looking forward to  seeing how the skills continue to develop and grow over the next few weeks! A BIG thank you to everyone who has been out to help during our skating sessions!

Due to popular demand, we have begun our first Show and Tell of the year. After a lengthy discussion generated by the students about what items would be appropriate for Show and Tell, they came up with the idea of bringing a few small items that were "beautiful" in some way. I suggested using these items for an art project at the end, and they really liked that idea. We have had four students share the items in their Beautiful Stuff bags so far, and it has been so interesting to hear the reasons for each selection! Thank you for your support with this project!

Following student interest has been a major goal for me over the past couple years, and sometimes this takes me into unchartered waters! After reading "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy", the students became very interested in walruses. It never would have crossed my mind to have a file folder on "Walruses" when I started teaching... and so our research began! They wanted to know everything about walruses, and came up with great connections and questions! After watching a video about walruses and created a directed drawing of a walrus (a very challenging task, indeed!), we conducted a Knowledge Building Circle about these animals. *Note: a lot of the discussion centered around our drawings that were not coloured in yet and did not have a background setting for the walrus, so it was clear to me that we needed to add more detail after this discussion!

Ella- we need to add detail to the picture, some colour

Sage- we need to colour it in

Oscar- we need to add detail and colour

Bryden- we need to add brown

Zachary- it should look like the arctic in the picture

Oscar- we have to put seals around it and make ice logs

Easton- we need 2 teeth that are white and a body that is brown

Bryden- we need to add half white and half brown

Jax- we have to colour it grey because in the show, it was grey

Matthew- we need to add a tail

Jax- we need to add more stuff and a tail so it can swim

Bryden- I wonder if walruses get cold and maybe when they do, I wonder if they go to a hotter place

Oscar- the tusks need to be brown a bit and the rest white

Ziggy- they eat clams, they do a big suck and that slurps away the shell and they get the clam to eat and fish too

Jordyn- we need rainbow detail for the walrus

Ella- we should draw a beach and some brow on the walrus

Ozzy- how do they use tusks to eat clams

Matthew- the walrus sucks the shell and spits the clam out, the part with the hard stuff

Ozzy- I wonder how they have big tusks

Brooke- how can they bounce and use their tummies to move

Rylee- we should add a beach and coconut trees and sand and water

Sophia- they might find some shells and snails

Zachary- we have to add icebergs and penguins

Brooke- we have to colour in the walrus

Sawyer- how do they get on the land

Zachary- we need ice

Ella- how do they squiggle with their legs when they have feet to walk

Zachary- how does the light in the arctic come

This discussion spurred us to look into their habitat and what they eat. We also have great connections here to migration, movement/motion, light, and natural environments that differ from our own local surroundings. WOW! These discussions just amaze me. Ask your child about what we learned, and any questions they still have!