Class of the Week

 

Thank you so much, Mr. Bumanlag, for coming to our classroom today! We were extremely honoured to be chosen as Class of the Week by AM800. Mr. Bumanlag thought we were a Grade 8 class, we were so grown up and studious! He taught us about the news and the weather, and showed us a 'recorder' with its battery and memory chip. He told us about the radio and tv. It was very interesting! He will be on CTV Windsor news tonight at 6:30 to talk about High and Low Pressure weather systems moving through our town. We are planning on watching, and hoping to see some Hs on the weather tonight, and no more Ls!! 

Miss Melissa and Miss Cheryl served us a delicious breakfast of milk, pancakes, butter and syrup which we ate right up! Some of us practised how to cut with a knife and fork all by ourselves. It was so nice to eat breakfast together!

Thank you so much, Mrs. Shulman, for nominating us! This will be a memory for us all that we'll take with us through the rest of our school experience together and beyond! We have the best students and the best parents, every week! We are so lucky!

(Please tune in to AM800 tomorrow morning at 6:20, 6:50, 7:20, 7:50, or 8:20 to hear excepts from our time together. If time is not permitting in the morning, it will definitely play again at 6:30.)

Tweet from Mr. Bumanlag

AM800 Class of the Week! Thank you for the tweet, Mr. Bumanlag! Stay tuned for our post later tonight!

Clay

Today we broke out the bags of clay that came with the pottery wheels we've been using to make spin art for the past few months. I'm not sure why I've been so intimidated by the idea of working with clay before now. After today, I'm going to be purchasing it by the kilo! I tried it out at home over the holidays, closely following the direction pamphlets that came with the wheels, and made a little bowl which I showed the students before we started. So much learning took place as we worked. Lots of manageable trial and error, a little frustration, some obstacles, lots of problem-solving... in other words, incredible!

Can't wait to paint tomorrow. Sorry I didn't take more pictures of the kids in action, but you can guess what my hands looked like!

Slime!

 Today we made "slime" at playtime...

 We needed glue, water, food colour, and Borax...

If you want to make some at home, you will need to mix 1 tablespoon of Borax in 1 cup of water...

...and 1/2 cup of glue in 1/2 cup of water along with a few drops of food colour...

 Mix the two together and...

 ...witness the magic of slime!

 Roll it in your hands...

 Play with it with other objects, like toy cars and dough tools!

 Add more friends!

 Even add some playdough to the mix!

What you'll get is slimey, squishy fun!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! We started the day with a quote I found this morning: "Peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold." We described peace as not fighting or being mean to others, and striving to do all the things on our school board mission statement poster...

We then talked about dreamcatchers and their history. We discussed MLK's speech, "I have a dream..." and what he dreamed of for people. We decided his dream is coming true in our classroom! This made us very happy!

The friends made beautiful dreamcatchers at the art centre later in the morning. I found the idea for these at Rainbows Within Reach which the friends made at the art centre later in the morning. They were very proud of their hard work!

Buttons

There was lots of learning going on today as we played with an oldie but a goodie: buttons! Thank you, parents, for sending in your old and extra ones. You contributions, no matter how small, really help each week in our classroom! (Please continue to check the Wonderful Junk listings in the left hand column of the blog, where new items needed in the classroom are listed for each week.) When we added up all our buttons, we got a very special and exciting math activity...

I started by laying out a couple of puzzle bases with construction paper shapes underneath...

 Then just added buttons!

It was very interesting to see how many directions the interests and learning went in. Of course, some friends wanted to see how many buttons there were all together...

Many got busy choosing a shape and using it to create in some way, discussing as they went... 

Some wanted to see how many buttons would fit on top of a shape...

 

 Others worked to outline their shapes...

 Some built shapes around other shapes...

Some patterned on their shapes...

And nearly everyone found a few extra special buttons to talk about...