WECOME BACK TO ANOTHER GREAT YEAR!

The students of Room 191 (Multi-age 1/2) have successfully transitioned back to the classroom and are eager to start another fun-filled year of learning.  Within the next few days, we will be updating our blog to include new schedules and information for the year 2012/13.
We have welcomed 8 new grade one students to our classroom this year making a class total of 20 students.Welcome to those families who are new to our blog.  We will try to update our blog 2 to 3 times per week so that you will know what is going on in our classroom. 

Monday, June 18, 2012

It's been so long since we blogged, however; we are a pretty busy classroom.  We are in the computer room right now and the students want me to blog the following:
          I love you mom and dad!!
Swimming starts today and we are all excited to go to the pool at 11:30. Thank you to all of you who are giving up your time to help supervise. We have enough parents coming to each lesson as long as no one cancels.  Please check the side bar for the supervision schedule (I will post it today).
We are looking for 3 volunteers to come with us to the Pioneer Village on Monday, June 25th.  We will be walking down there.  Mrs. Mickey will be delivering our lunches and we will have a picnic lunch on site.  If you are able to volunteer, we would greatly appreciate it.
This afternoon, we are planting our garden. Mrs. Kolbelka's students are sharing a garden box with us and we are planting vegetables.  In the fall, we will harvest it and make vegetable soup.  We are looking for families to take a turn over the summer to water and weed the garden - it is quite small and wouldn't take too long.  The peas and beans would be ready before school begins in the fall.  We are hoping that someone wouldn't mind harvesting these and freezing them (it would be a very small amount).  I am away for all of July, however; I can pitch in during the month of August.

Reminder:  Breakfast and hotdog program are no longer available and will resume in September!

Friday, June 9, 2012

Hello everyone!  Yesterday was our zoo trip and all went well, however; many of the exhibits are under construction  so it was a little disappointing to not see all of the animals.  By the fall of 2013, the zoo will have an enormous Churchill and arctic polar bear exhibit so it should be a great place to visit then.  Our Walk for Alzhiemer's has been cancelled due to rain.  We have noticed that it has started to clear outside so we thought that we would walk to East Gate Lodge with our banners and deliver our donations.  We also want to say our final goodbyes to our Senior Buddies before we leave for the summer.  Ms. Patzer will stay behind at the school and barbecue hotdogs for us when we get back. 

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Wow, what a day!  We had our Farmyard Friends Petting Zoo today and it was an enormous success.  We had over 500 visitors including many grandparents, parents, siblings and senior buddies. The students did a fantastic job running their stations and touring people around. While the final tally is not in yet, so far we have collected $1000.00. Once we order our pictures from the photo booth (over 500 pictures were taken) and pay for the freezies, we should have $850.00 to donate to our global health project in Kenya.  You should be very proud of your child and their hard work and participation.  I'm sure everyone will be sleeping well tonight!
Our spelling test will be postponed tomorrow until Monday.  I have not posted the June calendar yet, but plan to over the weekend. There are several events occurring in June, therefore; we will not be having show and tell.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

In math, we worked on math facts to 20 and made "math bracelets".  Please ask your child to explain the math bracelets.  We also used our Rekenreks for problem solving (your child will also explain what a Rekenrek is). Students also worked on diaramas and reflections. Jackie from the Alzheimer's Society came to talk to us about Alzheimer's disease in "kid friendly language".  So many of our Senior buddies are affected by this degenerative disease of the brain that it was important to learn more about it. You will be receiving more information about this awareness program tomorrow in your child's agenda.  This is a reminder that we will be joining our buddies on the annual Alzheimer's Walk at East Gate Lodge next Friday, June 8th.  Hopefully, your child is doing chores for you around the home to earn money for this event - no amount is too smalll! You will not have to provide lunch for your child on this day as we will be barbecuing hotdogs at EGL after the walk.
There are just two more days until our Farmyard Friends Petting Zoo.  Everyone is very excited and hoping for good weather. All of the classrooms have signed up for tours and we are expecting over 450 students and daycare friends to come out and enjoy the animals, games and information that we are providing. Please come and take a tour anytime between the hours of 9:30a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (we are going to have our lunch break from 12:50 to 1:50 p.m.)
Don't forget that tomorrow (Wednesday) is litterless lunch day!

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Since there was no school on Monday and Tuesday, our spelling test will pushed up to Monday, May 28th. Yesterday, we worked on "area" in math and today on months of the year. In Social Studies, we discussed the uses of globes, atlases and maps and located Canada on a world map.

On Tuesday, we welcomed 8 Silkie Chicks to our "farm".  Several of these eggs belonged to our Silkie hens, but were hatched in the incubator because the hens stopped brooding.  Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Weilgosh hatched two of these eggs with an incubator and our class hatched the rest.    Last week, we found an abandoned Robin egg and put it in our incubator.  It also hatched on Tuesday.  After two days of feeding our little "Peanut" every 20 minutes, she passed on. The students wrote poems for her and she will be put to rest tomorrow. 
Next Thursday, May 31st, we are having our petting farm.  The students have made a plan which includes not only our classroom animals, but several games, a photo booth and a refreshment stand. We are opening up the petting farm to all K to Grade 5 students, families, daycare,Nursery school and our senior buddies. Mrs. Kolbelka's students will be working with us to put on this event.  The students will be working on signs and posters tomorrow afternoon. We will be charging a small admission and all of the money we make from this event will be donated to our global health project in Kenya.
 

"Peanut", our little Robin hatched on Tuesday.

  

Thursday morning.  Peanut taking a nap.

 Newly hatched Silkie Chicks - 1 day old

 1 day old - Red Silkie

Yesterday was litterless lunch day.  This is the bag of garbage that Mr. Starkey picked up from our classroom.  Way to go Room 191!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Today  was "Litterless Lunch Day" at BEYS. Our classroom challenged the rest of the school to use only a grocery bag for garbage today and recycle/compost everything else.  Evan announced our challenge over the intercom and our "Green Team" delivered the grocery bags to every classroom. We took a picture of our school's lunch  garbage on a typical day and then took another picture today, after the challenge.  On a typical day, Mr. Starkey collects 5 to 6 large garbage bags full of garbage after lunch.  Today, he collected 3 bags.  We were able to cut down our garbage by almost 1/2!
In math today, we learned how to measure the distance around objects using string and then measured the length of the string with non-standard units (interlocking cubes).
Tomorrow is Music/Art night from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.  Ms. Korlak has been busy setting up a gallery of student's artwork in the library and school hallways.  Mrs. MacLellan and the grade 3, 4 and 5 classrooms will be performing a musical in the gym.  Everyone is welcome to attend!



Lunch garbage on a typical day at BEYS - 5 to 6 bags



Lunch garbage on "Litterless Lunch" day - 3 bags.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Students will be coming home today with a field trip permission form.  We are going to  Assiniboine Park Zoo and the Nature Playground on June 7th.  If you are interested in volunteering, please complete the volunteer form that was also sent home today.  On May 31st, we will be setting up a petting farm on the grounds of the school (upon the approval of our administration). The students have been very busy planning the activities for this day.  Some of their ideas are:  Rubber Ducky pond, horse shoe game, bean bag toss, egg guessing game,refreshment stand, photo booth (by the saddle and barn), bug display, information booth (with fact sheets of the animals), admission gate and of course, a petting area with our chickens, rabbits and ducks. Students want to make this petting farm open to all BEYS students, parents, younger siblings, our Senior Buddies from EGL and daycare kids.  They would like to charge a small fee to go toward our global health project in Kenya.  We will keep you informed on this event.
Reminder:  Tomorrow is litterless lunch day.  Our "Green Team" will be going around to all of the classrooms delivering one shopping bag per class and asking that they really try hard to only use this bag for all garbage during the day.  We really want to decrease the amount of garbage and increase our recycling and composting efforts.  Please remind your child to wear his/her tie dye t-shirt.  Thank you!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day!  We hope you liked the "Traditional Recipe Book" that we compiled from our Social Studies unit on "Life Long Ago". 
Last week was a very busy week in Room 191.  We had no time to blog at the end of the each day!  We had 2 assemblies.  Monday, was Music Monday in which hundreds of schools across Canada participated in. We gathered in the gym and celebrated with several classroom performances.  Friday was the Principal's Award Assembly.  Congratulations to Kalan, Kailey, Aaron, Scott, Sarah and Emily who were recipients from our classroom this month.  We also recited our pledge to the earth and sang our "Recycle" song at the assembly.  We did not have our spelling test on Friday and will do this tomorrow morning!
This week we wrap up our Science unit on water and air and will begin a Social studies unit on Canada. 

Mrs. Deneka found this toad in her back yard. We think that it's a type of tree frog because of it's long, sticky toes.  When it feels threatened, it flattens out and looks just like a rock.  We kept him in the classroom for one day and then he was released back into his habitat.

Room 191  performing at the assembly.

Sunday, May 6th, 2012

On Thursday, May 3rd, students performed at the annual Spring Tea.  They wore their tie dyed t-shirts and sang the "Recycle Song".  We also did an experiment in the classroom to demonstrate the three parts of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation and precipitation). 
On Friday, we researched chickens during computer class and printed off diagrams and pictures of chickens for our information books.
For show and tell this month, students will be reading a favorite book to the class.  They will need to practice at home reading fluently and with expression. Students are welcome to choose books from our classroom library.
Tomorrow is Music Monday.  We have an assembly in the gym at 9:00 am where classrooms will be performing songs that they have practice in music. 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

We have been so busy that we haven't had time to blog, so I told the students that I would post more pictures tonight so that they can check before they go to bed!  We now have 4 chicks.  They are 2 days old and very cute. So far, we have only named one (Buttercup).  Diane Fitzmaurice dropped off a new silkie hen and took the white silkie back (the white hen would not go broody for us).  The new hen is broody and has been sitting on her eggs all of the time so her chicks should hatch in 21 days.  The "Little Red Hen" continues to sit on her eggs, however; she spends long periods of time away from them so we don't know if her eggs will actually hatch.  Our barn is now up and students have been enjoying going into the barn to read to the hens and rabbit and sketch them.
In math, we continue to learn different strategies (empty number lines, base ten blocks, expanded numbers, etc.) for adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers.  Grade one students were working with attribute blocks today.
In writing, most students have their rough drafts completed for their information texts on chicks and chickens.  They are in the process of conferring and publishing.

Our new Silkie Hen - brooding her eggs

Little Red Hen is still with us.  She's not as serious about

brooding, but hopefully she'll come around1

Mrs. O. brought in a bale and her saddle to

add to our farm.  Thanks Mrs. O!

The barnyard gives our hens and rabbit more

privacy with less distractions.

It's a lot of fun reading to our farm pets!

Monday, April 30, 2012

Alicia Fiebelkorn washed and ironed the tie dye shirts that we made on Friday. We ironed on our "Green Team" badges and put the t-shirts on. Then we took our "Save the Earth" pledge. See the side bar for our pledge.

The Green Team - Check out the tie tyed t-shirts that we made last Friday.

The baby chicks started to hatch today.  So far we have a yellow chick and a black chick.  Please see the "Chicks and Bunnies" tab above for pictures.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Today was a great day.  We were so busy, that we forgot our spelling test!  Scott and Sarah's moms were in today to help us tie dye our "Green Team" t-shirts. We couldn't see how they turned out yet because they need to sit for 6 hours wrapped in plastic bags.  Scott and his mom took them home and they will rinse them out later tonight. On Monday, we will iron on our badges before trying them on.  Thank you to Mrs. Macauley and Alicia for all of your help!

We rolled and elasticized our t-shirts.  Then we

poured different colours of green, blue and yellow

dye on both sides.



These are some of the t-shirts that are done and wrapped

in plastic wrap.  They need to sit for 6 hours before they

are rinsed off and dried.  We can't wait to see what kinds

of designs we will get!

 We made beautiful flowers and clay pots for Mrs. Antymis and Mrs. Oberick because it was Secretary Day today.  We delivered these down to the office and sang to them.

Mr. Deneka brought in some very large pieces of sturdy cardboard for us to make our barn with.  We all took part in designing and painting the front of the barn.  It is now ready for Mr. Deneka to install.  Our farm is now complete and we are now waiting for the new bunnies and chicks to arrive.

This is the front of our barn.  The boys worked

on the design and painting of the window, door

and trim.

Adding the final touches to the barn.

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Today we had computer class and Mrs. Deneka showed us how to log on to Worldbook online.  We got to explore the website to see if we liked it for learning about lots of different things. We are going to write Mrs. Myles a letter and ask her if we can get a membership for our classroom so that we can research and write about chickens and rabbits.  We watched a "Magic School Bus" video about the water cycle.  In math, we worked on our own doing "How Many Ways".  We got to choose between three numbers - 23, 69 or 94. In writing, we started planning our table of contents for our information books on chickens.  Catrina and Lex had show and tell today and presented their projects made from recycled items. 


Lex made a train out of various containers and a toilet paper roll.





 



Catrina made a piggy bank out of a milk jug and a boat out of
pop bottles, cardboard, and toilet paper rolls.



 

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

Mrs. Klein was our substitute teacher until 12:00 p.m.  This afternoon, we started learning about the water cycle in Science. There are some cool water cycle songs on utube.  The rabbit hasn't had her babies yet, but she is resting a lot.   In French, we learned about the days of the week and did a cut and paste worksheet.  We wrote in our journals about the puppet show that we saw yesterday.  Reegan was the helper of the day.  She made a life size robot out of recycled materials.  She also made flip flops from duct tape!!

Life size robot from cereal boxes, koolaid Jammers,

paper towel rolls and duct tape.  The robot is reading

a story that Reegan wrote about the Titanic.



Flip flops made from duct tape



Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Today we went to a  K.O.B. (click on the blue letters to connect to website) puppet show.  There were three skits. The first skit had a puppet named Jennifer who has a learning disability.  The second puppet show was about Anna who has ADHD and the third skit was about bullying on the playground.  We learned a lot.

Jennifer talking about having a

learning disability.

Anna talking about having ADHD

In math, we worked on equivilent equations using balance scales and "How Many Ways". 

Madyson presented her recycled items project.  See the pictures below - great job Madyson!

Hot Air Balloon - made from

milk bottles, egg cartons,

part of Taylor's old toy, beads

and many more items.



Madyson melted all of her old crayons

 in a muffin tin to make new, multi-
colored crayon pucks - great for
rubbings!!

 



A mouse, dog and airplane made from

all recycled items.

We miss you Carson!

TOMORROW IS PICTURE DAY.  PLEASE RETURN POSE FORM IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY DONE SO!

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Today, we worked on finishing up stories that we are working on so that we can begin to write about chickens and their life cycle.  We went to the library, gym and had art class.  When we got to school, Oreo was frantically making a nest.  She is going to have babies any day and we didn't even know it!  We found out that Chocolate Chip is not a girl, but a boy!  The Silkie hens are not broody yet, so we covered their nesting boxes to help them get more privacy.  Our eggs in the incubator are going to hatch in eight days. 
We are having a "Save the Earth" challenge this week.  Please see the letter and checklist that was sent home today in our agendas.  If we complete all 10 challenges by Friday, we become members of Room 191's Green Team and will get to tie dye t-shirts.

Camden's baby sister, Montana Sky visited us today.

She is 4 days old!  What a beautiful baby girl.

Camden now has a sister!

Emily made her project out of milk jugs lids, a toothpaste box, coffee filters, a milk carton, a catfood tin, pudding cups and a marinara container. She made a model of a truck stop in Banff that has a mountain in the background.  Awesome job, Emily!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Today was Freedom from Disease day at BEYS.  We watched a short video on disease around the world.  Many people have to walk for miles to get medicine and see a doctor.  We all wore bandaids and wrote words on them related to sickness.  We did this to remember all of the kids that don't get proper health care.

This afternoon, we went to East Gate Lodge to make birdhouses with the residents, have a snack and clean up the courtyard. 



Making birdhouses for Earth Day at East Gate Lodge



Cleaning up the grounds at East Gate Lodge



Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

At BEYS it was "Freedom From Poverty" day.  We learned that every 3 1/2 seconds someone around the world dies from poverty.  In Canada, we can get medicine, food and clean water.  People can help us if we're living in poverty.  Other countries are not so lucky like us and do not have enough doctors, medicine, jobs and food to go around. 

Mrs. Myles getting trapped in her office
as classrooms deliver their food donations.

Today we helped our own community by bringing in canned goods to donate to the foodbank.  We trapped Mrs. Myles, our Principal in her office with all of our food donations.
Tomorrow is Freedom from Disease and Freedom to Act day.
Don't forget that we have a spelling test tomorrow because there is no school on Friday for students.
We are going to EGL tomorrow afternoon to do Spring cleanup and make birdhouses with the residents.  We are making "Dirt Cups" for our snacks at EGL. Sarah's mom, Tyson's mom and Scott's mom and Klara's mom are our helpers!  Thank you!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

It was the second day of "Five Days For Freedom".  The theme was exploitation.  Did you know that 1:6 children worldwide have to work?  Some of these children are as young as 5 years old. For 10 minutes we sorted colored rice to try to get an idea of what it would be like to work in a factory.  We dimmed the lights and we were not allowed to talk.  The "Boss" (Mrs. Deneka) wandered around the factory keeping everyone on task.  Students that were off task or not doing their "job" were reprimanded.  We all reflected afterward and these are some of the comments below:



Klara:  "When the "Boss came over to me, I felt

nervous."

Scott:  "Kids should have freedom to go to school

and learn."




Madyson:  "I got sore on my neck because

I had my head down for 10 minutes".

Aaron:  "It's not good for the children because

they don't get fresh air and get to play."
















Tomorrow is "Freedom from Poverty" at BEYS.  Please bring non-perishable items (canned or boxed foods) to donate to our local food bank.  Our goal is to "can" Mrs. Myles (in other words, we are going to try to fill up her office with canned goods so she can't get in to work).

Tyson made an Inukshuk our of recycled boxes.

Aaron made a castle out of oil filter boxes and

empty candy tubes.



Today's presentations:

Monday, April 16, 2012

Sarah and Aaron were the class helpers today. This week is Five Days for Freedom at BEYS.  Today we learned about Freedom From Thirst.  Did you know that we have communities in Northern Manitoba that do not have clean water? We also learned that a lot of children around the world get sick from dirty water.  Girls walk many miles everyday just to get clean water for their families. We had a kickoff assembly in the gym.  We are collecting loose change all week for our water bottle that is situated by the office.  All money collected will go toward our village in Kenya.

See below for Sarah's recycled products project.  SORRY AARON!  WE DIDN'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR PRESENTATION.  YOU'LL BE PRESENTING FIRST THING TOMORROW!

Sarah made a playground for her 2 hamsters
called Hamsterville Friends.  She made it out
of recycled box, toilet paper rolls and an old

towel.

Sarah brought in her hamsters to try out

the Hamsterville playground!

Friday, April 13th, 2012

We had a Principal Awards Assembly today. Congratulations to our class recipients, Evan, Carson and Keagen.  Milk orders have been sent home today along with a schedule of activities that will be occurring during "Five Days For Freedom" next week at BEYS.  Mrs. Carriere's baby granddaughter visited us today.  What a sweet baby girl!  The Silkie Hens are still adjusting to our busy classroom.  We are hoping that they will start brooding soo, because there are 12 eggs waiting in the nest.



Evan created a pencil holder
from an old telephone book!

Devin made a birdhouse
from a 2 litre pop bottle.

These little chicks are Silkies (one is a Red Silkie and the other is a Partridge Silkie).  They are living with our Silkie Hens.  Aren't they cute!!

Red and Partridge Silkie

Red Silkie - 5 Days Old

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Dianne Fitzmaurice from www.creaturecomfortscottage.com/ made a presentation to our classroom about chickens today.  She left two adult Silkie Hens and 12 eggs with us to keep for the next month.  The hens will brood the eggs for 21 days and hopefully we will get some chicks hatching out of the eggs.  Mr. Liske also gave us some eggs and we placed those into an incubator. So our inquiry project about chickens and their lifecycles should be very interesting and exciting.
Don't forget that we have a spelling test tomorrow!
Next week is 5 Days of Freedom at BEYS.  We will be posting the schedule of activities tomorrow.


Starting to brood

 

One of our Silkie Hens

 

The Silkie checking her eggs

We also had an Americana Rooster visit us.  He strutted around the room making himself right at home.


Americana Rooster

Don't mess with the hair!



 Jeremy presented his project made out of recycled products. He made a helicopter made from pop cans, Kinder egg containers and a plastic chicken container.