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!