April 30th, 2015.

Opera! Opera! Opera!

We first began working on our school Opera eight months ago.  The students were asked to write songs about their fears.  I can clearly remember our class writing lyrics and standing up nervously in front of the one another sharing their creations.  Last night, I had the pleasure of sitting in the audience with my family, watching the finished product.  It was spectacular!  Those once nervous, shy voices were strong and confident and the students had become the characters they brainstormed all those months ago.  The most wonderful part was recognizing exact lyrics and lines in the final Opera that came from our class lyrics so long ago.

The students have put so much of themselves into this Opera.  They have demonstrated hard work, determination, excitement and heart.  We are so very proud of their work and the final result.  Thank you for all the help and support in the creation of "The Wilds".

Zombies working on computers

Writing letters to compliment the hard work of the other performers

April 24th, 2015.

The I am sorry for the missed blog last week.  It was a busy end to the week and in all the excitement the blog was missed.

We finished reading the book, "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane".  It was such a wonderful story full of adventure.  Edward's journey took us through a wide range of emotions including elation, despair and hope.  We wrote paragraphs answering the question, "Who is Edward Tulane?"  The students had fantastic ideas about how Edward changed as a character as a result of the different people he met and challenges he faced during his journey.  The students then created watercolour paintings of Edward.

A response to the question, "Who Is Edward Tulane?"

Working on Edwards portrait

A portrait of Edward Tulane

In math, we reviewed geometric solids and their different characteristics including vertices, faces, edges and bases.

Looking at the characteristics of geometric solids

The students have been very busy with the Opera.  It was such fun to have our first rehearsal with costumes.  The creativity that went into each one was amazing!  We created watercolour paintings for the front display reflecting what we thought "The Wilds" would look like.

Creating "The Wilds"

April 17th

The students have been highly engaged in our class novel, "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane"  So far, Edward has had quite the journey.  He has spent 267 days at the bottom of the ocean, been recused and lived with a fisherman, travelled by rail with a hobo, been put to work as a scarecrow and felt love and loss during his time with a young girl named Sarah Ruth.  We finished our day reading about Edward's china head being cracked against a counter by the angry owner of a diner.  We cannot wait to see what happens to Edward next!  We have been representing the different parts of Edward's journey on nets of geometric solids.  As we complete the book, we will use the nets to create 3D sculptures that represent the book.

Representing Edward's Journey

One of the nets

More of the journey

In Math, we continued our work with fractions.  We worked on a number of word problems where students had to read carefully to determine the question being asked.  We also began looking at a variety of polygons, grouping and classifying them based on attributes such as number of sides, types of angles and directions of lines.

Working with a partner to guess a shape using different attributes

Many of our students have large roles in the Opera and have been spending a large portion of each day working in the gym on their scenes.  They are certainly one tired group of children!  Our class zombie song is coming along nicely.  We encourage the students to practice our song and actions at home.  You can find both the words and the music at the link below.  We know this is a busy time of year and many families are involved in sports and other activities in the evenings.  We would like for all students to be at all three performances of "The Wilds".  The performances will be such a wonderful celebration of many months of hard work.  

https://sites.google.com/a/educbe.ca/opera-music/opera-music

In Phys Ed, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and played a variety of games outside including soccer, kickball and frisbee.

Playing Frisbee

April 4th, 2015.

It was great to see everyone after our spring break.  We started our week with a acting out some scenes from our holidays.  There were a wide rage of wonderful experiences shared; watersides in the Bahamas, spring skiing in Whitefish and camping at Mount Kidd to name a few.

In Language Arts, we began a new read aloud, "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo.  Edward Tulane is a china rabbit who ends up on a long journey where he meets a number of life-altering characters.  Edward's journeys not only take him far from home, but even farther from the selfish rabbit he once was.  Be sure to ask your child what experiences Edward has faced so far.

In Math, we completed a number of diverse activities covering some of the different math strands.  We began our week creating questions and collecting data about our spring breaks and hopes for the remainder of the school year.  The students represented the data they collected in a bar graph and in a variety of fractions.  We worked on adding fractions with the same denominator and completed a word riddle using our knowledge of fractions.

Completing Our Math Mystery Message

This year, we have been very fortunate to have had a student teacher from the Mount Royal University working in our classroom for a half day each week.  We are in our final weeks so the students worked together to create a book titled, "A Teacher Should..."  The book is filled with stories explaining what the students feel are the most important qualities a teacher should have.

"I think that teachers should let kids be free but do not let them get out of hand."
"A teacher should be funny and silly sometimes.  It is important because sometimes kids need a break from serious teachers!"
"If you need a substitute, please make sure she's a nice one."

Advice For A New Teacher

Please remember that there is no school tomorrow and that Monday is a PD day so there is no school until Tuesday.  Ms. Reschke will be in all of next week so my blog will not be updated until Friday, April 17th.  I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!