This Year is Going to ROCK!

Welcome back to our classroom blog!  The grade 5 students in our class are the same as last year.  We have new grade 4 students joining us for a great year of growing and learning!  Our class is really AWESOME!  

So far this year we have started to learn about Rocks and Minerals in Science.  Yesterday we used cookies as a pretend rock, we broke the cookies apart to see how different ingredients make up the cookie, just like different minerals make up a rock.  We drew diagrams of rocks and the cookies and labelled the different parts of each.  It was both fun and delicious!

We have also started to learn to tell time in math.  Soon we won't have to ask Ms Blacker what time recess is, we'll be able to figure it out on our own!  She is looking forward to that! 

Today Ms McIntyre visited our classroom.  She is going to teach us once per cycle.  We're very excited and lucky to have her teach us too! 

We're looking forward to sharing lots of exciting learning, news and activities throughout the new school year!  Please check back in with us soon! 

Written as shared writing by room 16 students and Ms Blacker

Our Recent Class Read Aloud - Holes

    Recently our class finished reading the novel Holes by Louis Sachar.  We really enjoyed this novel because it was filled with mysteries that focused on the theme of destiny.  The main character of the novel is Stanley Yelnats, a boy whose first name is his last name spelled backwards.  The novel reveals to the reader how Stanley’s life, both past and present, is connected to the stories of the other characters. 

    To celebrate the end of the novel (and my last day as a teacher candidate in the classroom), we watched the Disney movie version of Holes.  We also made a special snack – worms and dirt! – that fit into our Holes theme.

Here is what the class had to say about Holes.  **SPOILER ALERT**

Thor – I liked when Stanley and Zero were climbing the mountain and broke the curse.

Thomas – I liked when Stanley and Zero were released and Camp Green Lake became a girl scout camp.

Taylor – I liked when the lizards didn’t bite Stanley and Zero.

Angelynne – I liked when the sploosh saved Stanley and Zero.

Inderdeep – I liked when they survived in the desert.

Seth – I liked when Stanley, Zero, and Zigzag were fighting.

Efrel – I liked when they found the onion patch.

Alyssa – I liked when Zero told Stanley that he took the shoes.

Mackenzie – I liked when Stanley told Zero that there was an Italian restaurant on the top of Big Thumb.

Delson – I liked when they had the Superbowl party.

Jamie – I liked when Zero’s mom sang to Zero at the end.

Emily – I liked when Zero found his mom.

Jules – I liked Sam’s onion patch on Big Thumb.

Angelica – I liked when Stanley sang the song to Zero.

Quintin – I liked when Kissin’ Kate Barlow killed the sheriff.

Kyrra – I liked when Stanley and Zero were digging the hole at night.

Aidain – I liked when Mr. Pendanski got hit in the face with the shovel.

Ms. Wiens – One of my favourite parts was when Stanley made the joke about Mary Lou in a bikini.

    As a class, we loved reading Holes!  I am glad we had the chance to celebrate the novel for my last day at Brooklands.  To the students of Room 16 – I will miss you very much, and want to thank you for all the learning and fun we have had together this year!  I wish you the best for the rest of this year and beyond.

Written by Ms. Wiens and the students of Room 16.

Earth Day is Every Day

We read Schim Schimmel's book "Dear Children of the Earth: A letter from Home" prior to Earth Day.  This book is a beautiful book about how Mother Earth needs help from the Children of Earth to help protect, care and love her and our brother and sister animals.  After we read this book, we discussed how we can help Mother Earth so that she can be a healthy home for future generations.  We decided that Earth Day should be every day if we want to help our home.  We then wrote our own letters to Mother Earth explaining what we are thankful for and how we will strive to protect her.  After we created slides on Keynote with a line from our own letter, we put them together to create this visual letter to our one and only home, Mother Earth!

Something Good

At the end of the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio, there is a quote that says: "Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good."  We decided to write about a time that we did something good in honor of Auggie Pullman (the main character from Wonder) and his wonderful new friends.

Here are the things that we've done that are good:

Ms Blacker helps her dad because he is in a wheelchair after having an accident.
Seth helped a friend who was being bullied
Inderdeep helps his grandma to do stuff because she has a hard time walking.
Charity helps her mom to make supper.
Thomas helped his grandpa when he fell down the stairs.
MacKenzie helped a friend get up when she slipped on the ice.
Jules helped his dad clean out the garage.
Karen helps her mom and dad when her baby brother gets sick.
Quintin helps elderly people cross the street.
Delson helps his mom clean the house.
Kyrra helps her mom by walking her brother to school.
Taylor helps by holding the door for elderly people.
Jacob helps by doing chores at his house.
Efrel helps his little sister with her home reading.
Angelynne helps her brother learn to read.
Alyssa helps her mom to shovel snow.
Cole helps his little cousin to tie his shoes.
Jamie helps her sister by holding her music sheets when she plays the clarinet.
Emily helps her mom to do the dishes.
Thor helps by walking his younger brother to and from school

Being helpful and doing good things makes us feel better! 

Written as shared writing by room 16 students and Ms Backer

Wonder by R.J. Palacio Book Review

Have you ever had friends so great that they stand up for you no matter what?  If so, you should read the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio,  this book is about friendship and kindness.  August Pullman is starting school for the very first time, but he's in grade 5.  He hasn't attended a "real" school yet because he has a facial disorder.  His face doesn't look normal and he is embarrassed by this. When August starts school other kids look at him funny, whisper about him, and they don't want to be touched by him.  This makes August feel sad and at times he doesn't want to go back to school.  August soon discovers, with the help of his family and some new friends that he is just like everyone else and he shouldn't let others bully him.  Everyone deserves to feel safe and welcomed at school. 

This book is a fictional book, but we discovered at the end that R.J. Palacio wrote this book from inspiration of other children who have a disability.  We loved this book because it made us laugh, happy, cry and it opened our eyes to the differences in people... We understand more about treating everyone fairly. We recommend this book for family or classroom read alouds for ages 9 and up. 

 Treat others the way you would want to be treated. 

Our favorite book!

Written as shared writing by the students of room 16 and Ms Blacker

Digital Storytelling with Discovery Education and iMovie

Usually I like to blog with my students, I value their input, care about what they have to say and feel that it is important to share their story with others.  For a while now though I've really wanted to share with our audience how valuable Discovery Education has been as a teaching tool in my class and I wasn't sure how to do that with my students.  So I guess I need to take the plunge and do a solo post!  

Last spring, our division offered a Discovery information session where teachers could gather and share how they were using Discovery in their classes.  Most of us, new to Discovery, were simply showing videos.  Then, Joan Badger (curriculum coordinator), said that videos can be downloaded and this opened a whole new world of possibilities for me!  It was like a light went off for Joan and I as to what we could do with downloaded videos! 

Joan and I paired up at the end of last year to complete one more (big) project before school ended!  My class was learning about Habitats in Science, with Joan's guidance, I downloaded videos from Discovery Education that related to various habitats and from there we started a project called "Narrating Documentaries With iMovie". For this project my students:

•  watched the video several times and learned from it
•  they paraphrased their learning in a script
•  they imported the Discovery Education video into iMovie and split the clips into shorter segments in their video project
•  they detached the original audio from the video clips and deleted it
•  they added transitions between clips
•  they recorded their own audio scripts to match the video segments they selected
•  they found and added creative commons music on www.freeplaymusic.com 
•  they recorded a video introduction and conclusion of themselves using green screen technology and put themselves right into the movie

A day or two into this project I was a bit panicked that we had taken on too much with so little time left in the school year.  My students determination, willingness to learn and enthusiasm for this inquiry based project overshadowed my doubts.  We continued along and in no time at all EVERYONE in my class had a completed video project.  

I think that's the most important part about this type of project is that everyone was capable of completing it.  When the project was completed we had a video screening and my students were excited to learn about different habitats from their peers and even more so, they were thrilled to have the opportunity to be teachers!  Isn't that the way it should be?  Students should be learning from each other, they should be given the opportunity to be the expert and to share their knowledge.  My role changed to that of facilitator.  I loved the shift in responsibility because as a class we are a team and that team has to work together! 

So, how has this project changed me?  Well it's taught me to believe in my students ability to complete something that might seem a bit far fetched and it's proven to me again that technology has the power to break down barriers that may have originally impeded someone in the group.  My dynamic group of learners were successful and we celebrated that joy!  As a result, I continue to create digital storytelling projects with my class this year and they still love it!  This project has also sparked a new fire in me because I realized how easy it was to use iMovie and green screen technology.  This is my new technology passion! 

So far this year... my technology group have created narrated documentaries on Weather.  My grade fours are currently creating narrated documentaries about the Arctic.  Many of my students have asked if they can make a video for their project fair.  I love that they love using Discovery clips and iMovie to further their learning! 

Blizzard on the Prairies!

Let's talk about the weather... kind of a perfect day to talk about the weather in Winnipeg!  We are currently experiencing a winter blizzard in our beautiful city.  This type of extreme/severe weather is interesting to us because we have been learning about weather in Theme Studies for the last little while.  

Yesterday we heard a weather lore "Pink sky at night, Sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, Sailors take warning."  This means that if there is a beautiful sunset, the next day will be a nice and clear day.  If there is a beautiful sunrise this means that a storm is on it's way.  Yesterday morning, we had an absolutely beautiful sunrise, the entire sky was red, orange and pink.  We also heard weather forecasts that there was a blizzard on the way.  SO, the sunrise and the blizzard made the weather lore accurate for today's forecast.

Sunrise over Brooklands

The past few days has been mild, warmer weather.  Now a cold air mass is moving in from the west.  A cold air mass means that cold air is pushing the warm air up.  As the warm air rises, this will create cloudy, stormy skies.  We can expect precipitation in the form of SNOW!  We will probably get LOTS of snow.  When a blizzard hits we can expect a drop in temperatures - it's going to be cold!  The wind is going to increase and we can expect to hear the wind howling!  The strong winds will be blowing snow and cause it to be harder to see.  This will make driving difficult. 

When the weather is like this we want to stay inside!  As a result we are having indoor recess.  We are going to stay cozy throughout the day.  Hopefully everyone gets home safely and has a cozy evening.  On the Prairies, we can expect blizzards from time to time BUT we NEVER get a snow day in the city!!!  This kind of severe weather is just normal to Canadians! 

Written as shared writing by Room 16 and Ms Blacker

We Believe In...

This video is about the things that we believe in in our classroom.  We have class beliefs to keep us safe and to remind us to be respectful students.  We hope you enjoy our video! 

Our video "We Believe In..."

Posted by the students of Room 16

Living In Canada

This month in Theme Studies, we are learning about Living In Canada. Ms Wiens, our student teacher, is teaching us this unit.  We started off by learning about the Canadian flag.  We read a story called "Our Canadian Flag", we watched a Historica vignette about the Canadian flag and when it came into existence (watch the vignette here: Flags | Historica - Dominion ).  We had to draw the Canadian flag from our memory.

This is us concentrating on drawing the Canadian Flag from memory

We also learned about the different provincial and territorial flags.  We learned about these flags on the SMART board.  We did a matching activity where we looked at pictures of the flags on the SMART board and matched them to their province or territory name.

Ms Wiens using the SMART board

We designed our own flags, to represent our classroom, after we brainstormed ideas about our classroom.  Our flags had to include symbols that are important to our class. We added colors that we thought symbolized our classroom. 

We wrote a paragraph that would become our speech for why our flags should be voted as the official class flag.  Our speech had to describe our flag and why we included certain symbols or colors.  Our election speech was delivered to the class in order to convince other students to vote for us. 

Here are a few samples of our speeches:

After the speeches we held an election to decide which flag would become the official flag of room 16.  An election is done in secret.  Each person in the class was given a ballot, we had to mark an 'X' in the box for the candidate that we wanted to win.  A ballot could be spoiled if you marked it incorrectly, like if you put a check mark instead of an 'X' or if you put an 'X' in two boxes.  It is important not to spoil your ballot so that your vote counts in the election. 

Here we are listening to how to cast a vote

Following the vote, the ballots were tallied and the design that was chosen is represented below with the speech accompanying it:

Written as shared writing by the students of room 16, Ms Wiens and Ms Blacker

It's Been A While... Here's an Update!

We've been really busy and have not had a moment to blog.  Here's what has been going on in our room.  One week we couldn't post at all because Ms Blacker was in Dallas for a math conference.  Now we're going to be math nerds because she is a math smartie pants!!  The Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy started a few weeks ago and that has kept us very busy too.  We've also been busy with other projects that are on the go... so here is a little bit information about some of the things we have been doing.

Downtown Dallas

Dealey Plaza in Dallas where President JFK was shot

Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy

In theme studies we have been learning about Simple Machines and how they make jobs easier.  We know that a force is a push or a pull, we also know that there are six simple machines.  We used the design process to build vehicles.  Our vehicles had to include a wheel and axel because we rolled it down an inclined plane.  We tested the distance of our vehicles.  Quintin's vehicle went the furthest.  We discovered from this experiment that some wheels were too thin and didn't roll properly.  We also were amazed by the creativity of some students for the materials that they used, for example, Angelica cut wheels out of an old pair of her flip flops! 

Testing Our Simple Machine Projects

Mrs. Lamoureux hosted a very special event for Halloween, this event is "The Annual Great Pumpkin Olympics"!  All the grade 4/5s participated in various relays, races and some very messy pie eating contests!  Everyone had a great time!  Thank you Mrs Lamoureux for a wonderful event! 

Ghost Rider Race

Listening to Instructions

First Place Pie Eater! 

Written as shared writing by Room 16 Students and Ms Blacker

Indigo For The Love Of Reading

For the last few weeks our school has been "adopted" by Chapters Polo Park as a fundraiser for our new Learning Commons (library).  It was an exciting few weeks as we watched the number of people adopting our school grow online.  My class often visited the Indigo site to see the names of adopters and were amazed by how many people we knew.  Many other staff, like Mrs. JR or Ms Armstrong would often pop in as we were on the site and they would tell us a bit about some of the people they knew on the list.  One day Mrs. JR said she didn't recognize the name of the latest adopter/donator and I realized that it was our TIA artist's husband!  The students cheered because they felt a connection to someone they haven't even met yet...  I think that's one thing that I will really take away from this partnership with Chapters,  that it opened our eyes to the wonderful supporters we have and it made us feel connected to others by the generosity that they shared!  I'm not sure if people realize how much the love and joy of reading can change a life and open up a world of possibilities. 

I thank each of you who showed your support because putting books in our students hands is the best gift that can ever be given!  From the bottom of my teacher heart, thank you for making a difference!

Mr. FB would also like to share a special message: 

Congratulations on a very successful partnership during the last few weeks!

• Thanks to your efforts baking for the Chapters Polo Park store - which raised a significant amount of money for Indigo, the store was able to donate around 235 new books for our library! 
• Thanks to your efforts recruiting 'adopters' (of which the final number today is 672) our total number of books is at 325.  We are one of only 59 schools that made it to A+ status!
• This number puts us at #5 in Canada which does two things: 
• 1.  Adds an additional 50 books to our total!  (So now it will be 375 books!)
• 2.  Makes us one of 10 schools being considered for the $10 000.00 Library Makeover Prize!
• Thanks to the additional fundraising from the Ford Drive Event last June, Boston Pizza Home Reading Program, The St. James Optimist Club and the great auction event at Faithworks we will be reading our hearts out for some time!
• We will be adding these together for an assembly announcement the week after next!

On Friday, my class discussed how lucky we are to have such excellent supporters and we wanted to show our appreciation.  We decided that everyone in the class would use manipulatives to create a 'thank you' - 

 to the Landau Ford Drive Event

 to the Boston Pizza Home Reading

 to the St. James Optimist Club

 to Faithworks

 and to the many, many adopters and donators: 

Posted by Ms Blacker with guest appearance from Mr. FB and the Students of Room 16

We Are Thankful!

This week we are focusing on reasons we are thankful.  This topic fits naturally into the time of year as we celebrate Thanksgiving this coming weekend.  Thanksgiving is about spending time with the people you love and care about.  It is also an opportunity for us to reflect back on our previous experiences that we are thankful for in order to look forward to the future with hope and optimism.  We're taking the time this week to not only reflect, but to plan for future accomplishments.

We have continued to read Charlotte's Web which relates to the topic of being thankful, setting goals and developing friendships.  We've also read other books about giving thanks.  From those books and ideas that we brainstormed together, we came up with our own individual reasons to be thankful.  We wrote those ideas on a turkey feather and posted them in the hallway for others to see. 

We are thankful that we have our basic needs met with food and shelter.  Some people are not as fortunate.  So each year, our school collects food that we donate to people in need.  We like to help others in our community.  It is important for us to give back to those who help us.

On Friday, our school will celebrate Thanksgiving by having our annual Turkey Trot.  The Turkey Trot is an obstacle course that Mrs. Lamoureux and her helpers set up outside in our beautiful school grounds.  All of the students and staff at our school participate in this fun event together!  We play games together outside and do the 'Turkey Dance' with Thomas the Turkey!  Our school has the Turkey Trot because this is an opportunity for us to all spend time together in a joyful way!



This month, Ms Blacker brought in an albino pumpkin and a gourd for each table.  She brought it to decorate our class for the harvest season.  The pumpkin is SO big that we thought it might weigh more than the smallest person in our class.  So we did a little math activity where everyone guessed who would weigh more: the pumpkin or the smallest student.... Turns out that they both weigh the exact same amount!!! 

We hope that everyone takes a moment this week to give thanks.  We wish all our readers a very Happy Thanksgiving! 



Written as shared writing by the students of Room 16 and Ms Blacker

Who I Am

One day last week, Ms Blacker was talking to us and we were feeling a bit tired so she said "Show your SWAG!"  This got our attention and we thought it was pretty cool and funny that she said "SWAG"!  Then she said that this is what SWAG meant:

Showing our SWAG got the ball rolling for a lot of discussion and read alouds on "who we are" and "what we want to be"...  The activities that we have done always come back to the themes of 'trying our best' and showing RESPECT.  We created a "Y-chart" about what respect looks like, sounds like and feels like.  We came up with some really good thoughts.  Then Ms Blacker said that we should make sure that RESPECT becomes a focal point in our class so we created a big poster to remind us to always show respect.  Here is a picture of our poster:

(Each letter in our poster has pictures and words related to being respectful)

 (We worked in groups on our poster letters)

This summer Ms Blacker painted some pictures to decorate our classroom, these signs remind us to be the kind of people that we want to be... kind, respectful people, who try their best and celebrate each other!  These are the signs that hang in our classroom:

Some of Ms Blacker's teacher tweeps (those are people she follows on Twitter) sent her picture files that she framed in our classroom.  We like these pictures because they remind us about how much our teacher cares about us.  She wants us to feel welcome and comfortable in our classroom because it is our home away from home. 

We have read lots of books about friendship, dreams, team building and being a good person.  We always talk about the books we read and give examples about how the messages from these books fit into our classroom.  We know that we want to have fun and the best way to do that is to try our best and be kind.  Right now we're reading Charlotte's Web, we can relate to the book because the animals are developing friendships and helping each other out.  So are we!!!

We also read and talked about quilts.  Why?  You need all the pieces of fabric to fit together in a quilt in order for the blanket to do it's job.  Our class is like a quilt because we work together and provide each other with warmth and comfort.  Each of us made a popsicle stick square and we hung them on the wall to form a "quilt" - this art project looks really cool and shows how well we work... together!  (Ms Blacker will add a picture on Monday, we ran out of time today).

Lastly, this video has become our theme song - it fits well with the topics we have talked about.  We listen to it every day and sing along.  We want to make a video using this song!  We feel a lot of JOY when we listen to this song! 





Written as shared writing by Room 16 students with input from Ms Blacker