Your Daily Smile: An Enthusiastic Baby Elephant Takes a Mud Bath

This video made me smile! I wanted to share it with you.

Can you imagine the thoughts in this baby elephant's mind? Can you leave a comment from his point of view?

Our First Field Trip: Hug a Tree - by Millie

So, we went to this place called the Wild Bird Care Centre and we played this game called "Hug a Tree" and it's where you get a partner and it's where you or your partner are blindfolded and they lead you around and take you to any tree they want. You have to feel the tree and you have to guess what type of tree it is. Lauren was my partner and she brought me WAY into the forest and I didn't know where we were and I tripped a couple of times.

Liam lost his glasses and everybody was looking for them and finally Shauna offered a reward to whoever found them and it was five dollars. So, then when everybody heard what Shauna had to say, they all went wild looking for the glasses, but Shauna said not to go wild because they could step on them!

But it turned out that Liam actually found the glasses, so he got five bucks!

-by Millie

Baby Will Meets the Degus - photos by Sophia, words by Mel

Baby Will got into our classroom and he wanted to see the degus. And when he was in the pen with Mel and Speedy and Caine, we had fun and I picked up a degu to show him if he wanted to pet him and he had a lot of fun with the degus. I think he was really excited when he saw them.

I think his favourite part was when he saw the degus running on the wheel, he started laughing and almost started to laugh. I thought it was really cute.

He went home having a lot of fun in our classroom and I think he would be really happy to come back again and see the degus and everyone in the class!

-by Melodee

How to Bust Writer's Block! - by Fiona and Vickie

Some nice yummy brain drink!

Look in the Dictionary Box for inspiration!

Look around the classroom for ideas!

Ask a classmate for help!

Look in a book for inspiration!

Also, check out the great poster Fiona and Vickie made for more ideas on how to "Bust" Writer's Block!

-by Fiona and Vickie

Rockin' With the Juniors

Check out Rock of Ages 9-12 to read all about the great times we have singing as a Junior Division!

Rainbow Pencils

Coding

Tonight, I was inspired by a video I watched.
It's not long. Take a few minutes and give it a view!

I have been amazed and inspired by my students in this class and in the classes I've taught in past years because they consistently pick up ideas in technology so quickly and innovatively.

I don't know a lot about coding, but the video inspired me. I did two mini lessons on a really cool, free educational coding website called Codeacademy. You can do one quick mini-lesson to see if it's something you want to do, then you can sign up through your google account (easy for those of you who have set up on the google drive).

I am 7% finished the HTML Basics course. Right from the comfort of my own couch!

I wonder who will do something to amaze me next?!

Cardiovascular Fit Rotations

I've invented a new version of the "Fit Rotations" that students really seemed to enjoy! We tried a seven station "Cardiovascular Fit Rotation". Usually our Fit Rotations are focused around strength development with a little bit of cardio mixed in.

For the new Cardio Fit Rotations, it was all about Cardio! In my demonstrations, I was talking and moving, and got out of breath demonstrating all seven stations!

It was hard to get shots of kids participating in all the stations, because some of them were REALLY fast and all I got was a blur zipping past!

By the end of these new rotations, everyone was breathing hard and we sure needed our Brain Drinks!

I think the hurdles were the most popular, and one of the fastest, rotations!

The students got a much-needed rest at the end of the Cardio Fit Rotations!

Mathady Presentation

The amazing Digital Degus create innovative, exciting reflections in Math. You should have seen Laryssa's last two presentations! She shared her version of Jeopardy, "Mathady" with us to demonstrate her learning about Area and Perimeter. 

Three contestants, Liam, Kaleigh and Vickie, got to participate as Hunter kept score and Laryssa hosted. Thomas even brought Anna up to watch on Skype!

There were a variety of questions in a variety of topics, each more challenging than the last. Many of the students were eager to participate and Laryssa did a phenomenal job sharing her creative ideas with her classmates!

For her next Reflective Math presentation, Laryssa created another game, her version of Hangman, "Hangmath", asking the audience to answer questions about the addition and subtraction of decimals.

Many of her classmates were eager, enthusiastic and inspired by Laryssa's amazing creation of these games and subsequent hosting!

Our Final Day of Mathtastic - Photos and Words by Thomas

Mathtastic ended in the fall, but we're just now getting around to publishing some of the awesome photos we've had sitting in our "Drafts" folder on the blog!

Sophia is working with her mom to solve a problem.

Hunter is working really hard with a Smoothie for a Brain Drink!

Jack is working with his mom and he's giving me a funny face. The boxes in the background are from a long time ago when we were doing Cardboard City!

Daniel, thinking very hard with his gigantic pencil!

Miguel is having lots of fun measuring the hallway.

Vickie is counting how long she threw a cotton ball.

Lauren is writing things in her Math Notebook and I think she likes the Canucks!

Melodee is working with really hard with someone is her group and they're working really well together.

Madi is getting really deep into her Math!

All of the girls are working together to solve a pretty hard problem.

I thought Mathtastic was a really good experience, it taught me and the whole class a lot more about Math.

-all photos and words by Thomas

Our First Field Trip: Feeding Black-Capped Chickadees - by Lauren

It was a LOOOOONG time ago....and it was cold a little bit, not that cold and the chickadees, I think they were saying, "Free food! No vending machines! Go ahead if you wish and look, let's stalk them!"

I got to feed about 127. It was kind of creepy. One was on my head. Actually, three were on my head at once! And they were playing with my hair, not something you want! And, Mel, she followed me around. The chickadees liked me better. It was weird.

Oh, wonderful Madi! And boys!

Kaleigh and Mike, looking at AWESOMENESS, a.k.a birds!

We're hiding, can you find us! Nevermind, they're boys, you can find them!

-by Lauren

Using the Google Drive - by Finley and Pat

In the computer lab today, Laryssa showed me and Pat how to get onto the Google Drive which is a hard drive (which saves things) that google owns and it is a very large hard drive because it can store a lot of data and documents. I (Fin) was starting to write a script for me and Pat's Where project and I noticed a Share button, so I clicked it and it said for me to type in an email or name so I typed in "Patrick" and I sent the document to him and we were both working on it at the exact same time. It was really cool! If other students want to learn more about the Google Drive, please talk to Pat and Fin! :)

-Pat and Fin

Hard at Work on Fancy Shmancy Day - photos by Jack, writing by Erika

On Fancy Schmancy Day, a day that happened a long time ago, Pat made a black handsome paper hat!

Jack's mom came in to talk to us about farms and how busy they are, so here were are writing a thank you letter to her.

It was cool to come to school on Fancy Schmancy Day to see all the fancy clothes that people have. It's almost like going to work, dressing up nice and fancy.

We also kept a graph for Spirit Week so we could see how many people participated!

-by Erika