News and Photos from Aaron in England!

Hi Rainbow Eggheads,

Here is a picture of Tower Bridge. It is not the same bridge as the song London Bridge Is Falling Down. London Bridge was originally built by the Romans at a different location on the River Thames. Tower bridge was built in 1894.

  This is the Shard, it is 1004 ft in height.from Wikipedia. It is the tallest building in Western Europe. Here is a link for more details: http://the-shard.com/overview

 This is two of my cousins. All kids in schools in England have to wear uniforms.


 This is the car that my uncle owns, it's a Porsche. He took me for a drive! In this photo I am actually not in the drivers seat...so what do you think that means?

That is a 20 pound note. It's worth about 35 Canadian dollars.

Cheerio,

Aaron

Our Dream of 1:1 ChromeBooks

Shauna went to a conference called the Google Apps for Education Summit in Montreal two weekends ago and learned that the EdTechTeam who put it on is providing class sets of ChromeBooks or Nexus 7s to some classes in order to give back!

We realized that we consistently take our tech to the next level and hope that we can get 1:1 devices in our classroom.

Students created the amazing video above and we all worked together to write our application for the grant.

Wish us luck!

No Internet for a Week! Could You Do It?

NO INTERNET WEEK: FULL DOCUMENTARY from Mother on Vimeo.

This is an hour-long documentary about several people trying to make it through a week without using the Internet. At all.

Just thinking of that makes me jittery. I can't imagine going a day, let alone a whole week without Internet. That makes me think that it would be really important for me to try. Anyone want to join me for an Internet free day (to start!) in January?

There are so many things I use the Internet for every single day, and having access to it at every instant on my phone has made me totally reliant on the Internet. If I went offline for any amount of time, I feel like I would need to warn people well in advance. On the Internet.

I will test myself tomorrow and see how long it takes from when I wake up to when I check something online - email, social networks, Google Drive, the weather, directions, play a game, or finding an obscure piece of information.

I think going Net-Free for a bit of time could be really cleansing, allow me to be more mindful and hopefully feel more relaxed. Why is it, then, that I get jittery just thinking about turning away from the Internet?

Let me know in the comments below if you think you could do it - go Internet free for a day, for a week or for longer. Also, tell me what would be the most difficult parts of going Internet free for you.

My New Favourite Christmas Movie

This weekend, while home icing my herniated disc, I watched my new favourite Christmas movie. It's got a plot, drama and exciting characters. It, is, however, not a fictional story.

Check it out!

Living in the Jetsons: Amazon Drones

Midway through an amazing Tech Week last week, Allison told us about the Amazon Drones that are being developed to deliver packages right to your door. I didn't believe her that it could possibly be true, but she proved me wrong with this video.

Someone recently said to me that we're "living in the Jetsons".

Comment here and tell me if you anticipate any problems with Amazon Drones and/or if you know what "living in the Jetsons" means!

How Did You Do That To My Brain?

Want to check out the most amazing Optical Illusion I have ever seen?

I thought you would.

Click here.

Mood Boosters!

Some members of our classroom community have been having a tough time lately. As always, the Rainbow Eggheads have sprung into action and done what they can to boost people's moods. Check out the amazing projects the students of Room 209 whipped together for our friends!

Two Interesting Videos I Had to Share

Watch these two videos and think about who made them, what their messages/purposes are and consider if you enjoyed them.


Try Text Busting one or both of them. You can link to your Text Busting work in the comments below!

Oscar's Table Manners

In preparation for our upcoming meal with Room 207, Molly shared this video of Oscar's table manners with me. Do you think he's showing Morgan Lewis manners?

Your Hour of Code Mission!

Hello Rainbow Eggheads,

We are doing our Hour of Code today!

Visit this link and get to work!

Once you've finished your Hour of Code, please leave a comment on this post telling everyone how many lines of code you wrote today. Also, tell us if you enjoyed your coding time and what you found rewarding or challenging.

For more opportunities to code for FREE, visit code.org or codeacademy.

Baby Nisha Experiments

Anita Grace, the reporter who came into our classroom, brought in her adorable 8-month old daughter, Nisha, to show us about brain development. She's posted about it on her blog.

After they got to test Nisha's capacity to understand object permanence, students wrote a formal lab report and then creatively shared their observations and conclusions in reflections.

Thomas did his reflection on a Show Me. So did Jack. 

Gabby's reflection is a slideshow of some more experiments she did with a baby and a control subject, her dad!

 Anita has asked us to visit her blog and leave links to our work!

Do babies remember things? By Millie

So last week our reporter, Anita, (who interviewed us in the newspaper) brought in her 7month year old, Nisha!

We decided to do some science experiments on Nisha. Not the the ones like poring a bunch of chemicals on her, but some mental experiments.

We wanted to know if babies remember things. Do you remember stuff from when you were a baby?

To do that, Anita brought some of Nisha's favourite toys. She also brought a blanket. 

Our plan was to put the toy in front of Nisha, have her crawl toward it, and the hide it under the blanket to see if she remembered that the toy was there. 

Ok, so this is what happened. 

Nisha did not have a nap that morning, so she was a bit grumpy, but not that much. We set the toy out in front of Nisha. She started crawling toward it, but she got so distracted by all of us around her, she started crawling toward us! Some of us moved out of the way. We tried it again, and Nisha crawled toward it again. We covered it up with the blanket and she kinda looked around with this facial expression: 

So, I don't really think babies remember things when they are about 7 months old, because I don't remember anything when I was that age. And also, Nisha didn't seem to remember what was there. 

By Millie 

Add to Our Global Connections Map!

I have so many wonderful ideas and inspiration to share with the Rainbow Eggheads from my weekend in Montreal at the GAFESummit. Since we're having "Tech Week" in our class, I'll be telling stories and sharing ideas all week!

First off, please visit this link on MapsEngine Lite and double check on our class map to add locations of global connections we've made. So far, I added a pin to Whistler Mountain, from when we Skyped with my parents last spring! Please feel free to add photos from the web (they will be linked back to the original source) and information about who we connected with!

Make sure you don't delete anyone else's pins!

Did You Know Gillian Danced for the Olympics?!

Our very own Gillian and her DanceMania!

Living Museum Kick Off

After our amazing Timeline Activity, the Juniors got together in two groups today to kick off our third annual Living Museum! The discussion was rich and engaging and the Curators (Owen, Tiiu, Andrew, Ray and Shauna) can't wait to see what you come up with!

Students are to start deciding on groups and topics and to work on their Proposals. Proposals are due by Thursday, December 18th, but will be accepted and even possibly approved before that! Please share your proposal with the homeroom teachers of all group members.

For your proposal, you will need to refer to the curriculum.
Grade 4 expectations - Medieval Times
Grade 5 expectations - Ancient Civilizations
Grade 6 expectations - European Explorers and First Nations

Inspiration from last year's topic selection!

Possible topics to get your started from today's discussion:

Daily Life

-I’m wondering how much the life of Haida people has changed over all of that time. - Millie, Sharky

-What was life like in the Industrial Revolution and in the heyday of a civilization - Ben

-I am wondering how the jobs compared between civilizations?

-Marin is wondering what life was  like before the Haida civilization?

-What happened in other places when the Dark Ages happened in Europe - Madi

-William is wondering why Christopher Columbus and all the European explorers are so famous if others found America first?

-Heather is wondering why the Aztec civilization was so short

-Cayley is wondering what things would have been like if the Dark Ages had never happened.

-Quinn is wondering what makes a successful civilization?

-Bexster is wondering how some civilizations were around for a longer time

-How was life in the Dark Ages and Medieval times? - Gabi

-

Structures

-Xavier is wondering how  the buildings in Ancient Rome held up in comparison to those of the Mayans?

-Kenny is wondering what was the tallest Mayan building - Johnny, Kenny

Geography

-Melodee is wondering what our current geographical location might have been like when we were inhabited by First Nations People

-Gavin M is wondering where the Haida are and who they are?

-Anna’s wondering when they realized the world wasn’t flat?

-Braeden’s wondering when Galileo made his discoveries, why did other people have other beliefs?

Inventions

-I’m wondering about why the Ancient Mayan calendar came to an end?

-I’m wondering about different inventions that came from different civilizations

Weaponry/War

-the Chinese invented gun powder but the first firearm wasn’t invented until much later. I wonder what they used the gun powder for and what happened between those two inventions until they met

-Sohail is wondering how the weaponry during medieval times compared to that of ancient civilizations?

-Jamie is wondering what is the most common medieval weapon

Religions/Belief Systems

-I’m wondering about religions and how so many people can find faith in symbols like a person or a book?

-Sharky is wondering about Native Storytelling and if the stories have changed as time goes on

Art

-Kaleigh is wondering if the First Nations and European Explorers did art

Transportation

-Pat and Colin want to compare European and Viking boats and how they changed how they made them and the general construction

-Kenny was wondering which ancient civilization had the biggest ship

Food

-Ethan is wondering how the Haida got their food and resources

-Hunter is wondering if Australian natives actually cannibalized

Personalities

Fiona is wondering about names and figures of famous Natives

Homes

-how did they built their houses before they had nails? - Leo