What It's Like to Have a Therapy Dog in Our Classroom

In the past couple of months, we've been really lucky to have Nancy and Merlin come into our classroom. They're an amazing team who work with Therapeutic Paws of Canada. Nancy is Merlin's owner and Merlin is the kindest, sweetest, most incredible dog I've ever met. 

After hearing about a therapy dog from a class that Tiiu's class did a Mystery Skype with, we did some online research to see if there were therapy dogs in Ottawa. That's how we found TPoC and Merlin and Nancy. 

Things can get pretty stressful in a classroom, and when students come to school already feeling worried or anxious, it can be really difficult to focus and to learn. Merlin's influence in our room is amazing. He keeps everyone calm, focused and brings a smile to everyone's faces.

Nancy and Merlin come to visit us at least once a month and we all get to say hello to our canine buddy, as he licks us all hello, wags his tail and presses the "pet me more button". 

One by one, each student takes some time to cuddle up to Merlin and read to him. He's an excellent listener! I love when the students select a picture book and make sure to show Merlin the pictures!

 Sometimes at the end of his visit, Merlin shows us some of his hilarious tricks, he's an amazingly well trained dog! By the end of his hour, Merlin is usually smooched out, but during his last visit, he still gave some of the Rainbow Eggheads one last lick!

If you want to see a photo of one of Merlin's tricks, check out the article about him and Nancy from the Algonquin newspaper.

We are so lucky to have Nancy and Merlin come visit us.

Nancy and Merlin do a lot of great work. They were featured in the Ottawa Citizen in December when they went to visit college students and give them a mood boost.

Henry The Horseshoe Crab! - by Pat

Hector (from Gillian's class) brought In a dead Horseshoe Crab in and showed us it in reading buddies. Here's a couple facts about Horseshoe Crabs: They can live up to 40 years, they have compound eyes so they can see three feet above them, adult females are bigger than the males, and it's tail looks like a weapon, but it's not! It's used as a rutter to navigate through the sand and it can turn over when it's on  it's back, but if it can't, it'll die!

By Pat

Should We Bring Elephants into Our Classroom?

I found yet another cool opportunity on Skype in the Classroom. Scientists in Thailand have offered to share information about the elephants they're studying via Skype with classes all over the world!

There is a big time difference between our countries, and meeting live may be tricky. I'm tyring to come up with ideas of what we could request from Think Elephants and then remembered how much better 29 minds are than 1!

What could we do? Students in NYC meet virtually with scientists (and even got to see the elephants via Skype!) after school in the evenings. They even helped the scientists in Thailand develop experiments to test the elephants' understanding!

Check out Think Elephants website. You can read about the work they've done, their educational programs and what they've learned about how elephants think!
 

More about scuba diving

      

     

 This is are manta rays

The Portuguese man of war is so dangers if you get stung you don't put pee on it like a jellyfish and don't put fresh water on your sting put vinegar on it .

Bye for now

Bye Kaleigh 

Shauna's cousins a scuba diver!

She is teaching us about sharks and fish she is teaching us awesome facts about sharks it is so fun and it is a great show! We finished are awesome fish now we are naming it Fishiocus dancucuse with a underline under the name it was created in room 209. Sharks have bin around for 250.000 million years ago where the Dino's where still alive and they where perfect. We are looking at sharks back then on google images they look so weird. We are look at a Japan shark it looks like slime now we are looking at extinct species like tephopods. We are looking at lung fish looking at amphibians they look awesome to me but to shauna it looks gross. There are lots of fish in the carrabien Looking at manta rays. Looking at water animals and whales have hairs all over there body looking at awesome jelly fish. Jelly fish have really high a electric volts. We are looking at nurse shark body parts. Bye and sighing off with your host

-THOMAS SARKOZY!

Shauna's cousin Lauren is a scuba diver By Kaleigh

    She is a scuba diver and she is showing us how the fish's and sharks work she teaches people how scuba dive it's so cool and she told us that the hammerhead sharks  the head is all the nerves in the head and when they hear your heartbeat they would be scared because it's like nothing they heard before. that picture is what ever we want update on the picture we named it fishicus danceicus  Rm209.

Bye for now 

By Kaleigh

 

Earth Rangers - Bring Back the Wild Assembly Photos

If you want to help the Earth Rangers Bring Back the Wild, visit their website!

 Barn Owl.

 Tiiu draws deforestation.

 The amazing Gabby and Vickie wrote a fantastic "Thank You" to the presenters.

 A tegu.

 The absolutely adorable pine martin.

Earth Rangers

Today we met the Earth Rangers and some of their Animal Ambassadors. If you want to learn more, check out their website!

Dear Pandas: We Can Tell We're Gonna Be Friends

Today, we got together with Dana, Owen/Andrew, Ray, Natalie and Tiiu's classes to play music and sing to welcome the Chinese pandas to Canada!

O'Canada Challenge to Welcome Pandas

I sent this memo out to the staff tonight and Dana and I have been chatting about it on email. I wonder if we can come up with a creative song to enter this contest with? Dana's idea was really good, she thought of singing "Safe Here".

Two giant pandas are coming from China to live at the Toronto Zoo for five years. FedEx is holding a contest, inviting Ontario schools to send in a video of their school "band/ensemble" performing any song. Then, they'll pick their top entries and have people vote for several days (starting March 14th). We'd only have Thursday or Friday to pull this together.

What do you think? Can we come up with something great? We'd have to upload the video to YouTube...

UPDATE:
We are going to sing "We Are Going to Be Friends" in Dana's room at 11:10 a.m. tomorrow (Friday, March 8th).

Please wear a plain red, black or white top.

Please practice your singing, and if you have an instrument and want to practice that and bring it in, feel free to do that as well!

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?

Robot Cat!

Another Wonderful Four-Legged Visitor - Oscar! - by Molly

Oscar came in and he really enjoyed it, but he doesn't like when he didn't get to see everybody when he yelped, so I took him out and then he just ran around. Oscar is my dog and he is a rescue.

-by Molly

Article: Rescued Baby Seals are Released

Article

The Animal Meeting

This week, we had a guest come in to our classroom. Lori from Gatineau Park came and led a meeting of the animals that live in Gatineau Park. She represented the mediator of the meeting and played the role of the fisher. It was a very interactive presentation in which each student got to "become" a wild animal and share what his or her needs are. We got a great perspective on wild animals by taking on their voices and now, more than ever, want to make sure to help protect real animals in the wild.

Lori encouraged all of us to visit Gatineau Park. It's open to the public all the seasons of the year and some students in our class have never been there!

The fisher.

As always, we had LOTS we wanted to share with Lori, but she had even more to share with us! We learned a lot about conservation and protection of animals in the wild.

Each student had a choice between 2 animals to represent.

The animals all introduced themselves to one another.

Guess what animal Madi was....

You got it...a beaver!

The animals from the Animal Meeting.

The animals all introduced themselves at the meeting in their own animal languages. It was pretty cute.

Lori Bennett has a website about her farm, and the programs she runs with her horses. Check it out!

Stony Swamp and Wild Bird Care Centre Field Trip Preparations

One week from tomorrow, our class is taking our first field trip and I couldn't be more excited! We will be visiting the Wild Bird Care Centre and the wonderful trails of Stony Swamp. The weather has turned to a little bit colder and the leaves have changed colours, but the students of Room 209 are tough! We will be spending the day outside in the woods on Wednesday, October 24th and, after a discussion about how hearty we are (!) and how to dress sensibly for the weather, we decided to go ahead with the trip. We WILL be outside all day, though.

Remember to bring only the things you need, dress for the weather and bring a litterless lunch and snack.

Permission forms will be going home on Wednesday or Thursday.

Tonight, I took a lovely walk around Stony Swamp in preparation for our trip. I can't wait to take you all there!

On Wednesday, October 17th, we will be in the computer lab. In preparation for our field trip, I'd like you to look at some photos I took tonight on the Beaver Trail and the Chipmunk Trail. Also, I'd like you to visit some websites and learn about some of the plants and animals we might see on our trip.

Your goal is to share three interesting facts about the flora and fauna of Stony Swamp. Please write in full sentences and double check that you capitalize the first letter of each sentence and use periods. Also, check over your spelling before posting!

Trail markers with the Wild Bird Care Centre in the background.

Look at the amazing colours of these trees? Do you think Fall is the most beautiful season?

How do you think this tree stump ended up looking like this?

Who do you think lives here?

There is an awesome boardwalk over the marsh.

I love the trail markers on this trail!

Would you like to build some shelters on our day in the woods?

Beautiful chickadees!

Places to look to get ready for our field trip:

Fauna (Animals):
Chickadees:
If you want to read about Black-capped Chickadees, the kind we'll probably see, you can read about them on National Geographic and even hear their call so you'll recognize it next week or read another article (it's written about chickadees in Washington, but they're the same kind we have here!)

Beavers:
Canadian Geographic for Kids has a Beaver Facts sheet. Have you ever wondered why beavers build dams?

Cardinals:
Canadian Geographic for Kids has a Cardinal Facts sheet. When I was leaving the trail tonight, four male cardinals were flitting around and I was astounded by their beauty.

Flora (Plants):
Cat tails:
I didn't realize cattails were edible! You can read even more interesting facts about cattails on eHow.

Birch trees:
We will see White Birch Trees and Grey Birch Trees, you can read about how to tell them apart. Who will become a birch tree expert?

Lichen:
Do you know that lichen is a combination of algae and fungi? You can read about lichen on houseandhome.org.