Hello Everyone,
Schools out! Yahoo! It’s time for our boys to take a well-deserved break. Yes, they have worked hard throughout this year. They have been pushed, stretched, and challenged to excel and not settle for mediocre, and at the end of this school year I can honestly and proudly say that each one of them has excelled academically, socially, and in resilience. Thank you parents and guardians for trusting me with the opportunity to work with your sons this year. I sincerely hope that it has been as rewarding for them as it has been for me. Take care. Take time to slow down and enjoy family, sunshine, and reflect on their successes! Blog by Mr. Fong Hello Everyone,
We spent a portion of our morning tidying up the classroom and gathering our items to take home. During Circle Time we talked about two very precious things in our lives. Those are time and relationships, and in particular our moms or parents. Time and our moms are sometimes taken for granted. We think that they are a given. Such is not the case with everyone. We need to treasure our time with the ones that we love and with others who love us. They contribute to our resiliency, celebrate our successes and embrace us when we fall. We completed another lesson in Health, learning more about the amazing human body and some of its functions. Our day concluded with Ms. Chilton visiting our class and leading us through an art project using watercolour and markers. There was also a farewell assembly for the Grade 6’s. Blog by Room 9 Boys Hello Everyone,
We had a busy day doing the final preparations and reviewing what and how we wanted to present our 3d map room for the Celebration of Learning. Some of the preparation involved removing the scaffolding, getting the water pump going again, and doing final touches to the transit lines. We presented our learning to each class separately from K-4. We addressed lots of questions and get lots of comments about how, what, and why we did things the way we did. It was fun showing off our hard work, and we’re proud of what we have done! Our Circle Time discussion had us thinking and talking about how random acts of kindness can lead to positive rewards in return. For instance, it can be a simple act of chasing down a ball for another student on the playground and retrieving it for him, that the student may return the favour at a later time during our time of need. If we consider the results of our actions we may be more inclined to doing more random acts of kindness, which can be infectious in creating and sustaining a welcoming learning community. Blog by Room 9 Students Hello Everyone,
We began our day with reading, writing, and Math. Later on we spent time in the 3D map room reviewing how to best present the learning and successes that have taken place from the beginning of this big project to the end. There is so much to talk about, ranging from the building of the frame where we measured and cut the wood, aligning and fastening the pieces of wood together, shaping the chicken wire for the papier-mâché, followed by painting, and constructing the water system, putting up the constellations and the clouds that light up, etc. During Circle Time we shared ideas about what it means to be a friend, and the importance of choosing our friends wisely. Our friends can be a big influence in our lives. We also began cleaning our classroom in preparation for next year. Blog by Room 9 Students Hello Everyone,
We like to say, “Thank you!” to our dedicated Parents and Volunteers who make our school such a welcoming and amazing place for learning. Without them, we would lose out on many opportunities. Our day started with reading and writing, and continued with writing the digital book that we began a day ago. We look forward to sharing our stories with our classmates tomorrow! In Math we reviewed Math operations, and challenged one another to see who got the correct answer first. At Circle Time we discussed taking action vs. non-action when it came to benefiting others. There may be times when it is better to do nothing! For example, there are “non-issues” that we do not need to attend to such as arguing about who gets in line first. At other times, it may be better to take action to benefit one-self, others, and our school. For instance, when speaking up about littering, bragging, or unfair play on the ball field. Taking a stand can benefit those around you. Blog by Room 9 Students Hello Everyone,
Today we did some partner work in Math and practiced 3-digit division, and making questions for each other to answer. That was fun and challenging as we tried to stump each other with harder questions. During Circle Time we talked about facing challenges with a positive attitude and outlook. The challenges may at first look daunting, but if we try to make the best of the situation the outcomes can be surprisingly positive. Our attitude has a lot to do with our resiliency and achievements. We were reminded to see challenges not as road blocks, but to be viewed with a positive attitude and as an opportunity for growth. In Science we experimented with different wiring set-ups for series electrical circuits and parallel circuits. We learned that parallel circuits are more efficient and less prone to break down. For example, when a light bulb goes out in a series circuit, it is harder to find out where the problem exists, while with a parallel circuits it’s easier, and the lights work more efficiently and are brighter in a parallel circuit. During the Health lesson today, we discussed in more detail about the function of certain systems of the body. Blog by Room 9 Students Hello Everyone,
At Circle Time today we listen to a story about fear and how it can affect our thoughts, words, actions, and choices. In fact, fear can down right stifle our personal growth and relationships as it did with the main character in the story that was shared. It was only when he got tired of being restricted by fear, reflecting upon the lost opportunities because he was afraid of things going wrong, that he finally mustered up “Boldness and Courage” to not fall victim to his own self-created ideas about scary things and began to make BIG, POSITIVE changes in his life. The discussion that followed from this story easily led us into a writing assignment where we created our own digital storybook with a life lesson similar to the one about fear. It was fun, and some of us composed truly meaningful stories with a deep lesson to learn. We dedicated some time to creating art pieces and messages of thankfulness and gratitude to the parents and volunteers who contributed their time, effort, expertise, love, and commitment to make our school an amazing place for learning and fostering relationships. We reflected on the flood that occurred in Calgary on June 19th2013. The devastation to the environment and the disruption to people’s lives were enormous. We need to be cognizant of what happened and think ahead if another flood occurred, how would Calgary handle it differently? How will we put what we have learned from the past into the redesign of Calgary on our 3D map? In Health we had lots of questions and comments about anatomy and the changes and processes that take place as we grow. Blog by Room 9 Students Hello Everyone,
We have two weeks of school left!!! It’s hard for some of us to stay focused. Many of us have sitting around campfire, sleeping in tents, swimming in lakes, or riding off-road dirt bikes, sleeping in, and video games in mind! But for now, we still have work to do and learning to take place. So… our day began with Daily 5 reading, writing, and Math. During Circle Time we focused on attitude, presentation of ourselves, and the response of others to our demeanor in regards to building friendships. It’s a two-way street. If we’re mean and nasty all the time, nobody is going to want to play with us or be our friend. When we finally realize that the lack of friendships is due to our own doing and decide to make a positive change in our behaviour towards others, it may be difficult for others to accept. Others around us may have become accustomed to our grumpiness that they will automatically dismiss our change in attitude and desire to be friends. This is where the big ideas come in. We need to realize the changes needed within ourselves, and our peers must also show resiliency by giving the grumpy guy an opportunity to do some things together. It takes effort from everybody to rebuild and sustain a community that is respectful and accepting of one another. In Health, we continued where we left off from last week. This was a very lively lesson to say the least, and it is always a challenge to keep the discussions focused because everyone has so much to say! We worked on the 3D map of Calgary in the afternoon, busy soldering, revamping the LRT train lines, and labeling the clouds that hang overhead. Extra trees had to be touched up and installed. In Science, the replica model of the Maglev train needs some redesigning in order to get it to work properly on the magnetic tracks. It’s back to the drawing board and figuring out how we can make this work given the materials that we have. Blog by Room 9 Students Hello Everyone,
It’s an exciting day today!!! We are having a carnival this afternoon!!! Along with the excitement we had to do some learning too… We began the day with reading writing, Math, and followed by Circle Time where we had a discussion about emotions and feelings and how they contribute to enhancing or hindering relationships. In our talk, we specifically focused on jealously and looked at a story about how two best of friends became the worst enemies only to find that their friendship was way more important than the frivolous bickering that arose from being jealous of each other. Jealousy can be a very strong emotion that colours our view, and can prevent us from seeing the truth or other solutions to the challenges we run into with our friends. A good solution is to journal, write down our thoughts and feeling and put it aside to revisit when we are in a better frame of mind. Then we are in a better position to resolve our strong feeling of jealousy in a constructive manner, rather than acting impulsively in response to our envy of someone else. We had time to do more work on the 3D map of Calgary. Some of us continued to work on trees, others work on digital posters of the various landmarks, and the electrical crew got busy with soldering the light circuits together. It’s going to look great! Blog by Room 9 Students Hello Everyone,
We examined and critiqued a poem during our Circle Time. We noted the various elements of good poetry such as rhythm, rhyme, the message of truth that it expressed, and the feelings that it inspired by its “mood”. This poem encouraged the idea of empathy and respect in an upbeat and inspiring way. We were left reflecting upon the importance of seeing things from someone else’s perspective rather than from our “sometimes” narrow or limited point of view. We began our first “Health” lesson today! We learned about the growth and development of humans. The lesson sparked some lively questions and interesting conversations. Our dialogue also clarified some misconceptions; helped us to better understand ourselves and to respect the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of us. In Social Studies we looked further into some of the Canadian disasters and in particular, how the flood in 2013 changed the landscape of our city. It’s full steam ahead with trying to finish our big scale 3D map of Calgary! The electrical team has been working feverishly soldering and assembling wires, resistors, diodes, and L.E.D.’s to light up the train lines. The Parks and Rec team installed some of the trees that we made yesterday, and we’ve got to say that it all looks pretty good! Blog by Room 9 Students |