Upcoming

With School of Rock on the backburner for the time being, we are looking forward to a number of other busy activities in the coming weeks.  Of course forms were due back last Friday for our MacSkimming trip.  I will assume that any who have not returned theirs are not attending.  This week a letter regarding the food donations for the trip, and our online sign up list, will be sent home.  I will post a link here when it is available.  We are in need of many volunteers for the overnight portion, equal numbers male and female for sleeping arrangements and supervision, so let me know if you can make it.
We will be having an author visit on the 11th of June, and the students will become authors of their own as we work to produce our own books in the coming weeks.
In addition we will soon be starting the preparation for our annual recycled fashion show.  If you have any old, no  longer used, or out of fashion clothing, please send it in to give us the resources we need as we continue to try and add Re-Design to the other three R's (reduce reuse recycle).
Of course, we are riding high on the success of School of Rock 7 last Friday.  Our class was instrumental in preparing for the event, through the organization of materials, and the creation of the wonderful artwork for the show.  We are looking forward to the June 10th performance on the main stage at Westfest.    Tell your friends and neighbours.  Hopefully we can draw a good crowd out on a Sunday afternoon.

Kadra

This story about Kadra and her family was posted on the Citizen site this evening. Pass it on. It is a touching story, and one that should be heard. Hopefully the right people will read it and help the family out in some way.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Life/Health/6456664/story.html

On a related note, with the funds from our School of Rock button sales we have been able to raise over $700 this week for the Kadra fund.

Welcome Duvaghn

March was a real blur, with the break, and several students away on trips, big projects like the storytelling workshops, the extra work going into School of Rock, and myself being away for a bit with my son who was sick. I apologise for not blogging all month, but we are back on track, so expect lots of info to keep us moving as the year really starts to get busy.
Welcome Duvaghn Martin from UofO, as a teacher candidate in our class for the next four weeks. He is going to be with us for part of each day, working with the class as well as with Dana's 2/3 class.
We have the fortune to be involved with Ottawa's first ever Potato Project. Run by Heritage Academy, it is a program aimed at growing food for the local food bank. We are one of a few schools piloting this project, which will see us growing potatoes over the summer. We will be harvesting them in the fall, and donating them all to the food bank. Check out more in the video at the following link...
http://heritage-academy.com/potato-project/
We are in the middle of our poetry unit. The jingles handed in last week as part of the ad campaigns were the first home project in this unit. We will be starting a song re-write activity this week that you can expect to see at home. It will be due after Easter. We are working towards our Poetry Slam, to be held the week after Easter.
Remember to remind your children that it is still cold weather, and appropriate clothing is needed for days that start off around the freezing point. We are getting many coming to school without coats.

Storytelling

CASC generously offered to arrange this storytelling activity that we are involved with through MASC. Katherine has worked with us on oral storytelling techniques, and the students have been really engaged! They moaned collectively when the period ended today.

We will have six or seven sessions with Katherine in total, and CASC has paid for almost all of the cost for this (only our class and Tiiu's are involved). They are asking us to collect two dollars per student to help offset some of the fee involved with bringing this artist in to the school for seven full days of workshops. Please send in a toonie with your child so we can collect this in the next few days.

Tomorrow we are hosting another sharing, and presenting at least one piece at it.

The fourth oral storytelling session for our class will be in the last block of the day.

Regards, Ray

Stop Motion

We have a big project coming up next week, and are in need of at least four volunteers to help groups and work a camera. Our class is busy planning and storyboarding five different stop motion animation stories. They are really into their plans, and should be ready to roll come next Wednesday. If you can come in and help us out, please let me know right away. The details are below. The timing would be to start at 10:20, and go until 12:00.

Your responsibility would be to help guid a group, and basically be in charge of the camera each group is using. Explicit instructions will be given at the start of the session for all involved.

Let me know right away.

Some more details are below.

Regards, Ray

Students have been thinking of where the cameras should be set up and if they want to change angles as they go along. Will they be filming with the camera pointing down? On a tripod? Close ups?

Is there a simple problem that is getting solved?

What props and backdrops do they need to prepare?

Storyboards will be like an instruction sheet for filming. They should have a clear idea of the movements and the pictures they will be taking, but some interpretation or guidance may be needed.

Videos to Get Us Thinking

Yesterday we had a discussion in class around the topic of healthy living that started with us viewing the video at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M

From this the class came up with a list of words including; cooperation, persistence, teamwork, creativity, comfort, and harmony. Our discussion revolved around how to use these traits in everyday life to create 'beautiful music' just like the group in the video. It is an inspiring video, and we could have talked about it for hours it seemed, but we had other things to go on to do.

Here is the link to the video for 'Back to the Start', the Coldplay song covered by Willie Nelson, that focuses on factory farms and organic farming. Our writing activity that followed focused on the choices that others make which can have an effect on our health. There was a lot of good discussion around this topic even before we viewed the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfSGt6rHos

Jan 16 - 19

This week is a short one for us, as Friday is a PD day. Things are back in full swing already. Last week we sunk our teeth into some serious math work with area and geometry work going on. When gift wrapping season comes around again they should be ready to calculate how much paper goes on the outside of their gifts, as we have seriously looked at surface area.
This week we are focusing on the triangle. We have discovered the relationship between the area of rectangles and triangles, and are using that to do much of our work.
Joining our class this year is Duncan MacDonald, a former Churchill student, who is with us on a co - op placement for the next eight weeks. He has been a great help already, and the students are enjoying having him around to call on.
In Media Literacy we have been looking critically at the `stuff` that the media pushes on us, and the role of big box stores in this quest for consumer items. Below are links to two of the videos we watched in class. WARNING... one of them contains the word `crap` , used in jest, but used none the less. We had some discussion about the use of the word, and how powerful it is in the video (it is funny in a way). They got past the use of it and really heard the message. Links to those videos are below...
The story of Stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

Big Box Mart
http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/big_box_mart

Today a reading log task was sent home to be completed this week. It focuses on setting, as did one in December. In addition we are looking at how to write proper bibliography entries. Each reading log for the rest of the year will require the listing of bibliographical information. An example sheet was pasted into their reading logs to use as a guide, and they are working on these entries in class this week.
We have been reading about Martin Luther King Jr. for the past week, and today we celebrated MLK Jr. day with a writing activity, and by watching some videos and discussing his life. The students have a great appreciation for what he did, and how he lived his life. You should try asking them about him. We will wrap up our look at him over the course of this week, but you can stop by to see some of their I Have A Dream inspired dreams in the hallway on the third floor starting on Wednesday.
Here is a link to the videos we viewed today...
I have a dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs

Martin`s final speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oehry1JC9Rk
Wednesday we have a special presentation coming to us from the health unit, on the effects of smoking. It is one that has come to Churchill almost every year for the past seven or so, and brings messages that stay with the students. Duncan remembers their visit to his grade 6 class still!
I will be out of the class on Tuesday, but around the rest of the week.
Happy January!
Ray
ps. Here is a link to a fun math game we played that involves grouping to ten. It helps get the math brain going!
http://www.akidsmath.com/mathgames/addtoten.htm

The Week That Was, and Will Be...

This past week was a full, and eventful
one, and the week ahead should also prove to be a blur of activity
and excitement.

As I am sure you have heard by now, our
class has been spreading good cheer around the school through some
random acts that we have been performing. The flash mob dance we did
in Tiiu's class, then the surprise performance of the song “What I
Am” for Megan went a long way to perk up the day for Tiiu's class,
and Megan. In a circle meeting where we were discussing what we
might do next, the idea of decorating a class door, just like we had
done our own, came up. We have received a lot of compliments from
students, parents, and teachers, so we thought that might be a nice
act of kindness to share with a class. The trouble was picking one
class to share this with. There were strong arguments made for
younger classes, buddy classes, and classes of their peers (gr 5 or
6). In the end we opted to do a clandestine Random Act of Decoration
(RAD) and hit all the classrooms in the school. A week ago we
prepared in class, and decorated all the doors on the third floor
during the outdoor recess on Friday. The students were really
surprised, as were the teachers. It was fun to see how our students
'observed' the other classes reactions. In our debreif afterwards
they not only reflected on how great it made them feel to see the
reactions of the other classes, but also on how fun it was to do the
activity just thinking about how it might make their schoolmates
feel. We also decided that we had to do the doors on the second
floor, so this past Tuesday we did our preparations in the morning,
and hit all the doors on the second floor that afternoon. This time
there was even more excitement as the second floor is made up of the
younger grades, and they had not seen what happened on the third
floor yet. There were a lot of questions about who did this and how
it happened. The teachers played along, but they also made sure to
stop in and thank our class. There were a lot of smiling faces in
our class that afternoon, knowing how much excitement we had brought
to the other classes.

Some of the door designs are below from
our third floor RAD.

I am guessing that some of you also
have heard of our woodworking project. With luck these will be ready
to go home on Wednesday or Thursday. With some help from Donna
Weldon (thanks for dragging in your drill press!) we have been
crafting a little project. We worked on this in class on Wednesday
and Thursday this past week, and hope to put in some time this week
to get it all finished up. I will post some photos of the finished
products once we get them assembled and painted.

Our class also spent a portion of the
past week preparing to host, and perform at the December sharing.
The event was a huge success (Janet Veale is quoted as saying that it
was the best December sharing she has seen in 17 years at
Churchill!), and our performance, with our writing buddies, was one
of the main highlights of the show (so I was told). We had
re-written the 12 days of Christmas into the 12 days of Winter,
Churchill Styled. It was fun to write, and even more fun to perform.
There were a ton of laughs at the jokes that the students came up
with, and the acts that went with each day. By the end of the song
many of the classes were singing along with us. We are looking
forward to our next collaboration with our writing buddies (this was
our second performance at a sharing with them).

The week ahead will be a full one as
well. We have our Junior Math Olympics Monday morning on the third
floor. There will be sing alongs all week. On Thursday we will be
walking to Summit Alternative to observe their stock market day and
to do some reporting on it. Friday we have skating at Dulude Arena,
and the students have decided to have a 'gift and take' activity to
celebrate the upcoming winter break. This is an optional activity
where participants bring in a wrapped gift (under $7 they decided) if
they want to take part.

On top of all of this we have our
culminating activities for the book Hanna's Suitcase that we have
been looking at since November.

This week our student teacher Christina
will be joining us again, so that should also be exciting for
everyone.

Hold on, it is going to be a crazy
week!

Ray

Blog Backlog and this week

I had a great conversation with the class about hard drives today, mainly because I recently had mine crash after dropping my laptop only a foot or two from my lap to the ground. Anyhow, part of that conversation was about how I have not been able to properly upload a post I created last week because I thought the blog was acting up, but it was due to changes to my laptop since the hardrive was replaced. Anyhow, please take a look through the past few entries. I only just realised the problem, and loaded three entries right now.
This week has been busy already. Our RAM, the CASI assessment, a safety presentation in the gym, and School of Rock practice. Ahead we have Skating at Dulude on Friday, the talent show Friday afternoon, some work with our writing buddies, and potentially some work on a play/skit we are hoping to perform in the near future.
This week the topic for the Reading Log is the setting of the story they are reading. There are some detailed questions in the prompt they were given Monday. It was their 'exit card' for going home, so they should all have it in their logs. We are getting almost perfect returns on our logs each week. The areas that need more regular attention are the four pages of data that they are to be collecting on each week. (first lines, book titles, character data, quotes)
I hope to see some parents out at the skate on Friday.
Regards, Ray

Random Acts...

Two Fridays ago our class performed a 'flash mob' by swarming into the Grade 6 class (room 301 - Tiiu) during their lesson, and telling them that we were inspired by their Random Acts of Kindness from the previous year, and were there to perform a R.A.D., otherwise known as a Random Act of Dance. The music started, and we went on to dance around the room, and got their whole class up dancing. Then the song was over, and we quickly left them to their work, with a little of a lift in thier day (or so they told me afterwards).
Last Friday we had planned to perform a Random Act of Music for Megan (R.A.M.), based on some anti bullying work we had done in class. She had earlier in the year done an activity that was similar to the one we did in class in a way, so we thought we could go down and surprise her with a performance/flash mob in her office. Time ran out though, so we had to postpone until Monday morning. We went over the song, and anyone who wanted to added lines to the song. Then we swarmed the doorway to her office, and dragged her into the foyer, where Malika introduced what we were doing, inspired by Megan, and Will I Am. (the link to the original song from Sesame Street, with Will I Am is below) We performed, and left. In the class the students had a lot to share when we reflected on it. They could see how she went from serious, to very happy by the end of the song. They also explained how it made them feel good to do something like this, that required a lot of work and thought, for no reason other than to make someone feel better.
Watching the video of our performance I was struck by how powerfully they delivered the lines, with the motion of pointing to Megan on 'What YOU are is magical, What YOU are is special'. They really put their hearts into the activity, and when she came up today to thank us again for making her day/week, they all got grins on their faces from ear to ear. It really is the little things that count most.
Check out the original Will I Am performance from Sesame Street;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVzjoj96vs