June 28, 2012

Well we did it.  We made it to the last day!

It has been a great year.  All of the kids have come so far.  When I think back to the beginning of September, I can't believe how much everyone has grown both in size and academically.

Have a great summer and I look forward to seeing everyone walking down the hallway to grade 2 in September.

Abbi Easton

PS Thank you for the wonderful gifts, they are much appreciated :)

June 27, 2012

So it wasn't the most exciting day today.  We spent most of our time doing year end clean up. The best part was when we got to spread shaving cream all over our desks (it helps take all the goopy tape off).  Mrs. Easton is kicking herself for not getting a picture!

Tomorrow is the last day and we will be having a bubbles and chalk party.  Please make sure the kids come wearing sunscreen and bring a hat.

Have a great night!

June 26, 2012

This morning we had our sports day.  It was lots of fun.  Thanks to the mom's and dad's who volunteered to help out.  I took some great pics which you can check out below:

This afternoon we had some bubble gum fun.  Mrs. Easton gave us all some yummy bubble gum and we did lots of fun things.  First, we used our five senses to describe our bubble gum.  Then we wrote the steps you take to blow a bubble with your gum.  

Finally, we made a bubble gum graph all about which flavour we like the most.  Check it out:

Only 2 days left!  Have a great night!

June 22, 2012

Today we talked about the Olympics.  This summer the Olympics will be held in London from July 27 to August 12, 2012.  The mascots are pretty cool, their names are Wenlock and Mandeville.

We also watched the following video which gives a glimpse of the Olympics through the years.

On Tuesday morning we will be having our own Summer Olympics here at St. Anne.  The opening ceremonies is in the gym at 8:30 and then we head outside for lots of great activities.  This year, our class will be representing the country of Greece.  We are going to make a flag to carry at the opening ceremonies as well as stickers to wear on our shirts.  It should be super exciting!

In our Plants and Animals unit we learnt about animal classifications.  There are 6 groups:

1. INSECTS: Butterflies, Ants, Ladybugs, Caterpillars, Mosquitoes, Flies, etc.....
2. REPTILES: Dinosaur, Turtles, Tortoises, Lizards, Alligators, Crocodiles, etc...
3. AMPHIBIANS: Frog, Toads, Snakes, etc...
4. FISH: Sharks, Perch, Clownfish, Goldfish, Swordfish, etc...
5. BIRDS: Ostrich, Eagle, Raven, Flamingo, Robin, Budgie, Blue Jay, etc....
6. MAMMALS: Bears, Humans, Dolphins, Whales, Monkeys, Apes, Gorillas, etc....

This afternoon we had our year end Liturgy with Father Jose.  Father Jose talked about change.  He compared us to seeds that slowly grow into trees.  We also said goodbye to our grade 6 students as well as blessed our retiring teachers Ms. Zalik, Mr. Collins and Mrs. Flynn.

We ended the afternoon with our Building Things unit.  As you can see below we made sailboats.  The kids are bringing them home tonight to test out in the tub.

Have a great weekend!

June 21, 2012

Happy first day of Summer!!!

First off, the kid's wanted to add their new favourite Zumba routine.

Today we learnt all about teepees.  We watched the following video of it before we built our own:

Here is a picture of the teepee village we created:

In art we talked about sunflowers.  We then used torn construction paper to make so beautiful flowers.

Don't forget that there is school tomorrow, the last Friday of the year!

June 20, 2012

In our Plants and Animals unit today we compared wild and domestic animals.  We did the following t-chart:

We also learned how zoos keep wild animals so that we can visit them without having to go to their natural habitat.

In our building things unit we learnt about windmills.  We went through the following PowerPoint.

The kids then made the toy version of a windmill - a pinwheel.  Look at them hard at work below.

June 19, 2012

In LA today we finished the book Stuart Little.  In the last chapter Stuart decided to continue on his journey north to look for his friend Margalo.  We are now going to watch the movie version over the next few days and then compare how they are the same and/or different.

In our Plants and Animals unit we talked about how we value animals.  We learned that we use animals in lots of different ways and that they are important to us.  Some of the things we use animals for are:

1. food
2. transportation
3. clothing
4. work
5. recreation

We also watched the Magic School Bus: In a Beehive.  We learned that we need to value bees because they give us honey.

In our Building Things unit we built log cabins out of popsicle sticks.  We then compared houses to see what was the same and what was different.

June 15, 2012

We finished Mary Poppins today in Music.  The kids learned one of the best songs of all time "Supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus"

In our plants and animals unit we talked about how animals make adaptions in order to survive.  Specifically, we talked about honeybees and about whether a hairy honeybee or a bald honeybee would do better at picking up pollen from a flower.  We thought we would do an experiment to find out.  

First we made some honeybees, the bald with a straw stinger and the hairy with the pipe cleaner stinger:

Then we put some pollen (flour) in the middle of our flowers:

Lastly, we dipped our honeybees into the pollen to see what would happen:

We found out that hairy honeybee would be able to collect more pollen and survive better in the real world.

In our building things unit we worked on building houses with various materials.  Check out the kids hard at work:

Have a great weekend!!!

June 14, 2012

First off, we do have school tomorrow.

The rest of our day is a secret.  We're not telling.  Father's Day is coming up and we have some surprises planned.

Have a great night.

June 13, 2012

Today we did our final writing assessment.  The students worked hard on their stories and I am looking forward to reading them.

In our Plants and Animals Unit today we talked about how we use plants for lots of different things.  If you would like, go through the clip below and discuss with your child at home.

Finally, for our Building Things Unit we made animal puppets with moveable arms, legs and heads.  Check them out:

June 12, 2012

In LA today we reviewed the proper use of uppercase letters in sentences.  We know that we need to use uppercase letters in the following ways:

1. Names of characters and places.
2. In the title.
3. At the beginning of a sentence.
4. The letter "Ii" when it is by itself.

We played 2 games online to help us review; Play Your Caps Right and Magical Capitals.

In our Plants and Animals unit today we labeled the parts of a tree.  Click on the image below to learn more about trees.

We then watched the Magic School Bus: All Dried Up to learn about how plants and animals adapt to living in the hot and dry conditions of the desert.  We found out that cacti store water in their body (stem) to use during long desert dry spells.

In our Building things unit we made skeletons.  With the help of some pipe cleaners and straws the students made skeletons that bent in all the right places.  Check out some of the finished products:

June 11, 2012

This week in music we are watching one of my favourite musicals, Mary Poppins.  Did you know that Mary Poppins was made in 1964, making it 48 years old and that it is based on the book of the same name by P. L. Travers?

In L.A. today we read the story Wait and See by Robert Munsch.   The story is about a little girl who likes to make wishes when she blows out the candles on her birthday cake.  She wished for some crazy things; snow in the summer, rain to melt the snow, lots of sunshine to push away the rain clouds, money, money and more money and finally 3 new babies.

We then made lists of things we would wish for on our own birthday.  The kids had some pretty great ideas.  Here are a couple they wrote about:

1. I would wish for the master bedroom.
2. I would wish for a bouncy castle.
3. I would wish for a backyard pool.
4. I would wish for a puppy.

In science today we looked at the plants we planted a couple of weeks ago to see how they were doing.  This is what we found out:

We then checked out the BBC's Growing Plants game. 

We also checked in our lima bean plants.  Some of them sprouted up over the weekend and we are pretty excited.

For centres over the next couple of weeks we will be doing our Building Things unit.  Today we kicked off the unit by watching The Magic School Bus: Under Construction.  We then used various objects in our class (lego, dominoes, blocks, logs) to practice building things.

Have a great night!

June 7, 2012

First off, just a reminder that there is no school tomorrow.

In Math today we continued to work on vertical and horizontal math problems, specifically subtraction problems.

In LA, we read the non-fiction story "Across Canada".  As we were reading the story we took many breaks to discuss what we read about.  This is a great way to help improve non-fiction reading comprehension skills.

After reading the students then created their own page talking about where we live, Alberta.  Here are a couple of examples:

In Art, we once again talked about symmetry.  Today we made butterflies out of crepe paper.  Here is an example of the finished product.

Have a great weekend!

June 6, 2012

Today in science we looked at the life of a bean seed.  Check it out below:

Later this afternoon we got to go to the gym to do some activity circuits set up by our Apple Schools Facilitator Mrs. Zielke.  Here are some photos of the kids having fun while exercising:

Have a great night!

June 5, 2012

Tonight there is a pretty cool astronomy event:

The Venus Transit across our solar systems sun happens about once a century, usually for 2 years consecutively.  Johannes Kepler first predicted the phenomenon in the 17th century.   The first recorded observation was in 1639.  Observers are advised not to stare directly at the sun without eclipse glasses, a properly filtered telescope or a strong welding visor.

Here is a little video giving you more info:

Here are the transit times for Fort McMurray:

Also, there is a great app called SkyView: Explore the Universe which you can download for $1.99 which allows you to point your iPhone/iPod at the sky and learn more.

Enjoy and may the sky reward you with a clear view tonight.

In LA today we continued with our Stuart Little novel study.  In today's chapter Stuart visited his friend Dr. Carey who gave Stuart an automobile.  Here is a fun online game to play at home where the kids get to drive Stuart's car:

In Science today we learned all about plant seeds, specifically a lima bean seed.  We even openend one up to see what it looked like on the inside.

Afterwards, we each planted our own seed and we are looking forward to them growing over the next couple of weeks.

Have a great night!

June 4, 2012

Can you believe it, it's the last month of school. The students wrote the following good news in their agenda's today: "Homework is done for the Year :)"

In LA today we watched the story "David's Father" by Robert Munsch.  We then compared our fathers to David's father.  We used a venn diagram.

In Science we went on a nature walk around the school.  We were looking for living things.  Check out the things we saw: