Nov. 30

Sorry there was no blog on Friday. We ran out of time.  On Friday we went looking for signs of animals in Nosehill. We found animal tracks, holes in the snow, scratched bark, holes in tree trunks, and places where bark had been rubbed off the trees.

Can you guess who's been here?

Today we started making animal footprints for a piece of animal track artwork. We will be putting it on the big wall outside our classroom. We are using black paper to make animal tracks for different animals we could find on Nosehill. We are making tracks for: porcupines, american badgers, red foxes, coyotes, deer, moose, deer mice, and crows.

Nov. 26

Today we did some drawing and writing about our favourite Dr. Coffin spirit day. We were excited about Crazy Hair day and the Shave-a-lid event. 8 students shaved their heads over the lunch hour. They raised more than $5600 for Kids Cancer Care.

In gym, the high school students from Sir Winston Churchill came to lead us in some games. We played "What time is it Mr. Wolf?", and different versions of "Red Light, Green Light".

At the end of the day we had a class meeting to talk about some problems we've been having with our whole group learning times. We have been finding that some of us are having trouble listening and staying focused when we are in the large group. We have decided to spend some time working in our smaller class groups so that we can practice our group listening, sharing, and participation skills. We will be moving back to working as a large group when we are ready.

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. We will be working in the Whispering Woods. Please make sure you have snowpants and snowboots. We will be walking in the snow! 
Rafiki bracelets will be on sale again tomorrow for students wishing to place an order. 

Our helper on Monday is: Aanya

Nov. 25

This afternoon we did a science experiment called Magic Milk.  To try this experiment at home you need milk, food colouring, and dish soap.
We also started a colour pattern project called Pattern-A-Palooza! We are trying to create the most interesting colour patterns that we can.
Today in music we sang Three Blind Mice. We were practicing singing it as a canon. We watched the Nutcracker movie. It was the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Please remember that tomorrow is crazy hair day! We are excited to see all the crazy hairstyles that our classmates might have!  It is also Fun Lunch and the Shave-a-Lid event.

Tomorrow we will be working on Mathletics. Please make sure you bring your agenda to school so that you can get logged-in. 

Nov. 24

Today we started planning our indoor garden for this year! We started by looking through our new seeds to see what vegetables we can choose.  Our seeds are:

Next, we will have a vote to decide which vegetables to pick. We have 5 planter boxes to use for our indoor garden this year.

Don't forget that Thursday is Crazy Hair Day, Fun Lunch, and some older students are participating in Shave a Lid for a Kid. We will be invited to watch them shave their heads in support of Kids Cancer Cares. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Peter

Nov. 23

In math we worked on a pattern problem. The problem was: How many patterns can you make using only red and blue. So far our highest number of patterns is 10. Can you figure out more than 10? Are you smarter than a 2nd grader???
In science we practiced created creating tints with paint. A tint is when you start with a hue and then add white to make the colour lighter.
In gym, we practiced our dribbling skills. We are getting ready to play basketball.  In music we sang a new french song called "Are you sleeping" or "Frere Jacques". We sang it as a canon. A canon is when one group starts singing the song and then half way through the other group starts singing the song.

Our helper tomorrow is: Isla

Nov. 18

Today we worked very hard to complete our poetry book artwork and typing. It was our last chance to get help from our big buddies so that we could finish typing in time for conferences. Tomorrow we will be putting our books together! In music we watched a video called the Battle of the Nutcrackers.

Tomorrow we will be putting on a Bollywood show at 10:45. We have been working hard to learn all of our moves and to memorize our dance. Parents and families are welcome to come watch!
This is just a quick video of our warm up routine.

Don't forget that Parent-Teacher conferences start tomorrow at 4:00pm. If you have not registered yet please do so tonight. Remember that there is no school on Friday.  Tomorrow is also the last day to bring in Fun Lunch orders.

Nov. 17

Sorry there was no blog yesterday. Ms. Boyer had to leave early for a meeting downtown.

Today we had help typing up our poetry from our grade 5-6 buddies.  We are making our poetry into a book. We started painting the pages for our books this afternoon. We are making tints, shades, and hues of different colours to match our poetry. They are going to be beautiful!

We also worked on our name pattern project. Some of us got the job done, and some of us need another day to finish. We are hoping to have them ready to share with you on Thursday and Friday.

On Thursday we will have our Bollywood performance! We have been practicing very hard. We are getting much better at using our shoulders and keeping the beat. Please come see our show on Thursday!

It was also treat day today.  There were some delicious choices!

Our helper tomorrow is: Evelyn

Nov. 13

Today we walked over 4.5km up to the top of Nosehill! That was about 7000 steps!

We spent some time sketching the view from the top of hill. We were able to see the school, Northland mall, COP,and the Children's hospital.  In our sketches we included the aspen trees, fescue grasses, mountains, hills, roads, and houses. We tried to imagine what Brentwood would have looked like before all the houses were there. We found a picture on one of the Nosehill signs that showed a farm where the Brentwood Shopping Centre is now.

Please remember to register for Parent Teacher Conferences next week. 

Our helper on Monday is: Levi

Nov. 12

Today was our first day of Bollywood dancing! Our teacher's name is Ms. Kody. We started learning our dance.  We start in a little ball and then jump up like a star.  We got to end the class with a game of freeze dance.


This morning we also worked on our colour poetry. We are working hard to get our poetry finished in time to share at Parent Teacher conferences. This afternoon we added the final details to our portraits. We are excited to be finished and to share them with our families next week! After that, we had library. If you forgot to bring back your books please bring them tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are going to Nosehill for Fresh Air Friday. Please make sure you are dressed warmly, are wearing good boots and have a snack to eat at the top of the hill.  We are going to walk all the way to the top of Nosehill tomorrow! It will be about 5km round trip.  If you are able to join us please email Ms. Boyer.

Our helper on Monday is: Levi

Please check child's backpack for a fun lunch order form. 

Nov. 10

This morning we had our Remembrance Day assembly. It was a very serious assembly. The grade 4,5,6 classes performed poetry, songs, and a dance to tell us about Remembrance Day. We all sang "Oh, Canada".  Before the assembly we created poppies and made a display to put outside the gym.

This afternoon we added the shirts to our self-portraits. We used fabric, sequins, and buttons.

There is no school tomorrow due to Remembrance Day.  We are planning to go to Nosehill on Friday. We need 2 parents to join us. If you are able to join us please email Ms. Boyer. 

Our helper on Thursday is: Morgan

Nov. 9

Today we finished our black dot experiment and started making poppies for our Remembrance Day assembly. Some of us have very red fingers from making the poppy petals! We also started using our understanding of name and colour patterns to make a special placemat to use for Fun Lunch. In music, we played 2 games. One was called Riggedy Riggedy Jig.

Tomorrow is the Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45. Please bring a small donation (25 cents) for a poppy or bring your poppy from home to wear. Parents are welcome to join us for the assembly.  Students who have uniforms from Scouts, Brownies, Sparks etc. are invited to wear them tomorrow. Other students are invited to wear black, white, and red.

Tomorrow our helper is: Claire 
(Don't forget, the new category is sharing a photo or souvenir from a trip.)

Nov.6

Today was Fresh Air Friday!

We went to Nosehill to see what we could discover about the animal habitat that exists there. We looked for signs of animals, the types of plants, and the terrain. We took pictures, collected evidence, and made field notes. Then when we came back to the school we created a collage to show our findings about the Nosehill habitat.

Nov. 5

Today we did a science experiment about black. We learned that scientists have to write down their procedure so that other scientists could repeat their experiments. If scientists can't repeat an experiment they won't believe the results.

Our procedure:
We took a coffee filter and used smelly markers to make a black dot in the middle. Then, we added drops of water.

Our Observations:
We noticed that the colour changed. We discovered that there is orange, pink, and blue inside the black.

This experiment helped us to answer 2 of our colour questions:

1. Can you make colours out of black?
Yes! When we added water to the black marker it separated into colours.

2. How do you make black?
Mix all the colours together to make black. When we separated the marker colour we saw turquoise, blue, orange, pink, yellow, and peach.

Now we wonder why the marker did this? We wonder what would happen if we re-did the experiment with a different colour?

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. We will be going to Nosehill. Please be sure that you are wearing warm layers, hats, mittens, warm socks, and good boots for walking in wet grass. Please also bring a small water bottle and an extra snack. 

Nov. 4

Learning About Colour

We are learning about colour. After doing a few activities and learning about primary and secondary colours we started brainstorming all the questions we have about colours.  Then our teachers sorted our questions into categories so that we could decide what we should try to learn next. Here are the categories we have:

1.   History of colour.

·      How did colours get their names?

·      How did people first make colours?

·      Who discovered colours?

·      Why do colours exist?

·      Could new colours be invented?

·      Who discovered the primary, secondary, and tertiary colours?

·      Why are colours important?

·      Who invented crayons?

2.   Making colours.

·      Can you make dark colours out of light colours?

·      How do you make the primary colours?

·      What type of colour is brown?

·      What comes after tertiary colours?

·      Are there “forthiary” colours?

·      How many colours are there?

3.   Black and white.

·      What makes white?

·      Is white a colour?

·      Can you make colours out of black?

·      How do you make black?

·      Does mixing the primary colours make black?

·      How are different shades made?

4.   Colours in nature.

·      Why are there so many colours?

·      Why can’t flowers be black?

·      Why is food so many colours?

·      How do things get their colour? Eg. Why are leaves green? Why is the sky blue?

·      Is there any place that doesn’t have colour?

·      How do they make coloured plastic?

·      How to rainbows happen?

5.   Seeing colour.

·      How does information about colour get to your brain?

·      Do animals see colour the same way we do?

·      Why is green so bright?

6.   Feelings from colours

·      How would people feel without colours?

·      Why do we use colours?

·      What are cool colours?

·      What are warm colours?

·      Can colours make people feel mad?

·      Can colours make people feel happy?

Our helper tomorrow is: Atiksh

We are still looking for 2 volunteers to join us on Friday. We will be leaving the school just before 9:00. 

Nov. 3

We started today by reading some stories and colours and nature.  We are getting ready to write some poetry that will include colours and nature ideas. In math, we started talking about patterns. We talked about letter patterns, number patterns, and picture patterns. Then we went on a pattern hunt around the school. We found colour patterns on posters, patterns in our recess equipment, and even patterns in the girls bathroom! Today we also added the hair to our multi-media self-portraits. We used yarn, fabric, and felt for hair.

We also picked a new helper sharing category. Our new category is trips. The helper is invited to bring one picture or souvenir that will help them tell us about a trip they have been on.

Our helper tomorrow is: Jessica

Please remember to send donations for our Food Bank collection this week if you can. Also please remember to email Ms. Boyer if you can volunteer for our Nosehill trip this Friday!

Nov. 2

This morning we worked on writing in our journals. Our grade 2's worked really hard during centres to get a lot of extra writing done. In science we began thinking about what we wonder about colours. We are going to look at the questions and decide what kind of research or experiments we can do to find the answers.

Today in music we used the xylophones to play a song called Rocky Mountains. In gym we practiced our tricks with hula hoops and skipping.

At recess we enjoyed playing with the snow and lots of us made snowmen! Please remember not to throw snowballs and to bring your snow boots, warm jacket, mittens, and toque to school from now on.

This week our school is participating in "We Scare Hunger". This is a food drive to collect food donations for the food bank. Please bring in non-perishable food items to donate if you can. 

On Friday we are planning to head to Nosehill. If you are able to volunteer and have an approved police clearance please email Ms. Boyer.