The Water Goes Round and Round

Today we chose how we wanted to represent our knowledge of the water cycle.  We watched a video first and then brainstormed for the words and images that needed to be in our picture to show how the water cycle works.  Most of us chose to paint!  Some chose to use a method that we have used in art before- torn paper!  Here is a sampling of our learning.  Enjoy!

I See You!

Today in Buddies we played a new game!  It was awesome!  It was kind of like hide and seek but better!  The object of the game is to get as close to the person who is it and still not be seen.   Here's how you play it.
1.  One person is it (we had a big buddy and  a little buddy acting as one unit!)
2.  They stand in one spot and count to 30.
3.  Every one hides.
4.  The person who is it cannot move but they can pivot around on one foot.
5.  As they spot people they call their names - if they are right the person has to go and sit on the carpet.  If they aren't the person stays hiding!
6.  Once they can't find any more people they can ask for hints - they might call out "animal names" and the people who are hiding can make a sound.
7.  Once they can't find any more people they call out "numbers" and hold up their hand showing either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 fingers.
8.  The people who are still hiding try and peek to see how many fingers the person who is it is holding up.
9.  This gives the person who is it another chance to catch them.
10.   Once the person who is it totally gives up they say "show yourself" and every one who is still hiding shows themself. 
11.  The person who is closest to the person who is it and can say the number of fingers they saw wins the game!

We loved it!  It is amazing how well you can camouflage yourself in a classroom!
Here are some of us hiding   It was hard for Mrs. Betts to take pictures because she didn't want to give away our hiding spots.

Henry and Luke are "it"

Dillon and Maxim hiding right behind where Luke and Henry are standing.

Nik and his buddy trying to see how many fingers are being held up!

Can you spot the people under the desk?

It's amazing where you can hide!

Where is everyone?

Have you ever played a game like this? What kind of games do you play in your classroom?

Connections are Made! Learning is Happening!

Mrs. Betts was so excited today with all the connections we made.  We started our science today with a review of what we had learned about matter.  Mrs. Betts was very impressed with all our knowledge.  Then we focused on one particular part of matter which was water.  We brainstormed everything we knew about water.  Here is some of our thinking.

Notice the last 4 ideas and how they connect to our matter unit!

 Mrs. Betts then gave us a challenge to use the iPads and find out anything we could about the water cycle!  What fun we had!  We found Youtube sights that had songs about the water cycle.  We found diagrams that explained how the water cycle works and we had lots of conversations about some of the words that we read and what they meant!   Mrs. Betts so impressed with what we found and how we were able to connect our new learning with what we had learned about matter. 

Graham and Damian found a song that told all about the water cycle - we can't wait to learn it tomorrow!

One group of students found this site and had a very good discussion about it with Mrs. Betts!

We were so involved with our learning the bell went and we didn't even realize what time it was.  We didn't have time to share what we  learned with each other so we will start our day tomorrow sharing. I can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts and see what they found out!   Should be a fun way to start the day!

A Personal Tour of an Egyptian Museum

Last Thursday we were so lucky!  We went to the Egypt Museum display that our big buddies put on.  It was so much fun.  We learned all about mummies, pyramids, fashion and battles.  Some of us even got "makeup".  Our Buddies did an amazing job.  Some of them had videos, some of them made pyramids, some made books and some made mummies.  We loved it!  Thank you Big Buddies for sharing your learning with us!

A video on the computer of a battle fought in Ancient Egyptian times!

Gold Fever!!!!!

Today we had Yukon Dan come into our class.  He taught us all about the mining industry and how to mine for gold.  We learned that you shouldn't touch the gold with your hands. That's because you have oil on your hands and if you get it on the gold the gold will float to the top of the river water and then it will just float away and you will have no gold!  We also learned how important mining is to us.  Minerals are found everywhere!  They are even found in our food! We use them for lots of thing like  jewellery, electronics, even for fillings in our mouth!

We got to go to three different stations.  At the first station we got to pan for gold!

Panning for Gold!!!!

At the second station we got to use a magnet to separate the rocks from the other minerals and then we used a high powered magnifying glass to see what types of minerals we could see.  Lots of us saw garnets. 

 Scientists at work!

Separating the rocks from the minerals!

 The last station was a word search.  We had so much fun! At the end of the workshop we each got to take home  special mineral!

 As one of our students said at the end, "I have gold fever now!!!"

 If you are really interested in mining for gold or finding out more about Yukon Dan you can visit his website at www.yukondan.com. 

Peeping Beauty - retold by Div. 12

We have been learning about the components of stories.  We have learned that they have a beginning, a middle and an end and they also have characters, a setting and usually a problem and a solution.  Below is our retelling  of the story, Peeping Beauty.