Thursday 17 December 2015

Ice Skating

Today we went skating with many of  the K-12 SAIL students.  It was great to se some of the big kids.  Unfortunately many from our class were away. But those of us that went had a lot of fun.






When we were finished skating we enjoyed a nice little treat of hot chocolate from the big SAIL students.  It was delicious!

Gingerbread Houses

Yesterday at school we made gingerbread houses.  Before we began he opened up a candy show with all the class candy donations.  As you can see we had a very well stoked candy shop.


Then Ms. Lirenman showed us how to make an A frame house with one triangle stacked on top of another triangle.  Some of us decided we wanted to make a different type of house so we drew out our plans.  Then we got to work.





We were happy to have some parent helpers.  We worked for quite a while and in the end we had some really great gingerbread houses.  Have you ever made gingerbread houses before?

Monday 14 December 2015

Teaching Mrs. Cassidy's Class About Hanukkah


First thing this morning we taught Mrs. Cassidy's class a little bit about Hanukkah.  We even lit the menorah for them. 



Playing with Little Bits

This afternoon we spent some time playing with Little Bits.  We look forward to having some more time with them.




Thursday 10 December 2015

A Picture with Santa

Today the school had a special visitor and we were able to have our photo taken with him. Can you see who it was?


Tuesday 8 December 2015

Coding How to Make Bread Using Scratch Jr

Each Wednesday morning we start our day by putting ingredients into our bread maker so we can enjoy and share fresh bread later in the day.  Last week, after the bread machine was ready to go, we took some time to use the iPad app Scratch Jr to program how to make bread.  Now this may sound like an easy task but trust us, it wasn't.

There was a ton of trial and error. There were math computations to figure out to make sure our spoons went where we wanted them to go.  Some of us figured out how to make ingredients drop from the spoon into the bread maker.  Some of us figured out how to make the spoon tip the "just right" way.  There was a lot of learning going on.

Here are a few examples of some of the coding we did.  You'll notice that on most of our pages we had a few different things we needed to code.

This code is making the ingredient drop into the bread machine at just the right time to match the ingredient moving toward the bread maker. We also programmed the dropping ingredient to disappear into the bread machine.

This code is ensuring that the flour falls from the spoon at the right time, and then disappear after it drops.

This code is programming the scope to make it from the flour to the bread maker and then tip into the bread maker.

This code is making the spoon go up and over to the bread maker, tip into the bread maker, then return back to the beginning and repeat the process four times since we have to add 4 scoops of this ingredient to the bread maker.

This code has the spoon travel from the left to the right side of the page, up the page and then over the bread maker where it tips into the machine


Here are a couple of samples to check out.  Unfortunately when Ms. Lirenman took the products off of our iPads, into dropbox, then on to her iPad so she could record them on her computer, the sound did not transfer.  If you use your imagination you can hear us talking through the steps.

Enjoy














Monday 7 December 2015

Learning About Hanukkah

Today Ms. Lirenman taught us a little bit about Hanukkah. We learned about the special oil, the menorah, the shamash candle, potatoe latkes, Hanukkah gelt, and the special oily donuts. We even learned how to play the dreidel game.  



We played the dreidel game with pennies Ms. Lirenman had from before when there were pennies in Canada.



Once we were finished playing the dreidel game, we all had a piece of Hanukkah gelt.  In case you didn't know, Hanukkah gelt is usually chocolate gold coins. Mmm mmm good.




Friday 4 December 2015

Deck the Halls

On Thursday afternoon the room was filled with sites and sounds of the season as we created crafts and decorated our room.  We also sipped hot chocolate and enjoyed a candy cane from our parent group.

As the music played we also had a guest join us. This guest will be joining our class in the new year and we are very excited to have him.

While Ms. L didn't take any photos here are some of the crafts we started or finished in the afternoon.








Wednesday 25 November 2015

Learning Aboriginal Stories with Ms. D

Today we have a special visitor, Ms. D.  She is here to tell us stories. Our first story is about a frog that drank all the water.  



The lesson we learned from this story was that you should only take what you need.

The second story was told with a drum.



With the drum she told us a legend about how the mosquitos came to be.

Then she told us a third story about bears and about the Big Bear of the Sky.

After we pretended to be a raven to help our bodies move.  


The next story she shared with us was about a boy teaching a song that only the elders knew. The elders didn't want the boy to teach them though. In the story the boys end up in the sky as stars called the Seven Star Dancers of the Sky.


The final story was about the coyote trickster. He liked to look at all the pretty girls. He showed off in front of the pretty girls by playing with his eyeballs.  In the end he threw his eyeball all the way into the heavens and it stuck there so he could see all the pretty girls of the world.


Wednesday 18 November 2015

Design Challenge 4 and 5

We have two more design challenges.  Challenge #4 is to create and add a Lego extension to Dash that will hold a pen and then program her to draw shapes.  



Challenge #5 is to use paper cups and build a tower that is 50 cm tall (30 cm for the grade one students) that can hold 'The Book with No Pictures' for ten or more seconds. 


Do you have ideas for other challenges?

Making Bread

Today we made bread again but this time Ms. L. Let us do everything. We had to read the recipe and we did all the measuring.  Take a look..










Now we felt that we did everything correctly but three hours later our bread was still quite small.  It tasted good but it didn't look like how it did the last time.





Do you have any suggestions for us for next time?









We Made a 1000 Chart

Our grade three classmates have been working together to create a 1,000 chart. It is tough to take a picture of the entire thing because it is so big, but here is what it looks like. We are now using it to help us with our addition and subtraction to and from 1,000.











Have you ever made a 1000 chart?