Happy Halloween! Boo!

It was Halloween and we had a lot of treats at the end of the day, after last recess. I dressed up as Smartie Pants. After we had a Halloween party I played Don't Break the Ice with Cole and Jolene and Sam and Peyton.-Tristan
We had two Halloween activities - The Little Witch story and Smarties. At the Halloween parade everyone got to show their costumes. -Peyton
The Halloween parade was in the gym. -Kendall
I brought cookies shaped like ghosts. My costume was an Angry Bird pig. -Cole
We all dressed up for Halloween. In the parade all the people were different. -Rhianna
We had a Halloween party and we had a lot of treats and we counted bags and there were a lot of bags. We went to the parade and we showed our costumes. -Cameron
Lots of costumes were different. We had fun and ate lots of snacks and we had fun. -Jadyn
Mrs. Malkoske was supposed to be Pinkalicious. We had to go in a circle around the gym for the parade. I was a bumble bee.  -Olivia
Ms. Anderlic was an old grandma. - Aleigha
We had 3 recesses and I came on the bus. -Sam
Tonight we go Trick or Treating!!! -Nicholas

AWESOME FRIDAY!

We had gym and we played hallowen games again. We did hallowen paderns at the end of the day. We played a witch game and you had to say how many steps you take. We had 3 recesses. We carved 2 pumpkins. Taylor's Grandma and Grandpa helped us. We made groups, boys and girls, and we had to guess how many seeds were in the pumpkins and then counted. Then we carved the pumpkins. When we were carving the pumpkin, most of us used our hands and not spoons.
-Mrs. Malkoske's Class

An Author Came Today

After last recess we met an author and her name was Debbie Holme. She read us her book called "Sarah's Poppy Puppy". It was fun -Tristan

We met her after last recess. The book was about Remembrance Day because it's almost Remembrance Day. -Taylor

The book was about her uncle and the war and poppies. He died in the war. -Jadyn

It was about her family. I asked "Do you like being an author?" and she said she does. In the book they found a box with family things that are special. -Sydney R

In the story they found a box with a toy and 4 medals. -Peyton

The book was really cool. It had a poppy puppy in there. -Tyson

 The book was about the war. -Sam

They found an old newspaper in the box. -Kendall

They travelled to go to the cemetary to plant flowers by the grave. -Cole

She (the author) was wearing one of the medals from the story. -Jolene

We wrote questions for the author and we asked her. The story was very fun. -Cameron

It was kind of sad because her uncle died in the war. -Rhianna

We had fun because we learned about being an author. I had fun learning about authors and the war. -Rylee

The Busy Fun Day

We had a substiute teacher. Her name is Mrs. S - Nicholas
We had gym with the grade 3 and 4 class. We played Halloween games. Ms. Anderlic gave us cupcakes. They were spiders! -Tristan
We have 2634 bags.- Peyton
We had 3 recesses, it was fun. -Sam
Ms. Anderlic came here today. We did Daily 5 at the end of the day. - Jadyn
Today we had fun becasue we had a sustitue teacher and we went to gym and we watched Geronimo Stilton.- Rylee
We did bus evacuation and got to jump out of the back.- Jonathon
We made bookmarks. The bookmarks were for empathy. We gave them to our book buddies. - Olivia
We did some writing about Peace and we wrote lots. I did lots of writing and we watched a movie in the gym today instead of recess. - Cameron

Volunteers are Awesome

This month we've had many volunteers come into our classroom to help out with a variety of jobs. They've helped us by getting materials ready, typing up our stories, reading with us, doing art projects with us, and being there when we need them. I'm not quite sure what we'd do without them! We look forward to meeting more parents next month and throughout our year together.

This week we had a couple of familiar faces return to our classroom all the way from B.C. Taylor's grandparents came and spent this afternoon in our classroom and will return on Friday afternoon. The children who were in my class last year met Taylor's grandparents when they came and helped us paint the birdhouses the children built. We always enjoy having them and of course welcome other Grandfolks too :)

Here are a couple of pictures that I took looking out our classroom window earlier this month. Our feeders are keeping the neighbourhood birds very happy. We've already gone through an entire bag of birdfeed... and we're pretty sure that Mr. Miles is feeding them too!

Plastic Bags and Big Numbers!

We were making tens out of bags. -Rhianna
We've got 1810 plastic bags! -Olivia

The first day we had only 46. Now we have 1810. In gym we played Halloween games. -Tristan

I was having fun. -Sam
I was at Gym and we were playing Ghostbusters. There are 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then Halloween! -Nicholas
It was Madeline's birthday and she gave us cookies. -Peyton
We had Gym and we played lots of games. They were
Halloween games. -Taylor
We were doing the Plastic Bag Round Up. We found a soft bag.
First you shake it, then you pull it, then turn it inside out and
into an umbrella. -Cameron
We read a new book called Timmy the Tumble Bag. It was from Mrs. Dent Scarcello. -Kendall

Our Plastic Bag Round Up has had a very successful start. In just 1 week the children have collected over 1800 bags! Each day our 'collectors' go to each classroom to collect bags from the other children. It's always very exciting when they come back with a full garbage bag. Today we tried to estimate the number of bags in our pile before we counted. We had estimates ranging from 130 to 8000. Many children looked at the pile we'd already collected, looked at our pile for the day and made their guess. We had lots of kids that estimated around 1000 bags (our actual count was 953)... not bad!
This project has been quite exciting for me as well. The kids have completely taken ownership of the collection, counting, organization, and advertising for it. They know how to get the bags ready for counting and they've developed a system for keeping track of how many bags go into the large garbage bags (they make piles of 10 and one student marks the 10s on the whiteboard as they are added to the bag). Not only have they created an accurate and efficient system for counting, they are learning about taking care of our environment, the importance of recycling, how things are recycled into new things, the importance of good advertising when you have an important message to share, how to count in groups, how to add large numbers, how to work together with a group of people, how to compromise when necessary, and most importantly that small people can do big things. I'm always amazed at how much a group of 5, 6 and 7 year olds can do when they care about something and work together. Awesome :) -Mrs. Malkoske

Lots of Birthdays!

My real birthday is on Sunday and my party is on October 23rd. -Jonathon
We drew pictures for Jonathon. Everyone makes a picture and we make it into a book. You get a pencil from the office and one from our classroom. We have 7 birthdays in October. -Peyton
We sang Happy Birthday! -Rhianna
We celebrated my birthday on Monday. -Tyson
We also celebrated mine on Monday too and it was fun. -Rylee
When somebody has a birthday, you get to wear a birthday ribbon. -Sydney R
We celebrated Jonathon's birthday today. -Cole
We made pictures for Rylee and Tyson last time and we put them in their books. -Cameron
My birthday is on Monday next week. -Madeline
My birthday is on October 29. -Ashley
You get a balloon when it's your birthday. -Aliegha

Seeing Double!

This week we've been learning about doubles and how they can help us when we're adding. Here are a couple of YouTube videos we watched to help us remember our doubles. (Careful... the songs are pretty catchy!)


Here's another one:

Lots of fun day

There was 326 bags that we counted today. -Aliegha
We had gym and we had centres that we could do. One was bean bag toss and one was kind of like bowling and one was hoola hoops and skipping. The last one was scooter races. -Madeline
We did some math centres with Sydney R's Mom and it was so much fun. -Cameron
Today was the first day that me and Ashley went around the school and collected bags. -Jolene
Today we had choir, gym and computer lab. In the computer lab we learned some new math games. -Ashley
Today at gym we had a substitute and we played duck duck goose. -Taylor
In the computer lab the math games are on our wiki. -Peyton
In choir we sang songs and had fun. They were Christmas concert songs. -Olivia
We got lots and lots of bags. -Jonathon
Me, Taylor, Ashley, Aliegha and Madeline had to go to every single classroom and give them notes for the end of the day. -Jadyn
We had fun this morning because we did lots of learning and I like learning at school. -Rylee

531 Plastic Bags!

Yesterday we had 257 bags, and this morning we had 531. -Tristan
We put up signs all around the school because it's important. -Sam
We make the bags into "umbrellas". -Nicholas
These are the 3 steps to get a bag ready for counting:
1. SHAKE it.
2. Put your hand in and grab the bottom and PULL it.
3. Then grab the top and pull down. (It looks like an UMBRELLA) -Jolene
We put them in groups of 10 to count them. -Cameron
Jonathon, Sam and me made signs. -Peyton
I was one of the ones that was going around the school and putting the signs up. -Jonathon
We had groups making the signs. -Cole
The signs said "Plastic Bag RoundUp" -Kaspir
We had a fun day when we were putting up the signs and also when we were fixing them. -Rylee
Me, Taylor, Aliegha and Tristan made an announcement about the plastic bags. -Olivia
Ashley, Taylor, Aliegha, Madeline and me delivered letters to all the rooms in the school. -Jadyn

Teachers Are Learners Too :)

This afternoon I was in a meeting with my PLC (Professional Learning Community). My PLC is made up of 8 teachers from our school and our focus this year is on integrating technology into our classrooms in meaningful ways. Our group will meet throughout the year to plan with one another, support each other, and grow our learning about technology integration. We've already made some exciting plans for our students!

This Friday is an inservice day for students across Manitoba because it is SAGE (Special Area Groups of Educators) Day for teachers. This year I am participating in SAGE as a presenter instead of a participant. I belong to a SAGE group called MAME (Manitoba Association of Multiage Educators). Our group is hosting events at two different schools this year for over 600 Manitoba teachers! Mrs. Dent Scarcello and I are presenting two sessions together. The first session is about blogging with students and the second is about free web tools for classrooms. I am looking forward to Friday, although it is quite a different experience to teach teachers instead of kids. I can't wait to show off all of the great work the kids have done on our blog this year!

First Guest Reader!

Alexander's Dad (Coach) read us a story. It was called 'Boo!'. -Lindsay

It was a good book. -Nicholas

It was written by Robert Munsch. -Peyton

It was illustrated by Michael Martchenko

A monster kid was scaring everyone. He was scaring everyone and saying "boo!!" on Halloween. -Sam

When Alexander's Dad read us the story, at the end of the story, there was another teenager who dressed up as the same thing except he was a rock star and then he had a big bag of candy (like the same as the boy) and he had a pillow case on his head. He took off his mask and he showed a scary mask but it wasn't as scary as the boy's. Then the boy took all the candy. -Tristan
It was funny. -Olivia
When he said "Boo!" they would scream and fall right over. -Aliegha
It was so scary and when I saw it, it scared me! -Cameron

The Plastic Bag Round Up!

We are collecting plastic bags to recycle them into Frisbees and other stuff. We made jobs like making posters, bag collectors, talking at assembly, letters, and announcements. We do not like to throw stuff in the garbage. We saw a video about the garbage dump. When it rains the water goes through the garbage and it isn't good for the earth. We watched a movie about recycling and making new plastic bags. Here is the video:

Here are some picture of us getting ready for the Plastic Bag Round Up!

 We wrote an announcement to read in the morning.                              We wrote a letter to Mrs. Caldwell to tell her what we're going to do.

We already got some bags from the kids in our class.              We counted how many bags we've collected.        We wrote a speech to give at the assembly.

You can sign up for the Plastic Bag Round Up too! Or send us your plastic bags.

-The children of Room 9

We made posters to put up around the school to remind people to bring in their bags.

When we count the bags we make sure they are empty and we count them in groups of 10 (Thanks to Mrs. DentScarcello's class!)

Reflections on the Daily 5

This morning I asked the children in our classroom to talk a little bit about what they liked best about the Daily 5 now that we've learned about all of the different components and have had a chance to practice them. Here is what they said...
I like listen to reading because you get to look at the pictures and listen to the stories. -Jolene
I like word work because Mrs. Malkoske bought whiteboards. -Lindsay
Read to someone is my favourite because you get to read to someone else. -Kendall
I like read to self because I sit in a comfy spot and have fun there. -Cameron
I like listen to reading because you can hear a story and you don't need to read it. I also like work on writing. -Olivia
I like work on writing because we can write about what we want and I write different things every time. I do some writing and some pictures. -Tristan
I like read to someone because you get to  hear the other people read a story to you and you get to read to them. -Cole
My favourite is listen to reading because you get to hear the story and there's lots of books on there. -Peyton
I like work on writing because I get to write what ever I want and me and Ashley work together when we need help. -Taylor
I like work on writing because I get to write what I want. It's fun because I can draw pictures and write a lot. I also like read to self because I can read chapter books. -Ashley
I like listen to reading because I like listening to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie because there's a song after. -Jadyn
I like listen to reading because you can go on Tumblebooks and you could pick what ever story you want and listen to it. When you're done you can listen to another one. -Madeline
I like work on writing because I can write about my family. -Rhianna
I like work on writing because I like to write a lot of things. -Aliegha
We can pick where we want to go (and what we want to do). -Jolene
I like word work because you get new words when you get them right. -Brandon
I like listen to reading because I don't have to read a story and it's fun. -Sydney H
I like work on writing because I never draw pictures. -Tyson

Choices, choices, choices! As I read over the reflections the children made, one thing is very clear... They love to have choices in their learning. Choice in materials for word work, choice in which books to read or listen to, choice in what they write about, choice in location for working. When they have choice, they are happy and focussed. They are working on activities that are important to them, and appropriate for their skill level. As I looked around the room today during Daily 5 I saw a room full of children making great choices. At any given time there were children listening to reading on the computer or the iPad, children practicing their words with a variety of materials, children sitting side-by-side reading to one another, children quietly curled up in a comfy spot reading a great book, and children working on writing in their writer's notebooks. What a great way to start the day!

Lots of things to do

Today we came to computer. We played games about spelling tests. We logged on by ourselves. -Rhianna
We are writing our Children Just Like Me book. Today we wrote about friends. -Jadyn
The website was called Spelling City. You had to pick your number. -Peyton
It was a fun day because we had three recesses  and Choir and Gym. -Rylee
We went to Gym and we played tennis. It was easy. -Madeline
Me and Aliegha played spelling games on the Smart Board. -Nicholas
We had 2 new games (Bananagrams and Sumoku). One was for word work. -Jonathon
We went to music today and I had so much fun there. -Cameron
We had fun in Gym because we played tennis. -Lindsay

We Are Thankful

Today we talked about some of the things we are thankful for...

I'm thankful for food and water. -Lindsay, Peyton
I'm thankful for toys. -Sydney H
I'm thankful for recess. -Sam
I'm thankful for tv and my bed. -Olivia
School! -Kendall
That we have clean water to drink. -Kaspir
For our houses. -Rhianna
I'm thankful for our beds. -Alexander
Our familes, food and water. -Ashley
For all of the toys that we have. -Tristan
I'm thankful for brothers and sisters to play with. -Sydney R
My home and friends. -Cameron
Thankful for families because some kids don't have dads or moms or aunties or uncles. -Jonathon
I'm thankful for my family and food. -Madeline
My family. -Jolene
My Mom and Dad. -Taylor
I'm thankful for my family and friends. -Cole
For clothes. -Jadyn
Toys. -Aaron
I love my Mom and Dad. -Nicholas
My Mom and Dad. -Brandon
For other countries. I wish there was more food for people there. -Aliegha
I'm thankful for the stuff that our parents do for us. -Rylee
I'm thankful for my food. -Tyson

This morning I was away at a professional development session hosted by Free the Children. It was and incredibly inspiring morning. Free The Children believes in a world where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as agents of change. They empower young people to become active local and global citizens and to move their thinking from "Me" to "We".
This year our school has been accepted to participate in the We Schools program. That means that throughout the year we will support children in organizing and implementing change projects, and that some of our grade 5 and 6 students will be able to participate in "We Day" at the MTS Centre in November. I am very excited to see what kind of change the students of Dr Hamilton can make!
As I was sat in the session listening and watching the people from Free the Children talk about their experiences, I couldn't help but think about how grateful I am for all that I have. I hope that you take some time to visit the Free the Children and We Day sites and take a moment to thing about how you can change the world. Happy Thanksgiving.

The Albuquerque Turkey Song

We sang a song called Albuquerque Turkey. -Sam

Here is a YouTube video we found:


The turkey is afraid he'll get eaten on Thanksgiving. -Kendall
It's a great song. It's funny. -Rylee
At the end of the YouTube video they changed the words. It's supposed to be "egg foo yong" but they say "pizza pie". -Tristan
We made turkeys with a brown cup, some tissue paper and some construction paper. Some of us made beaks. We made the feathers by tracing our hands and cutting them out. Ms. Anderlic helped us. When we were almost done, the fire bell rang. -Ashley, Jolene, Jadyn, Aliegha, Madeline
We had our first family groups today. We made flip flops. We got to decorate them. It represents walking in someone else's shoes. -Petyon, Alexander, Jonathon, Taylor, Tristan
My flip flop showed 'angry'. -Jolene
Some of us have new family groups. -Ashley
We had fun in family groups. -Lindsay
For the family groups my group had to choose mad or cheerful. -Peyton
I was in group 2. -Nicholas
We did some writing. I did lots of writing. -Cameron
We had a fire drill today. -Kaspir

Memoirs of a Goldfish

Today we read the book "Memoirs of a Goldfish" by Devin Scillian. Before we read the book we talked about the word memoirs. Some of us made a guess about what it might mean. Kaspir said, "It's kind of like memories". Sydney H said, "it means memories of something that you had." Those were both great guesses. Madeline thought the book was hilarious and so did Mrs. Malkoske. Tristan liked when the snail fainted and he wrote a story like this story but he tried to take on the perspective of a turtle and a crab. Cameron liked when everything went in the bowl. Jadyn liked when the goldfish got mad. Jolene liked when the goldfish saw another goldfish but thought it was his reflection. Kendall liked when it swam around it's bowl once. Then twice. Jonathon liked the cover. The goldfish was stuck in the middle with a sign that said help. Lindsay liked the snail.

We talked about getting a few more pets for our classroom. We are thinking we might need some frogs, another fish, and maybe a hermit crab (although Mrs. Malkoske has been quiet unlucky with hermit crabs).

Children Just LIke Us

We started our Children Just Like Us book. We had to write about our houses, ourselves, and our families. We switched seats and jobs, and we had gym outside. Me and my friends played soccer. -Tristan
It was Rhianna's birthday. Happy Birthday Rhianna! -Brandon
We sang Happy Birthday to her. -Nicholas
We had 3 recesses. It was fun. -Sam
Rhianna gave us cookies after first recess. -Peyton
We drew a picture for Rhianna. -Jadyn
We put stuff in our number of the day and we did some numbers. -Cameron
We started number of the day. Grade 1's did 3 because it's October 3rd. Grade 2's did 19 because that's how many days we've been in school. -Taylor
I wrote a big story in my notebook during free writing. -Jonathon
We had Gym outside. It was hot! -Alexander
We got dragonfly tickets. Me, Jadyn, Ashley, Rylee and Kendall and Nicholas got them. -Lindsay
There were lots of birds in the birdfeeder. -Sydney R
We had a friendly, fun day. -Rylee