The Last Day of 2011!

Today we have early dismissal. -Cameron
Today at school we got bags that we got to take home. We made picutre frames to give to our moms and dads. I had fun doing it. -Kaspir
We got bags and there was a card in it for moms and dads. Mrs. Malkoske gave us treats and a Christmas ornament that looked like a snowball. In gym we played world cup soccer. -Tristan
Today when we were doing TWAS Mrs. Castor came in and pretended she was Santa Claus and gave us candy canes. -Sydney R
Today in the morning we did TWAS and Mrs. Malkoske was pulling some kids to do something for Christmas for our parents. There was some good things that our Moms and Dads will like. One of them is for them. -Taylor
Today in gym me, Tristan, Peyton, Cole and Nick and Andy and Aaron were all on the same soccer team. We got 2 goals and the other team had zero. -Tyson
Today at gym we played World Cup Soccer and I was in net. When I sat down I saved it. -Jolene
Today in gym I was on the bench and I was sad because I got pushed. Tristan made me feel better because he's nice. -Nick
Today is the last day before Christmas Hoildays. I will miss Mrs.Malkoske I will see her in 2012. We
had gym and I had fun!-Madeline
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! -Jadyn

The Christmas Party!

Today we put the icing on our cupcakes and did karaoke. -Sydney R
Today we did karaoke at the end of the day. My song was Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. I was all by myself. -Madeline
Today in the afternoon we did Christmas karaoke. It was fun. -Kaspir
Today we had a party in our class. At the end of the day we did karaoke. I'm doing it 3 times. One by myself, one with Jolene and one with Taylor. Taylor's mom came to help us finish the frames and helped us decorated them.Today the grade 7's came to read to us. They had 2 of us to read to and then we read a book to them. -Ashley
We had our cupcakes today that we made. We had our Christmas party. It was yummy and fun. -Tristan
Today we had a snack at our Christmas party. I ate cheese and it was yummy. After we got to play a little bit and then karaoke. Then we had to blog and then home time. -Nick
Today Taylor's mom came and she helped us make picture frames and we had a Christmas party. I brought vegetables and they were good. I sang with Lindsay. We sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  -Sydney H
Today at the end of the day we did karaoke and me and Nick did Jingle Bells. I had fun with Nick doing Jingle Bells. -Rylee
We had a party and I brought some pretzels and they were good. I liked to eat them. -Cameron
In the afternoon, at the end of the day, Aaron and me did Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for Christmas karaoke. -Jonathon

The Baking Day

Today in the afternoon we were baking. We made tree cupcakes and we made cupcakes. When some kids were doing surveys and playing, me, Madeline, Rhianna, and Nicholas were making the icing. -Taylor
In the afternoon we baked cupcakes. Tomorrow we will put icing on them and eat them! -Cameron
Today we had Presents for Parents. I got something nice for my Mom and Dad. -Nick
Today in the afternoon we baked and we helped Mrs. Malkoske pour stuff in. We made trees and cupcakes. -Sydney R
Today was my fake birthday because its on the two weeks off. I'm going to Grand Forks. My real birthday is January 2. -Jolene
We took pictures with hats and the hats were santa, elf, and reindeer. Mine was Santa. We made picture frames for them. -Aaron
Today we celebrated Jolene's birthday. We also had presents for parents and in the afternoon we baked some cupcakes. The other kids made surveys and painted picture frames. -Ashley
Tomorrow will be our Christmas Party and I'm excited! -Olivia
My mom was volunteering at Presents for Parents and I went to her. -Madeline

The Advent Calendar

We went on our Wiki page today and there were some new things on there. One of them is called Snowflake Workshop. -Rhianna
We saw a paper that you cut into a snowflake (Make a Flake) and then you can look at it. -Nicholas
Mrs. Malkoske put some games on the Wiki page. One of them was Make a Snowman.  -Kendall
My favourite Christmas game was taking Santa down in his sleigh. -Sam
Today at the end of the day we had computer lab. On "Just for Fun" we did Make a Flake. While we were doing that Mrs. Malkoske was putting some Christmas games. After we had to close our windows and come sit down and then she talked about the games that she put on. Then we went and played those games. After when we were playing the games she put on, she put some more on! Then after we came to sit down so we know what to do when we played them. Then we went off and played those games and it was the end of the day. :) -Taylor
The advent calendar every morning a lock will open and then you can play a new game. It will keep going on until Christmas. -Jonathon
The Advent Calendar is right here:


Free website - Powered By Wix.com

When you click a number there will be a game and the ones that are locked, they will open. -Madeline

Penguins, Polar Bears and Snowmans

We made snowmans, polar bears and penguins in the afternoon because we were making a craft. I picked a snowman and it was fun making it and it had a red a green hat, green mitts and googly eyes. The eyes were hard to peel because they were so small. My snowmans name is Wonderland. -Madeline
Today I made a polar bear and I put googly eyes on him and a hat. I put arms and there is a little hole for the string. There is a big hole for a picture. Mines name is Snowball. -Sydney H
We watched a movie in gym and it was Dolphin Tale. -Sam
We did arts and crafts today. My craft was a penguin and Cole, Peyton, Jonathon and Aaron all made penguins. We all have a land and it is called Penguana. My penguins name is Pogo. -Tristan
My penguins name is Penguini- Jonathon
Today we did a craft and I did a penguin and his name is Pok-Pok. -Cole
Today at recess I was playing with Nicholas and he was being really funny. -Kaspir
Today we watched 2 movies. One was Dolphin Tale and the other one was Madagascar. -Jadyn

Christmas Concerts

This morning when we got to school it was really busy because we had 3 Christmas concerts. We are blogging at seven o'clock. I was nervous. I saw my brother, my Grandma and my Grandpa. -Jadyn
Today we had 3 Christmas concerts. One was a rehersal, the second one was real and the last one is at night and it is really dark. This is our last Christmas concert for the day and my mom and dad came to watch me and my brother. My class is still in the classroom and its really, really, really dark outside and it will be hard to see when the concert is over. -Taylor
Today me and Kendall were making a book. It is called The Crazy Book of Seasons. All the pictures are the same but a little bit different. Me and Kendall are going to give it to Mrs. Malkoske-Syndey R
Today we had 3 Christmas concerts. One was a rehersal and we were the last ones to perform. We watched the actors perform and it was fun. We sang a sings called "Whats That in the Sky" "Christmas Eve We Hit the Sky Tonight" "Little Green Men". When the show is almost over we sang "Whats That in The Sky" again. It was fun to sing to the moms and dads. -Madeline
It is really, really, really dark outside. There are lots of people at the concert. We are going to sing "Whats That in the Sky" and some other songs. - Cameron
Today I was in the Christmas concert and I saw my dad and Grandma. When we were done singing we we lined up and my Grandma tickeled me because she loves me. -Nicholas
My whole family came to the Christmas concert. I was nervous for the afternoon and evening concerts. - Jonathon
Today we had Christmas concerts in the gym. I had fun!- Kaspir
Today me and Rhianna finished our map. It was called Tooth Town. All the houses were made out of teeth and there was lots of houses. -Sydney H
Today we our maps and my partner was Nicholas. We are almost done and we had fun. -Rylee

We Made a Map

Me and Cameron's community was called Animal Island. Cameron named it. -Kendall
We are making a community that Ms. Anderlic taught us about what stuff is in a community. Jonathon and me are partners. -Peyton
Today Cameron's mom came and helped us with a craft. We were making snowmen. We also made a town and we made it our dream town. My partner was Jolene. Our town was called Rainbowland. -Ashley
Petyon and me were partners and we made a map together and it was gigantic. -Jonathon
Our town was called Land Lake. The people are going to be cavemen living in there. My partner is Tyson. The town is a campsite. We had a big circle and it had people biking and a washroom and people cutting down trees to make fires. -Tristan
My town had a lot of roads and it was hard to make, but fun. -Aliegha
Me and Brandon we made a map together and we coloured it out. -Sam
Madeline's mom came this morning to help out in the classroom. My town is called Tecow Town. -Olivia
My mom came today and we made snowmen. I was the first one to go to paint. We made a map about a make-believe town. Mine was called Taco Town. -Madeline

The Christmas Concert and Other Stuff

We showed our skip counting raps to the whole class. My group was Aliegha, Sydney H, Lindsay and Olivia. -Madeline
In two more days we have to do our Christmas Concert. -Jolene
We had our Christmas Concert rehearsal today in the Gym. -Olivia
Today we had a fire drill after last recess. -Rhianna
Today we had Choice Time and I drew a picture of a sunset and a rainbow. -Ashley
Today we had a fire drill. I got scared when it rang to go outside and when it rang to go back in.- Sydney R
We had Music. There were lots of kids. -Sam
Me, Jadyn and Cameron and Sydney H and Aliegha and Madeline stayed in to make Christmas decorations for our tree out in the hallway. -Lindsay
We counted hats in the case and I counted 46. -Aaron
Please be at our Christmas Concert. -Jadyn

The Awesome Day

Ashley's Mom came this afternoon and we made hands and when we went out for recess Ashley's mom put them up on the bulletin board for the Christmas concert. One is a tree and one is a wreath. In gym Mr. Chan has the stage up already. We only had stations in Gym. -Taylor
We had inquiry and we were learning about goods and services. We had to glue on a paper and write what we wanted to be when we grow up. It was fun. -Tristan
We had gym and I was happy. My favourite was bowling. -Sam
Today we had Gym and my favourite stations was stacking cups. Me and Jadyn and Lindsay and Sydeny H and Cameron stacked up and we used all the cups and we made a big castle. -Rhianna
Me, Tristan, Cole, Jonathon and Peyton and Alexander all stayed in at last recess to do our comic. It will be $4 or $5. Me, Tristan and William and Jaden made up a club called Secret Ninja. -Ty
Outside I was playing with Kaspir and we were playing tag. We were having lots of fun outside. -Nick
Today my Mom came and we learned a new game called Scrabble Alphabet Scoop. I like to play it because its fun. If you get a fly you have to put all of your letters back. There are cards to tell you which words you can do. -Ashley
Today at recess me and Kendall were playing and we made a snowpile and I rolled over it. -Sydney R
Today at recess Nicholas and me Rhianna were playing. Nick and me had a little fight but we appologized to each other. We said sorry. -Kaspir
Me and Sydney were playing dead and I don't know why we were playing that. We were just being silly. -Kendall
Today for Daily 5 for word work you could only do Scrabble Alphabet Scoop because we were learning it so that for other word work time you can play it. There can only be 4 people. I was in the third round with Lindsay, Olivia and Peyton. -Madeline

Monkey Machine!

This week during our Math time we've been exploring skip counting (counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, etc). At the beginning of our exploration we watched a Youtube video rap of skip counting. It was very catchy! Throughout the week I've caught a few different children singing it quietly as they work. :)

In order to help us remember the counting sequences, the kids in our class have decided to create their own rap videos... from scratch. We started on Tuesday by choosing our skip counting sequence, writing a rhyming introduction (which is much harder than we thought), and practising. Today we used a site called Monkey Machine to create our beat tracks. It was really easy and a lot of fun. Here's a sample:



Stay tuned to see our finished videos next week!

Little Drummer Boy & Winter Wonderland

I love Christmas music! A couple of days ago I hit the local musical jackpot when I came across 2 tweets about local artists' performing Christmas songs. I thought that I would share them with you :)

The first one is a link to the song Winter Wonderland by Winnipeg duo, Keith & Renee. If they look familiar to you, it might be because both Keith MacPherson and Renee Lamoureux were on Canadian Idol a few years ago, and they both work at Moksha Yoga Kildonan occassionally... talk about talent! Here's a link to the free download of their version of the song.

01 Winter Wonderland by keithandrenee

The second tweet was a link to a Youtube video created by Sean Quigley, a 16 year old Oak Park student. In the video he perfoms the song Little Drummer Boy. It's amazing! Here's the video:

Happy Holidays!

Thursday

Today we did  Daily 5.Aliegha and my first choice was work on writing because we wanted to do the blog.
We had Gym it was  awesome! Last day Mrs.Castor said that the Gym classes outside we have gym  inside because Mr. Chan was not here.
At lunch the lunch helpers sade if we be quiet then we get candy. if the whole class is quitet we all get candy but only one table  will.
today  my and  table finished our ornaments.
-Madeline & Ali

all about today

Today we worked on our comic Cole Tristan Tyson Alexander Peyton and Jonathon are makeing A comic. We are makeing all of the carachacters first we are allmost done the cover.  We finished our me on the map. Tristan said we would get 20 pages of paper and we allmost did of our comic.
-Cole, Jonathon, Peyton

Making a Math Video

We maked a math video today. it is a video about cownting by  2s  and  5s  and   we    allso   did    10s     my    gruop     did    2s. my gruop did 10s. my   group  had fun doing 2s and are excited because we did our very own song. It went like this: 2s 2s 2s lets count by 2s, 2,4,6,8,10 lets all count by 2s again.
-Olivia and Rhianna

Word Work!

This week the children in our classroom are trying out some new materials for Daily 5-Word Work. Each week they practice their individualized word lists using a variety of materials. I'm always looking for new things to keep it interesting for the children as they learn and play with words. Here's a picture of some of the things I picked up last weekend in Grand Forks:

Some of the other materials the children use include:

-mini whiteboards and dry erase markers

-mini chalk boards and colorful chalk

-letter beads

-letter puzzle pieces

-wiki stix (Bendaroos)

-ABC magnets

-ABC stamps

-ABC silly bands

-play doh

-felt letters and the felt board

-using Pictochat on our DSs

They've also been learning some word games that challenge and give them a little break from practising their word lists. Most of the games require the children to make their own words from a given set of letters. We have mini Boggle, Scrabble Slam, the Jumbline App (on the ipad), and Scrabble Flash in our classroom. I am a huge fan of Scrabble and love to play with anyone who has the patience for it. :) Scrabble Flash is fun for kids and adults (trust me, I've played a few games with the kids in our classroom). Here is a video of a group of kids playing Scrabble Flash today during Word Work:

My favourite thing about this game is that it often fosters meaningful conversation about words and word patterns between the players. I've heard children discussing whether or not a word is in fact a 'real' word, giving other possible spellings for words, using what they know about word patterns and vowel sounds to help others make more words, and occasionally sticking letters together randomly only to find out that a word like "mira" is actually a real word. (Usually I'm then asked for a definition...or we take a trip to an online dictionary to find out!) I think the children enjoy the break from their word lists and are having a lot of fun learning!

If you want to check out Scrabble Flash or Scrabble Slam, here's  link to the Scrabble site. Enjoy!

-Erin

The Skip Counting Day

Today we swtiched jobs and my job is library and my partner is Jolene. Me and Jolene are at a different table but are really close to each other. Today we had a Christmas concert rehersal and the actors came over so we watched them do their play. -Taylor
We had gymnastics and we were doing backward rolls and we were doing cartwheels and we were doing balancing. -Nicholas
Today I got a new job and my new job is greeting. We had gymnastics at lunch recess and I like gynmastics because you can do cartwheels and I like to do cartwheels. -Rhianna
Today we went to music and the actors were there. We also switched seats and jobs. My job is cleanup with Aleigha. -Ashely
We switched seats today and we switched jobs too. I played a math game with Aleigha. - Cameron
Today I went to the dentist but I was here this morning. I came back at lunch but everyone was still outside. -Jadyn
We had music today and the grade 4, 5 and 6s came and watched the rehersal. - Kaspir
We switched our jobs and our seats today. I sit beside Taylor and Olivia. My new job is survey. We played a math game and my partner was Sam. -Madeline
I switched jobs and my partner is Taylor for my job. My old job was survey and I was with Ashley. - Jolene
We switched seats and I sit beside Sydney H. and Cole. - Jonathon
We switched seats and I was beside Sydney and Jonathon.- Lindsay

Today we practiced skip counting by 2, 5 and 10. Here is one of the videos we watched. (Be careful, it is catchy!)

A note about conferences...

Conference time can be a very crazy time of year in an early years classroom. Helping 25 children prepare 25 portfolios is always a challenge... but worth every second and every effort! Over the past two weeks, the children and I spent lots of time talking about our year so far, reflecting on the things they've learned, setting some goals for next term, choosing just the right pieces for portfolios, and practising sharing learning with others. The night and afternoon of conferences can be quite hectic, but also very rewarding. I love eavesdropping on the children in my classroom as they talk their way through their portfolios with their families. Hearing the children explain their work, talk about their favourite books, teach their families a new math game, and laugh about something they remember about a project is my favourite part of the night. Seeing them explain, reflect, and discuss all of their learning makes me feel very proud. Watching parents look at their child's work, ask them questions about their learning, and congratulate them on their accomplishments is also very rewarding. It was another AWESOME week.

On Friday afternoon I came across some interesting tweets while I was checking my professional Twitter account. A number of the educators I follow were at a conference where author Peter Reynolds was the keynote speaker. (Peter Reynolds has many great children's books including "Ish" and "The Dot") The tweets were sent by Tony Baldasaro and many were quotes from Reynolds' keynote speach. Here are 4 of the tweets Tony sent. I thought they came at a perfect time. I love it when that happens :)

Here they are:

The last one was my favourite. Simple. To the point. True in everyway. Every child is amazing. 

-Erin



Lots of Parent Teacher Conferences

We have a short day today because we don't have school at lunch time because we have Parent Teacher. -Madeline
Today we have really, really, really early dismissal because there is Parent Teacher in the afternoon. Some kids have to take different buses and some take the same bus. I have to take bus 34. Everybody is singing a song today. It's a Katy Perry song.-Taylor
Today is Parent Teacher. I'm coming today with my family. Today Jolene's Grandpa came to read us a story. It was called "How Santa Lost His Job" and in the end he got his job back. -Ashley
At recess we were singing a song about Katy Perry and Cameron was singing the wrong way. It was funny. Me and Kendall were singing it to the boys. -Sydney R & Kendall
Today I had a short recess and we are having Parent Teacher today. -Cameron
The people that are on bus 11 are still on bus 11. That's the bus I always take. -Rhianna
Today at recess I was playing with Nicholas and Ashley and Jolene. We were playing tag. -Rylee
Today I'm taking the bus. I'm going on bus 33 with Alexander, Tristan and Jolene. -Cole
Me, Tristan, and Cole we stayed in for recess to do our comic. It's about a talking banana. My character is an apple and Tristan's is a watermelon and Cole's is a banana. -Tyson
My bus for today is 33. My Grandpa came to read a story to us. -Jolene