Friday, March 23, 2012

Music Machine!

Right now during our Inquiry time, we are learning about objects and materials. We used a bunch of different things that join materials together (ex. tape, velcro, etc.) to create this song. We think it sounds like a machine! Can you guess what kinds of things we used? If you think you know, leave a comment!

They're Back!

Today we checked out the Decorah Eagle Ustream channel during our morning meeting. Last spring we watched the nest closely and saw the eaglets grow and change. Right now the adult eagle is sitting on 3 eggs. We got to see the eggs while they were being turned and adjusted this morning. The first hatch is expected between today and March 25th. I've embedded the livestream below. Be sure to check back often!


Streaming live video by Ustream

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Learning to Draw Bunnies and more!

Today we did rabbits and it was fun. Some day I want try and make a rabbit again. -Rylee

Today at the end of the day Ms.Koehn taught us to make cartoon rabbits and showed us wooden eggs that she got as a gift. Once we were done our rabbits, we got jellybeans. My colors were blue and green. -Rhianna

Today at music we played a game. We had an eraser and Mr.Chan thought it was a button. We had to hide the eraser behind someone and then we had to guess who had it. -Sydney H

Today before Ms. Koehn came the PIP people got to go to the computer lab and try out a program called Prezi. We are going to us it for our PIP presentations. -Jadyn

Today it was an awesome day today. We went to music and then we sang and it was a great thing. -Sam
Today I drew a cartoon bunny that was really fancy. I liked it and it is rainbowish. -Cameron
At the end of the day we came to the carpet to blog and Ms.Koehn gave us two jellybeans. After a while she gave us one more and its almost the end of the day. -Taylor

My cartoon bunny was called Polka Dot because it has polkadots on it and the whole color of the bunny is purple. -Madeline

At the end of the day Ms.Koehn showed us how to draw bunnies.First you draw the head, then the arms, then the body, feet and tail. Then you add detail and color in the bunny. You can draw a sun, easter egg basket, whatever you want. -Ashley

Today was Aaron's birthday and we had a great time. We made a little book and sang happy birthday. After lunch Ms. Koehn came. -Jonathon
Today was +25 and we did not have to wear our jackets outside.-Jolene

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

A Busy Day

At lunch time we got to go to the Gym and watch Finding Nemo. I brought some money to buy a lollipop. We didn't finish it. -Ashley
Today when I walked in the door Ms. Anderlic was here. It's only Wednesday and she usually comes on Friday. But now she's going to stay here until April 27. -Jadyn
Today we had a math problem. It was the Bug Box problem and it was awesome. -Cameron
Today at the end of the day we did a scavenger hunt and it was fun. -Brandon
Today before last recess we drew a bug house and after spring break we are going to make our bug houses with wood. I worked with Rylee and our kind of bug was caterpillar. -Sydney R
Today we went to a movie. If didnt' have money then you had to stay in your room. I went, but I couldn't buy anything. -Nick
Today we did a math problem. We had to design a bug house about the kind of bug that we picked. I picked a butterfly. My partner was Taylor. -Madeline
today at the end of the day we had a scavenger hunt. I was partnered with Jonathon. We had to find different kinds of stuff that were described in different ways. I got most of the stuff. -Tristan
Today at lunch time I went down to the gym because today was the movie day for Be the Change Club. -Rylee
I had the greatest day of my life and it was fun. -Sam
This was the bestest day of school. It was the funnest day of school. -Kaspir

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

more new pets

Today we got more new pets.we got supper worms and stick bugs.We got to pass one of them around.
Today is a awesome day because we got stick bugs and super worms. The people in our class got to touch them if they wanted to. The stick bugs eat letis. they like to hang on sticks.we each got to put one rock in the contaner. -Jadyn & Rhianna
Today I had the greatest day. We had to look at the stick bug and my most favourite part was the worms. I also liked it. -Sam
Today we held the stick bug I was the one that held it a little. We passed them on. There was only one stick bug. -Nick
We had to wash our hands before we got to touch the stick bug. We had to use soap and do a lot of washing. I didn't want to hold the stick bug. When somebody had it on their hand the stick bug moved like it was blowing in the wind. -Taylor
We had to make a bigger home for the stick bugs and I got to hold one. The new pets are awesome. -Cameron

Monday, March 19, 2012

A Journey Down the Red River

This morning during our morning meeting we had an interesting conversation about the Red River. We were looking at a blog post by Nora, our KidBlog guest blogger, and saw a picture on her blog that had the Red River in the background. Nora lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota and the Red River runs right through her backyard, much like it does for some of the children in our class. We used Google Maps to journey down the river from Dr. Hamilton School to Grand Forks, North Dakota. Here is a picture of the map:

View Driving directions to 3225 Henderson Highway, East Saint Paul, MB R2E 0J2 (Dr. F.W.L. Hamilton School) in a larger map

Signs of Spring!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Portfolios & Book Fair

In the morning we had the book fair. The people who had money got to buy books. The people that didn't just looked. Me, Jolene and Ashley really wanted to get a poster and a book so we wrote them down. Then we did some portfolios stuff. Me and Jolene were just sitting down at recess. -Taylor
In the book fair I was looking for a book and I found a just right book. It was The Titanic. Then I decided to get a poster. I got a Trasnformer poster and Aaron got a Jets poster. -Nick
When we were finishing up our portfolios, and Mrs. Malkoske asked us a question and we had to put our hand up. She picked me. And then she picked Ashley and Nick to be my Mom and Dad and I had to show them all of the Daily 5 stuff. It was really funny. -Sydney R
Today we had to do lots of portfolios. It was kind of actually fun. -Sam
After morning meeting we went to visit the book fair. I brought a piece of paper to write down the numbers of the posters. After we did portfolio stuff. -Ashley
At the end of the day on the announcements they called my name for Dragonfly tickets and I got a prize. It was a piggy bank. -Cole
At the end of the day I got called on the announcements too. I got called twice so I got two prizes. I got squishy necklace that I think lights up and a cube that's a game. -Jolene
Today after school it's parent teacher. I'm coming at 5 to 5:30. I'm going to show my mom and dad my portfolio and my art and I'm going to take them to the computer lab and show them my KidBlog and our Wiki. I'm going to do a post and maybe a Wordle and I'm going to go on 200 Awesome Days and show them the talking I did in the posts. -Rhianna

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Portfolios and More!

Today we did portfolios. I was confused, but now I'm unconfused. -Lindsay
In the afternoon we put stuff in our portfolios. We had to listen a lot and it was exhausting.  -Sydney R
We put lots of stuff in our portfolios. We had to hand them in. We had to put our boat book in it. -Sam
One of the things that we had to put in our portfolios was science stuff. I got a little confused but Mrs. Malkoske showed us where to put it and which ones to get and now I'm not confused anymore. -Madeline

This is a picture of a caterpillar that I found when I was walking on the way to school. I named him Caty. I let him go. -Tyson

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

A Sign of Spring!

Before first recess some of us noticed this Wooly Bear on the cement at the side door of the school. It was outside when recess was over and it was all black and orange and black. It was a small caterpillar. It's so exciting because it's just the end of winter and very soon it will be spring! It's 7 more days til spring. When Mrs. Malkoske was taking this picture for the blog, Madeline asked to keep it because she's studying butterflies and caterpillars for PIP. But she didn't keep it (we don't know what it eats). It's exciting because it is a sign of spring.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Report Card Day

Today we talked a little bit about report cards and talked about some of the things we are better at doing now than we were in the fall...
Reading because I can sound out the words better. -Lindsay
I'm good at reading because I can read all the words. -Sam
I am better at writing because I can think of more ideas and I can write on the lines. -Taylor
I am better at blogging than in September because I can write lots of wrods correctly without asking anybody. -Madeline
I am better at reading because I can read huge words. -Kendall
I am better at reading a writing because I can sound out big words when I write and then I know what they are. In writing I only wrote four or five words, but now I write a whole page. -Rhianna
I am better at reading and writing because I read to self lots and I like to write a lot. -Sydney
I am good at reading. I can read lots of books. -Kaspir
 I'm better at reading than writing. I read to someone and self a lot. That's how I became a good reader. -Cameron
I'm good at reading, writing and blogging! I can type 5 sentences or more. -Jadyn
I'm better at reading. I can read bigger words. -Cole
I am better at reading because I sound out words better. -Brandon
I'm better at reading because I know more words. -Olivia

Friday, March 9, 2012

Painting Eyes and Other Stuff

Today we painted eyeballs. The eyes are going to go up on the wall. We went to groups and we did some writing. After Spring Break we're going to go on a field trip and we're going to make some stuff out of wood. -Rhianna
We painted our eyes different colours. And then we had to dry them off. -Sam
Today we did centres and Mrs. Malkoske put us into groups. There was measuring tapes and beakers and scales and thermometers. For the thermometer group I put mine in the freezer and it went to 11. -Taylor
Today Sydney R's Mom came so we could paint our eyeballs that we made yesterday. The colours that I used were brown, yellow, and green. The paints are water paint. We did some centres and there were four. My first centre was the beakers. -Madeline
At lunch recess when the bell rang I saw my Mom. Me and Kendall got undressed really fast and then we grabbed our shoes and went into the corner and then we went behind the word work wall and we put our headphones on. Mrs. Malkoske and my Mom laughed and me and Kendall laughed too. In the afternoon my Mom came. I got to paint my eye first because my Mom was here. Me and Madeline were cleaning the paper that my Mom cut. -Sydney R
Today we had centres and I went to Joining and Building centre. We had to write what you can build with and join with. -Cameron
Today we painted our eyeballs. -Nick
Today we painted our eyeballs and tomorrow we are going to hang them up on the wall. We are going to take them home after. -Kaspir
Today we painted eyeballs. Eyeballs look very creepy to me. -Rylee

Thursday, March 8, 2012

New Friends

Last night Mrs. Malkoske went and bought frogs. We named them Fred and Bob. -Nick
Our new friends are frogs. We feed them black pellet things. We feed them on Thursday and Monday. They didn't eat their lunch today. -Cole
I have the same frogs that we have but my names that I have are Freddy and Splash. I have the same rocks in mine. Today I got to see them. -Tyson
Today we got some new pets and they are frogs. We had to do a vote to see what names we should name them. Fred and Bob won so that's their names. Mrs. Malkoske also got an ant farm but there's no ants. It's for Jolene's PIP project. -Madeline
Today we got an ant factory, it's a mini one. It came with instructions to make it and the directions also had an ant food recipe. You have to get human food too like an egg and stuff. -Jolene
Our frogs have bamboo and two crystals and coloured rocks and we feed them. -Kaspir
Taylor and Jolene went to the table with me for Star Lunch. -Sam
Today we got new pets. Now I want to do pets because now we get to feed three pets. -Brandon
In the morning Mrs. Malkoske wrote on the board "We got 2 new members of our classroom." She said that they didn't like to be in hot or cold places and she told us that they were in her lunchkit. Then we went to Assembly. -Sydney R
Today was a very exciting day in our classroom! Last night I went to Scholar's Choice and picked up a few things for the group of kids that are working on PIP projects. For most of them, this is their very first experience with researching a topic, and I hope that it will inspire many more personal inquiry projects both in school and outside of school. Their enthusiasm for doing research and sharing their learning is amazing (and I have to admit, a little bit surprising)! I think it's very important for kids to learn by reading, doing, seeing, touching and exploring the things they are most interested in. You can learn a lot about frogs from books and the Internet, but at some point I think it's important to actually meet one :) I want to keep the excitement alive while supporting these kids in their personal learning. So... for now we've now added 2 frogs, an ant farm, a model solar system, a crystal growing science kit, a fossil making station, and a rock testing station... and our greenhouse is ready to go for after spring break! I'm just trying to figure out something for the kids that are studying larger animals... I'm on the look out for some experts that those students can connect with via email or Skype. We're looking for a fish expert and a horse expert. If you know of anyone, please comment below.
-Mrs. Malkoske

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

About Our Eyes

Today we went to the computer lab and we got to do a blog post on our Kid Blog. I wrote about my Dad because he left for a trip on March 5th and I really want him to make it to my hockey game tonight. -Taylor

Today we were making eyeballs. We did a circle called the pupil and then we did eyelashes and then we did a circle called the iris. -Nick

Mrs. Malkoske showed us a book about eyes and we learned about it. Then we drew our own eyes. We looked at our eyes in a mirror and drew what we saw. The colour of my iris was hazel. For the pupil we drew it black with Sharpies. Tomorrow we're going to paint our eyes. Some of us are going to finish them then paint them.-Madeline

I can't wait until tomorrow because we're going to paint them. -Brandon

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Movie Day

This afternoon we got to watch a movie. It was called The Lorax. In the middle of the movie Mrs. Malkoske was called some kids over to do some math and counting. After the movie was done, we watched the other movie that was on the Lorax movie. Now we're blogging. In music I got a dragonfly. Aaron, Madeline, Kaspir, Rylee, and Tyson got them too. -Taylor
In music we were singing songs and played a game. -Madeline
In music Mr. Chan gave us dragonfly because we did the right actions. -Kaspir
Today at recess I was playing with Evan and Lucas and they were playing soccer. Me and Kaspir were sitting down playing fun stuff. -Nick
The movie that we watched was The Lorax. My favourite part of the movie was when the Lorax was upset because a green guy was chopping down the trees. The funny part about The Lorax was that he had a mustache. The Lorax said to the green guy "I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees!" -Sydney R The movie The Lorax was made by Dr. Seuss. My favourite part of the Lorax movie was the Lorax because I thought he was funny and he talked loud and ran through houses. I've never seen a Dr. Seuss movie before but I have Dr. Seuss books at home. -Rhianna
Today my favourite part of the day was doing Daily 5. There is a word in a book that I couldn't read but now I know how to read it because now I'm older. -Rylee
Today in music I had to stay after class because I was getting dragonfly ticket. When I went to get my dragonfly my number was 85. -Tyson
In Daily 5 today we all did our projects. Now everyone is doing projects. The PIP people are having a meeting tomorrow. -Jadyn

The Best Number Of The Day

For number of the day we could pick the number that we wanted to do. The grade ones got to pick between ten and fifty. The grade twos got to pick between fifty and 200. The number Madeline's picked was 195.
Sydney R number was fifty that was the highest number you could go if you were a grade oner. One of the number sentinces was 20 + 30 = 50. We had to draw a math picture how much the number was.
- Madeline, Kendall, and Sydney R

We also talked about measurement today. Here are some of the ways and tools we talked about:
-length (tape measure, measuring tape, ruler, meter stick)
-height
-weight (scale)
-temperature (thermometer, fish tank, outside, your body, in the car
-time
-GPS measure distance
-in the oven
-baking... using measuring cup and spoons
-level tells if something is straight or not

Friday, March 2, 2012

Daily 5 Projects!

Today was a great day in Room 9! Since last week when some of the kids in our class started working on PIP during Daily 5, many of the other children have been anxiously awaiting the start of their Daily 5 project. Every day they've been asking about what their project will be and when they're going to be able to get started. Today was the day. Two more groups of kids started working on two new Daily 5 projects.

I decided to start these Daily 5 projects for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, projects like these provide kids with purpose and motivation for reading and writing. Each of the projects was tailored to suit a small group of students with similar strengths and needs. For example...

Personal Inquiry Projects (PIP)
The children working on PIP are independent readers and writers who are moving from "learning to read" to the "reading to learn". They are working on building their independence in both reading and writing, learning those life-long learning skills of finding information and asking good questions, and most importantly they are learning that if they are interested in something and want to know more about it, they have the skills to do it. As I watch these kids decide on their topics, ask to visit the library at recess time, take notes, share information, and take their notebooks home at night to keep on learning, I can't help but feel very proud. :)

The Recording Studio
The children that are working on recording some of our picture books for our listen to reading centre are working on solidifying the reading skills that they have. They are building their confidence as readers and working on fluency and expression. Recording books on a digital recorder allows them to hear themselves read, and gives them an opportunity to try again if they want to do something differently or if they make a mistake. Burning their recordings to CDs for the other children to listen to provides them with purpose and motivation to make their recordings their very best work. I stood back and watched these children work today and overheard a wonderful conversation between them where they made a plan, talked honestly and respectfully about how the recording went, and gave each other advice. It was one of those moments that I wish I had recorded!

Newspaper Project
The group of children working on the newspaper project are working on solidifying some of their writing skills like ensuring that their writing makes sense to other people, spelling high frequency words correctly, using their 'voice' in their writing and building confidence as writers. The are so excited to share thier newspaper with other people when it's finished. As I watched one of these kids sit and write out a list of questions for an interview (during choice time) and then take our digital camera, her reporter badge, and her notebook and head to the office to ask for an interview with Mrs. Caldwell I couldn't help but smile. Earlier in the day I'd watched this same child struggle and ask for help with a writing task... a little motiviation and a chance to feel very important made a huge difference.

Today the some of the grade 1 stared a project and it was newspaper. We had to talk to people and record or write what they said. We are taking pictures and put them in the newspaper.- Sydney R

I love watching kids learn to love learning. It makes my day :) Today during choice time more children chose to read, blog, play a word work game, work on their Daily 5 project, and write in their writer's notebook than chose to play Lego or with blocks... I think that is AWESOME.