18 Things You Can Do to Help the Earth!

Recycle! -Karys

Don't litter! -Sofia

Clean up trash! -Kayla

Use both sides of the paper. -Ella

Save electicity by turning off the lights and closing the fridge. -Syd

Be nice to the worms. -Rylee

Save your left overs. -Elly

Don't cut down the trees. -Rhianna

Turn off the faucet. -Carter

Be nice to animals. -Brandon

Plant trees. -Cali

Use bikes not cars. -Kaspir

Reuse stuff that you can make crafts with. -Reegan

Give your old clothes to someone else younger. -Nick

Compost! -Jonathan

Turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth! -Cayden

Bring your own bags to the store. -Alexander

Feed the birds in the winter. -Cam

Bunnies and More

Today we had a subistute and at the end of the day we had computer lab and I had lots of fun.- Kaspir
Today in computer lab I did 2 blog posts. You could have done a wordle but I did not. In the computer lab I sat beside Cole. When we checked the eagles today there was a fly on the eagles back feather. In gym we learned how to play 4 square. There were 5 people in each square and there were 4 squares. -Peyton
This morning I got to show my pictures. Alot of people laughed. In the morning we wrote what we would do if we were a bunny. Then we had to trace and cut out the bunny paws, head and feet. - Syndey R
Today we had a subistute. Her name is Mrs. McAuley and she is very nice. Ms. Anderlic showed us how to make a bunny. First we made a rough copy and then we put it on a piece of paper and then glued a pink piece of paper to put on the back. We glued the head, paws and feet on the piece of paper. We got to color the words and the bunny. -Ashley
Today my favourite part was making the bunnies because it is my favourite animal and you get to think what your going to do if you were a bunny. We played bunnies at recess and we pretended that there were eagles trying to catch us. -Cameron
At recess we played hockey. Most of the boys played hockey and most of the girls played ringette. We won 3-2. - Tristan

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

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

Number 99...

Today I'm posting by myself as the kids of Room 9 are off to Music class. Our afternoon was very busy and we ran out of time to post together. However, as always, they were very clear about what today's post should say. :) Here is what the kids wanted me to tell you:

This morning during Daily 5 we took a look at a few pieces of writing that some of the children are working on for our next Mixbook. In order for us to be able to see the writing and revise/edit as a group, I took a picture of a few students' notebooks with my iPad and connected it to our projector. We opened the pictures in the Glow Colouring app (a word work favourite!) and we were able to write on top of the student writing to highlight, fix, and add. It was very interactive and the kids loved to see their writing on the big screen :) Here is a picture of one of the pieces we looked at. ------->

In this piece we were able to see that the author was using language that made it sound more like a poem than a story, they were using some WOW! Words (descriptive words) and that they had asked a couple of questions. This group revision/edit was valuable to both the student who's work was on the wall, as well as to other students who were working on similar pieces.

The second thing the kids wanted me to share with you is about an art project that we've started during our inquiry time. We are learning about different states of matter and we have had many discussions about changing from one state to another (solid to liquid, liquid to gas, etc). One of the student in our class talked about a crayon maker that she got for Christmas. She explained that you can melt crayons (solid to liquid) and make new ones. This reminded me of an art project I saw on Pinterest where crayons were attached to a piece of foam core and heated to melting with a blow dryer. Of course, the kids had to try it. They busily peeled broken crayons during indoor recesses last week, and today we did step one of the project... choosing our crayons. Here's a picture: ----->

Tomorrow we'll attach them to our board and blow dry. I have a feeling it's going to get warm in here!

Just one more note... This post is our 99th blog post of the school year!  Be sure to check out our special edition 100th post tomorrow :)

Science Centres!

Today we had centres. One was water table, the rest were stirring. The water table was dirty. -Nick

We were doing our thing and we put in sand and we mixed in the sand. The sand was floating and when we were mixing it, it was sinking. -Sam

I had fun during centres. -Rylee

When we had centres we were talking about solids and liquids and gases. -Aaron

During centres Mrs. Klausen came and helped us. -Olivia

My first centre was syrup, paint, and water. There were questions on our paper. Our centre was number 5. We had to pour sugar in it the second time. The first time we just had to talk about what it looked like. -Tristan

At our first centre, it was at our table, it was number 5. We had to do something with sugar, water, paint, and syrup. We had to put the sugar in the paint and the water and the syrup and then after we mixed them up. At the end of the centre we went to the next one. It was the water table. We had to write down the objects that we used and we had to write what the things did, if they floated or sunk. -Ashley

We had a fantastic time with Mrs. Klausen at science centres time. -Cameron

My centre was number 4. We had to put the sand, sugar and salt in the water and see what happens. -Lindsay

Our centre was number 3 and we had to put food colouring in paint, oil and water and mix it and see what happened. -Peyton

When we did centres, my first centre was the water table. We had to see if something floated or sunk. One of the the things was both. A cup sunk if it had water in it. If it didn't have water in it, it floated. The slinky sunk. -Madeline

My centre was the fifth centre. I liked pouring the sugar into the paint, syrup and water. -Sydney R

For those of you who have been waiting to see our SNOWBALL characters... Here they are!

The WOW! Word Day

 Today we had a substitute teacher because Mrs. Malkoske had to go to a meeting. Our subs name was Ms. Koehn. (Rhianna) Today Mrs. Malkoske went to a meeting and then she came back with Mrs. Kosolowski. We were talking about snow and Wow words. One of the wow words is white as flour and white as a wedding dress. (Madeline) We had two charts; one was ordinary words and one was Wow words!(Kendall) When it was recess I was playing Lego and we made the biggest houses and mine was a little bit big and I liked it. (Nick) We had gym and there was a subistitute. We played Ollie Ollie Octopus and after that we played soccer and then we played basketball. (Ashley)
Today at lunch, Nicholas' tooth started to hurt and I thought that it was going to fall out. (Kaspir)
Today it was hot lunch. It was pasta from Boston Pizza. I don't like pasta so I didn't get any. (Aliegha)
Kendall's mom brought cupcakes because it was Kendall's 7th birthday. The cupcakes were yummy. (Sydney R)
This afternoon we did math and I finished because I used a ruler. (Rylee)
We did mini bubble art with little pieces of paper. Mrs. Barnes helped us. (Jonathon)
We have had indoor recess for the last week. We are tired of playing inside and want to play outside. (Olivia)

Snowballs!!!

Today we read the book, "Snowmen at Night" and decided to create our own snowball people! Here is a photo collage of our process:

Check tomorrow's post for some photos of all of our snowball people!

The Bubbly Day

In the morning we did daily 5. (Madeline) We did T.W.A.S and it was about the artist who came to the school. (Nick) Her name was Allison Moore. (Jadyn) We went to music today. (Lindsay) In music I got gummy bears. (Cameron) In math, we worked on adding and subtracting. (Peyton) In inquiry we wrote about our Frosty Experiment. (Rylee) We wrote about what Frosty looked like the first time we saw him, at the end of the day and this morning. (Kendall) He was a liquid today. (Kaspir) Today we did a project with bubbles, liquid watercolor and soap. We used straws to blow the mixture and it made bubbles. We put a piece of paper on the color we wanted and when you lifted it up it looked really cool. It looked like a circle made of bubbles. (Ashley) Ms. Anderlic was back today. (Jadyn)

We Are Artists

Today we had artist in the school again an we used ink to color in the lines. When we were done we had lots of ink on or hands. We had to draw the shells from the ocean and we had to outline them with ink. Today Allison taught us how to use ink. We had fun doing it. Before we started we did a blind contour drawing. Then we traced and drew the shells and fossils.
Ty, Sam, Kaspir and Jadyn

The First Day Back at School... 2012!!!!!!!

sWhen I saw my friends at school I felt awesome! (Taylor) When I came in I felt good. In the morning I got to play with Kendall (Cameron). We had an assembly first thing in the morning. I picked out two books in library. One was Baby Mouse Skating Girl and I'm on page 36. The other was Deer and Rabbit. It was hard to choose which books I wanted so I didn't have time to sit down and read them. (Jolene). Today Mrs. Malkoske showed us our Mixbook. While we were gone the Mixbook came. I get to take it first. (Tyson) During Daily 5 we did Read to Someone and Read to Self. I had fun reading to self. (Kaspir)Today at Daily 5 we changed partners. My partner was Rhianna and my new one is Tyson (Sydney H) We Read to Self for 14 minutes. (Lindsay) We did Daily 5 all together. My new partner is Cameron (Kendall). We had Artist in the School. We had to trace a flower and then paint it. After you were done you could either read a book or draw a picture. She had a collection of stuff we could look at and use while we're doing the project. She's going to be here until Thursday. It will be fun. (Tristan) Today I was surprised that it was our turn to be with Artist in the School. We got to paint flowers and do the background. Tomorrow we're going to draw pictures of things we want to have under our sea. Then we're going to glue them on. (Ashley) The artist's name is Allison Moore (Jadyn). I sat beside Aliegha and Jadyn. We got to mix the paint and make some new colours. We could draw over the flowers that we already drew and paint over the other things. (Madeline) At the tables when we started painting we mixed up 3 colours. When it was time for us to go, Jolene was still painting so I helped her finish quickly. (Taylor) It was in room 7. (Nicholas) After we were done we could draw. I drew a picture of Nick and Rhianna and me and Kendall and Kaspir. (Rylee)

Here are some pictures of us working on our art projects:


This is the end of our first day back at school... we'll be back tomorrow!
-The Children of Room 9

Fix Up Portfolios

Sydney R put stuff in my portfolio because I was painting. We put some stuff that we did for inquiry in it. -Kendall
I put stuff in Jolene's portfolio. My favourite thing is the map book. -Jonathon
My favourite books were "The Haunted Castle" and "101 Cool Jokes". Only one of them were Geronimo Stilton. -Cole
Today we made a huge Christmas ornament. We painted it yellow. -Brandon
Today my Mom came and she helped us do our Christmas ornaments for the Christmas concert. Ours was blue. -Ashley
We put stuff in our portfolios and we did Me on the Map. -Aliegha
When my table was painting the Christmas ornaments, our colour was red. When I was painting it, it reminded me of the Christmas concert. -Jolene
Today we painted 1.5 metre by 1.5 metre ornaments. My table painted blue. We had fun. -Jadyn
Today at school we painted ornaments for the Christmas concert. Our ornament was coloured gold. -Lindsay
We had gym today. We played world cup soccer. -Sam
Today we had 2 volunteers. In the morning Madeline's Mom was here to finish our tree project. For the afternoon Ashley's Mom came to help us finish our big Christmas ornaments. -Taylor
My Mom came today. I was the first one to finish our summer tree and we did our portfolio. My favourite one was Me on the Map and my other favourite was My Favourite Books. We did Me on the Map.-Madeline
At Daily 5 we did word work at the end together. Someone came to watch us do word work. He was Mr. Walls. -Olivia
Ms. Anderlic's boss came and watched us do word work. Today I had a special lunch with Jolene. We ate and drank with a plate and cup. -Ashley

Choice Time!

Today during Choice Time...

We played in the sandbox. -Brandon

We builded the biggest Lego house in history! -Alexander, Peyton, Tyson

It had a patio and two hottubs and a lake. -Jonathon

We played with the straws. We made a hotel and a wall and an entrace to our library. -Tristan, Cole, Aaron

I played with marble stuff and made a big marble party. -Cameron

We did a puppet show! -Kendall

Me and Ashley made crowns out of paper. -Sydney R

I read a book with my earphones. -Nicholas

We opened the sand table. -Ashley

I played in the sandbox. -Aliegha

I went on the computer to Seussville. -Madeline

We had an awesome puppet show. -Brandon

It was hot lunch today. -Ashley

We played on the play structure (at recess). -Sam

We had fun! -Rylee

PS- It's Mrs. Malkoske's birthday! -Syney H

Today was a great day in Room 9. For some of our younger classmates (and a few of the older children too) it was a long first full week of school. The transition from summer to school and from half days to full days takes a bit of time and all of the kids are doing the best they can. I appreciate their smiles, kind words to one another, and willingness to help each other out and cheer each other up when needed.

This afternoon we had Choice Time. Choice Time is a time of day when the children are able to choose from a variety of activities in our classroom. Today they chose from activities like painting, puppets, listening to stories, exploring author websites, building, and sand. To the kids, Choice Time is all about playing. When we were writing this post the children listed the activities they chose, and said things like "We had fun!" and "I played with ________". To me, Choice Time  is about so much more than playing. As I observed and interacted with the children during choice time I saw more than a really cool lego house and a quirky puppet show. I saw children cooperating, using kind words, encouraging one another, and sharing as they played Lego. I saw children solving problems, making a plan, organizing themselves, inviting other children to join in, and using their imaginations to create a story as they played with puppets. I saw children being creative, sharing, working together, being resourceful, and making cards and pictures to brighten someone's day as they painted, drew, taped (lots of tape!), glued and sparkled their creations. I saw children changing their plans, organizing a large group, sharing, helping each other, and doing something to make our classroom more interesting as they built with straws and connectors. I saw kids quietly enjoying a story when they knew they just needed a break. All of these things happened within our four walls in a matter of 30 minutes. When children are given choice and the opportunity to explore their passions, magic happens. Have a wonderful weekend!

-Erin

The 25 Faces of Room 9