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 :)

Yummy Word Work & Science Centres!

Today at Word Work Mrs. Malkoske got a new word work material. It was crackers and we got to make words with them because they had letters on them. After, when you were done word work, you got to eat them. (And I am star of the week). -Madeline

I did fishy crackers at word work. When I was done my words I ate them. They tasted like cheesy crackers and they were letters. -Nick

Today word work was yummmy. It was exciting to work with things you eat. After your round you could eat them. That's the part that made it yummy! -Ashley & Cameron

Today in the afternoon we had centres. There were 6 centres. There was different groups. Some were with their whole table group and some had one person away to make another group. We got to pick our own spot at our table. After that we got to pick where we wanted to go. -Taylor

We kind of used marbles and we put some water in to see if it would go up or no. -Sam

Today we did centres. I really liked using the marbles and the blocks. It was hard. -Rylee

My favourite science centre was the ones with water. In one of the water ones you filled a cup with water and put marbles into it and see if it overflowed. The other one was there was a container with a line and a big marble. You poured the water into the cup with the line then  put the marble in. -Sydney R

My favourite centre was the one with beads but the beads spilled everywhere! It was still fun. -Kendall

This weekend I took another trip down to Grand Forks with my Mom to visit my sister and her family. We were celebrating my nephew's 4th birthday and watching my niece perform in the North Dakota Ballet Company's production of Alice in Wonderland.

Whenever I go across the border Target is always on my list of places to visit. (After family of course.) When I shop at Target my rule is to only buy things that I can't get in Canada. This weekend I found Cheez-It Scrabble Junior crackers... and they were a huge hit during word work this morning! The kids are always excited to use a new material, especially when they can eat it after. :) -Mrs. Malkoske

Not Funny Mother Nature.

We had library today. The story was about a girl and dad and a mom and a whale (Sam & Olivia). When we were doing centres, when I was at bubbles, I made a really big bubble (Aliegha). When we were doing centres today we made bubbles and if you blow into it with a straw, it makes it bigger (Sydney R). Today at the stations, first I went to bubbles and when I was blowing bubbles I made the bubbles run down the side (Rylee). There were four centres. One was sand, one was water, one was bubbles and one was blocks. The first centre I went to was the sand. The people in my group were Taylor, Jolene, Aliegha, Madeline and Jadyn. It was exciting because when we were in the sand there was a little marble. Then someone would hide it and everyone would try to find us (Ashley). At centres when I made lots of bubbles, one time I accidentally swallowed it and it tasted horrible (Madeline). I got to school early in the morning and we just came in because it was too cold and that's what Mrs. Caldwell said on the announcements. It's really cold out today (Nick).

Today we had another day of indoor recess. It was way too cold to go outside and play (-35 or colder!). This afternoon during our inquiry time we did some centres to explore the properties of solids, liquids, and gases. Here are some pictures from our exploration centres this afternoon:

Here are some pictures of some of the creations that have been made with blocks during indoor recess:

Mystery Numbers and More!

Today it was Kaspir's birthday. We drew pictures for him and sang Happy Birthday. He went down to the principal's office to get a pencil. (Ashley) Today we did Mystery Numbers. My numbers are below. 14 means my bus number, 5198 means my home, 8 is my age, 17 is my birthday number, 99 is the number of times I've been to the States. (Jadyn) My numbers are below too. Can you guess what they mean? (Mrs. Malkoske)  Today we did Daily 5 and I did Read to Someone with Brandon. He is my best partner. (Nick) Today in gym the girls played Ringette and the boys played Hockey. (Sydney H) This week I am the Star of the Week! (Lindsay) We played a counting game in math with high fives. (Sam) Today after lunch in Inquiry we talked about solids, liquids and gases. (Rylee) In math Mrs. Malkoske put her mystery numbers on the white board and we tried to guess what they were. I put 7, 65, 215, 2, 13, and 7 (Madeline). Today it was my birthday and I had fun. (Kaspir)

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)

Frosty the Snowman

We are learning about solids, liquids and gas in science. We know that ice melts into a liquid that's water. He will melt unless we put him back outside where it's cold enough. Frosty looked like he was sweating and the sun is making him hot and trying to melt him. Frosty is going to melt and at the bottom there is a crack and it looks like a marble. Frosty the snowman is getting cracks in his head and all of his parts on him like his nose and eyes and buttons and tie are starting to leak off. We know he's melting because the water is making the sticky stuff fall off. When Frosty melts he'll look like a puddle. He looks like a snowman made of marbles. He was big and his nose fell off. He's getting smaller and smaller and there's water in the bottom of the water table. Some leaked out on the floor. He has holes in him now. We think that tomorrow he'll be all water.

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

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

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

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

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!)

We Belong Together

Today we talked about who we belong to like family and friends, and lots of sports. We talked about groups like Brownies and Sparks, dancing, skating, jobs, school, and cousins. We had to draw and label pictures of our groups and it was fun!
-Aliegha & Mrs. Malkoske

Reading Rocks!

We read a lot this morning. -Taylor
We did read to self. -Kendall
We did read to someone. -Alexander
Today we started word work during Daily 5. -Lindsay

Here are some other things we did today:
Today was our first day of math centres. We started Inquiry too. We talked about ourselves and had to answer questions.-Tristan
We did counting by 5s in math centres. -Brandon
We had the grade 5s and 6s in gym with us. -Jadyn
We did our jobs. -Nicholas
We had an awesome day! -Taylor

Watching young children grow as readers throughout the course of a school year is an awesome experience. Listening to a young child read a book that they couldn't read just a few short months or weeks before is rewarding, but watching their faces as they realize what they've just done is magic. :)