Month: February 2016

Today was the last day of our French week celebration.  The whole school participated in winter fun activities both inside and outside.  The class enjoyed playing soccer, having sled races, dressing like a voyager in a race, and curling.  Mrs. Cormack, our principal, even raced the class by pulling me in a sled!

We enjoyed hot chocolate with each other before heading back outside for a friendly game of tug of war!  The Super Kids should be exhausted tonight!

 

This week we finished our Hokusai inspired art.  The class outlined their sketches with pastel.  The class learned about warm and cool colours before using this knowledge to complete their art pieces.  They did an amazing job.

 

It was the 100th day of school!  I can’t believe it.  The time has flown by.  Today we celebrated the special day with lots of math.  Our morning work involved skip counting to 100 and answering tricky math questions to colour in the answers on a 100 chart.  A surprise superhero picture emerged and the kids were thrilled.  We had several math centres in the morning and in the afternoon.  We made 100 dots with Q-tips, filled in a 100 chart, created pictures with 100 pattern blocks, stacked 100 cups, did 100 exercises, and played race to 100 with tens and ones.  That was just in our room.  Then we switched with Mrs. White’s class and had some special centres in her classroom.

It was a great day of celebrating math together.  I’m amazed at how the Super Kids have grown so far this school year.  I look forward to the second half of the school year with my enthusiastic and amazing kids. 🙂

This week we have started our water and air unit in science.  The class has been looking a thermometers and how they work.  We boiled water and watched what happened to the thermometer and then put it in snow from outside.  The class loved watching the temperature go up and down.  We have started to read the numbers on thermometers and it will become part of our morning work. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of this process.  I was too busy having fun with the kids!

Today we learned about the famous Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. We talked about his style and what we saw when we looked at his artwork.

Many students noticed the boats and wanted to know why they were on the ocean when the waves were so high.  Others noticed the mountain in the background and we talked about how it is Mount Fuji.  One Super Kid said that the wave looked like it was going to gobble the people up!  Another Super Kid made the connection to our poppy art from either in the year.  They said, “Mrs. Didyk, the mountain is like our poppies.  Its smaller to show that its far away.”  Awesome!

We started the sketching process today and will paint and outline next week.  We had to stop to go to music and many didn’t want to leave.  The art rule in our class is ” There are no mistakes in art, just opportunities!”  It is wonderful to see the class jumping into a project.  Stay tuned!

This afternoon the class will have genius hour.  Many kids are presenting and they are so eager to research.  One Super Kid shared this morning.  We learned about Frogs.  I love the way she decided to share her learning!

 

Monday is the 100th day of school!  I know where did the time go?  The Super Kids will be participating in 100 day math, writing and a whole lot more.  It is going to be another crazy day with lots of learning.  Have a wonderful weekend.

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!  What a crazy day in the Super Kid’s classroom!  It was indoor recess (-40C), hot pizza lunch, and our Valentine’s party!  The trifecta!  The class loved to exchange their cards and thank each other.  We also did a science experiment with candy hearts.  We predicted what we thought would happen when we placed candy hearts into glasses with vinegar, club soda, and water.  The room smelled like vinegar for most of the afternoon, but the class loved being scientist.

 

 

This week was also “I Love To Read” week at our school.  We had PJ day on Monday and read our favourite bedtime stories with our 3/4 buddies.  We even when to the library and had a special story with our librarian.  Thursday was dress like your favourite character/wear words day.  I went as Waldo. We had lots of kids wearing words and others dressed up.  Some kids were Pinkalicious, Thing 1, and Fly Guy etc.  We searched for Waldo in the Where’s Waldo books.  One Super Kid came up with the idea to use a magnifying glass. Brilliant!

 

 

We also had our genius hour and there are some exciting projects being developed.  We have become space, shark, dinosaur, and animal experts!   Many like to work on their projects during centres.  One Super Kid studied sharks because I brought in a picture of myself swimming with sharks to relate to a book we read as a class.

 

We wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day!  Enjoy the long weekend.

 

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This was the best afternoon!  The Super Kids were so excited to make their own marble mazes.  Each student brought their own box from home and anything else they wanted to use to help them make their maze.  Many brought lego, straws, and clay.  Of course, I had a stash of supplies for them to use if they wanted.  They problem solved and helped each other create their mazes.  The Super Kids loved testing the mazes and sharing them with others.  Wonderful job Super Kids!

 

How did you spend your afternoon?  The Super Kids had a blast making our own marble maze!  The class took turns, problem solved, and tested their invention.  It was so much fun!  At the end of the day, there were still kids trying it with their hat and mitts on.  I just love their enthusiasm.  On Thursday, each student is creating their own with a box from home.  I can’t wait to see what they come up with.