Taco Thursday

Egg Drop

Exploring Mexico

Math in Action

I love that my students look forward to math!  We have mental math routines that we do each day and the students actual beg to do them because they are so much fun!  A new one that we tried was "Order Up".  The students were all given random numbers in the hundreds.  I timed them to see how fast they could put themselves in order from least to greatest.  Each time we play, we challenge ourselves to beat our previous time!

Science Fun

Same crew…..new grade

We are one year older now!  It's nice to be moving up and teaching these same kids grade 3.  The beginning of the year was a really smooth start for us, as the students just fell back into the regular routines and were great role models for our 3 new students, Biasha, Amelia and Janeia.  We all really miss Ben and Everly and we still talk about them a lot.  We wrote a new set of Classroom Beliefs, created a Team 25 art mural of our hands, and did a sharing activity with our "Me Bags".  It's been a great start!

Water Cycle Dioramas

100 Day & Valentine's Day

February 13th was a super fun day for Team 25.  We celebrated both Valentine's day and the 100th day of school.  For 100th day we watched a short video showing people from ages 1 to 100.  Next, the students went on a scavenger hunt around the classroom for 100 hearts.  They only managed to find 95 hearts but over the next few days, three more were found!  After that, they were challenged  to see how many times they could write their names in 100 seconds.  The students also did a short writing activity where they had to say what they would do if they were given $100.  Most students said they would buy toys or candy but Max said he would donate it to charity.  What a kind heart!  The highlight of our day was when I took pictures of the students using the "Aging Booth" app so that we could see what everyone would like when they are 100 years old!  Funny how you lose your teeth when you're 7 years old and then again when you are elderly!  We had a great day!

Outchie Stories

It has been extremely slippery outside.  I told the students about how my nephew Ty slipped on the ice at school and had to get 6 or 7 stitches on his eyebrow.  This sparked a 45 minute conversation about all the times we have ever gotten hurt.  I decided to turn this into a writing opportunity so the students began writing "Outchie Stories", i.e., telling about a time they got hurt.  These stories are going to be compiled into a class book and given to my nephew Ty so that he doesn't feel like he is the only one who has ever gotten hurt.  This provides the students with an authentic writing experience where they are writing for a specific audience (Ty).  Everyone was further motivated to tell their stories when they found out that they would each get to type their own story on the iPads and airdrop it to me.  Once I receive all of the students' stories along with a photo, they will be formed into a book on the App, "Book Creator".  We will be able to electronically send a copy of the book to Ty's classroom teacher, as well as keep our own copy, plus I will print a hard copy to have in our classroom library.  I'm SO proud of all the students for all the work they have put into this project!  Way to go Team 25!

Scaredy Diva Squirrel-Entry 3

After the conference was over, we were still able to spend the weekend in Florida.  I had no idea that Mrs. Shabaga had such great connections!  I was actually able to meet my heroes Chip and Dale! OMG!  However, panic immediately started to set in when Chip actually tried to TAKE A BITE OUT of me during our "meet and greet"!  Fortunately, I was whisked away for another photoshoot where I was surrounded by mini Chip and Dale Stuffies!  When Mrs. Shabaga's feet and ankles got sore, Miss Kirkland provided piggy back rides so she wouldn't have to walk.  What a great friend!

Scaredy Diva Squirrel Entry 2-Losing an eye….

Hi, it's me SDS again.  Apparently, this technology conference that Mrs. Shabaga brought me to is so "Eye Opening" that I actually LOST one of my eyeballs!  So did Scaredy Fluffball Squirrel!  Mrs. Shabaga is always telling you students to put your eyeballs on her "but don't take them out of your head because that's gross" and then mine just pops out of my head!!!!  I will never forgive her for not packing her hot-glue gun.  Not only did that happen today but she tried to have me killed by a GIGANTIC robot at the FETC conference.  I panicked and started to scream until the man at the booth explained what this robot was for.  It is a robot that goes to school for students who can not attend because of a disability.  It has a camera on it so the student can see all around the school and what the teacher is doing!  I was even brave enough to get right in front of the computer so that my face showed up on the front of the robot!  Aren't you proud of me?  Mrs. Shabaga learned about incorporating LEGO into math problem solving….she wishes she knew about that while she was teaching her LEGO theme at the beginning of the year.  She put me back in the bag for the rest of her seminars where I was happy to play

Scaredy Diva Squirrel in Florida Entry 1

Scaredy Diva Squirrel was convinced by Mrs. Shabaga to join her on her technology conference in Florida.  She was not thrilled about leaving the comfort of her nut tree, however, Mrs. Shabaga ensured her that she was going to LOVE the palm trees and warm weather.  SDS (Scaredy Diva Squirrel) ditched her Emergency Kit in favour of a new Michael Kohrs bag because she wanted to travel in style.        She is very happy to have her friend Scaredy Fluffball Squirrel (created by Mrs. MacLean-Pilat) along with her on the trip.  The plane from Winnipeg to Minneapolis only sat 50 people and Mrs. Shabaga and I had to sit at the VERY BACK of the plane.  Mrs. Shabaga put me in the window for a picture but I started to panic so the flight attendant asked her to put me back in the bag.  The airport in Minneapolis had MOVING sidewalks!  Mrs. Shabaga thought they were great and they gave her ankles a rest but I was worried that someone would step on me and wreck the flower in my hair.
PS.  Tell Mr. Bychuk that my pom pom fell off my collar.

Scaredy Squirrel Theme

Team 25 had a lot of fun with our Scaredy Squirrel Theme.  We read the books,  did lots of writing activities, designed emergency kits, created our own Scaredy Squirrels and had a pyjama party!

Letter to Ava

Here is a copy of the letter that we wrote to Ava.  She is a 9 year old girl who lost her home due to an explosion that occurred on Apple Lane.  


October 13,

Dear Ava,

We are so sorry for what happened to your house.  We understand that you must feel sad so we are giving you a gift card to Toys R Us. J We wanted you to be able to pick out anything you wanted to buy for yourself.  Maybe you will get to have a new home soon.

From Team 25 at Strathmillan School

The Big Taste-Test

The most exciting thing we did at school this week was a "taste-test" experiment for Science.  We were examining the properties of various liquids with our eyes and tongues!  There were 6 mystery liquids for students to taste with popsicle sticks.  They later discovered that these were syrup, Coke, pizza sauce, Five-Alive, chocolate sauce and honey.  The expressions on their faces were priceless when they tasted the honey!  Everyone watched as I also poured each mystery liquid into a cup so we could evaluate it's "viscosity"…..new word!

We examined maps and learned about legends and compass roses in S.S./Workshop.  Then we designed maps for Scaredy Squirrel to find his way to a new BFF.  It was lots of fun!

Everyone got to show off their artist talents by painting fall trees.  The art work turned out beautifully and we didn't even make too much of a mess!  Way to go guys.

The Terry Fox Run

We have 2 weeks of grade 2 behind us.  This week we wrote about being "Master Team Builders".  Each student described what they do to make our team run smoothly such as, showing good listening, sitting "ten, fold and hold", having "fish lips" (ask your kids about this!), cooperating, etc.  We also started our Scaredy Squirrel Community Study.  Scaredy Squirrel is quite a worry-wart and has a lot of fears about leaving the comfort of his nut tree.

During math this week we did an activity called "Spill the Beads".  It helped to teach us how to count in a more efficient way using a ten frame.  On Thursday, we figured out place value number puzzles and then got to make some puzzles of our very own.

We started watching a video on Solids, Liquids and Gases during Science but we haven't finished it yet.  We are looking forward to all the upcoming experiments related to matter!

It is also important to mention that we had library on Tuesday and that our books are due back to school on Wed., Sept. 24th, day 5.

It was another great week at school!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Shabaga

The First Week of School

This week at school we made Lego Avatars.  We liked designing our own faces.  We also wrote about our Avatars.  As a class we made a chart of our Classroom Beliefs.  Something funny we did for a body break was dancing to videos because we had been working so hard.  Taylor T. said she liked the "Gummy Bear" song.  Ethan, Ryan and Declan said they liked the "Kung Foo Fighting" song.  Max pointed out that we got a cheat sheet for our new French unit.  During art class we made placemats with our GIANT names on them. We poked balloons for science class.  One had water in it, one had ice and the other had air in it.  We screamed when the water went everywhere!  Some splashed in Jai's face!  This was our introduction to Solids, Liquids and Gases. Throughout the week we did photo shoots where we dressed in a hard hat and a big construction vest because we are working on a Lego movie theme. This week was an awesome week!

From,
Team 25

GRADE 2!

We've discovered that in Grade 2……"Everything is awesome, everything is cool when you're part of Team 25"!  We can't wait to share all of our learning experiences with you this year!

Farewell Grade 3s!

I was hoping to post our Year End Video on our blog but I've been having problems with my YouTube account.  Once the problem is resolved, the link to our 2013-2014 video will appear on this post.  Good bye grade 3s!  I will miss you.  Good luck in grade 4 and don't forget to come visit!