The Luchadors

Mexican wrestlers (AKA Luchadors) take over room 25!!!

Fiesta Time!

On Cinqo de Mayo our class finally celebrated the end of our Mexico unit with a much anticipated FIESTA!  Our pot-luck lunch was a huge success with thanks to all of the generous parents who brought in Mexican meals, food and supplies.  After our feast, we broke a piñata in the mini-gym.  This certainly was a day we will never forget!

This Week at School

This week at school was awesome!  We went swimming on Thursday and it was fun.  Billy Joe actually had a good time! 

This week we also made replicas of the Nile out of cardboard, sand, glitter, construction paper, blue tissue paper and we used skinny black Sharpies to write the names of cities on little signs.  It was a fantastic activity! 

We learned that the Ancient Egyptians buried their pharaohs in pyramids or in tombs inside of caves.  They are really big, so big that you can see the Great Pyramid of Giza from the moon!  There are lots of trap doors and corridors inside of the pyramids.  You could find, gold, jewels, a mummy, dead pets, and even a toilet for the pharaoh to use in the after-life.  Then Mrs. Shabaga taught us how to make 3-D pyramids.

Yesterday we met a guest artist named, Tiber.  We played imagination games to take a journey to Egypt and we watched him juggle.  Also he played one of the oldest instruments in the world called a jaw-harp.  In French it is called a “ruin-babine”.  They had those types of instruments in Ancient Egyptian times.

This week was amazing!

Sincerely,

Team 25

Our 1st Day of Swimming-Thursday April 24

Our first day of swimming lessons was fun (for most of us)! We got to swim for 45 minutes in the warm, salty water at the St. James Civic Centre.  We learned some pool rules and saw that they were posted on the wall there too.  Some of the pool rules include, no running on the pool deck, no diving in the shallow end, no jumping in the water at the same time as someone else, etc.

Thomas liked doing the "pencil dive" in the deep-end.  Cyrus loved trying to get his feet on the ground in the deep-end. Marisa had fun floating in the deep-end!  Jessy had a stomachache :(.  Eddie liked being in the water.  Duncan had fun holding his breath and going to the very bottom of the pool.  Skyla had so much fun swimming that she was laughing every second. Julia had a great time treading water and Alex said the slide was "fast"! Gaby liked EVERYTHING! (of course)

The girls were the first ones onto the pool deck but Ben says, "That's not fair!  Mr. G. told the boys to line up inside the change room instead.  Plus, there are 16 boys who needed to get ready."

 But…… those 16 boys were faster than all the girls coming OUT of the change room.  Billy insists that you know that there were only 6 girls.

Swimming was awesome and we can't wait to go again next week!  (Well, all of us except for Billy who says he didn't like it.)

Sincerely,
Team 25

The Aztec Calendar

We learned that the original Aztec calendar (the Cuauhxicalli) was carved in 1479.  It was made in honour of the Sun God.  It is also called the "Sun Stone".  This calendar was made out of a stone called "basalt" which comes from dried lava. We were surprised to hear that the calendar is 3 feet thick and 12 feet wide!  It got lost under the ground for 300 years until it was discovered in the central square of Mexico City.  This ginormous creation is now on display in a museum in Mexico City.  We made our own Sun Stones in class using our own unique and creative designs.  Check them out below.
Sincerely,
Team 25

The Horrible Aztecs

This week at school we learned about the HORRIBLE Aztecs.  They lived in the 1500s. The capital city that the Aztecs created was called Tenochtitlan which was a man-made island in the middle of a lake.  We were horrified to find out that the Aztecs thought it was a privilege to get your heart cut out as a sacrifice to the Gods!  The Aztecs made sacrifices to the Gods because they thought it would keep the sun moving. They even played games with heads (but we shouldn't go into detail!)  We think this is CRAZY!!!!! Moctezuma was the ruler of the Aztecs until he was captured by Hernan Cortez who came over from Spain.  Cortez turned the Aztecs into slaves and some people believe that Moctezuma will have his revenge!

This history report was brought to you by Team 25.

Beautiful Structures

Not only have the students learned to identify many of the famous structures of the world, they have also done a beautiful job sketching them!  I'm so proud of their art work!