FREE admission at Assiniboine Park Zoo!

Did you know that Assiniboine Park Zoo is offering FREE admission for all kids (12 and under) from December 20th to January 4th?! If you haven't had a chance to see the "Journey to Churchill" exhibit yet, now is the time! It's fantastic!

Kids can even get a FREE hot chocolate at the Tundra Grill all winter long! Yum!

Click HERE to see all the different activities taking place at the zoo during the Christmas break.

Final TWAS of 2014!

We've had a whirlwind of a week. Well, let's face it . . . the entire month has been a complete blur! Ha!

This week, we were busy with wrapping up our IBL research, working on a super fun snow globe writing and art job with Ms. Koehn, creating an adorable Christmas craft, and we saw our book buddies for a neat activity. Yesterday, we had a bonus gym class because we filled up our "O Chart" last week! Everyone had lots of fun, enjoying free time in the gym! Who knew "scooter mat" was a real thing?! Definitely not me! Ha!

Today, we had a school-wide assembly where we sang Christmas carols, stayed in our pjs all day long - watching a movie and eating LOTS of treats (thanks families!). Ms. Claydon's new puppy, Sophie made a guest appearance today too! She was sooooooo cute!

This week, Room 31 totally got into Secret Santa! We had the big "reveal" and I was surprised that so many students guessed who their SS was! Must be because of all the fantastic hints?!

Thanks for a wonderful first 4 months of Grade 5! Hope you have a fantastic Christmas break! I can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

Ms. Wasney  :)

Goodbye Ms. Koehn!

Today, we said goodbye to our student teacher Ms. Koehn. We've really enjoyed having her in our class since September, and especially during her teaching block for the last month. Ms. Koehn has been accepted to do her 2nd teaching block in Germany in April! So she will stop by and visit BHS, but no longer teach here. Here are some warm and fuzzy thoughts from the students of Room 31 . . .

Abbey - You help everyone in case they need help. You have warmed our hearts!

Adam - I enjoyed when you taught us social studies

Aimie – Ms.Koehn I like when you taught us social studies you made it more fun for me Merry Christmas.

Andrew – Ms. Koehn, you are my favourite student teacher by 1 million

Angela - Thank you for always helping me when I’m stuck on something or if I have a question, I hope you have a good time in Germany! Merry Christmas + A Happy new year!

Aria - Thank you for everything you do for me. I hope you will have a good time in Germany, but we will miss you tons. Have a very, merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Brady - I like doing the art projects you make us do

Brett - All of the projects that we did with you were probably the best ones I have done since kindergarten and you came up with such good ideas Merry Christmas!

Caeden - Thank you for teaching us everything that you taught us, you are so nicest student teacher ever! Merry Christmas!

Dobie - I love that your always have good activities and your always so nice to us and your super good at coming up with ideas.

Jaedan – I love how you’re always nice to me.

Jason - you are really helpful and you always come up with such great ideas, merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Jayden - You’re the best s.s teacher in the world and every one wishes you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Jessica, Ms. Claydon, & Ms. Ross – Thank you for being so kind, thoughtful, and inclusive!

Kaleb - thanks for everything Miss Koehn I will miss you thanks for teaching us having fun with us Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Karley - I will miss you so much you are the best student teacher

Leif - I liked how you helped me almost every day that was very helpful and liked when I was behind you let me type my IBL thing thanks for all and a happy new year.

Liam - Merry Christmas Ms. Koehn and thx for all the help you gave. 

Matthew - Merry Christmas Ms.Koehn we will all miss you big time thanks for everything you have done for us.

Matt - Thank you for teaching me social studies JJJ)JJJ 

Sydney - You are the best student teacher ever and I like it when you help us and you are super good at teaching us at social studies.  

Tyler – you are the best at teaching social studies I liked you in our class you are the best student teacherJ

Patrol of the Month

Congratulations to Leif for being recognized as Patrol of the Month for December! Thank you for working so hard during this cold month! It's nice to see our Grade 5s being leaders at BHS! Way to go!  :)

If I lived in a snow globe . . .

A week before Christmas break we started an art project and these are the steps:

1^st We took pictures outside

2^nd we wrote our rough copy in our writer’s notebook our if I lived in a snow Globe 

3^rd we wrote our good copy

4^th we decorated and glued our snow globe

5^th we gave it too Ms. Koehn and she hot glued a plastic plate and fake snow to it

These are the steps we did to create our snow globe. Now here are some materials to make it:

Pencil, thin sharpie, construction paper, normal paper, glue, hot glue, plastic plate and scissors.

We had so much fun doing this art project and everyone’s look so good now.

By: SYDNEY AND JAYDEN

Secret Santa!

This week we started secret Santa! The way it works is last week we drew names from a tin can and we told Ms. Wasney who we had picked out of the can.   Each gift you receive or send will usually have a hint or clue about who your secret Santa is and maybe a present.

We have agreed to the following rules:

- You need to leave something for your secret Santa in the morning of each day.

-you should Not spend money, however you can re-gift something from home that’s in good condition (maximum $5).

- You can’t tell anyone except family who your secret Santa is.

-it’s nice to leave a hint for every day. (Be as tricky as you can be.)

-  Students choosing not to participate can’t be involved or ruin it for others.

These are some of the ideas we could do for our secret Santa:

- a card, joke, word search, crossword, riddle, colouring page, a homemade craft or art, a paper snowflake and baked treats etc.

We got these from our secret Santa today:

Matthew got 2 very yummy cookies and a card they know me so well because on the front they put a Xbox controller and inside the card there was a walrus.

Adam got a card and I also got a candy cane from my Secret Santa.

We can’t wait for the rest of the week so we can find out what else we get from our secret Santa. We also can’t wait for Friday so we can find out our secret Santa. So far we rate this week 5 out of 5 stars.

By: Adam and Matthew

TWAS in pictures!

This week just flew by! Today, we were quite busy and didn't get a chance to work on TWAS on the computer.

Our Christmas concert was awesome on Wednesday! Thanks to all the families for coming out. Didn't the music get you into the Christmas spirit?! Some of the songs are STILL in my head! Ha! It was also neat to see (and hear!) some of the Grade 7 band ensemble perform at the end of the night. 8 out of the 9 students were BHS alumni! So cool!

Yesterday, the field trip was so great! The walk was especially fun, with many of the students playing in the snow while we waited for the back of the line to catch up to the front of the line! Kids being kids! Please read up about the field trip in yesterday's post, and watch a video of our time packing hampers!

We had a fun new attendance . . . Christmas theme, of course! We've been busy working on IBL, social studies, a bit of math, and a writing job with Ms. Koehn, as well as creating top secret art for our families. A big thank you to PAC for providing a pizza lunch for every student today! Yum!

I seriously can't believe there's only one more week of school before Christmas holidays! Hope you get a chance to rest up because the last week is going to be super busy!

Ms. Wasney  :)

Hamper packing field trip!

It was a beautiful morning for the walk to Abundant Life Lutheran Church to help with the Christmas Hamper program. This is the 3rd year that the Grade 5s have been invited to help with sorting items for the hampers. Our creative students also decorated boxes, and we were treated to a snack! The church received 54 requests for hampers for families in our community. It was really nice to help others during this time of year!

Today our class and Ms. Dyck’s class went to the Abundant Life Lutheran Church to pack hampers to go to people that can’t afford food or drinks. Can you believe 54 people called and wanted a hamper?! On the walk there because we were so far apart from each other the faster people got to jump in the ditches. When we got there Ms. Brewer said that we could sort some of the food onto tables. But that didn’t take very long. After sorting some food from our school we got to decorate the hampers and we all drew Christmas stuff on them. Then right at the end we got popcorn and a choice of orange juice or apple juice.  That was pretty much it.

By Brett

Super SPIN Club!

Wow! We are super excited to share that all of our handmade gift tags SOLD OUT at the Christmas Concerts this week! We sold 194 packs of 10 tags. All of the proceeds ($586.80) will be donated to "Free the Children's Year of Empowerment". A big thank you goes out to the dedication and creativity of the SPIN Club members that volunteered to come in before school, spend their recesses, and even staying after school on a Friday to make the gift tags.

We were also collecting non-perishable food items to be used in hampers for families in our community. We collected over 110 pounds of food during the concerts this week! Thanks for your support! Then, the Grade 5s went to help sort food and pack hampers at a local church today. This is the 3rd year of an awesome field trip tradition!

Thanks for your support and thinking of others at this time of year!

Gift tags by the SPIN Club

This week, SPIN Club members have had the option of attending 3 sessions before or after school, as well as drop-in sessions at recess to create gift tags. We will be selling the tags in packs of 10 for $3 at the Christmas Concerts next week. All proceeds are in support of "Free the Children's Year of Empowerment".

The gift tags have become a yearly tradition . . . it's so much fun working on them! Mrs. Tresoor and I really appreciate the dedication, creativity, and enthusiasm of the SPIN Club members during this time of year! Thanks for all your help!  :)

We will also be collecting non-perishable food items at the concerts next week. Then, on December 11th, the Grade 5s will be going to Abundant Life Lutheran Church to help pack Christmas hampers for families in our area. This will be the 3rd year that the Grade 5s will be participating in this activity. It's so nice to think of others at this time of year.

TWAS in pictures for another week!

Well, the concert crunch is on! The stage, risers, and sound was set up in the gym this week, so we got to practice a full run-through of the concert. Things are really coming together for it! All classes have been busy practicing, and creating artwork for decorations in the gym.

Since the gym is being used for concert practices, phys ed classes have been outside . . . which means that the Grade 5s got to do cross-country skiing twice this week! Luckily, we've had perfect weather! :)

Here are some pictures from our instagram account to share about our week. Be sure to check Artsonia to see the beautiful oil pastel art we did!

Patrol of the Month!

Congratulations to Dobie for being recognized as Patrol of the Month for November! Thank you for working so hard to keep others safe on and off the school bus!

Thank you!

Just a quick thank you to families for coming out to student-led conferences! I always like this time of year because it's fun to celebrate the first term and all things we've done as a class community.

Students . . . you did a wonderful job sharing your portfolio and showing off our classroom. It is so neat to see your pride in where you spend your days!

Parents . . . thanks for supporting your child in their learning. It was nice meeting some of you for the first time!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Take time to enjoy the fresh snow!
Ms. Wasney    :)

TWAS in pictures . . . again!

With this being a 4 day week, it just seemed to FLY by! We found time to type out TWAS today, however we didn't get a chance to pick a student to share their work on the blog! Once again, we will share pictures from our Instagram account! Enjoy!

On Monday, we met with our Book Buddies for the very first time. We will be meeting with the Grade 2s from Mrs. Henry's class every Day 4 to read and do fun activities. It is so neat to see the Grade 5s be the "big buddies", when they once were the "little buddies". Ms. Koehn completed a writing activity called "Who am I" with the students . . . we're hoping the descriptive writing will "clue" parents in during student-led conferences!

Tuesday was filled with IBL, portfolio prep and we also visited the Scholastic Book Fair in the library . . . filled with so many great books, fun gadgets, and awesome posters!

On Wednesday, students continued working on their Term 1 Tribune, an art reflection, classroom clean-up, and did Word Work Wednesday . . . a hit in Room 31! Brrrr! It was a day of indoor recesses and indoor bussing . . . we played a fun snowflake game on the Smartboard!

Today, we worked hard on our research during IBL, practiced for the Christmas concert (which is sounding great), and shared our portfolios with one another.

I think the students will need to rest up over their long weekend!

TWAS in pictures!

Today was so busy that we didn't get a chance to do a typed TWAS . . . so we will share about our week through pictures from our Instagram account!

We continue to be busy with IBL with Mrs. Friesen for our research projects about a specific weather phenomenon of our choice. We had library with our new librarian and I read a hilarious book called, "The Book with no Pictures" . . . it really makes the reader say silly things - totally awesome to read out loud! On Wednesday, our student teacher, Ms. Koehn started her teaching block. We're excited to have her at school everyday until Christmas Break!

We started preparing our portfolios for student-led conferences. The students put great thought into writing reflection slips for their chosen work samples. We completed our amazing art - Cardinal Birds in Winter. We have received SO many compliments! Be sure to take a peek at them on Artsonia!

Yesterday, we had a snowmobile safety presentation in the gym. The students were very well behaved for the lengthy assembly! So today, they were surprised with "Movember" pencils! Also today, the patrols went to Wheelies and had a great time, plus it was the 2nd Hot Lunch of the year. We snuck in a quick winter art job at the end of our fantastic Friday!

Oh, and also this week, we learned an important lesson about the electric pencil sharpener! Ha!  :)