Go to the zoo for FREE!

If you're looking for something to do over the next few weeks . . . kids 12 and under can go to the Assiniboine Park Zoo for FREE until January 3!

This is an awesome opportunity to check out the "Journey to Churchill" exhibit; which is amazing!

Gift Tag Sales = a success!

This week, the SPIN Club sold holiday gift tags at the Christmas Concerts. Once again, the sales did not disappoint! We raised $565; which will go towards building a school in Nicaragua with "Free the Children".

We also collected 55 items for local hampers. I dropped off the food and toys at Abundant Life Lutheran Church (just down the street from BHS) yesterday. They have received 63 requests for hampers from families in our community!

It's so nice to help out others at this time of the year!

Thanks for your support!

Secret Santa in Room 31

One thing that is fun about teaching an older grade is that I can do really neat things with the students! Between all the concert practices, we made gorgeous cards for our families and a super adorable snowman mug this week!

The last few years, we've held Secret Santa in Room 31 during the last week of school. I wasn't quite sure how the idea would go over with the students this year . . . but they loved it! I was impressed with all the awesome clues! It sure was fun to see everyone's enthusiasm each morning as things were delivered!

Here's Kaitlyn's review . . .

Things to share:

#3. I love the gifts that my Secret Santa gets me because it is nice to know that my Secret Santa does not forget me.

#2. I do not know who my Secret Santa is but they get me good gifts.

#1. I wonder who my Secret Santa is.

Things that surprised me:

#2. The gifts my Secret Santa gets me.

#1. That my Secret Santa knows me well.

What I hope for:

#1. That I will find out who is my Secret Santa.

By Kaitlyn J 

Christmas Concert Review!

The other day in the lab, students had a choice of reviewing the Christmas Concert or Secret Santa. It's always fun to read what their thoughts are!

Here's Jace's review of the Christmas Concert . . .

3 things to share:

One thing about the Christmas concert is that I think we did a great job singing.

I also think that it was really good how everyone was using really good loud and clear voices.

One more thing about the Christmas concert is that I think we did a really good job watching Mrs. Knoll with the actions.

2 surprising things:

One thing I was REALLY surprised with is when I had to fill in for Mackadie as a nes gadol dancer.

And one more thing is that when I went on stage I didn’t forget the steps.

1 hope:

One thing that I will hope for next time is that we can do another acting Christmas concert.   

By: Jace

Holiday Gift Tags!

Once again, the SPIN Club has been busy making holiday gift tags to sell at the Christmas concerts next week. Packs of 10 tags (2 of each style) will be sold for $3 with all proceeds going towards our global initiative with Free the Children. We are continuing to raise money to build a school in Nicaragua.

Several Grade 5 SPIN Club members came to before and after school sessions to work on the tags this week. As well, many students attended drop-in sessions during lunch to complete the tags. You can't beat handmade for the holidays!

We were rewarded with some beautiful sunrises on Tuesday and Wednesday morning!

Thanks for all your help! Looking forward to SELLING OUT! Ha!  :)

We will also be collecting non-perishable food items for Holiday Hampers. Look for the bins by the library on the days of the concerts! Thank you for thinking of others at this time of year!

A "Practice makes Perfect" TWAS!

We've been super busy with Christmas Concert practices all week! I'm so proud of all of the students that are part of the drama . . . they totally know their lines! Yay! It's always so fun to see the bits and pieces come together for the big show!

Thanks to Gina for sharing her TWAS on the blog this week . . .

On Monday we had a morning meeting and I shared about the three Gerbils I was getting and when I was getting them I got them on Wednesday and they were born on October 7^th and they are so cute and they are also sisters. We also talked about Secret Santa and who was going to be doing Secret Santa and it was fun!

            On Tuesday we had art we made ornaments and they look really cool. We used oil pastels and it was awesome and they turned out great. We also had choir practice for the Christmas Concert and it is fun I am also in the drama part for the Christmas Concert and that is fun!!

            On Wednesday we did word work and I did not do it because I was making a card for my auntie because it is her birthday. We also made cards for Jack because he is in the hospital with double pneumonia and we are trying make him feel better.

Pictograph for math on Friday!

            On Thursday we had a choir practice and it was fun and after that we had a full concert run-through with all of the drama people and we did the whole play.

            On Friday we are going to finish the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and it is an awesome movie. We also did twas in the computer lab and like it I am now done my twas. Thank you and ttyl.       

By: Gina   

Ornaments on Pine Trees . . . colourful Christmas art!

Okay, who ever made up this art should get a standing ovation. We used oil pastels to create the whole art. First in pencil we would draw some branches and trace ornaments. Then we would go over the branches with brown pastel. Then we would draw pine needles on the branches going down. Finally we get to the fun part, making the ornaments! How we would make them is we took some oil pastels and made patterns on the ornaments. We then filled in the rest of the ornament, we had a choice of making one, two or three ornaments on your paper.

By: Katrina and Rebecca

Charlie and the Chocolate . . . TWAS!

We've had a busy week . . . concert practices are well underway! A special thank you to Katrina and Rebecca who have started the "Candy Cane Club" in our classroom. These girls are planning fun activities for anyone interested. So far, we've met on quite a few recesses to create winter crafts! 

Today, we had our "R Chart Celebration"! The students voted for pj day and a movie afternoon which made for a pretty awesome Friday! Thanks to so many families for sending in movies for us to choose from. We voted on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which we will need to finish next week!

Thanks to Brogan for sharing his TWAS on the blog this week . . .

On Monday we had morning meeting that means we talk about our weekend. I talked about when I had to go to the hospital a lot because my cousin was sick. We had our Book Buddies come and they showed us their portfolio I liked it. After we played math games. It was fun.

On Tuesday we had new spots and new nametags. I am sitting with Max and Matthew. It’s ok. We also had French I am getting really good at it.

On Wednesday we had word work but I chose to do my thumbprint it’s where you guess people’s thumbprint that they made. Also we did read to self I read World of the War for half of the time and wrote a story called Lone Moon.

On Thursday we had library I took out Timberwolf and Battle. Both books are really good.

Today we have PJ day! it is really fun we got to bring a stuffy too. I am almost finished my T.W.A.S.

By Brogan

Giving Tuesday

Today is "Giving Tuesday" . . . a day that often sees online charitable donations skyrocket! In Room 31, we decided to write out notes to brighten the day of someone else. It could be for someone at home or at school. I was so touched by the thoughtfulness of the students, as well as their eagerness in this simple activity. It was just awesome seeing the smiles on the faces of students that received a warm and fuzzy note.

Thanks for being you.

TWAS: Term 1 is a wrap!

Thank you for coming out and celebrating your child's learning over the last 2 days! As busy as this time of the year is for us teachers and students, it's also the most rewarding! It's just awesome to see the students so eager to share with their families.

Thanks to Coen for sharing his TWAS on the blog this week . . .

On Monday we had computer lab and finished our comic life. In the end it turned out looking pretty awesome! We also started writing out Term One Tribune! It think it’s like a newspaper for our classroom? Hmmmm. Well anyways it was really fun! One more thing we did was the final step in our birch tree art! I just love how it turned out!

On Tuesday we had an assembly. I also finished my Who Am I writing. The Who Am I writing looks like a fingerprint. See if you can guess mine! Another thing we had was music. We did recorder stuff.

On Wednesday we got a FREE breakfast because we won some sort of draw. I would give it two stars because the pancakes were super dry, the eggs were cold as ice, and they didn’t even have SYRUP. The only good things were the chocolate milk and sausages. One more thing was that Mrs. Nowicki was a substitute in the morning because Ms. Wasney was in a meeting.

 

On Thursday I am typing this very sentence in the computer lab. And on the bright side I am almost done. Anyways, we also had gym, which we didn’t do anything yet because I think gym is after lunch. I don’t know I’ll check sooner or later. We also did portfolio practice. And we still didn’t do it because it’s after afternoon recess.

On Friday there is no school.

By: Coen

#NOSCHOOL

Birch Trees in Winter . . . the prettiest art!

Making this birch tree art was really fun. Our first snowfall inspired us to make it. What we did was we got water colour paper and we cut pieces of masking tape and we cut it into shapes of trees and we also made branches. Then we pushed down the tape with all our might so the paint wouldn’t leak underneath it. After that we got water colour paint and we could either blend a few colours together or just have one colour on it I did two colours blue and purple. Then (this was optional) you could sprinkle bits of salt on it to give it that snowy look.

Then we removed the tape and did oil pastel. The first step for oil pastel was the bark, what we did is we got black pastel and put lines to resemble the black lines on birch trees. Step two was to do the shadow so we got gray pastel and on the opposite side of the black pastel we did gray to resemble the shadow on the trees from the sun or moon. 


Ms. Wasney has really good ideas for art and this was one of my favourites.

By: Carter Grace

A "snowy" TWAS!

Wow! We've had a whirlwind of a week! Some of the involved students were out 3 times this week! Monday had the Grade 5 SPIN Club members at WE Day, on Tuesday, several Grade 4s and 5s were at Dr. Hamilton for a volleyball tournament, and today, the Grade 4 and 5 Patrols spent the morning at Wheelies! Throw in the excitement of the first snowfall, and our week was a wrap! Ha!

Here's Katrina's TWAS for the week . . .

Art Reflection on Tuesday

On Monday, we got computer lab to finish up Comic Life, I love Comic Life. Well, half of the class went to WE Day, the other half stayed back and we got to watch The Lorax! Yay!

Unicef Reflection on Wednesday

Tuesday, Read to Self. We never get read to self, so this time we did! Yay! I love read to self! Half of the class went to a volleyball tournament. That made the day a bit confusing.

Wednesday, in Gym we had a “strength-a-thon”. I was surprised to find out I started at bench jumps! We also had early dismissal! Yay!

Snow inspired art on Friday!

On Thursday we had a substitute teacher, it was Mr. Waldie. I like him because he makes lots of fun names for us! In Gym we played tennis.

On Friday, the patrols went to Wheelies in the morning. So at music there was barely anyone there! We are having Book Buddies later. I like book buddies.

By Katrina

SPIN Club goes to WE Day!

I think attending WE Day Manitoba is by far one of my favourite teaching days of the year! It is so inspiring to attend the event with 16 000 "change making" youth from across the province! The purpose is to kick start our year of campaigns in association with Free the Children. Mrs. Tresoor, Mrs. Dyck and I took 26 Grade 5 SPIN Club members to the MTS Centre yesterday. When we returned to school, we reflected on the day. Here are thoughts from some students:

At WE Day, the person that inspired me was Spencer West because he said lots of different stuff that all meant: No matter how old you are or what you can’t do, that YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. All the other stuff that made me feel good was all the people willing to make a change to the whole world.

The other thing that inspired me was when people waved their phones. It looked like I was in space. It also looked like they weren’t phones floating in mid air . . . they represented sparks of ideas.      – Tommy-Lee

Today was an inspiring Monday. WE Day changed my life. Out of everything, and I mean everything, my favourite presenter was Liz Trinnear. She has such a great message to the world in 2 words: imagination and engineering . . . Imagineering.    

 - Rebecca

Craig Kielburger and his brother Marc spoke into my heart by talking about how to change the world. JR Martinez inspired me by telling us his story. His friends worried about him, so when he was recovered he worried so much for them.      - Cory

I think my favourite part of WE Day was when Henry Winkler and Marlee Matlin came on stage! Marlee Matlin did sign-language and said “believe in yourself” because people told her she couldn’t succeed in life, but she did!     - Sierra

I was inspired by Elliot because he’s not much older than me and involved. The same thing that he did, I’d like to do.      - Donavan