Sunday, October 30, 2011

Free the Children

This year Bird's Hill School is one of the lucky Winnipeg schools that gets to be a We School. This means that we get to take 13 children in grade 6 to We Day at the MTS Centre on November 23. We will also work as a Youth in Action group of grade 5 and 6 students throughout the year who are interested in making the world a better place for children everywhere. Our Free the Children Club will be starting it's own blog and using digital media to raise awareness, spread the word, share our progress and gather feedback through comments. Stay tuned!

This Week at School

This week at school…
In science we watched more videos on YouTube. This time we were watching videos about air pressure.  There was a guy in Mexico and he had a watch to measure the pressure. He was down at sea level and the pressure was… I can’t remember sorry. When he was on the mountains there wasn’t that much pressure because it takes all the pressure away that you had on the beach.  
In Gym we did lots of volleyball. It was about learning how to bump and today we learned how to volley the volleyball. We played different volleyball games. Like: backyard clean up and keep up with a partner. Today Me Matt, Dawson, Nick M, Nick S, And Cam.
In Art we did silhouettes. STEPs: you colour the paper with paint in order yellow orange red purple blue black. Then you let it dry while it is drying you cut out your black shapes. When your picture is dry you glue your black cut outs to your paper and that is it. And that is how you make silhouettes.
This week in Math we did our math quiz. I think I did really well because on the pre-test I got it all right and I studied hard. In math otherwise we did estimates. It was hard because you were always trying to get the right answer. It was different
Mason

Friday, October 28, 2011

Sharing With Voki

Brooke finished her TWAS early and was exploring Voki. She created this clip about our day.


Halloween Silhouette Art

This week we created Halloween silhouette art as seen on ThatArtistWoman's Blog. She has so many fantastic ideas and explains them all step by step. After I used the Artsonia app to load our artwork to our student art gallery, I created an Animoto video of our art work using the Animoto app on my iPhone. It was so easy to do, the only hiccup was that I couldn't rotate the photos so some of them are sideways :( Check out our video...

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Planning for 10 000 Day

Today we started planning for our 10 000 Day to celebrate having over 10 000 visitors to our blog. We brainstormed our ideas using linoit again. We are still looking for suggestions, leave us a comment with your ideas!
Here is what we have so far:



Last year's 100 Day shirt with 100 tallies

100 Day is always one of my favorite days to plan and have with young students. Everyone loves the activities that are all about counting, exploring 100, learning and having fun at the same time. I was disappointed to think that celebrating 100 day in grade 5 probably wouldn't happen so it was really exciting to discover we could have 10 000 Day. 10 000 is a totally different number to work with than 100, I don't think making a 10 000 Fruit Loop necklace would be a feasable as one with 100! And I won't be able to make a 10 000 shirt like I have for 100 Day with buttons and ribbon tallies. We will have to be creative, which makes it all the more interesting. In math we have been talking about large numbers and are now talking about estimating with large numbers which might come in handy when we are writing a story with 10 000 letters or words! Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!
-Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

Monday, October 24, 2011

We Have Hit 10 000 Visitors!

I just noticed that we have reached 10 000 blog visitors! YAHOO! We are going to celebrate with a "10 000 Day" - stay tuned for details.
How do you think we should celebrate 10 000 blog visitors? Leave us a comment below with your suggestions.

Plastic Bag Assembly Production

Tomorrow we will be having an assembly and sharing our Plastic Bag Round Up project with the school. They know it is going on because we have talked about it, advertised it and sent notes home but we thought we should share our progress.
Last year my students and I created a video for this same purpose. When I showed it to grade 5 to kick off and explain our plastic bag project this year, they immediately wanted to make one of their own. I thought this was a great way to introduce Animoto so that the students could use it on their own in the future.
We took photos and video clips during each of our bag counting days and started putting the video together as a class. Today, we did some more detailed planning using linoit, digital sticky notes, which allowed us to organize our plans as we brainstormed. Here is our final linoit product.




Before we got to this point, we had brainstormed all the things that needed to be included in our video production. Once we had all the ideas down, we were able to move them into the order we wanted them incorporated and decide who would like to be recorded saying each one. Once this was done, we grouped the notes to show who would record whom and talked about video recording skills. (Boy, when I put it all down in detail, we got through a lot!) The students recorded each other on our Flip cameras and voila! Our production! (Well, not quite just voila. I am finishing it off in Animoto due to our deadline of tomorrow.) We will post the video once we have shared it with our school community.
-Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

Thursday, October 20, 2011

More and More Bags!

Today we counted plastic bags for the second time. We have the system down to a science now which is great! One of our students had brought in five giant bags of bags that she had collected from a few sources so we were predicting whether or not we would have as many as we did last week (2600). The general consensus was "no".
After about an hour of counting we came to a surprising 2880! This brings our grand total to 5480. Wow! Keep it up.
-Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)



The Faces of Five

I just added a photo to the right side bar of our blog. Since it is a little hard to see, I am posting it here as well. I made this using a very cool tool called Shape Collage which is exactly what it sounds like. A shape that is a collage of photos!
-Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

Publishing With Book Creator

This week i finished my frist story in daily 5. So I got to publish it on the ipad. The ipad is from a group that Mrs.Dent Scarcello is in. I got to publish it on a app on the ipad called "Book creater". Book Creater is where you get to type your book, when you are publishing you get to put pictures in your book. Its very cool and when you are done your book it goes strate into "ibooks" (if you have it) but if you dont have it, it just stays in book creater. Book creater is a great way to share your storys and to get your friends to read them. I  love doing book creater and I can't wait to finish my other book in daily 5.

- Jada :)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

New Netbooks!

Our school got all new computers last week including a mobile lab of 30 netbooks! We are the lucky ones that get to try them out first because our teacher got them organized. We are each going to comment on this post from our desks in our classroom!

- Mrs. Dent Scarcello's Class :)

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Big Black Fire.

There was a big black fire. It was by the Perimeter hwy off of Gunn and Redonda by the train tracks. It was grey from where I could see. I could only see the top of it. Now I will tell you a scary story of it. So kick your shoes off grab a snack and get comfy. Ready? Ok here I go.

On October 8th 2011 there was a fire. A horrible fire. We where leaving to go to chocolate factory( It is where you get to make chocolate stuff and eat it) When my brother said "what is that grey stuff over there?"
We all looked and it was smoke. So we said to are dad "can we go see?' So we had to put are windows up so the smoke wouldent come in.

We drove until the trains tracks.The rest of the road was blocked off. We saw a little path and fire cruse there. We looked up and saw BIG PUFFY CLOUDS of black smoke. Behind us was an abulance coming to the fire.There was a little office infront of the fire. They had to evacuate very soon before the fire got worse. Well there i said it, The fire got worse. There were people walking there to see what happend. People riding bikes there to see what happend. People in there cars to see what happend.

So we left because it was getting late. We went to the bank to get money and listen on the radio to see what happend. We can still see the fire. They said on the radio that they started to wrestle the fire at 5:00 in the morning and they said they have been fighting it for 8 and a half hours and they are still wrestling it. Wow that was a big fire.

We were driving home from the factory and got home at 5:30 in the afternoon and the fire was still going on. We had to leave to go somewhere else. We got back at night and the fire was still going on. They said on the radio the fire started with a gasoline truck tipping over. They wrestled it for like 10 hours and gave up. They were just going to let it burn until it was done. It was the biggest fire I have ever saw. It was very windy and it was blowing the fire the opposite way than us. But if it was blowing the way to us. We would have to evacuate.

That was my story about the fire. I hope you enjoyed it. And i have a question for you. What was the biggest fire you have ever seen? Thank you and have yourself a good day.

-Katie

Friday, October 14, 2011

My Fantistic TWAS

This week at school I got taught a new game called Banana grams. Banana grams is a game that 4 or 5 people can play and righ now I’m going to teach you how to play.


Step 1: flip over all tiles and then pick 21 if 4 but if 5 15.


Step 2: say “split” and the game starts and you are trying to make as may word or long words.


Step 3: say you have a Q or a V you can say “ Dump” and put the Q or the V goes into the pile and pick 3 new tiles but you don’t want to say “dump” all the time or you will end up with to much tiles.


Step 4: when your tiles are all gone you say “Split” then you win 
That is how you play Banana Grams

This week we did a french paper on Famous people. You had to cut Famous people out of magizene or on the computer. I cut people out of a magizene and i took Justin timberlake and Karry underwood.
But lots of people forgot to bring in pictures but Brook saved the day because she had a teen magizene so every buddy took pictures from brooks Book. anyway then you had to glue the pictures on the paper and write their names.

This week we started a plasic bag round up. Its when you have to collect all the plastic bags you can.
anyway me and Emily were parters so you have to take a bag and turn it inside out of no food or receipt or in the bag. Then you have to line them up in a row of 10 and Mrs. Dent scarcello puts a tally on the white borad. We have 2600 bags so far then round up ends on October 27 so bring all the bags you can. Adress #3950 raliegh St.

In daily 5 i am so close to be finshed my book on the ipad. My book is about my dog bening a super dog and his real sister Emma. My dogs name is Jumbo and he is a dashound i love my dog. I took pictures of my dog around my house on my ipod i also got pictures off the computer. Also in Daily 5 i am reading a book called Dork Diraies and its number 4. It came out on Tuesday afternoon. I just got it on October 13, 2011 or yesterday. I am really enjoying the book so far and i am on page 55.

By: Jada






Awesome Plastic Bag Round-Up

Today all the gread 5 class in mrs.dent scarsello class did the plastic bag round up in the class room. Im really glad that we got to do the plastic bag round up.What we are trying to do is get 40 or more plastic bags to make a frisbee for the school.Every 40 plastic bags is 1 frisbee for are the school. There are other schools doing the plastic bag round up. And the school that gets more plastic bags then us gets a plastic bag bench that got ricicled. the whole school gave us plastic bags from stores,home,antys,uncles gramas grampas and any one else you know.We all got up to 2600 plastic bags thanks to the people is birds hill school.The class tryed to gess the closest anser or the right anser to how many bags we got. And the one who was closest was jada was  the closest to the right anser. And what they are doing to the plastic bags is thay are recicleing  them all into frisbees.I hope we can do this a nother time Because it was really really fun to do at school today. We are not done yet, we still need your plastic bags!
-Kirstyn

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Manitoba Fires - How Big is it?

This morning Kayla brought in some info to share with the class about the fires that are burning in Manitoba. This sparked some interesting conversation and even started a little investigation we will share more about later. We are going to figure out what 18 000 hectares really looks like! So far we know that 18 000 hectares is the same as 18 000 000 meters squared. We drew 1 meter squared on the board so we could have a visual.
-Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

There was a fire that started in Nopiming provincial park.They say it started with grass brushing together but my tic toc Oma said that one of her friends said it started with lightning. I don't know whether to believe the global news on the computer or my tic toc Oma. I can't believe whats happening. But the wind is pushing it so it's spreading fast.

At first it was heading to beresford then the wind switched so now it's going the other way.There are 2 helicopters and more than 40 fire trucks . Right know we have allot of memerys in the cabin and pictures. My family is really worried about the cabin and uncle Walters cabin. Because he is re building his cabin.we were just there for thanks giving it's scary.

But if you type in fires in Nopiming provincial park you can find out the information I found out. The fire near bassette has grown to 18,000 hectares and is about 40 km long and 6 km wide.
-Kayla

PS - Kayla typed all this on my iPhone Blogger app! Way to go! She said her fingers are sore!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Video TWAS

This week since while we were doing TWAS we decided to try out our new video cameras to make a mini video TWAS! I compiled the video using iMovie over the weekend but in the future, students will be able to do this themselves using the iMovie app we have on our iPads and iPods.

- Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

My Amazing TWAS

This week at school our class had LA.  We did word work in daily 5.  We learned a new game called banana grams, it's where you get 21 letters and then someone says split and you flip over your letters, then you try to make as many words as you can make out of your letters, if someone says dump they put a letter that you don't want in the bunch and pick 3 letters.  When you can't make any more words you say bananas then the game is finished.  It is really fun!

               This week our class had art, we did pointillism.  It's where you can only make a  picture out of dots only.  But you can only do a picture of a tree.  You have to use Q-tips to paint. I really like pointillism!

          This afternoon we will be having a assembly.  I will be introducing the people coming from Winnipeg Harvest.  I will be speaking with Emily and Jayda.  I'm a little bit nervous because it is my first time speaking in front of the school.  It will be super fun!

              This week at school our class started the Plastic Bag Round-up.  If we collect the most Plastic bags out of  all the schools participating we could win a bench made out of resycled plastic.  We will also get frisbee's for each class.  They look really cool when they are done.  I really really hope we win the bench.  After we get to clean out the bags and then we have to put them inside out and pull them to make them thin.  Once we get ten we have a tally chart and we will put a tally.  Each tally represents 10 bags.

-Ashleigh

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

image by Jonathan Mak
As you have probably heard, Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. He was 56 and he had cancer. I am sharing the link to his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address below. Take 15 minutes today or this weekend to watch it if you have not already. Here are some quotes from his address that I found meaningful:

"You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something...because believing that the dots will connect down the road, will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference."

"Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith...You've got to find what you love...Do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

"Stay hungry. Stay foolish."
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Exploring Weather with Steve Spangler

In a comment on our blog, Mrs. Malkoske told us about a Scientist, Steve Spangler, she thought we should check out. He posts videos of experiments including one on creating a cloud in a bottle. This is a little different than the one we tried but, it works! Here it is:

Our reflections:
It was really cool how it turned all white. It was because it got all pressured and when he took the thing out it went "poof", like it turned white. -Rachel

It was cool when the could appeared because when we did our experiment it failed but when they did theirs it secceeded. -Kaitie

The cloud and smoke disappeared inside the bottle when the pump changed the pressure. -Michelle

How does it work? Explanation from Steve Spangler Science
Even though we don't see them, water molecules are in the air all around us. These airborne water molecules are called water vapor. When the molecules are bouncing around in the atmosphere, they don't normally stick together.
Pumping the bottle forces the molecules to squeeze together or compress. Releasing the pressure allows the air to expand, and in doing so, the temperature of the air becomes cooler. This cooling process allows the molecules to stick together - or condense - more easily, forming tiny droplets. Clouds are nothing more than groups of tiny water droplets!
The reason the rubbing alcohol forms a more visible cloud is because alcohol evaporates more quickly than water. Alcohol molecules have weaker bonds than water molecules, so they let go of each other more easily. Since there are more evaporated alcohol molecules in the bottle, there are also more molecules able to condense. This is why you can see the alcohol cloud more clearly than the water cloud.
Clouds on Earth form when warm air rises and its pressure is reduced. The air expands and cools, and clouds form as the temperature drops below the dew point. Invisible particles in the air in the form of pollution, smoke, dust or even tiny particles of dirt help form a nucleus on which the water molecules can attach.


We also checked out the "Mentos and Coke" experiment which is not connected to what we are exploring in Science right now but was awesome! We discussed what this experiment might be about before we watched it and we thought the mint in the Mentos would mix with the carbonation in the Coke to create a reaction. Peyton told us what a geyser was, "like a volcano but with water coming out of the ground." This really helped us imagine what the reaction might be. Here it is:


Our reflections:
When the Mentos went in the coke bottle the mentos were fizzy so they shot up. -Mason

When it shot out the bottle it almost used all the pop! -Brooke

It amazes me how Mentos makes the coke squirt out like a geyser. It is because the coke is carbonated and the Mentos coating is chalky. -Ricky

The Diet Coke worked better because it went higher when it mixed with the Mentos. -Michelle

How does it work? Explanation from Steve Spangler Science:
Water molecules strongly attract each other, linking together to form a tight mesh around each bubble of carbon dioxide gas in the soda. In order to form a new bubble, or even to expand a bubble that has already formed, water molecules must push away from each other. It takes extra energy to break this "surface tension."In other words, water "resists" the expansion of bubbles in the soda.

When you drop the Mentos into the soda, the gelatin and gum arabic from the dissolving candy break the surface tension. This disrupts the water mesh, so that it takes less work to expand and form new bubbles. Each Mentos candy has thousands of tiny pits all over the surface. These tiny pits are called nucleation sites - perfect places for carbon dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos hit the soda, bubbles form all over the surface of the candy.
Couple this with the fact that the Mentos candies are heavy and sink to the bottom of the bottle and you've got a double-whammy. When all this gas is released, it literally pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle in an incredible soda blast. You can see a similar effect when potatoes or pasta are lowered into a pot of boiling water. The water will sometimes boil over because organic materials that leach out of the cooking potatoes or pasta disrupt the tight mesh of water molecules at the surface of the water, making it easier for bubbles and foam to form.