The New Canadian Kid by MTYP

Today we saw a play called "The New Canadian Kid" by MTYP.

It was about a boy named Nick from "Homeland" (a pretend, foreign country) who moves to Canada. -Kate

At first he didn't like it because everything was different and then he liked it because Mencha (a boy) was being really nice to Nick. -Ciera

Mag (a girl) and Mencha were not nice to Nick at first at school but then Mencha starts to be nice. Mag was still a bully to him. The play was really perfect. -Anthony

In the end, Nick and Mencha were best friends. Mag and Nick got along. -Addison

The actors were very serious and they didn't laugh when we laughed. -Addison

All the people in the play live in Winnipeg. The play was awesome because they were really good at acting. -Ciera

Two actors ate real stuff! One ate crackers and one ate pudding (or maybe applesauce). -Jaden

It was funny and it was nice. -Abbey

The whole play was in another language when the Canadian kids were talking. The author made it up because they wanted to make it for us to feel like we are the new kid that doesn't know the language. Everything they did at school was the same as us but just in the made up language. -Haylee

I thought this play was brilliant in that the author created a situation for the audience to experience coming to a new country where they don't understand a single word. The "newcomers", Nick and his mom, speak in English and the "Canadians", Mag and Mencha, speak in this made up language that has similarities to English. So we could kind of get the gist of what they were saying but really had to rely on watching their actions. It was also interesting to me how in the 45 minute play I could pick up some of the words they used and their meaning. You can see more information on this play at MTYP by clicking on the title link at the top of this post. -Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

Buffalo Represents Respect and the Bear Represents Courage

Today we had a special guest, Mr. Delorme who was talking to us about the 7 Sacred Teachings. He focused on the bear which represents courage and the bison which represents respect. We talked about when kids need to have courage and respect. He also passed around parts of the bison that Aboriginal people used. It was really neat! Things like a tooth, horn, fur, bladder, hoof, etc and he told us how they used each of those items for a purpose. 

Each class in our school will get to learn from Mr. Delorme and then we will all be doing a letter writing project with another school.

I got to touch a real bird's feather. It was cool that we got to touch the buffalo's bladder.  -Gabby

It's cool that I got to touch a buffalo's tooth! -Adam

I like feeling the fur on the buffalo. -Evan

The horn on the buffalo was smooth. -Ciera

It's cool that I got to feel the buffalo's tooth. -Kate

It's like cool that I got to feel the buffalo's fur because it feels kind of rough a little bit. -Jaden

When the buffalo has to go pee the bladder holds the pee. The people use the bladder as a bag! -Kate

It was cool feeling the brains because it was softer than I thought it would feel like. -Adam

Fit-a-thon

Today we did a Fit-a-thon. When we do a Fit-a-thon we run. -Kate
We have 2 pylons set up in front of us then the one near the track is the mailbox then after you run you get a stick from the middle of the circle. -Addison
It is called the mailbox because there are lots of them and you have to run around them. The inside pylon is called the house. That's where you wait for someone to run around and then come and high five you. The sticks are for keeping count of your laps. -Evan
You run around all the cones. They are in a circle. I didn't get tired. -Gabby
We couldn't run our fastest because Mrs. Rand said to go medium pace so you don't trip and fall or run out of energy. -Haylee
In the Fit-a-thon you have 2 or 3 people with you and you run for a long time and you have to take turns running and it's really fun! -Adam
We ran for 15 minutes. We put music on and we went through 4 or 5 songs in 15 minutes. -Jaden
It felt like we ran for 2 hours! -Sean
Mrs. Rand and Mrs. Knoll and Mrs. Dent Scarcello and 2 parent volunteers were watching us. -Ciera

An Exciting Guest Reader!!

This week we were very lucky to have a special guest reader! Frankie Hollywood from Energy 106 came and read "Yuck, A Love Story" to us. It was so fun! He was a very energetic guest. He told us that he has been a morning radio personality for 25 years. He has to wake up at 2:45 AM!!! That is so early! He reads for 2 hours before he goes to work. He has to read the latest news, celebrity gossip, and sports news so that he knows what is up for his radio show. He told us reading is very important for his job. He also recorded us saying "Bird's Hill School loves to read" and then played it on the radio twice the next morning! We got to ask him questions too. His favorite sport is hockey and his favorite team is the Jets. He has met a lot of celebrities like Zach Bogosian and Taylor Swift!

We Are Live!

Our Kidblogs are live! We got to start our posts on our very own student blogs today! I bet the hoots and hollers could be heard in Portage la Prairie! 

The students have worked very hard to navigate through digital citizenship, internet safety and creating their paper blogs. You can read more about that over on this post. Today we learned how to find our blogs (here or the Kidblog link on the right side of this page), login, change our avatar, we voted on the background and we started typing our first posts! Some of the kids were so excited about it all they decided they would finish them from home tonight!

As we wrote our first posts on paper, we followed this criteria:

We will keep you updated as we continue to publish our posts and hope you will leave us a comment. Comments are what encourage the kids to keep posting!

~ Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

First Juice, now Jello!

What's the best way to end the week? Making a treat to eat and learning at the same time, of course!
On Friday afternoon, we made Jello for Science. Monday, we reflected on our learning from our time in the kitchen.

I asked the kids: Why did we make Jello?
Evan explained that it would be a good way to show different states of matter when he said:
Its solid, and then liquid and then solid.

I then had the students think about and walk through our Jello making process:

We poured the sugar into the bowl, and it was a solid. (Adam)

Observing the solid crystals.

 We added hot water and we mixed it. The solid crystals dissolved. (Haylee)

Mixing to help the solid crystals dissolve in the liquid,

Next we put cold water and mixed it more, and then put it in the fridge (Sean)

And now... we wait!

Some further thoughts a few students had about the different states of matter that the Jello moved through,..

When we put it in the fridge, it made a solid, and when we ate it, it turned into a liquid in our mouth. (Katelyn)

When the Jello mixed with our saliva, it turned to a liquid (Sean)

Once the Jello was ready, everyone enjoyed a serving, and then we discussed how we could tell that the finished product was a solid. We did this by checking for the three properties of a solid.

It has mass/weight (Gabby)
It takes up space (Evan)
It keeps its shape (Chantal)














When I turned the bowl upside down, the Jello held its shape and didn't come out (Charles/Ciera)











Last but not least, the students shared some thoughts about eating the Jello!

Enjoying the finished product,

It tasted really good (Adam)

It was really delicious and I wanted another bowl (Gabby)

It tasted awesome (Katelyn)