Thursday, December 10, 2015

Special Guest Artist!!

This morning we were really lucky to have a special guest visit us! We are researching careers and Karsten chose to research an artist. Elaine Dilay is a painter and came to answer his questions!

Elaine told us a technique to start with the lighter colours always. She is also a fast painter. She is a really good painter. - Ryann

Next she used a different colour of paint and she kind of taught us to put the paint on kind of thick so the white canvas doesn't show through. She is a really, really, really good painter. - Shelby

She taught us to not put too much water or it won't look like anything. - Marley

At the end she stuck the saran wrap on the light part and dragged it down to blend it together. - Ashley

She sprayed the water so it would look cool and drip down. She said don't use a lot of water or else the paint will all run away. - Andrew

She taught us to paint carefully so we wouldn't get it all smudged. - Dyson

We learned not to use too much dark colours or else is will look muddy. - Adam

She sells her paintings online, at her house, in some stores and some galleries in Winnipeg. She told us where she gets all the supplies and canvases. Sometimes from Michael's, sometimes from the dollar store and sometimes from a special art store. - Shelby

She has been painting since she was a kid and has been painting like this since she was about 25. She wasn't feeling well but didn't want to waste the day so she got some supplies and started painting. She like being an artist because there are no rules about art.

I asked what inspires her art and she said lots of things like stores, clothing, buildings, houses.

 

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Walter Wick :: I Spy

In IBL I have started a new project with a grade 3 class exploring the work of Walter Wick. He is the photographer behind I Spy books and Can You See What I See? Today we explored the books with an examining eye and noted what we notice about his work and what we wonder about his work. We collected our wonders on this padlet. We are going to connect with Walter Wick, either online or with a Skype call next week to actually ask him our questions! Then we will use his expertise to publish our own "I Spy" book with our own collections of items. We are all pumped about this project!



Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Layered Liquids

Today in IBL we did a experiment wfe miss dent it was fun! - Karsten                                                   Today we had a grat day because we did a experamat waf miss dent. We uost liquids to. It was fun we had a grat day! i liket my day - Shelby!!!!

In IBL I am working with my own class! It is nice to work with them and my teacher partner, Candace at the same time!
We have been doing experiments for Solids, Liquids and Gasses. Today we talked about density and layered liquids in a jar. Science experiments are the best because kids are so engaged. They just cannot wait to see what will happen. We get to talk about scientific information, make predictions and then actually see what happens. Today they learned that liquids that are more dense stay at the bottom and liquids that are less dense go to the top. We are all having a blast!


From bottom to top: honey, corn syrup, dish soap, water, oil and rubbing alcohol.


Making in the Makerspace

We made  a video 
First we took a picture then we took another picture
andrew ashley alex dyson  adam kayden made it
it  was in the library at  makerspace. It took 4 days. we used a lot of clay. we used lots of  different colors. Like green brown blue grey and yellow. we took lots pictures. we made lizards a pond 2 trees turtles and snakes.


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Global Read Aloud

This month we have been participating the the Global Read Aloud. This is a very cool reading project that uses books to connect classrooms around the globe. Groups in similar grades are all reading the same book and connecting online to discuss, predict and share ideas. We have connected with classes in Canada and the United States!
We are reading "The Year of Billy Miller" by Kevin Henkes. Today we used padlet to post ideas we had about a problem in the story. I created the padlet and then each of the kids posted their own idea in the computer lab. Now we can share the padlet with the other classes we know and have them post their ideas! You can check it out below.



Friday, October 2, 2015

Supporting Our Community

As we continue to explore our community, we are talking about how we can support our community and help the people around us that are in need. There are two great initiatives going on right now that we can help with!

 First, we found out through Instagram that Siloam Mission, (a shelter in Winnipeg that provides food, shelter, clothing and many services to the less fortunate) is in immediate need of men's and women's jeans and hoodies. If you have any of these items that you no longer need and would be willing to donate, please send them to school and I will deliver all donations to Siloam Misson. 

Second, Kid President initiated SOCKTOBER! You can check out the video below that explains it very well and has a little dancing too! Our SPIN Club is collecting *new* socks for the first two weeks of October. They will be donated to a shelter in our regional community to help those in need.

So this is where we are starting with ways we can support our communities. We are just beginning!

 

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Our Great Community Walk!

Today we went on a walk to explore our community and look closely at the things we have in our community.

When we started the walk we saw lots of things like the mailboxes and we saw the bank and a lot of stuff. -Shelby

WE had partners and mine was Ryann. We carried the clipboards and the pencil and wrote lots of stuff on the paper. -Matea

On the walk we saw lots of big trucks and we walked to Sobey's and there were lots of acorns on the ground. -Andrew

On the walk we passed my dad's work when we were heading to the park. He works at a chiropractor.  -Dyson

We saw my friends work. It's by Jonesy's. It's a dentist. On the way before I saw my friends work, we saw some acorns. -Ashley

I saw lots of Ford trucks. -Karsten

Then we started heading to the park and we played there for about 20 minutes or so. -Ryann

So we found two hundred or two thousand acorns so that was fun doing our walk because we got to play at the end at Quarry Park. -Alex

We went to the park and I went on the swing and then after that we looked at lots of acorns. I picked up lots too. -Karsten

When we were heading to the park I saw a lot of cool stuff and I saw a car getting fixed. -Shelby





Friday, September 11, 2015

Our Exciting First Week at School

On our first day it felt like a very, very short day. -Shelby

On the second day of school we had gym and library. -Dyson

This week at school me and Ms. Lefko read "The Little Red Pen." It was great!! -Marley

At gym it was awesome because we did fun activities like some games. -Ryann

This week at school we had gym and we had math and the math was very fun because we coloured and we wrote it out ourselves. -Andrew

At our first week of grade 2, I liked colouring the t-shirts. -Rylee

At school this week we met a new girl named Marley! She is a nice girl. We are happy that she is in our class! -Ashley

We had fun this week at school because we did lots of art work. -Karsten

Our first week of school was awesome because we went to gym, I love gym. -Matea

We had a lovely time on the first day of school. We met our new friends. -Sawyer

The new girl that came into our class, we were friends right away! -Isla

At recess I had fun playing with my friends this week. We played football and soccer. -Adam




Thursday, September 10, 2015

It Only Takes One || Be Someone's Hero

Welcome back! We have had a great start to grade 2 this year already!

A common theme we like to focus on at our school is the idea the it only takes one person to make a difference. By doing one simple, kind thing for someone else we can change their day and send a ripple of kindness around. We talk about this a lot at school and especially in our assemblies when we are all together.

Yesterday at our Welcome Back assembly, Mrs. Palamar showed us a great video from the oh-so-entertaining Kid President. He always has the best messages and delivers them so well! There were so many great quotes to take away from this video, we will definitely be watching it again in the future. Here is the video for you to check out and some of our favorite and most important quotes!




"You have everything right now to change the world."

"Heroes are just ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They inspire other people to be extraordinary."

"If you want to be awesome, treat people awesome."

"It’s about compassion; there is nothing stronger than that."

"You just need to care."

"You have everything that you need to make someone’s day more awesome."

"Someone may never have told you this, but I promise it’s true; the world needs heroes and that hero could be you."

Friday, June 26, 2015

Countdown Photobooth

For the last 11 days of school we have been having a countdown. Each day we pop a balloon and in the balloon is a special activity for us to do the next day. Some of them have been reading outside, sidewalk chalk outside with new, special chalk and bonus computer lab time. Last week one of them was a photo booth. I brought in a backdrop and some props for the kids to use. It turns out grade 2 kids are THE BEST in a photo booth. The endless energy and creativity works quite well! As you will see, some of them LOVED being in front of the camera. It was up to the kids how many photos they wanted but everyone got in at least one shot (not everyone's photo can be posted to the blog). There are a few that are in about 60% of them! This was a blast. Enjoy!


Thursday, June 25, 2015

Touring Canada

We had a lot of success with our #postcardproject and learned about a lot of different communities in Canada. Now we are using that learning along with Tellagami to create a virtual tour of Canada! Each student will create a gami with 30 seconds worth of the information they got on their postcard. The full details of each location can also be seen on our Google Map of Canada.

Here are some of our gamis!







Friday, June 19, 2015

Mystery Skype Call

We have been practicing and preparing for our first Mystery Skype call! Finally the day is here and we will have our call this afternoon. We think we are all set.

We will use Skype to connect with a class somewhere else in the world. We will have to ask them yes or no questions to figure out where they are. This ties perfectly in with our recent explorations of Manitoba and Canada. We have been receiving postcards from people we know around Canada giving us information about their communities. The community we will connect with today is one of them!

We will use paper maps that are laminated so we can write on them as we narrow down our guess. We will also have a Google map up on our projector that we can move and zoom in on as we narrow it down. We have practiced starting with general questions and then getting more specific as we hone in on a region. The questions have to be yes or no questions. Some questions we might ask are:
"Are you in the north or south part of Canada?"
"Are you in the east or west part of Canada?"
"Are you in the province/territory ...?"
"Are you in the north or south part of the province?"
"Are you in the east or west part of  the province?"
"Are you close to water?"
"Is your home urban?"

We are super excited to connect with another class this way!

Update:
The call was a huge success! We asked really smart questions and narrowed it down quickly, just like we practiced. Some kids sat at the paper maps, some took photos, some asked questions, some wrote down the answers and some focused on the Google map. Everyone was totally engaged. We will totally do this again!

Seeing and hearing the students run the call, ask smart questions and be involved in their own way was so exciting for me. I love it when all the little parts of an inquiry or project come together and the kids have a really neat way to show me what they know. They applied what they have worked through this year in so many ways. Huge win!




Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Field Day!

We had an amazing field day today! Huge thanks to Mrs. Rand who spends countless hours organizing it all for us. It ran so smoothly and we are very appreciative. At the end of the day we made this slide show while we enjoyed our popsicles :)



field day movie from LeslieDent on Vimeo.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Mini-athon

Today the Bird's Hill School Run Club went to the mini-athon at Dr. Hamilton school. For the first time, grade 2 students were invited to join run club this year! Katelyn, Abbey, Jaden, Evan, Chantal and Addison have been in run club this year. Katelyn, Abbey and Evan have even run the whole time with Mrs. Dent Scarcello a few times at our morning practices! This is a great accomplishment! We had a great time at the mini-athon and the runners did a great job.







Lulu and the Mysterious Mission || Book Review

We just finished reading Lulu and the mysterious Mission. It is the second Lulu book we have read. We really like Lulu and the Brontosaurus so we were excited to try this one.

Lulu's parents are going on vacation WITHOUT Lulu. So she has to have a babysitter. She doesn't want a babysitter. She tries to escape and do sneaky things to get her parents to come home on the next plane. -Kate

This is what we thought of it:

After the Lulu and the Brontosaurus one we had 2 books to choose from, this one and  Flora and Ulysses and the whole class picked Lulu and the Mysterious Mission. It was really interesting. - Gabby

I like when Lulu sang the poem. She sang it because she wanted the babysitter to go. The babysitter's name was Sonya Sofia Solinski or Triple S. -Haylee

I liked when Lulu tried to escape by climbing out her bathroom window and climbing down the tree. I also like the one where she used the top secret code message and tried to get her friend to bring her 3 cats over and SSS was allergic to cats. -Adam

I liked the story because when Ms Solinski transformed Lulu into Lou so she transformed into a lady, a mad kid and a cow. -Jaden

I really liked it because it was funny and I liked when it said "the end" it was spread across 2 different pages. -Addison

I liked the ending of the story but I am not telling what it was. -Anthony

I really liked it because she was trying to escape and it was really funny because Ms Solinski was always finding her. -Kate

We recommend this book 100%, 10/10, 5 stars. We think our siblings would like this book and maybe seniors because they like to read a lot. We also think our moms and dads would like it too. We think Mrs. Henry's class would like it because they are also in grade 2.


Sunday, May 31, 2015

We Went to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...


Today we went on a field trip to the zoo! We had an excellent time and learned a ton. We also went to the Nature Playground which is amazing. If you live in Winnipeg or are ever in Winnipeg, you need to check it out. When we got back to school we made this slideshow with our pictures from the day. The kids added their ideas to some of them. Check it out!



zoo from LeslieDent on Vimeo.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Our Caterpillar Weekend!


On Friday as I was getting ready to go home I realized I should take the caterpillars home. They were getting so big and it's a 3 day weekend. I knew many, if not all of them would go into their chrysalids and I didn't want to miss it! It's too bad all of you aren't here with me to watch this amazing transformation. Not to worry, we are catching them in photo and video when we can! Here are some we have so far.








Wednesday, April 29, 2015

30 x 30 Nature Challenge! {get outside}

We are participating in an exciting challenge this May! The 30 x 30 Nature Challenge. The David Suzuki Foundation  offers this challenge each spring, challenging Canadians and people around the world to join the 30×30 Challenge by spending 30 minutes a day in nature for 30 days. We have responsibilities at school that we still need to take care of so we are going to be creative in how we get outside. Sometimes we will be exploring, sometimes we will be reading and sometimes we will be writing. You can join us in the challenge by clicking here and signing up. Also, follow us on Instagram (@terrifictwos) to see how we are getting outside and use the hashtags #natureiscalling and #30x30challenge


The David Suzuki Foundation also posts some great daily tips (see the link on the website) with ideas of what to do outside to connect with nature. We will certainly be using a few of these!
We hope you will join us! If you plan to participate, leave us a comment so we can connect
.


Monday, April 20, 2015

Earth Day in the Library

I have been working with a few classes on Earth Day activities this month in the library. Mrs. Tresoor’s grade 1’s gathered ideas for ways they can help the Earth on Earth Day and all year around. Then they created this great display of their ideas in the library!


Ms Wasney’s grade 5’s worked with me to upcycle book pages for blackout poetry. This was a fun and challenging activity. There are some very creative poets in grade 5!






Mrs Daraska and Miss Dodd’s classes have both written Earth Day Haiku poems. We brainstormed the things they can do to be more sustainable citizens and take care of the Earth. Then they used these ideas to write haiku poems, typing out their good copies to be displayed with their art.


Friday, April 10, 2015

Thursday, April 9, 2015

#postcardproject

This year in Social Studies we have been learning about our community and comparing our community with other cities. Now we are ready to learn about lots of other communities in Canada during our current unit - The Canadian Community. We are looking for LOTS of information and we hope you can help.
We would like Canadians from other parts of Canada to send us a postcard from their community. On the postcard we would like them to tell us information about their part of Canada. We have brainstormed a list of questions we are interested in asking other Canadians. If you are interested in sharing with us, leave us a comment below. We can communicate by email, snail mail, Google Hangout or Skype.
We posted about the project on Instagram and have some more folks that are going to connect with us too! You can find us @terrifictwos.
As the postcards start coming in we will post the locations and the facts we learn to our Google Map. Each pin on the map will show a location where we know someone and when you click on it, the information they sent us will pop up. We will also post them in our classroom on our wall map of Canada.
We will keep sharing here on the progress of the project so stay tuned!
The letter we sent to our fellow Canadians

The questions we generated to ask them! We each highlighted the ones that are important to us and asked our person those questions.

Spring Art

This week we made art. It was called spring art.We painted on water colour paper.We painted lots of sqaures and then sprinkled salt on them. But first we painted a blue background. Then we cut out flowers,birds,butterflies and even more! Then we glued the stuff on the paper. Doing the art was fun!
by: Haylee

The Eagles Have Hatched!

Once again this year the Decorah Eagles are being streamed online. Ms. Wasney just posted that three eaglets hatched in the nest which is in Decorah, Iowa. We will enjoy watching them grow up and hopefully see them take their first flights again this year!


Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Awesome Activity Day

Today we did activity day. Activity day is when you get to do a whole bunch of activities. -Haylee

It was really awesome because there was a lot of cool activities. -Gabby

We did 10 of the stations but there were 14 and we didn't get to do all of them. It was sooooo fun because even though you didn't get to do all 14, the ones we got to do were amazing! -Katelyn

I liked the fencing station because you got to hit people with pool noodles. Not on the nose but on the legs. We were trying to knock them down without losing our balance. They lose their balance and, woop, their off. -Nathan

There was a really, really incredible activity and you got to go into a big huge green, red and blue donut with no sprinkles or icing. And you got to go in it and big kids pushed it and you got to knock down a bunch of pins. And I whacked two down with my hands. -Adam

My favorite part was the parachute because when we were playing cat and mouse it was so fun. I got to be a mouse. -Amie

My favorite station activity was the mats on the scooters because the big kids pushed us and we pushed them around a pylon. I also liked silent ball because we had practice and then we had a game. -Jaden

I really liked the musical chairs because Mr. Hargreaves hosted and there was lots of chairs and lots of people and were going slow and touching the chairs a lot and there was some pushing to get on the chairs so fast and then it was fun to watch when you were out. -Addison

My favorite station that I went to was silent ball. There was a lot of people and the people out could make funny faces but Nathan and some were making them and it was funny and that made it hard to stay silent. -Haylee

My two favorite were the mats on the scooters because they were going really fast and my other favorite one was the human bowling because it was fun flipping around in the donut. -Gabby

Mrs. Dent Scarcello was hosting the parachute. We played the cat and mouse. I was the mouse and it took a long time for me to get caught. I was on my belly and my hands were pulling me. -Gabby

I liked the hand hockey because it was sooooooooooo incredible. I was whacking the ball over and over again and I lost. -Adam

Friday, March 20, 2015

Commenting on Blog Posts

Now that we are pros at posting to our Kidblogs, we are ready to start commenting on each other's posts! We have talked about what quality comments look like and everyone understands the criteria. Just like with posts, comments must be approved by me so if they don't meet the criteria they don't get published. The purpose of commenting is to generate conversation, just like you would in person. If someone tells you a story you respond to them and ask questions to get more details. This is what we are trying to do with commenting on blog posts.

It always feels great to get a comment and know that there are people out there reading your posts, but we are hoping to generate discussion with our comments. "Dead end" comments are kind and usually involve a compliment. For example, "Great job on your post, Leslie!" A "highway comment" is kind and complimentary but it also opens the door for discussion to begin. For example, "I really enjoyed reading your post, Leslie. I am reading it in Vancouver, Canada. Can you find that on a map? In Vancouver it is warm and sunny right now. What is the weather like in Winnipeg?" When a commenter asks a question, the blogger can reply to their comment with the answer and perhaps another question.

Our criteria for quality commenting on blog posts is: 
Be kind and appropriate. 
Give a compliment or make a connection. 
Ask a question. 
Re-read your comment for spelling, punctuation and upper case letters. 
Sign your first name only.


Friday, February 20, 2015

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 :)


Friday, February 13, 2015

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!