Expert Projects

We have recently introduced a new element to our Daily Five called Expert Projects. Students can use one of their choices each day during Daily Five to work on a topic of their choice. They may choose to share knowledge from personal experiences or research using books, the internet or other people. These expert projects will be presented to the class as they are complete. Some have been shared here on our Expert Projects page as well as on the student's personal blogs. Students have to set up a plan, follow the expectations set out and work towards the rubric we created.

Daily Five is by far a favorite in our class, primarily because of the choice it gives students. When expert projects were introduced, at least 95% of the students jumped right in to a project. The freedom and variety that these projects offers is very appealing to them. Some students have already completed more than one!

While working on an expert project, students are covering a gigantic range of skills including reading/scanning for information, recording information in jot notes, organizing information, tracking resources, using a variety of resources, writing information in sentences using their own words, publishing work using a HUGE variety of tools (web 2.0 and good old marker and paper!) and speaking to an audience. Phewf, sounds like a lot of hard work. But they love it and have fun doing it so it doesn't feel like a lot of hard work.

It's a win-win for us all :)

NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY (Louis Riel Day)

We have no school on Monday because it is Louis Riel Day!!!!! Louis Riel is the founder of Manitoba and the leader of Metis people. That is why Louis Reil Day is sooo important!!
-Ash

Resources
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&safe=active&sa=X&tbas=0&biw=1366&bih=587&tbm=isch&tbnid=caq_70e_aILgeM:&imgrefurl=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/louis-riel&docid=wh6br2dE6pvVbM&imgurl=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/media/riel-louis-4345.jpg&w=280&h=353&ei=hIA-T4bQMsecgwfKtIyLAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=88&vpy=114&dur=4509&hovh=252&hovw=200&tx=200&ty=156&sig=111801459200747202416&page=1&tbnh=125&tbnw=100&start=0&ndsp=30&ved=0CEQQrQMwAA

Amazing AAA (Triple A)

In AAA we were talking with Elder Jewels and Mr. Cer. Mr. Cers spirit name was Wawa Tay which meant sound of coming thunder. First we all sat in a circle, then Mr.Cer had an eagle wing that he passed around and you can only talk when you are holding it.  First we passed it in a circle to say our names. Elder Jewels speaks 5 different langueges. He is 70 years old, he has 6 sons, 6 daughters and 27 grandchildren. He said the the women were the leaders. He said when people get sick mostly because of fear. Next Elder Jewels sang a song and we had to close our eyes and think about a wolf. After we all opened our eyes and said what our wolves were doing, mostly everyone etheir said dancing or bringing them back home. Then we fished just in time for recess!!!
-Ash

Groundhog Day Eve

Last week the students blogged on their blogs about what they are learning about the digestive system. We had a discussion today comparing some of their blog posts (without any names of course) to see which ones had exceeded, met or not met expectations. I think seeing posts side by side made it very obvious what they need to do to meet or exceed expectations!
To practice what we have just discussed, today they are posting about Groundhog Day. They have been asked to include:
• What is it?
• Where did it originate from?
• Who celebrates it?
• When is it celebrated/acknowledged?
• Why is it celebrated?
• What do you predict will be the outcome this year? WHY?

Check out their posts later today to see how they make out. Of course we always appreciate feedback and comments.

As a side note, on this Groundhog Day Eve we were treated to a beautiful view of fog and frost this morning. I remember this happening sometime last winter too. That time I happened to have my camera with me but not today. Luckily I had my handy-dandy iPhone with it's fantastic little camera!

-Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

Math Game called Who Has?

Today we played a game in math called Who Has? It is where the teacher splits the class in to 2 teams. She has cards for the 6 , 7 , 8, and 9x's. After that she hand everyone one card some people get 2 cards, then say someone started with 54, then they would say Who Has 6 x 4. The next person would be like I have 24 Who Has 6 x 7. Now I think you get the point and we have to do the 7, 8, and 9's too. After the team with the lowest time wins that round.  The team that won was Team 1 but I was on team 2.  AND THAT IS THE GAME CALLED WHO HAS?

-Ashleigh

Wacky Picasso Oil Pastel Art

This week we did a art project call Picasso! Its where you have oil pastels, but you'll need a pencil first and you draw half of your portrait side and half of your profile side. Then when you are done you outline everything with black oil pastel. Then you go on the the wacky oil pastel part, you can do whatever colour you want and the cool part is that you can put a under layer like I did. Like I put all the light colours there were on my portrait side with dark blue on top it looked cool. On my profile side it was all the neon colours underneath dark green. After you are done you take a Popsicle stick and scratch off what ever kind off design you want I did swirls, then you take more oil pastels and colour the background. Then you take the black oil pastel and outline  everything again then its done!! When they are done they look awesome and here are some pictures of them to prove it!

-Ashleigh

Expert Projects

We learned a new daily 5 choice it is called expert project!!!!!! It's were you pick a topic and I mean ANY topic. Then you pick a way to present it so here are a few examples of ways you can present, Prezi, Comic Life, Poster, Powerpoint, speech, audio clip, voki, wordle, tagzedo, and videos and movies. Then you present it to the class. I picked giraffes as my topic and I am doing a poster and a powerpoint.

-Ashleigh
 
(You can see more details about our projects on the "Expert Projects" page of this blog.)

New Teacher (and student) Bloggers at BHS!

There are 2 teachers on the classroom blogging train at Bird's Hill School! Mrs. Tresoor's grade 5 class and Ms Wasney's grade 3/4 class. Check them out and leave them a comment!

An Awesome NHL Opportunity

Last night I went to my first Jets game. Unfortunately they lost but it was still fantastic to be there. My mom and I noticed that when the Jets came out, a little girl carrying a flag skated out with them, skated around and stood on the blue line for O Canada. We immediately thought, "what an awesome opportunity!"

When I got to school this morning, Ms Wasney told me that there is a contest kids can enter to be that person! The program is called the Scotiabank Skaters Program and hockey players between the ages of 7 and 14 can apply HERE. You could be that kid!!
You can also check out the experience one boy had being the Scotiabank Skater at this Winnipeg Free Press page.

Instagram + Animoto = An Awesome Team!

Since I got an iPhone last year, instagram has been one of my very favorite apps. It can easily be used on an iPod as well but photos will be uploaded once you are connected to the internet. Instagram helps you apply fabulous filters to your photos, add comments and share them with your instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc networks. Many other web 2.0 tools have started connecting with instagram allowing you to easily use your instagram photos for other things. For example, Blurb is a photobook creator that connects with your instagram account to create a paper book of your photos. When the various tools talk to each other it just makes things easier.
I noticed today that Animoto, my very favorite slideshow tool now connects with instagram to create videos! It was easy peasy. Here is a video of my Holiday Instagram Photo Journal.

Publishing Tools

Just as we are getting back at it, 2 great links came my way via my Twitter network. Both relate to some great new ways to publish student work that we are going to look at this term. These come from GlennW and Mrs Ripp. You can check out their full posts by clicking their names. Some of the most exciting ones in my eyes include:

• Flipsnack - A free site with Premium features, Flipsnack will quickly convert uploaded PDF documents into a cool virtual magazine with flipping pages and it’s easy enough for even adults to figure out. You can view and share the online version in a variety of ways including Facebook, Twitter and html embed codes.
• Issuu - Issuu is another tool that kids can use to upload almost any document format and create a virtual flipping book. Like Flipsnack, you can share or embed whatever you upload.

Mrs. Ripp's post was about alternatives to a "book report" and more interesting ways students can be accountable for their reading:

• Blog about your book; reflect, ask questions, see if others have read it.
• Create a wordle about the word associations you had with the book
• Sell the book to your classmates, how can you get them to read it - written or oral - try this even if you did not like the book, can you still convince others?
• Write a letter/email to the author (even if no longer alive). Tell them what you thought of their book.
• Create a VoiceThread discussing your book's message.
• Pretend you are the author on a Voki and tell us about your newest project.
• Use Shelfari to post the book and then explain why you chose to post it.

A Proud Teacher and Welcome 2012!

Welcome to 2012! We all had a fanatstic break that came just in time. Yesterday we talked a little through the day about the good things that happened over the holidays. In some cases, I already knew what had happened for my students because they blogged about it over the holidays :) Nothing could have made me more proud and satisfied than to see my students wanting to write about authentic life experiences on their holidays! This makes the time and effort that goes to setting up and maintaining tools like student blogs worth it. Yesterday we got another surprise when Mason put through a post about his trip to Palm Springs. It was a surprise because I didn't know he was away but more so because he made an Animoto of his trip! Another proud moment because he is a) blogging on vacation, and b) using a tool (Animoto) that I have shown him but not necessarily used with him. He remembered it and figured it out on his own.

My holidays were fantastic, so much happened! I love it when Christmas is right at the beginning of the break because it leaves a whole 2 weeks for travel, visits and projects. This year it was visits and projects. At our house we are doing a big renovation and our whole main floor has been gutted! This means no kitchen and no bathroom, yikes! I was also able to spend time with my 4 nieces and nephews from Kenora snowmobiling, skiing, skating and at the circus (at the Manitoba Museum). Mixed in with all of this were some visits with friends and quiet mornings (away from the renos) with my new Steve Jobs book. It was great to come back to school feeling refreshed and ready to get going with some new ideas.

Have a great 2012!

-Mrs. Dent Scarcello :)

THE UNBELIVEBALE MOST COOLEST T.W.A.S.

Hey people that are reading this blog I want to tell you about MY week at school.

This week at school we got a new kid in our class on Monday named Tysin. The only way I knew how to spell the name Tysin was Tyson so I learned something new from him, YIPPEE! In our class we all have numbers and when Tysin came had had no number But on Tuesday we figured so nobody would have to change their numbers up one his number was confirmed as #27. I'm just glad that we didn't get bumped up one number because I like the number 8 and that's my number of course!

we also had a Patrol party and all the bus patrols were allowed to wear their pajamas! I am a bus patrol of course and I did wear my pajamas to the party. We got popcorn and we had to bring a spill proof drink.The party didn't go for the while day but it went for 4/1/2 periods and that was including recess! The movie we watched was Santa Claus. I was a okay movie for me but I'm not sure if anybody else liked it but I bet someone did.

We did a art project! It was a finger doodling project. When I mean "finger doodling project" I mean you put paint on your fingers and you make pictures. Well we made finger snowman so we put paint on our Thumb, our pointer finger and our pinkie finger. I will now tell you how to make finger snowman.

1. you get all the supplies you need. you will need: white paint, small pieces of paper, one large piece of paper, a sponge and SOME FINGERS!!!!
2. next you dip you fingers in the paint.
3. dip you r fingers on the paper in this order: thumb, index and then pinkie. the now have your snowman!
4. wait for it to dry then draw your snowman's nose, eyes, mouth, arms and accessories. (optional)
5. enjoy your snowman!

We had a hackysack tournament. It was supposed to be for high school kids but we got lucky! The first person that I versed was Ricky who beat me. Kirstyn which I beat. The next person I versed was Katie which I also beat then I met Peyton who sadly beat me :'(. After all the tiring games it was eventually over!


Hope you liked my TWAS and ya.

-Rachel :0

Special Vistitors

Today we had two teachers from Sun Valley just to get ideas for their iPads(they are getting twelve). Their names are Mrs. Morisson and Mrs. Leclerc. As you may already know our class has 3 iPads and 5 iPods. Each iPad/iPod was assigned one or two apps that you could show. So the app on the white iPad was Book creator and the black iPad was comic life and iMovie. For
Mrs. Dents Scarcello's iPad was phoster where you could make posters and the other app you could go on was puppet pals where you could make a puppet show. The game for the blue iPod with the stripes was Rush Hour or Unblock Me. Rush Hour and Unblock Me are the same games exept one is with blocks and one was with cars. On the black iPod it was Word Abacus and Jumbline. Word Abacus is a game where you try making words and Jumbline is a game to help with spelling. On the white iPod you could play Sums Stacker and Math Bingo. For the blue iPod with the diamonds you could play Skill Builder Numeracy and Zoom. For the grey iPod you could play times table and coins.

-Brooke & Peyton!

T.W.A.S

This week at school we started hand writting. I like hand writting but I am not very good at it but I still like it. When I do hand writting I allways mess up on doing the letters right. The good thing is that the words that we do are pretty easy so it is better. I have a trick though I hold my pencle down lower so it is easy to get the letters and it is is easy to read. Oh and I allmost forgot to tell you last year in Ms Davises class we did hand writting and we hade books that we had to try to finnish it by the end of the year and I only had 7 padges left. And that is good because Jada,Ashleigh and me were a cuple of the only people that were almost done so that is a ood thing.

This week at school we had me to we club. This time it was a little different because what we did is we brought our lunch to room 29 that is the old computer room we ate our lunch then we started making cards and hampers. You are probably wondering what that is well I will tell you.For the hampers we got boxes witch I was the only one that brought a box good thing our libraryon had extra boxes so we took a box and wrapped it in wrapping paper then what we are going to do is people are going to bring in unwraped toys and boxed food. And for the cards we took a plan caed with no cover then we could eather do thum pain , spunge pant or just paint it then we aregoing to sell them at our cristmas concert.

This week at school we had gym.In gym we did dodge ball but not just and dodge ball we did fitness dodge ball. For fitness dodge ball we play a dodge ball game and if you get hit you find a fitness staition the we do what it says. But if he blows the wistal you run a lap then find a different staion then you keep playing dodge ball. We also payed ringette Wich I loved so it was a fun week of gym I hope we do it next week and for a lot longer because it is really fun.

This week at school we had social studys. We are working on the history from a long time ago so right now we are working on how all the cultures lived so we are learning about that. But when we are done we are going to buld dieramas we will be in groups our group will be peyton, brooke, jada and me Emily. We are going to do the Artic wich is the igloo but did you know that there is a mud house that is used for a stable house the igloo is for when you are on a hunting trip or you are travling cool hay.

Hope you liked my twas.
-Emily