October was a very busy month! We started off the month with the Terry Fox Run. It was cold and rainy! But we took our class picture outside. Then we had Thanksgiving. The Grade 6 class had art, and we made a sky background with birch trees. We learned about blending and mixing colours. Grade ⅘ also had their art classes. We learned about tessellations, and made neat patterns. We also made self-portraits with one colour.

We then had our first science workshop, where we dissected a sheep’s eye. It was pretty gross! We found out that there is jelly inside the eye that holds the lens. The lens is very thick and felt like a grape. That same day we used Ozobots. You can code them to read different colours and do different things, like turbo speed or spin.

Next, we got started on our Passion Projects! This is where we research something we are passionate about. We will be creating presentations later for our parents and families. Isabella is studying succulents, Daniel is studying hoverboards, and Scarlett is studying rabbits.

Then we finished our science presentations. Cj, Daniel and Absar created a really cool model of the Brain, Spine and Nervous system. Odin and Amos taught us about the largest bone (femur) and the smallest bone (stape, located in your ear).

In our second science workshop we dissected a pig’s heart. One group found hair inside the heart, that we learned got there when the heart was removed. We learned about the atria and the ventricles inside our hearts.

On Halloween, most of the students wore their costumes! Mr. Armstrong was dressed up as the Queen Of Hearts, he made a pretty good lady! The K-4 students had the Haunted Gym, run by EEE. Grade 5-8’s had the Halloween Dance. We had to bring a canned good or a dollar to get in.

We all had an awesome October, we hope you did too!

Shared Writing from Room 16 students:

For the month of October we have been engaged in a variety of fun learning activities. We have dedicated a lot of time is developing Playground Expectations when we are on the playground during recess. Working in groups students thought about what the behaviour expectation looked like at the swings, slides, monkey bars, fence, poles, nets, rink and the shed. We wrote short statements about Being Respectful, Being Safe and Being a Learner. This was harder to write than we thought!   We have been using our ideas and creating short video clips using Do Ink Green Screen.   Avery tells us this project is harder than taming a lion. Hopefully this video will be released soon!

Another theme we have explored this month is celebrating ourselves and our identity. We have discussed what makes us the alike, different and unique. Some books that we have read are the Name Jar, I Like Myself, and Looking Like Me. Additionally we have learned what it means to be kind. We have read Only One You, and Adrian Simcox Does Not Have Horse. An important message from these books is sometimes you have to learn how to see kindness.

We are not only readers in Room 16 but writers with many things to say. If you come by our hallway you will see our “ I’m So Smart” poems posted on the bulletin board.   Along with these poems are our Picasso Portraits that we did with the Arts and Culture teacher, Madame Bento Teves.   In these self portraits we learned about symmetrical and asymmetrical. Some of us found it challenging to make our faces asymmetrical when we have previously been working to make our faces symmetrical! Our art teacher, Ms Vik showed us how to draw pumpkins and blend chalk pastel colours with our fingers.

Room 16 students have also been writing every day in their Writer’s Notebook. Some students have written very long stories.   Our goal is to publish them. We started gathering ideas for writing and sorting them into different pockets. One pocket is our Memory Pocket, another is our Fact Pocket and finally our Imagination Pocket. Mya’s idea about what it would be like to ride a unicorn would go in her Imagination Pocket.   What idea to you have in your pocket? We have been working on using good leads to hook our audience and juicy words.   We had a chance to examine writing examples and noticed what good writers do. We worked in small groups to make suggestions about what the writer might need to do next. This will help us set goals for our own writing.

We have been choral counting by different numbers and looking for patterns. Grade ones have been making repeating patterns with shapes. Can you believe we have been at school for 39 days already! OOPS when we checked with Mrs. Jeninga’s class and found out that they were at 40 days of school, we had to go back and recount to find out we were off by one day already. TIME FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN!!!!!

Have you seen us walking around the neighbourhood? We have been walking on most days for about 1km. Today we noticed the canvas banners about soldiers who served in the Great War and located the houses that they lived at so long ago when they lived in our Earl Grey neighbourhood.   The youngest soldier we have learned about was only 19 years old when hedied in the war.   That’s only 11 years older than our grade 3s.

Room 16 had a great month.

We hope next month will be another fantastic adventure in our our learning.

This has been an exciting month in the music classroom!

Some of the grade 1, 2, & 3 students had the opportunity to play the Tubano drums. We read a West African tale called “The Leopard’s Drum.” The students learned drumming patterns for each of the characters in the book, then used the drums to help tell the story. It was a blast!

The grade 4, 5, & 6 students have been working hard to prepare to sing “Al Shlosha D’Varim” for our upcoming Remembrance Day service. They learned about the meaning of the Hebrew lyrics, and also started learning about the Holocaust. The grade 4, 5, & 6 students also learned to sing Al Shlosha D’Varim at the same time as they play a beautiful part on the barred instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels, and metallophones). Your child can listen to this recording of Al Shlosha D’Varim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZhNWCqV9xI&frags=pl%2Cwn

Georgia Children’s Chorus 2011 Spring Concert: “Al Shlosha D’ Varim” by Allan E. Naplan – YouTube www.youtube.com The Georgia Children’s Chorus, under the direction of Carol Reeves, performs “Al Shlosha D’ Varim” by Allan E. Naplan, at their Spring 2011 concert at the Ho…

The Grade 7 & 8 students have started to learn guitar! They are beginning by learning to play simple melodies using and chords. Grade 7 & 8 students are invited to use some of their free time at lunch and after school to practice guitar in the music room. If your grade 7 or 8 child has a guitar at home, please encourage them to practice!

Some dates to look forward to:

Remembrance Day Service, Friday, November 9th, 10:30 am

Earl Grey Winter Concert, Thursday, December 20th, 6:30 pm

Room 27 have embarked on an inquiry into Canada long, long ago. The students have each chosen to research the Ice Age or the Indigenous People before contact with Europeans.  They are working hard to collect information and then decide on ways to communicate their learning with the class and possibly other classes.

The students in Room 27 did communicate their learning of Agriculture by setting up four interactive stations for their Room 16 Buddies.  They shared their learning about Crops Grown in Manitoba, Wheat to Flour, Canola to Canola Oil and The Story of Agriculture in Manitoba.

We Skype with kids from New Jersey, in USA.  They are Mrs. Berckerman’s class. We ask questions about their country and they ask questions about our country. We like Skyping with them to tell them all the things we do. We like Skyping with them so we can see our new friends. We learned that they celebrate Halloween, but it is not the same as ours. They give things, but they also get things. We learned that their school is a Jewish school. Instead of Christmas, they celebrate Hanukah. The holiday of Hanukah lasts for eight days, and at the end of each day, they get gifts.  We have been reading a lot of the same books as they have read including, “My Heart Fills with Happiness” by Monique Gray Smith, “Wild Berries” byJulie Flett and “You Hold Me Up” also by Monique Gray Smith.

Lots of sugar is not healthy for your body. You can’t eat it all the time. Its a sometimes food. – Logan

Sugar can’t help your body concentrate. Candy has lots of sugar. – Alexa

You have to brush your teeth after eating candy. You don’t want sugar bugs to rot your teeth. – Saya

You can’t bring your Halloween candy to school for snack. Its not healthy. – Salam

If you eat too much candy, you get sick. – Dontai

You can eat one candy for lunch snack. – Dmitrii

You have to eat healthy stuff for breakfast. Fruit and cereal is healthy. Chocolate bars and suckers are not healthy. – Brooklyn

Moms and Dads need to check our candies before we can eat it. Sometimes wrappers fall off and there might be germs on the candy. – Lily

If you bring candy to school, you might not be a good learner. If you want to bring it to school, you can’t. Its not healthy. – Ruth

Candy is not healthy for you but it tastes good. – Charlie

A typical day starts with us meeting our friends outside in the cold waiting for the bell to ring. Once we get to our lockers, we get our stuff and head to our classrooms. Most days in junior high begin with either Math or E.L.A.

In Math, the Grade 7’s are working on adding and subtracting mixed and improper fractions while the Grade 8’s are working on multiplying and dividing mixed and improper fractions. The hardest part for all of us has been to draw a picture to show our mathematical thinking.

In E.L.A. we are reading the book “Refugee” as part of the Global Read Aloud. So far, we are enjoying the book and are looking forward to starting book clubs later this month. We recommend this book for anyone who is interested in learning about a child’s perspective of some of the historical events that have shaped our world as we now it today. We have been learning how to interact with the text by learning how to annotate/markup the text. We have also been working on the literary elements and devices and how authors use them in their writing.

Lunch time involves eating our lunch of course, but for many of us it means more time to spend with our friends until classes start once again in the afternoon.

In Science we have been working on forces and structures. Recently, we were challenged to work with a partner to build a sturdy structure out of straws and paper clips that would support the most weight.\

In Social Studies, we have been learning the qualities of a good map. We were asked to create our own island and to use everything we have learned to map it.

The day usually ends with students in either Spanish, Dance, Music or Technology. On day 5’s, we have Genius Hour in the afternoon and on day 6’s we all go to shops classes at Kelvin

Yesterday, we had a Halloween Dance organized by the Earl Grey Eagles for Equality (E.E.E.) and last night, the majority of us went tricking or treating with our friends.

We have many Grade 4/5/6 students helping in the library this year! Students meet Thursdays at lunch to help organize and shelve books in the library. We create book displays together, discuss needs of the library, and of course we always take some time to share our love of reading! We truly value our Student Librarians and appreciate the time they spend volunteering in the library!

Would you like to learn about culture? We have been learning that culture is a part of who we are. We used to think that you make something out of culture. Now we know that culture includes things you make like interesting sculptures, beautiful paintings and delicious food. We used to think that culture was moving onto the next grade. Now we know that in Canada there are many cultures from around the world. We call that being multicultural. Did you know that sports are a part of culture? Soccer is the most popular sport in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD! Did you know that basketball was invented by a Canadian professor? We didn’t before, but we do now! For more information on culture please visit Room 22. We would be happy to share more with you!

Shared writing by Room 22

Room 26 has been learning all about the systems of the human body.  To help us with our learning, we participated in workshops from WISE Kid-Netic Energy.  First we learned about our eyes by exploring a sheep’s eye through dissection.  It was very interesting and surprising to learn what the inside of an eye looks like.  Next, we learned about the heart by examining a pig’s heart and investigating the many different parts.  The inside of a heart looks pretty spectacular.  It was amazing to learn about the human body in this way!

“My favourite part was when we got to see blood coming out of the tubes in the heart”

-Paige