Creating 3D Figures

While investigating 3-D shapes, students found that building the shapes themselves made it easy to count edges and vertices. Students built shapes out of sticks and plastecine as well as from nets out of paper to help with faces.

Pioneer Day and a Visit To Black Creek Pioneer Village

A fun way to celebrate our study of pioneers in Canada.

At the knitting centre, students learned the art of corking! We tried knitting one year, but it was quite difficult and we got to see little of our hard work. With corking, everyone was successful, and we had a lot to show for our efforts.

It's great when parents drop in to lend a hand, especially when they're your own:)

At this centre, students explored the chores that pioneers did in each season, and created a seasonal chore wheel.

The Butter Station. Here students made and ate butter. We used cream and a mason jar to churn our butter. A little bit of salt, and some bread made for a nice snack.

At the games station, students played early century games such as checkers, pick up sticks, and Nine Man's Morris.

A very cold visit to Black Creek Pioneer Village. In North York, there is a restored village with buildings and homes from the early 1800's. In the spring and summer months, students can complete some fantastic programs where they work in the workshop, they play outdoor games, do chores such as laundry and cooking, and card wool. They then get to spend the rest of the day exploring the village and meeting it's inhabitants such as the doctor, blacksmith, merchant, tinsmith, teacher, mill workers, the inn owner and so much more!

In the winter, there are limited activities. We got to spend half the day at the school house, and the other half of the day on a tour of 4 buildings with a tour guide. Still a lot of fun, despite the -32 degree weather!

Lining up at the school house.

Getting into our vests and aprons.

Experiencing some discipline.

Nose on the chalkboard...

Holding out books...

Sadly, the teacher's have had to "adapt" the program to appease parents who complained about the 'strict nature' of their performance. My students were expecting to see beans being tossed on the floor, a strap or ruler and a dunce cap, all of which have been removed so as to not "upset" parents. A little ridiculous.

A visit to the doctor's office made us very happy to have 21st century medicine! 

Learning to play crokinole at the Inn.

A visit to the General Store

An exciting, and exhausting day!

Super Hero Forces Posters

More fun with forces! Playing off our love of superheroes, students were encouraged to create a superhero who's superpower could be described using our new knowledge of forces. Students needed to include features of a poster as well as facts about their superhero using science vocabulary.

Grunge Tigers -A Mixed Media Art Lesson

I found this idea online by googling "tiger art." I was led to this wonderful blog entitled SmartArt, and a grunge tiger lesson I decided to adapt for my class. Being self-proclaimed tigers, this was a fitting activity. Everyone worked really hard and had a great time getting messy. We did our first drawings and paintings on day 1, and followed up with with accents and splatter on day 2.

First, we looked up pictures of tigers to get an idea of face shape and other tiger attributes. We noticed that tigers had a mouth that looked like an upside down "m", with a bearded chin. They also had varying stripe patterns on their faces, and triangle-like ears.

We drew in pencil first, then went over the lines using Sharpies because we know that Sharpies will resist the water colour paint.

After we covered all of our pencil lines with marker, we broke out the water colours. Students were encouraged to use bright colours!

After, we did a wash for the background, where students learned how to evenly spread colour using water colours. Then students used stencils, to add some bling to their tigers. 

Then it was time to add the 'grunge'. We decided to create a splatter wall to protect the floors and passersby from rogue paint. We used tempera for the splatter, and our expert splatterer (you can see him admiring his student's work below), taught his technique which involved flicking the paint brush at the paper with the aid of your index finger.

Very excited to get messy!

Helping Children In Need

We have been learning how to give back this month. What I love about these lessons is that they not only combine Language Arts, Social Justice, Math and Technology, but they evoke selflessness and inspire young people to look beyond the latest video game, if only for just a few days, and see the big picture.

I asked students to visualize their bedrooms. They drew pictures of everything they had, adding labels and details such as their favourite comforter, or perfectly placed teddy bear in the middle of their pillows. They used the document camera and enthusiastically shared what they love best about that special room in the house. Whether they shared it with a sibling or their parents, each student felt safe and excited to share their room.

After sharing our bedrooms, I shared some images of children their own age who were not quite as fortunate to have a safe, comfortable place to sleep. I made sure that the images would make an impact, but were also age-appropriate and not be too shocking or upsetting. Students were then asked whether or not it was fair that some children didn't have a safe place to sleep at night.

Unanimously we agreed that it was not fair. I then posed several questions at each table, and gave each student a marker to have a graffiti-style conversation. The rules are: no one speaks, you remain focused on the question being asked, and you respond to the thoughts of other contributors. I couldn't have asked for more engaged, more on-topic conversations. Students were so inspired, that they filled four sheets of chart paper with thoughtful, inspirational suggestions on how they could help those in need.

 

Some of the ideas were to "invite children to come and stay in your house," to "send a helicopter in with comfy beds," and to "make a youtube video to help raise money."

I made a Shadowpuppet introducing them to Sleeping Children Around the World, (SCAW), a non-profit organization that takes a $35.00 donation and turns it into a bedkit for a child in need. My students were so excited with the concept, that they immediately wanted to spread the word with their own Shadowpuppets. 

Shadowpuppet is one of the easiest, kid-friendly apps I have come across. Students add pictures, and then are able to record their voices over the images to tell a story. It has countless uses in the classroom and at home!

I made an organizer, so that students could plan what they were going to say, and brainstorm 'Google' search terms that they would use to choose images for their puppets. Students needed to include the organization, a description of what a bedkit is, and use some persuasive language.

Check out our Shadow Puppets:

Jessica and Muskaan

Matthew  

Fatiha, Harini and Harani 

Asmiga and Ruhani

Aalam and Jujhar 

Mahwish 

Once we finished our puppets, we made an effort to bring in any change we could find around the house, and spread the word about children in need. Each day, students would count the money, and add it to our thermometer. We were learning how to add money, and what better hands-on way, then to count up for a worthy cause?

Some students went further, and created Pic Collage posters to advertise SCAW and how people can help those in need. This was also a modification for students who needed fewer steps and a more structured model. We posted all of their creations onto our blog.

 Pic Collages