The Ocean Wise Sea Dome Experience

On Wednesday, we had some wonderful visitors from Ocean Wise*. The guides brought a Sea Dome, an inflatable six-metre dome that projects a 360-degree cinematic video! We watched a short video on climate change and looked at animals in the ocean. We were able to view tropical reefs, sea ice in the Arctic, and many amazing animals up-close! We saw an octopus, a sea turtle, a whale, a shark, jellyfish and more.

After the sea dome experience, students were guided through two other stations, looking at artifacts and images. Our guide showed us turtles and coral reefs from around the world. Then, we looked at a huge Arctic floor map. Our guide talked about the loss of sea ice and its impact on the animals (e.g. Polar bears, seals) that lived there. We even saw and touched a 9 foot narwhal tooth!

Ocean Wise is a non-profit organization which aims to protect and restore our world’s oceans. Thanks to Ms. Sue for organizing this.

Ask your child, what was their favorite part of the presentation?

 

Winter Celebration Event

What a fun night of music, festivities, and gingerbread decorating!  It was wonderful seeing and connecting with so many of you at our school Winter Concert & Community event.  We noticed the decorated gingerbread men and women were creative and detailed, some with full outfits on.

 

Did you notice our classroom door?  Students had fun posing and pretending to play in the snow for these photos.  We will keep the door decorated in January as well, so please come and take a peek at it then.

 

 

Below is a short clip from the dress rehearsal, taken by Ms. Lai.

 

Thanks to Ms. Vaesen for coordinating, and all the parent volunteers who have helped to make this night possible!

We wish you and your family a warm and toasty holiday season filled with fun and laughter!

Remembrance Day

In class we talked about the importance of Remembrance Day.  It is a day to honour soldiers, veterans and families who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom.  Our school had an in-person assembly on Thursday. There were many thoughtful presentations and all the children were very respectful during the Remembrance Day assembly.  Division 11 recited the poem “Poppy Poppy” with Division 12 in front of the whole Parkcrest community.
Each class made a wreath for the wreath laying ceremony at the assembly.
We talk about why the poppy became a symbol for Remembrance Day and we made our own representations of poppies.  Here is an invitation to create poppies with loose parts:

We painted poppies on our hands

We also read “The Peace Book” by Todd Parr and talked about what peace means to us.

 

 

Halloween

Halloween Art

our painted jack-o-lanterns

 

We had a fun day celebrating Halloween! In class, we created a Halloween class book (with photos of us in our costumes), played some Halloween Math dice games, drew a spooky picture, and measured ourselves with the pumpkin ruler! In the afternoon, we did a Halloween dance and participated in the school-wide costume parade, where we made a super long train and walked through the school. We also looked at all the amazing jack-o-lanterns created by students and their families! The sun made it out just in time for our afternoon parade.

 

We had many fa-BOO-lous visitors in our classroom that day! We had princesses, unicorns, witches, black cats, a police officer, a fireman, many superheroes, a Hello Kitty, some EXPO whiteboard markers, and even a Hot Dog visit our classroom… But where were the teachers and the students?

Boo! Happy Halloween!

 

Beecher Park Fun

Thank you to our PAC parents for organizing Parkcrest Fun Day on Wednesday!

The sun came out and we enjoyed a beautiful walk through the luscious forest of the Andrew-Leong Green trail. Students saw salmonberries, many plants and wildflowers, and walked along the creek.

At Beecher Park, there was lots of time to play and relax!

 

Jump Rope for Heart event

In early May, our grade 6 & 7 leadership students led a variety of Jump Rope activities.

We had a lot of fun trying out different types of jumps and tricks with our skipping ropes during our division Jump Event date. For many kindergartners, this was their first time attempting to jump rope. We set small goals for ourselves, and when the skipping was too difficult, it was okay to do some simple jumps. We also set our team goal of having fun, safe exercise, and jumping for healthy hearts!

The goal was to fundraise for Jump Rope for Heart, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Thank you to parents and the community for your donations! We have met our school goal and we will soon get a double recess!

 

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Kindness

Last week was an exciting week! We moved into our new classroom and we are loving our new learning and playing space.  It was also kindness week! To show our friends how much we appreciate them, we brainstormed kind words to describe our friends.  We also drew a portrait of our friends.  Look at all the details and effort we put in to show our friends how much we like them!