with Ms. Lai & Ms. Loungsay
The students had so much fun ice-skating, many of them ice-skating for the first time! Here are some photos from our two ice-skating sessions at the rink.
Thank you again to all parent drivers and volunteers for making this trip possible. ❤️
The children had a blast creating these lunar new year lanterns a few weeks ago. First, we colored the pictures with crayons. Then, we used watercolor paints to paint over the whole lantern. The crayons resisted the wax on the crayons and the colors “glowed” through the paint. You will see these on our windows!
For those who celebrate Lunar New Year,
恭喜发财 [Gōng xi fā cái / Kung hei fat choi]
새해 복 많이 받으십시오 [saehae bok mani badeusipsio]
Wishing you health, happiness and peace in the year of the rabbit!
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?
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!
Our Fall inquiry started with many wonders. We wonder:
“Why do they (leaves) change from green?”
“Do leaves change every season?”
“Why do the leaves fall down?”
“Why do the leaves change colour?”
“How does it get colder?”
“Why are the leaves red?”
On our nature walk we explored around Parkcrest Park and looked for different kinds of leaves. We sorted them into Fall colours (brown, yellow, red, orange) and green and then tried rubbing leaves on paper to see if they leave a colour. We were pretty amazed to see nature colours on our paper!
We worked as a team and sorted leaves into different sizes- small, medium, big, biggest.
As scientists, we investigated why leaves change colours in the fall. First, we made some guesses.
“The weather is cold.”
“We have less sun.”
“It rains a lot.”
Then, we sorted the fall leaves by colour, ripped the leaves into bits and covered it with rubbing alcohol. We put coffee filters into the leaf and rubbing alcohol mixture and allowed it to sit long enough to absorb the liquid. As the liquid travels up the coffee filter it separates all the colors that were inside the leaf.
We learned that during fall, the days get shorter so the leaves don’t get enough sunlight and the green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the green fades away, we begin to see yellow, orange, red and/or brown colours. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along!
Symmetrical drawings of our leaves
Parts of a Leaf
Our Leaf People
The Leaf Man goes where the wind blows…
Our Leaf People flew to a lot of places and saw many things. Some flew to a pumpkin patch, some went to a forest, one went to a big city, a couple went to a farm and a few flew home. Please ask your child to tell you their Leaf Man story 🙂
We painted poppies on our hands
We also read “The Peace Book” by Todd Parr and talked about what peace means to us.
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?
