Our Powerful Family Memories

We have begun the school year by looking at our families and learning about the many varied types of families.  We enjoyed “Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge” by Mem Fox.  This is a lovely story about a very young boy whose family lives next to a senior’s home.  Wilfrid Gordon knows all the people, and is friendly with them all, but his favourite is Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper because she has four names, too.

One day he hears his parents talking about how Miss Nancy has lost her memory.  This sets him on a quest to learn about memories and to help Miss Nancy find hers.

After reading the book we discussed memories and what makes some of them more powerful than others.  Here are their responses:















Who says, “Giraffes Can’t Dance” …

We read the above-named book, by Giles Andreae and had a discussion on how we can all do things to the sound of our own music.  Students then followed a directed drawing lesson creating their own unique ‘Geralds’ on yellow construction paper.  They decorated their blue background paper, cut out, and mounted their giraffes, adding a string tail.  These are on the bulletin board in our hallway.






















All About Me Robots / My Name

As we are wrapping up our unit on self-discovery we have finished off the last two activities.  The first was our All About Me Robots.  Students needed to decide and state their preferences in a number of different areas. 

The second activity was putting together all the bits about our names.  This included the sheet that was sent home for family input.

Our bulletin board did not manage to accommodate all of this work so we have some mounted on our white board underneath our Word Wall.

The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss

After reading The Lorax, we brainstormed ideas that the Once-ler should have done to protect the environment and nature.  Devastation happened to the  area because of the Once-ler’s greed.  Students then chose one of our ideas, or wrote one of their own.  These were written onto Truffula tree templates.  All of these can now be seen on the bulletin board in the hallway,