Christmas Clay Project


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We had a great time working with clay for our Christmas presents to our families.  Students began with the raw clay which they formed around a wooden doweling (forming the hollow centre necessary for the firing process).  The grade ones created snow people and the grade twos created gingerbread people, as they had made snow people last year in my class.  They created the bodies in three sections and then made the hats. These needed to dry for almost a week before they could be put into the kiln.

After they had been fired the students glazed them and then they were re-fired.  Students then decorated their people and they were ready to be wrapped to be given as gifts.  I hope you all enjoyed them!!

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The Next Few Weeks …

It is hard to believe that we are only a week away from December 1st and then a short time until our Christmas vacation!!!  Here is a bit of an update:

This week we will be finishing up our study of bats.  Students have learned a fair bit about these interesting mammals.

Beginning next Monday we will be doing more seasonally themed activities. We have completed the initial stage of our clay projects, which will be the students’ surprise for you for Christmas.  They have done a very nice job so far and are looking forward to the next two stages of this fun project.  They are supposed to keep the finished product as a secret for you.  I hope that you like how they turn out.

Tomorrow I will be sending home the December Scholastic order forms. There is a note attached that gives some information on how you can make some of these books a part of a Christmas present for your child, if you so choose.

Our class is going to the Nutcracker Ballet on Thursday, December 4th. We are going with our buddy class (Division 2) and the grade 7’s.  The cost is only $5.00 as part of the cost is being subsidized by our PAC field trip money.  We will be travelling via school bus and will be gone for the morning and back by lunchtime.

We are also looking into going to Burnaby Heritage Village Museum during the second week of December.  I will let you know shortly once the plans are finalized.  The cost for this trip will be $8.50 and includes a trip on the carousel.  We will be needing parent drivers for this trip.

Mr. Olson has been working with all classes in preparation for our Christmas Concert.  This will be on Wednesday, December 17th with two shows; one at 1 p.m. and the other at 7 p.m.  You are asked to bring non-perishable foods, to be donated to the Food Bank, as your entrance fee.

During that last week before the Christmas break Mrs. Anstee will be holding a Scholastic Book Fair in the Library.  It will be open at lunch time and after school.  It will also be open before the evening concert.

I will be doing Gingerbread House building with my class – probably during that last week of school.  A notice will be coming home to let you know what is needed for this fun, and yummy, project.

If you have any questions, please email me or speak to me after class.

Thanks for your continuing support.

Mrs. Temple

 

Pattern Play

We have been exploring different patterns during our Math sessions this past two weeks.  [We also ‘do’ patterns every day during our Calendar time with both the daily picture pattern and the weather graph.]

Today students had fun creating their own patterns using some of our math materials in the classroom.  Check them out …

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Intermediate Colours

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During Art on Friday we reviewed colour theory and discussed the primary colours – red, blue, and yellow.  We used plastic coloured palettes to show how by putting two primary colours together that they made an intermediate colour. We put red and yellow together to make orange; blue and red together to make purple; and blue and yellow together to make green.

Students then created a tesselation in black marker on their paper.  They filled in all the spaces by using wax crayons. The instructions were to only use the three primary colours, but they were expected to create the intermediate colours from those three primaries.

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Students found it quite easy to create green and orange; purple was more challenging.  The students worked very well on this project and the end results are very impressive.

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Remembrance Day Poppies

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We had a great assembly at the Confederation Park cenotaph on Monday morning.  Mr. Olson had his guitar there to accompany the students for their songs.  Some leadership students read poems that they had written. It was a beautiful weather day and the walk to and from the park was very pleasant.

On the Friday before we had a directed drawing lesson on the poppy. Students then traced over their lines with china markers and coloured the centres with oil pastel.  The red petals were filled in with paint.  These paintings dried over the weekend and were cut out on Monday morning. Students then glued them onto green construction paper.  We have a very nice looking bulletin board.

Happy Hallowe’en

On Friday, October 31st students – and staff – arrived at school in a wide variety of costumes.  We had our Costume Parade after Recess.  This year we did our parade to the accompaniment of Mr. Olson and his musical marching band.

In the afternoon we enjoyed a ‘ghostly’ craft, ate some treats, and played with friends during Centres time.

This morning I heard all about the students’ fun during Hallowe’en evening, and their weekend.  I am very happy to hear that all were safe – and dry!!  We were very lucky with the weather this year.

Going Batty!

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Last week we began our science theme of bats.  We began by brainstorming things that we ‘know’ or ‘think that we know’ about bats. All answers were accepted.  We then made a chart of the things that we ‘wonder’ about or want to know.  Over the course of our study we will either prove or disprove the things that we thought we knew while we answer our ‘wonders’ or questions.

We read the story “Stellaluna” and leaned some differences between bats and birds.  We will be pursuing this further this week.

Stay tuned …

Directed Drawing – Bats

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Last Friday we had our first ‘directed drawing’ lesson.  We drew bats as we have just begun our study on them.

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Students followed my lead as I drew on the white board and they drew on their art paper.  We did a step-by-step process while discussing the anatomy of a bat.  Students learned that a bat’s wing is actually formed like our arms and hands – with a thumb and four fingers on each side. These wings are covered with a taut skin while the bat’s body is covered with fur.  Students showed this fur with the addition of lines.  We reviewed the art element of ‘texture’ – how something feels or how it looks like it feels.

We then repeated this drawing process onto light grey construction paper, also initially in pencil.  Once they had completed their pencil drawings they went over those drawing lines with oil pastels.  They then added a few ‘seasonal’ bits of extra scenery such as pumpkins, grass, stars, and a moon.

 

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If you are by the school, please drop in to see their work.  I think they are wonderful!