Some Wee Folk

Unfortunately we are not in session for St. Patrick’s Day this year.  That does not mean that we won’t be learning about some traditions and symbols of Ireland, though.  Mrs. Schwarz has been playing some Irish tunes during the Music Listening programme each day.  We will be reading a few stories and doing some activities.  On Friday we will be finishing up our ‘layered’ oil pastel shamrocks that we began last week.  I will be posting pictures of these at the weekend.

Students have been thinking and writing about what ‘3 wishes’ they would hope for if they were to ever catch a leprechaun.  They know that they should wear green on March 17th – or they are subject to a pinch!  Rumour has it that the Kindergarten class has been busy preparing leprechaun ‘traps’.  We will have to wait until we return from Spring Break to see if any traps are sprung or if any wee folk are captured.

A conversation was overheard today, from a few of our girls, while they were wondering if there were any ‘girl’ leprechauns.  Hopefully, when they see these pictures on the white board tomorrow, that question will be answered:)

 

Penguin Wrap Up

Students have (mostly) completed their partnership research.  Today those who were completely finished presented these reports orally to the class.  I was quite impressed with the good job done by the students.  I am hoping that the few who are left will complete these tomorrow and be able to present them to the class by Friday.

Along with the research, students completed several other penguin activities – including these ones on the bulletin board.

Our unit will be all wrapped up by Friday and we will be beginning a new theme after Spring Break.

 

 

Term 2 Work / Report Cards

Tomorrow the students’ work from Term 2 will be coming home – along with their report cards.  Please spend some time, with your child, looking through their work.

Please sign the card (in the envelope) and return it with the envelope as soon as possible.  These will be used for the end of year report cards in June.

If you would like to speak with me about your child’s report, please email me and we can arrange a mutually suitable date and time.

Thank you.

Arts Alive Display

After a two month process our art pieces are ready to be adjudicated by the Burnaby Art Gallery tomorrow morning.

This ‘competition’ is a biennial event put on by the Burnaby Art Gallery – every other year this is available to elementary school students.  Each year there is a central theme.  This year the theme is ‘places of memory’.

Division 5’s Places of Memories

This was quite a wonderful process for our class.  We initially read Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, by Mem Fox.  This is a great story about a young boy who lives near an “old folks’ home”.  When he hears that his ‘senior’ friend, Miss Nancy, has ‘lost her memory’ he begins a quest to discover what memories are, and then works to find her memories for her.  It is a rather touching story.

We spent a fair bit of time discussing and learning about memories, including thinking about what emotions are involved in our memories.  Students drew and wrote about memories associated with a variety of feelings.  We then focussed on powerful memories – ones that are so strong that they are not easily forgotten.

Students made a preliminary drawing about the place associated with their ‘powerful family memory’.  They then drew a second smaller drawing where they zoomed in (focussed) on the key elements of that memorable place.

Their final pictures were created on heavy card stock using plasticene as the medium.  Students used their prior knowledge of colour theory to create a variety of shades and tints by blending different colours with white or black.  They also made interesting colours by blending different colours together to achieve their desired effect.

Students wrote about their pictures (memories), as their “artists’ statements”, which are a requirement for entry into the Arts Alive programme.  They also chose titles for their pieces of art.

As you can see, from the above photo, these finished pieces are on display in the Multi Purpose room at school.  Tomorrow morning a Jury Panel, from the Burnaby Art Gallery, will come to Rosser and look at this art.  Each piece will be photographed to be included in the digital display which will be shown on a television screen at the gallery.  Some pieces (hopefully) will be chosen to be taken to the gallery for display.  We will find out tomorrow!!

Mrs. O’Meara’s and Mrs. Iverson’s classes also produced pieces of art for Arts Alive this year.  Hopefully some pieces will be chosen from each of the three classes.

Once the Jury Panel has left our school we will be hosting a ‘gallery walk’ for the other classes in the school to come to see all three classes’ work.  Then our great pieces of plasticene art will be put in the display case outside the Multi-Purpose room.  Please come by to look at them!!

Value Lesson – with charcoal

We spent an enjoyable (but rather messy!) afternoon on Friday working with a new art medium – charcoal sticks.

Students began with a shape that they cut out of tag board.  They coated the edges of this with charcoal and then placed the piece of tag onto their white drawing paper.  Using a finger they pushed the charcoal ‘dust’ off the tag piece and onto their paper ensuring that they remove it completely around the circumference of the shape.

Through repeating this process, and overlapping the outlined charcoal shapes, they each covered their drawing paper with a very interesting, and unique, design.

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Last Wednesday our class joined the rest of the primary classes on a wonderful field trip to the VSO.  Students were impressed with the incredible architecture of this classic theatre – from the large chandeliers to the inlaid ceiling.

Students enjoyed hearing the wonderful music – some new to them and some that they already knew from our school’s music listening programme that Mrs. Schwarz runs for us every day.

Valentine’s Day

In addition to our full and busy 100’s Day today, we had time to deliver Valentines to our friends – and some teachers, too!  These were all sent home today for students to enjoy opening up as we had no time to do so during our busy day.

Thank you to all who sent in snacks for today.  Some were eaten today, but with an afternoon that included – a 45 minute badminton lesson, 45 minutes with Mr. Phelps in Music, and the last half hour with Mrs. Levington in the library – we didn’t have a lot of eating time.  These have been kept in the class to finish up tomorrow and then any containers will be sent home.

 

100’s Day Celebrations

We had a great day today!!  Wow, were we ever busy!  We have spent the last two days getting ready for our celebrations.  Thank you for helping your child get their 100 collection posters finished last weekend.  They look fantastic!!

In class students made crowns with 100 items drawn on them – in ten groups of tens – which we attached to headbands that had 20 stickers arranged in a pattern and labelled with the numbers counting from 5 – 100 by 5’s.  Today students made Fruit Loop necklaces with 100 cereal pieces – 10 groups each of 10 pieces in different colours.  Most students made lovely patterns.  Colton challenged himself and did his whole necklace in two colours counting by twos!

Thank you to all who sent in a collection of 100 small food items.  Some of the grade twos divided these into individual containers which were enjoyed at Recess time.

All in all, I believe that it was a successful 100th day of school.