Contest Queston

There was a special lunar event last week.  What was it, when did it happen and when was the last time this happened?  We will be posting questions all week, check back and bring the answers to school next week.

Canada's National Animal Mono Prints

Bald Eagle 

As part of our inquiry “Which Animal Should be Canada’s National Animal”, students researched animals from across Canada.  After studying the regions of Canada, students chose an animal to research that they thought should replace the beaver as Canada’s national symbol.  

  

We used a technique called mono printing to create our art.  The students were given a “sandwich” of three pieces of paper: white, wax paper and black card stock.

The first step was to sketch the animal on a white piece of paper.  The students then placed the wax paper on top of their drawing and began to paint in the background in small sections.  They then placed the black paper on top and rubbed the area where the paint was to transfer the paint.  This process continued until the entire picture was filled in.  They needed to go over some areas more than once to add more details to their picture. 

 

We discovered that the paint needed to be added in thin layers or it would spread too much on the print and become a big blob.  If we made a mistake during the process, we were able to let the paint dry and then go over it again to fix any mistakes that had been made.

                                         

Canada's Next Official Animal

For the Convention of Learning on December 16th students in room 16 will presenting their suggestions for Canada's next official animal.  The Beaver has been Canada's symbol since 1975, when a private member’s bill, which had been passed by the Senate  received Royal Assent, making the beaver the official national symbol of Canada.  More recently a Canadian senator has called for a national “emblem makeover” by replacing a vegetarian rodent with the world’s largest walking carnivore that thrives in the cold.  

Students will be presenting their work both orally and on a poster.   The following criteria needs to be included on the poster: 

•   Catchy title which includes the animals's name and Canada's Next National Animal.  It should be big and bold.  

•   Subtitles - Habitat, Food Chain (what does it eat, predator and prey), Physical Features (adaptations), Why should it be Canada's next animal?

•   Four paragraphs (one for each of the above topics)

•   Pictures - at least one well drawn, labelled picture of the animal, map showing where it lives and a picture of it's habitat.  

Students have been given a graphic organizer for their research.  The research should now be complete and they should be working on completing their paragraphs.  Good copies of all four paragraphs will be due on Thursdays.  If they would like to type their paragraphs they are encouraged to do so in a google doc so that it will be available for them to work on both at school and at home.  

Regions of Canada Postcard Assignment

The students in room 16 have been working hard exploring the regions of Canada with our "What does Canada Look Like" inquiry. For the past 2 weeks they have been researching an assigned region and are creating a postcard that will showcase their region.  This assignment is due on Monday November 23.  The following checklist has been provided for them in addition to the assignment outline and rubric.  We are looking forward to sharing them with you at conferences on December 3rd and 4th.

Representing Decimals

Students in Room 16 have been working to represent decimals in many different ways.  These ways include using fractions, expanded form, words, base ten blocks and money.   Ask your child to show you how they can represent decimals.

We will be having a quiz on representing decimals Wednesday November 18th.

Remembrance Day Assembly

Students from Rooms 13, 15 and 16 have been working very hard to prepare for our Remembrance Day Assembly next Tuesday, November 10th at 10:30 AM.

We look forward to sharing our art work, poetry and musical talents with you!  There will also be a very special speaker joining us.

Remembrance Day is a very respectful and reflective time for all of us.  Please remember that there is to be no applause, cheering or talking during this assembly.

Please come and join us, we hope to see you all there!

Thinking, Wondering and Imagining

Students in Room 16 were inspired by the book On A Beam Of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein after learning that this incredible man barely spoke until he was three years old!  Instead, Albert spent most of his days asking questions about the world around him; thinking, wondering and imagining why things were the way they were.  Upon reflection students took some time to share their own thoughts.

A reading of this book can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk7kEmB6fBs                                                            

                                                                                                    Student Reflections

- "I think there is a planet like earth out there."

- "I think of what will happen in the future."
- "I think about dinosaurs, how could they do certain things that we can't?"

- "I wonder how big the universe is?"
- "I wonder about the strongest force in space."
- "I wonder how long humans have existed for?"
- "I wonder if there is any life on mars."

- "I imagine the future is going to be full of technology"
- "I imagine what the world would be like without       humans"
- "I like to imagine the impossible."

Door Decorating for Unicef

Check out our fall themed door and spooky door that we decorated to raise money for UNICEF!

Welcome to Room 16's Blog

Welcome to Room 16's blog.  Here you will find out what we are doing, see the daily agenda messages, find links to different subject areas.  We have settled in to room 16 and are getting into our new routines.  This year our inquiry will be focussed around "Explore, Discover and Create", this will tie in with the work we are doing with the 3 Things for Calgary.

We are encouraging students to have healthy snacks at school.  We appreciate it if you send your child with a water bottle so that they can stay hydrated throughout the day.

Room 16A and any of the students who were in Mrs McLellan's class at the beginning of the year will be going to the Police Interpretive Center next tuesday.  We are still looking for volunteers for this trip.  Please contact Mrs. McLellan if you are able to volunteer for this field trip.

In Social Studies, we are exploring "What Canada Looks like".  This has taken us to the different regions of Canada and we are looking forward to creating some art to show what we have learned.

In Science we started the year off learning about Weather and will come back to this topic through out the year.  We have also tied this into Social Studies and have looked at how the weather varies in the different regions of Canada.  We were fortunate enough to have a meteorologist, Steve Rothfels come into our school to talk to us about weather.   Our next unit is Classroom Chemistry and we are looking forward exploring different mixtures, states of matter, and chemical reactions.

In Math we have been exploring place value and and number sense.  We began the year with whole numbers and are now moving into decimals and fractions.