Words Their Way

October 26th

We are finally ready to begin the Words Their Way spelling program.  This is an individualized spelling program.  Each student works with words that target specific spelling rules and patterns that the student needs practice with.

Here it is in action this week.

Starlight Pumpkins

October 28th

Here's another fantastic art project!  This was a multi-step, multi-day project and I think it turned out beautifully!  First students drew pumpkins in pencil, then we traced in black pastel.  After the drawing we painted the pumpkins with three colours: red, orange, yellow.  The students were asked to focus on colour mixing and blending, but not too much, the final product was supposed to show all three colours.  Finally we cut the pumpkins out, added white chalk for highlights and glued the project to black paper.

These pumpkins are supposed to look like they are glowing in the moonlight.

Halloween at Mountview!!

Oct 30th

For the first time students were allowed to dress in costumes at school.  We spent the afternoon celebrating Halloween.  We played a Halloween Trivia Kahoot on the chromebooks, did Halloween crafts and played Halloween math games, followed by party food!  At the end of the day the whole school participated in a costume parade through the school hallways.  We had a spooktacular afternoon!

Treasure Maps

October 27th

We are in the beginning stages of building "Treasure Maps" for Mme Buckley's students.  Today the students drafted an idea and then used compasses on the iPads to map out the seven steps the students will take to find the hidden treasures.  Students are required to use a compass direction in each of the seven steps on their map.  For example:  Step 1: Take ten steps to the North and stop at the lamp post.

We hope to be finished with the good copy of the maps by next week so that Mme Buckley's students can go hunting for the treasures before it gets too cold!

Here they are busy building their maps.

Pumpkin Stories

October 26th.

This week we have been busy writing pumpkin stories.  The final draft for the stories was written on to pumpkin pieces which the students then turned in to a 3D pumpkin!  I saw this idea on pinterest and thought we'd give it a try.  Very cool!

We took inspiration from a couple of books about pumpkins.  After listening to the stories students came up with their own pumpkin stories.  Each story had to include some sort of a  problem that had to be solved by the end.

Check them out!

Here is one of the books we read for inspiration before starting the project.

Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda White

Click for a Goodreads summary

There are Witches in the air!

October 21st

There are witches hanging from our classroom ceiling!

Check out this super fun art project we just completed for Halloween! This was a great mixed media project, with a focus on perspective.  We have to use our imagination to decide what the top of each of these witches might look like, and what each one is doing?  Are they walking are they dancing?  I just love these.

Geocaching fun

October 23rd

A huge thank you to Mme Buckley's grade 4/5 class who prepared a "geocaching type" activity for us.  This was a perfect tie in to our social studies unit on mapping.  It was a beautiful afternoon to spend outside.
Next week we will use our knowledge of compass directions to prepare treasure maps for their class.

Sophia the Owl

October 19th

Wow!  We had a very exciting presentation today from the Medicine River Wildlife Center.  We learned all about what they do at the Wildlife Center to help sick and injured wild animals.  We also met, Sophia the Great Grey Owl, who came as a special guest.  Sophia was hit by a car, and is blind as a result of her injuries, she will live forever at the Wildlife Center.

To learn more about Sophia and the Medicine River Wildlife Center click here.

Music Fun with Miss Ramsden

October 23rd

We are so lucky to have the talented, Miss Ramsden as our music specialist.  Our class enjoys music class on Monday and Friday.  Here is a peek at what they were up to this week.

Scarecrow Stories and The Author's Chair

October 16th

For the last two weeks the students have been working on writing stories about a scarecrow.  The scarecrow story had to have a clear beginning, middle and end.  And the scarecrow had to have some sort of problem in the middle of the story that had to be solved by the end of the story.  This was our first attempt so they are very short stories, but I think they did a great job.

For inspiration we first listened to/read a couple of scarecrow stories, including:

Click for a Goodreads summary

Click here for a Goodreads summary

Then we brainstormed a list of problems a scarecrow could encounter.  Afterwards the students wrote their own stories.

With the stories now complete, each student has the opportunity to sit in the "Author's Chair" and read the class their finished story.  Here are a few pictures of our authors.  Everyone will have a turn (if they wish)...more pics to come.

Fall Leaves

October 16th, 2015

I'm so proud of how these Fall leaves turned out.  The idea was to create a "stained glass" looking painting. This was a two day project.  Day one students traced a leaf shape on to their paper.  Then they outlined their drawing with a white glue/black acrylic paint mixture.  This gives the final product a 3D look to it.  On day two students used water colour to paint their leaves.  I think the students did a great job of blending colours to give the leaves a real fall look!

Here are a few pictures of the leaves after day one and then of the final product.

A picture book for inspiration:

Click here for a Goodreads summary