Thursday 23 February 2017

The Big Wall

Wowza, this afternoon I had planned on working on a song writing activity about the City of Winnipeg.

We were going to sing it to the tune of O'Canada so I introduced the lesson by opening a book called "O Canada: Our National Anthem."


I only got to the second page "Our home and native land." When the hands started shooting up.

I tried to explain that this meant, it's our home, where we're from. The students were quick to point out that lots of people came here from other places too.

Soon our conversation turned to the border and the wall that "The Big Boss" is trying to build. I was shocked with how much they knew. There were even comparisons to the Great Wall of China (which may become a topic of inquiry for our class).


I wish I had recorded their conversation as it was way too fast to take notes and there were so many interesting, compassionate, brilliant things that were said.

Some highlights included:

"He's sending people away and that's rude. I'm glad our door is open."

"If we had a wall around Canada lots of our friends wouldn't be here with us and we would miss them!"

"It will never work to build a wall, people will just go around it, or over, or under." 

"Can't we all just be together!"

This afternoon reminded me yet again why it's so important to be flexible in my teaching and leave time for student ideas, voices, and passions.

These kiddos are listening and watching the world around them. They have big thoughts and ideas and even bigger hearts.

-Mrs. Lowe








Sunday 19 February 2017

Huge Snowshoeing Adventure

After two weeks of practicing and building our stamina, today was the big day! We joined Mrs. Buchanan's class and went for a big walk to the Rod's field. Once we were there we put on our snowshoes and ran around in a field of deep snow.  The snow was also just right for building snowmen and forts! 

During our adventure we:
-used our knowledge of position and motion to move heavy snowballs.
-tested our understanding of surface area and weight distribution, using the snowshoes.
-took care of our friends by making sure everyone was able to get their snowshoes and gear on.
-tested our physical stamina by walking a total of 5km!!
-picked up garbage to take care of our community and the Earth.
-read street names and signs along our way.
-worked as a team to move objects and build structures.
-noticed the direction of the wind and how it affects the temperature.
-wrote and sang a song about Winnipeg.

Most importantly, we had FUN!





"Mrs. Lowe, we are explorers!"





Some of us got cold. - Harleen
We made a snow fort almost around all of our friends. - Xander
We took another class with us so we can have more fun. - Landyn
We had fun because we built snowmen and we did get pretty wet. - Evelyn
We made snow forts  - Justine
We made snowmen and snow dogs and snow ducks - Rachel
We can make a big snowman  - J
Thank you to everyone for being happy and trying their best. -Ethan
Some people were cold because their boots went in puddles and got soaked. -Chance
Thank you Mrs. Lowe for the huge snowshoe adventure. - Xydney
We did get wet and we did a great job putting on our snowshoes. -Autumn
We were making bigger snowmen. -Daishaun
We tried our best and we didn't give up. -Brodie
Me and Charlotte had fun when we were making our bakery and we were pretending to make lots of sweets. -Isabella 
When we came back we had crazy hair. - Camilo
We had fun snowshoeing and we went to Rod's Field - Justin






Friday 10 February 2017

Snowshoe Explorers

Yup! We definitely built our stamina this time! We walked all the way to the ladybug park and put our snowshoes on outside. 
We had fun and we did a pretty good job of putting the snowshoes on. We didn't give up!


Who's this masked guy?

Snowshoes on and lined up.

Playing house on the hill.

"I'm a mermaid."
Our cuties are riding a bee!
I'm the ice cream man!




Using the "popcorn machine"

Having a worm race.

Sitting on the snow couch.

Walking back to school with our snowshoes. 

Zzzzzzzzzz

Monday 6 February 2017

Snowshoes

For the next 2 weeks our class and room 12 have borrowed snowshoes from the school division.

Today we learned how to put them on and tighten the buckles. We are starting to get the hang of it but we'll definitely need some more practice.

Once everyone had theirs on we went on a very quick trip outside to test them out. The snow in our field isn't very deep but it's good for practicing.

Our goal is to become quick at getting them on and off, tightening buckles and walking without falling. We will also be working on building our stamina for exercising and being outside. 

I can't even express how proud I was of the room 9 kiddos, that was a challenging task and they all stepped up with big smiles and not a single tear!