In the classroom

Of course I am in the classroom(s) as much as practically possible, but this afternoon was a bit different. The school district ran short of substitute teachers and Ms. McAllister was off on a medical leave with no substitutes available to replace her for the afternoon. So... over to me. I had a pretty enjoyable afternoon with the students, but as you might imagine with a class of grade twos and threes, I didn't take the time to take photos.

I do have a little project in mind for this class that involves photos and a video, but that will be later.

In the morning I was in another class and one of the students had a small lunch baggie with some snow she had collected outside. I asked the question, what is the temperature of the snow? I didn't know the answer myself and after thinking could it be warmer or colder than the ground temperature outside we decided to find out. Actually, I thought the snow would be 0*, but I was wrong.

Using the thermometer outside Mr. Williams room it was determined that the temperature was -3*. Measuring the temperature of the snow in the baggie, it was -4*. Is the data accurate? Is a degree difference significant? Were our eyes correct in noting the temperatures? What can we find at Wikipedia about the temperature of snow? Nothing it seems. What other places could we look for the data? Is this part of the curriculum, or simply inquiry based learning? Are there similar things you could do at home after school or on the weekends to support this kind of questioning... just a few thoughts.

The news is out... well, posted in the hallway at school.

The Campbell's Promotion collected 1559 eligible labels.

Mrs Chambers class collected the most and will receive their free pizza day this

Thursday.

Children will be encouraged to watch for the new collection bags to arrive in the classes for our next contest which will end on May 15th.

Thank you, Susan Goddard - Label Counter Extraordinaire :)

Basketball practice kicks off the morning tomorrow. 

Energy Cycle

I observed the grade 7 class today doing some science work flow charting the energy cycle. There was some good information being shared and some good questions from the students. Here the students are modeling how energy starts at the sun and flows through ecosystems.

One of the students is putting her notes together. The students had an opportunity to make their flow charts either in written form (within the chart) or as graphical icons in the chart.

And, outside? Here are some student putting their energy into use...


Back at it tomorrow!

Oh yes, I do know which class won the Campbell Soup label contest for the first part of the year, but I'm not telling right now. Watch this space for details later in the week.

First years

I got to spend some good time with our two Kindergarten classes today. It is wonderful watching them develop over the 3 plus months I have been here. Today, the classes had their "Friday" teachers in the classroom, Mrs. Perry and Mrs. Reid.

Although I did see lots of literacy and play, I also enjoyed watching some math related activities - greater than/less than in one class and measurement in another.

I also have started working directly with these classes on the computers this month. The two lessons so far have focused on how to use the keypad and clicker to select options, drag and drop and today making dot drawings. We also delved into some exploring of other options within the KidPix program. We'll do this for another week or two, and then extend ourselves into something else to add new skills.

Friday art ... the beginnings of paper mache construction

Have a great weekend!

Positive day all round

I guess if I had to be away from school today, I couldn't have asked for a much nicer day to be on the ferry to Vancouver.

Checking my email while I was gone gave me the kind of information I expected. Mr. Williams had nothing of importance to tell me about issues with students. Just what I thought would be the case. I managed to get some reading done on the ferry and looked at some interesting education websites I can share in the next while.

Tomorrow, I get to teach the Ks again and follow on with our introduction to movement on the laptops. It should be fun!

Until tomorrow...

Aboriginal Education

 I watched some of the work being done today by our aboriginal education teacher with the students in Ms. McAllister's class.

She had pieces of drift wood that the students used to envision animals and to paint.

It is a very interesting project and the students enjoyed having me guess what animals they were making or to tell me a bit of a story about them.

Thanks Ms. Haavisto for the work you do with our students in this important part of their learning.

After lunch I drove to Sechelt for a meeting with the Superintendent, other members of District staff, and my fellow principals. I knew it was going to be a long meeting and so I stopped at the pier in Davis Bay to catch my breath a bit and take in some what living here on the Sunshine Coast has to offer us.

As I looked around on the dock, my mind wandered back to what I had seen earlier in the day.

Things are good...

Basketball and Soup Labels

Basketball has found its place on the calendar, both inside the gym for instruction during PE periods and team practices and also out side on the basketball court at recess and lunch. It was very cool out today, but the blue sky and sun meant the games have begun. There were even some of the girls playing out at the hoops at the back end of the parking lot.

We are fortunate this season to have a number of school teams. We are looking forward to the interschool schedule to come out so our students can meet and play with others in the next two months.

Mr. Pond is coaching the grade 4s and 5s as mixed teams. He has about 30 young athletes coming out for practice and I know he is appreciative of any other adult help he can get. Mr. Williams is coaching our grade 6 and 7 boys. Watching them play outside and practice, it looks to be a good year. I am coaching the grade 6 and 7 girls and I have a good number of strongly interested players, though with our practices being at 7:30 am it will be through sleepy eyes at first I'm sure.

As I put into an email home today, Friday this week is the official cut off day for the first segment of our collection of Campbell Soup Labels. We are gathering these in an effort to get some additional outside play equipment.

The students are aware that the winning division, the one with the most labels counted after Friday closing, will win the first prize and a special classroom treat.

The count for the second segment starts on Monday next week, so even if your child's class does not win the big prize this time, they still have an opportunity to do so.

Tomorrow afternoon I have a principals' meeting in Sechelt so I will be away after lunch. On Thursday, I have a medical appointment in Vancouver. So, tomorrow afternoon and all day Thursday, Mr. Williams will be the Teacher In Charge.

... until tomorrow ...

Outside Day

Yes, a lot more happened at school today besides the play outside, but for me it was a busy meeting, behind the computer and only a brief time in the classroom day.

On the weekend I noticed on the weather sites that we were to have rain today and then a cooling trend happening through the week with close to freezing temperatures by weeks end.

It didn't rain and we were far from cold as this shot of Mr. Williams analog data collector shows. It was a good day outside for recess and lunchtime breaks and I enjoyed every minute of it.


Okay, there was some water around, and this shot is from the grounds, not the US Mid West...  a few of the younger students were using their construction skills - mostly with their feet - to build a farm yard that was flooding. They were building dams and islands to keep the animals as safe as they could.

Other students were enjoying the mild weather out on the grounds in shirtsleeves on the adventure playground.

And others, simply enjoyed some of the other beautiful places to play.

Walking around, I could sense for yet another day the large number of happy children attending our school. From the groups on the all-weather field playing a couple of games of soccer to the one making some use of the ball diamond for a kickball game to the ones playing hide and tag games racing around the playing area to those on swings and other play apparatus.

Good feelings...