Growing Global Connections

This week as we started composing a letter to a class we connected with in England during our Monster Project, I realized much global connections and using technology has become an accessible and natural part of our everyday routines. 

Every day I am seeing the students become more globally aware as they run their fingers over the world map in our hallway to find places we've talked about.  They bring up a conversation we have had with another class via skype or e-mail when discussing the topics we are studying in our classroom.  They are using our blog to extend their learning at home, and as a way to share their learning with their families (Thank you to Christian's Nanna for letting us know that even some extended family is keeping up with our classroom community).

The moment this week that made me realize my students are definitely 21st century learners was when as we were writing our letter, two students raised their hands and asked "Can we skype with them?", like it was something they'd been doing for years.

Ms. Nairn

Where in the world are you from?

As I watch our viewer counters go up, I am seeing more variety in the locations of our visitors.  This past week I noticed visitors from Beauséjour, Manitoba,   Medford, New Jersey and a few weeks ago on from Tasmania, New Zealand.  I am curious to know (and I know my students are too) how our new visitors have found our blog and what they think.  So whether you're a new comer or a long time follower of our blog we invite you to comment on what you think and where you are from.

Science - Cars for Mr. Box

We have been building cars, modelling our classroom routines to teachers from other schools and continuing to talk about good fit books this week.  Here is what has excited us most this week:

Mr. Box is a little bit lego man - Aidan
Mr. Box likes all our cars - Kylie
He loves every single colour even girl colours.  He is a boy too. - A
Mr. Box has three boxes of luggage  - Nick
Our cars have wheels - Maki
Mr. Box needs a ramp - Dylan

Today we had an assembly about the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football team.  They are going to the Grey Cup. - Kaydince, Josh and Christian
We did a letter to Ms. Morris' class in England - Rory
We had Ms. Nairn's nephew visited this afternoon - Maki
We had two guest teachers come to our class to see what we're doing for Daily 5 - Nolan
We were modelling for the two teacher - Kaydince
We had to unwrap books because we were learning about good fit books. - Christian and Kaydince


Photos taken by: Christian, Mimi, Josh & Morgan

Good Fit Books

This week we had the opportunity to have Ms. Gauvreau come to our class and talk to us about Good Fit Books.  Here are some of the things we learned as well as other things we did this week:

Good fit books have most of the words you know - Nolan

Ms. Gauvreau talking to us about Good Fit Books

Books are good for your reading and for your brains - Kylie
& Daniel
We have fun with good fit books - Jana
We had another teacher come and we did a good fit books rap - Maki
We had a teacher come talk about good fit books -Kaydince
Don't pick too hard books because you won't know most of the words but you can try another day - Sarah
Don't pick too hard books cause you will just mess up what you are reading - Rory
Have fun reading and don't sit right beside your best friends or you'll distract them. - A  

We are making a car for a lego guy named Mr. Box. - Keiran
The car for Mr. box has to go down the ramp, has to have 4 wheels, hold 3 blockes, have a safe spot for Mr. Box and look cool, nice, and detailed. - Nick

We are having a Christmas play - Mimi
We are going to have Christmas and after Christmas is my birthday - Daniel
We had assembly this morning and we got to see grade 4/5 dance club perform - Jana, Rory and Christian

By Ms. Nairn's Class

Our Class Week

Performing our doubles wrap for the grade 1 class

We skyped with another class today.  They did a rap about good fit books and we did a double's rap.  The class we skyped with was a grade 1 class.  We said "hi" and our principal from kindergarten is now their principal.  We asked them questions.  We had fun skyping.  They go for recess the same as us.  This is our second time skyping.






We had gym this week.  We played Yoshi island, treasure island and chicken pox.

We had our Remembrance Day assembly.  We heard a song about the soldiers and it was really sad.  Also we heard orff club.  We had poppies to put on our shirts too.  Some of the students in our school drew pictures about Remembrance Day.

We finished our monster and we have to take him down because he is too big to keep for the whole year.

By Ms. Nairn's Class

Our Last Day with our Monster

 

Our First Skype Ever

The day has finally arrived!!!!  Today marked the first time we Skyped with another class, and they were Mr. Ferguson's grade four class.  We enjoyed sharing details about our monster making journey and asking questions about where the other class lived.  Here is what the students had to say:


We skyped with another class today.  They were from New Hampshire, United States.  We got to see what they look like because we were video chatting.  We had fun.  We got to see their monster's head.  They see deer, moose, coyotes, foxes, black bears, mountain lions rabbits, chipmunks and porcupines in their back yards.  When they look out their school window they see mountains.  And they get to ski on the mountains.

Our classmates asking questions to Mr. Ferguson's Class

After we skyped we went for recess.  There was snow on the ground.  We played with the snow and some of us made snowmen.  Some of us made a giant snowball.  And some of us even made snow balls and Ms. Nairn took some pictures.

This picture slideshow created with Smilebox

This is what it looks like when we are writing our whole class blog posts like the one we wrote today.

Polar Bears in Manitoba

Polar Bear Cam - Tundra Buggy - Polar Bears - explore

Check out this link!!!! I was talking with a friend this weekend, and they mentioned this website. It is a live streaming camera that was set up in Churchill, Manitoba. The camera will actually zoom in if there are Polar Bears of other creatures in the frame.

The camera is attached to a tundra buggy, which is a vehicle that is used up north to travel and observe wildlife safely.

I spent about 15 minutes watching a Polar Bear sleep, and it was so close I could see it breathing.


Ms. Nairn

It is November

We had a busy week at school.  Here are some of the things we did:

We went to phys. ed. and we did some warm ups.  Then we played something like chain tag. - Devan

We have a good school because we do good work and we get rewards, like gum. - Kylie

We go to computer and we look at other people's monsters. - Noah

We had choir.  We sang a song about peace. - Maki

We had lots of fun today because we played games in math.  The game was about even and odd numbers. - Nick

We learned a new song called Doubles, Doubles.  We are going to sing the song to a grade 1. - Morgan

We had a fun day today because we had gum and we had choir too.  - Mimi

The other monsters look nice too! - Daniel

written by Ms. Nairn's Class