Taanshi!

Taanshi! Which means "hello" in Michif, the language of the Métis Aboriginals.  Friday was National Aboriginal day and we had the great honor of learning a little bit about Métis culture and history from Jason Landry, Evan's father.  

Both Evan and his dad wore their traditional Métis sashes and captivated us all with the history of the Métis flag.  We also learned that this flag happens to be one of the first Canadian flags used.   

 

While the flag has no official name, it is made up of the infinity sign and symbolizes the joining of two people, the First Nations and the early European immigrants.  The infinity sign also symbolizes the continuation of the Métis Nation.   

Jason also brought a ceremonial sweetgrass that is often braided and is used in prayer, smudging or purifying ceremonies for us to see.  

 

After learning about this interesting history and traditions the students were treated to some home made "la galet", also known as bannock.  The bannock was served with special Saskatoon berry syrup to dip it in.  There was not a crumb of bannock or a drop of syrup left over! 

Thank you Jason and Evan for teaching us about the Métis!  We all learned so much!

 

Although this was our second to last week of school, the students have been very busy finishing off their wacky science unit.  This week a new scientist, Professor Von Atom, kindly demonstrated to the class a very exciting experiment involving baking soda, baking powder, vinegar and water.   

 

 

Students mixed both baking soda and baking powder with water and then with vinegar. 

In this picture you can see the students predicting what will happen during the experiment in their "Wacky Science" booklets.  Once everyone completes their predictions they then conduct the experiment and record what actually happened.

As you can see, the students loved watching the mixture explode.

The students also conducted an experiment called dancing raisins.  They poured 7-up into a clear glass and put 5 raisins inside.  The raisins pop up and down in the cup for quite some time. 

This will be the end of our wacky science unit since we are approaching our last few days of school.  Here is one final salute from the brilliant scientists of Division 1 and 2! 

Stay tuned for our final post next week and have a happy weekend!

Science...the new frontier...

Well, it really isn't a "new frontier" but it is for Div 1 & 2!  This week, we were fortunate to host two world-renowned Science Professors - Professor Hypothesis from Austria and Professor Beaker from Pennsylvania.  They had rather strange accents that seemed inconsistent with their places of origin but we were not swayed by this...it must have been because they were so highly educated and scientific.

While Elana and Wendy headed to Starbucks to enjoy an afternoon of idle chat and latte sipping (hee hee), the professors captivated the students by discussing complex scientific words like "hypothesis", "dissolve", "prediction" and "observation".

The first experiment consisted of combining hot water with a detergent powder.  The students formed hypotheses about what they thought might happen when the powder was added.  Some hypotheses included explosions, flashes and crystallization. Wow!

We recruited an enthusiastic volunteer named Theo who assured us that he had muscles strong enough to stir for a long time!

As the solution was stirred and stirred and stirred, it remained cloudy-white for quite a while. Then something happened.  You will have to ask your child for the information on this.

 The children were then sent off in scientific research teams and they boldly performed their experiment.  Pipe cleaner shapes were formed then suspended in glass jars containing the solution.
After a couple of days, the jars were regarded with scrutinizing scientist eyes as the children compared their prediction with the end result.

Aha!  Crystallization!  We then had an engaging discussion about molecules (and Borax powder) and how molecules tend to move faster and like to be far away from each other when heat is involved.  The opposite occurs with cold; molecules move slower and tend to clump together.  Hmmmmm...!

On Wednesday, Professor Molecule (Professor Hypothesis' distant cousin) came for a visit.  They created a substance called Oobleck.  The name of this substance actually comes from a Dr. Seuss book entitled, Bartholomew and Oobleck.  In the story, it rains green Oobleck and gums up an entire town! The cool thing about this substance is that it is slimy, gross, disgusting (these are words your children came up with) and perfect for our class! It normally behaves like a liquid or jelly, but if you squeeze it in your hand, it will seem like a solid.



 We apologize for the fact that there are no photos of Professor Molecule but rest assured, her hair is almost as capturing as Professor Hypothesis'. :)

With all of this sitting and thinking about science, we realized the kids needed some exercise.  At the end of the week, we headed into the gym and did some Boot Camp.  The children rose to the challenge and proved that they can run really fast,

jump really far,



do step ups without stopping,



do the wall bounce,

and do squats until they cheered, "My legs are on fire!"

Happy Father's Day to all of our wonderful dads!! We hope you enjoyed your special day :)

Thank You Sarah and Olivia!

This was our last week with our wonderful student teachers, Sarah and Olivia.  While it was incredibly sad to see them go they made sure we had a great last week with them.   

Division 1 made beautiful Batik art with Sarah.  First the students drew their picture on paper, next they put a white piece of cloth over top and traced their drawing with special glue. 

 

Once the glue dried, they painted their cloth and Sarah took them home to wash and press them.  They turned out GORGEOUS! Sarah made Division 1 a Batik cloth that she framed to be hung in the class to remember her by.

 

On Friday, Division 1 boarded an airplane back to Canada.  Their African trip was a blast and they learned so much but it was time to come home.  The students enjoyed an in-flight service snack and were drilled by Wendy the “border guard” when entering back into Canada. 

 

Division 2 Worked really hard all week preparing for their African family party on Thursday afternoon.  The students prepared several stations where they got a chance to teach their parents a little bit of what they have learned about Africa. 

There was basket weaving.

 

 Jewelery making

  

Pin the trunk on the elephant

A sound game, teaching the parents about Africa's Big 5

Drumming

 

The party had other stations such as guessing how long it takes to fly from Vancouver to Ghana and learning how to make Jollof rice and getting a chance to taste it.  For the grand finale of their African party, Division 2 performed an impressive African drumming and dance routine.

The beginning of the week had such great weather that both divisions played fun games out in the sun for gym class. First we played Shadow Tag.  A game where ten students were “it” and the rest of the students had to run away while the “it’s” tried to freeze them by stepping on their shadows.   The students got very sweaty but had a great time. 

Next, we played a game of Grounders.  The teachers were 'it' and it didn’t take long for everyone to get caught.

 

Later in the week when the sun decided to hide, the students had fun playing Dr. Dodge ball.

 

On Friday afternoon, we surprised Sarah and Olivia with a big goodbye party with all the families.  There was a huge table packed with delicious treats and everyone had a wonderful time.   

To start off our party the students “popped up” and said why they love Sarah and Olivia. 

 Next, the classes presented each student teacher with their own hand made class books to help remember the students by.  Each student wrote why they loved their student teacher and drew a beautiful picture. 

While there were many tears shed there were great memories made throughout the student’s time with both Sarah and Olivia.  

 

We will miss you both so much.  Thank you for all your love and support and best of luck with your new teaching careers!  We hope you will come back to visit us soon!

Ghana and the Children's Festival

 What a fun-filled, action-packed, week of learning we had!  We began with our continued exploration of Ghana.

On Monday, Division 1 “went to the market".

This week, division 2 had some special guests come in to perform on the djembe drum. The kids were very engaged and learned some drumming techniques just by watching!

 

The kids then made their very own djembe drums and created drumming sequences in groups. Afterwards, they showcased their group drumming number to the class.

 

 

Olivia’s math class explored more about weight with balance scales. This week, they investigated how weighing more objects on one side usually makes the weight heavier. They were also able to put objects in order after weighing them. We used a small weight, marshmallows, gold fish crackers, pasta, and chocolate. The kids sure were hungry after each math class!

 

 

 

Divisions 1 and 2 experienced the most action-packed day ever!!  We began with a field trip to the Children’s Festival at Granville Island.  The day started with a riveting performance by Zuma Zuma which entailed African drumming, dancing, acrobatics and other amazing feats!  This was a perfect complement to our study unit.

Following the performance, all of the groups set off to discover and experience what the Children’s Festival had to offer.

There were so many things to do and see including:

Face Painting,

 

 

Origami,

 

Electricity and Play Dough,

Shadow Plays,

 

The Woven Snake,

 

And the Musical Playground!

 Our week concluded with a visit from Sage’s grandma and grandpa.  They lived in Ghana for two years.  In fact, Shannon (Sage’s mom) was born there!  Gil (grandpa) brought artifacts such as clothing,

 

toys,

 

musical instruments,

 

masks, and baskets for us to examine. 



 



 



 

 Gil also told us many things about his time in Ghana.

 

Jossie (grandma) read a traditional fable about Anansi the spider.

 

 

Many thanks to Gil and Jossie for sharing all of their knowledge, stories and artifacts with our class.

 

In finishing, we would like to thank all of our parents who volunteered their precious time to accompany us on our field trip and to set up and run the Spring Fling (which was an overwhelming success by the way!) We can’t do all of these wonderful things without you!