fun – Page 3 – Beyond The Desk

Are You Ready For December? The Mrhclassblog Is!!!

November 30, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

3563912840_23a0fdeccd Ahh! Flakes falling gently. Snow crunching underfoot! Snowmen being made by little Grade 3 children. Snowballs flying through the air! I love the winter season!

Wait a minute . . .

Oh. Right. I forgot.

I live in B.C now. Rain, rain, more rain and . . . . wait for it . . . that’s right! More rain! I miss the snow. Lucky for you and me. I brought some now from Alberta to the blog. I hope you enjoy it. We had a good start to the week. In science, students are quickly finishing up the first part of the science unit on building. Last week, we learned that stable objects are objects that do not tip over easily and stand up on their own. We did an experiment with a variety of containers and had a little tournament to see which one would stand the longest as the table they were standing on was tilted slowly up. From that experiment, we learned that the taller and object is, the wider the base had to be and the more weight there had to be on the bottom.

Here is a video of some kids trying to build a tall structure. Do you notice anything about their structure that matches what we learned last week and today?

Do you notice anything about these buildings? (I didn’t write it so the spelling mistakes are not mine!!)

Using that knowledge, students have now been assigned the task of designing a sippy cup for Siena that will be stable and not tip over easily. The results should be very interesting!

Our Daily 3 is now on the way to running smoothly. The Listening Centre area had a few more kinks in it than I expected. But it is working better now. Thank you to all the parents who donated machines to the class. They are working beautifully. My goal and objective now is to start working in small groups with students focusing on books and reading strategies specifically geared to their age and reading level. We will be doing novel studies and comprehension activities as a small group of no more than 4 students. It should be very good. I will also be working with individual students to hear how their reading is doing and provide individual attention on an on-going basis.

Here is our spelling for this week:
Spelling N 3

As always, here is the spelling city link. Remember that if you bring me your completed test, you can receive an extra mark on your spelling test on Friday!!! The more you practice your words using games and other activities, the stronger your neurons and axons get!!!

Our Memory Verse continues on the Christmas-y theme here at Mrhclassblog! It is from Luke 2:10:

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Finally, I thought this would be good to add to our collection of videos. This is from a cd of Science music we were listening to last week. It is by a group called “They Might Be Giants”. Anyone from my generation might remember them. Anyway, they have been getting into children’s music lately and this CD has a great collection of songs. The added DVD has the songs as videos and I found some of them on youtube. Enjoy!

Great Art Resource and A Hilarious Video!

November 12, 2009 eoin24 Comments 4 comments

We have been using this art website in the class this year and I have tried to add it to our blog links on the side. However, for some reason, it is not wanting to show up. The kids have been asking for it almost everyday. So I thought I would put it here so that you had a quick way to get to the site. The site is called Artpad and it is a really nice and simple site that allows you to create artwork with your mouse, add a frame and display it digitally in an art gallery with your choice of artwork hanging around it. Click on the picture to go to the site.

Please, remember that your Science Challenge projects are due tomorrow! Finally, I found this great site a few days ago and thought you would also enjoy it. It was just an ordinary day at the food court in New York when, suddenly, something strange happened . . .

I Eat A Cookie, You Eat A Cookie, We All Eat Cookies!!!!

October 15, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Last Friday, the students and I had a blast doing our Oreo Cookie Math projects. First of all, thank you to all of you parents that donated a package of cookies to the class. It was very generous and we ended up with lots and lots of cookies to use which was fantastic.

The project we were doing involved classes around the world. Here is a map showing all the classes involved including ours!

oreomap

There was a lot of math involved with this project. As part of the project students had to estimate how many cookies they thought they could stack. Once the students had finished estimating, the student stacked, with bated breathe, each cookie until it tumbled down. The students were very excited and we had a lot of fun stacking. The students then had to determine which of their stacking attempts was the most successful by using subtraction and greater than/less than statements. We also used pictograms to chart the number of cookies each student stacked. We then found the average of cookies stacked by the class. The average number of cookies stacked by our class was 15. Once we had an average, we submitted our data to the main Oreo Cookie project site. Not only did we have our name put on the map, but our data was added to the over 10,000 other students worldwide who were a part of this project! The students were amazed. We also found out that the average number of cookies stacked worldwide was 18. As a class we stacked over 274 cookies!!!! It was a very fun project. Here are some of the pictures:

I also captured some of the video from the event which you can watch below:

Here is our spelling for the week. Sorry it took so long to get it up. Remember! The spelling test is on Tuesday next week.

M-4

Click on the link to get to the Spelling City page with this weeks spelling words.

Phew! That was a long post! Finally, we will be doing our memory verse tomorrow so please make sure you know it!!!!!

Songs Buzzing Around My Head

September 27, 2009 eoin24 Comments 5 comments

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I thought I would give you all a little Sunday gift. I found this video last week and the song has been in my head all week. So I thought that you would appreciate it if I shared it with you so we could all have the song in our head!!! It’s not as bad as an ABBA song (and if you don’t know who ABBA is, ask your parents but don’t, I repeat, don’t play any of the songs. You’ll never get them out of your head. I had one song in my head for three weeks. It was not pretty.)

Anyway, here is the song. It is an old childrens folk song sung by Lisa Loeb.

What’s That? A New Science Challenge?

June 8, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Well, all right then! This will be our last Science Challenge this week . . . and it’s all about music!! No, no, don’t worry your smart, curious, intelligent heads now. You don’t need to be able to read notes or anything. You can put away the old tuba collecting dust in the corner. This one is going to be a whiz-banger of creativity, a flim-sham of activity, a kerplutz of musical genius making. So without further ado (and with sounds of music running through my head!) here is the challenge:

Use any/all of the following materials to create a one man band contraption that you can wear and play. This is a great one to videotape!

belt
string
tape
rubber bands
paper clips
notecards
empty cereal container
a plate
2 spoons
2 objects of your choice
a bowl
a book
straws
a hairbrush
a comb
3 soda cans

As you think about your design for this challenge take a listen to a news article about a real one man band and how he designed his!

Listen to a One Man Band – Interview from NPR

If you need some more inspiration, try this game out!

One Man Band

Build your very own one man band!

Play this free game now!!

To end off, here is a an old favorite from Mary Poppins where Burt becomes a one man band!

Have fun! All projects are due on Monday, June 15th but you can always bring them in early!!!! The earlier you bring them in the less you have to worry about them!!!!!

Also, permission forms for the waterslides are due on Friday! Check the Important Dates area for more info on things coming up!

Late . . . Late . . .

May 26, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Yes, well . . . Apparently, my attempts to try and be more consistent in writing these posts has come to naught. However, I am here with this weeks spelling words, memory verse and various other things. Here is this weeks spelling list: Spelling 0-2

Here is the link for the Spelling City list:

Our memory verse for this week is very easy. It comes from Psalms and the many of the students already were very familiar with it. However, it is definately a favorite as many students chose it to include in the list of memory verses we collected at the beginning of the year.

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.² He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³ he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Last week’s Science Challenge brought in some fantastic results. We have them hanging from the ceiling if you would like to come in and see them some time. I also created an animoto where you can see them all.

I have also included a new game in the links to the left. The games is called “Stars Over Half Moon Bay”. I am not sure you can call it a game though. Basically, you must select stars and drag them below the horizon. These stars can then be used to create constellations. That’s about it. Not quite as sophisticated as Dyson but it fits very nicely into our Space unit. Students have been learning all about constellations; how to find them and some neat facts about them. However, their final constellation is going to be one that they make up. They create their own constellation, draw it out and create neat facts about how their constellation came to be. Should be interesting.

Monday Spelling and Memory Verse (And, If You’re Very Good, A Surprise!)

May 11, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Here is the spelling for this week:

Spelling 01

Here is the link to the spelling activities to go along with the spelling words!

Our memory verse this week, comes from Ephesians 6:1-2

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honour your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise-

Well, I guess you have been good. Here is a neat video and a song for you!

beep_beep-160 Beep-Beep

Oilers Triumphant!!!!!!!

April 5, 2009 eoin24 Comments 2 comments

Oh yeah!!!!1 That’s right!!!! Oilers win!!!!!

Hockey Jersey Day Yesterday!

April 4, 2009 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

We had a wonderful day yesterday with out Hockey Jersey Day. In anticipation of the Oilers playing Canucks, we were allowed to wear our hockey jerseys. Sadly, there were a number of people in the class who wore Canucks jerseys. I say unfortunate because it is sad to see so many people who have been brainwashed into thinking that Canucks are better than the Oilers! Very Sad!

Luckily, the students in the class came into my grade 3 class at just the right time to correct this problem. Though progress is slow, I believe the truth about Oilers superiority is coming out. Besides myself, another student in the class wore their Oilers jersey (and a vintage one at that!). It was very gratifying to see the positive influence I am beginning to have. Some students may take longer to realize the truth (that means you, Stef!) but I think eventually they will come around!

I hope your science projects are going well. In fact, why don’t you take a break and watch this video I found. It is the trailer for a new movie coming out in the fall based on the famous children’s book, Where The Wild Things Are. It looks really good. I can’t wait to see it.

Think – Be Challenged!!

March 23, 2009 eoin24 Comments 2 comments

I found a new site the other day with some great projects to do. The idea behind the projects is to make students think in new ways; to think outside the box. The challenges are inventive and creative in nature but also a lot of fun. I thought I would post the challenges on here so all of you can try them out.

Here is the first challenge:

Using the following materials, design a puppet that moves in at least two different ways. It may NOT be a hand puppet.

6 straws or pencils
a 12 x 12 square of aluminum foil
6 paper clips
6 inches of tape
paper
string

You may use scissors in construction but not in the solution.

If you want to take a picture of your creation to put on the blog, just send the picture to the class email.

Have fun!

Beyond The Desk

The Class Blog for Mr. Hancock's Grade 5/6 Class

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