Hello!
We had a fantastic day today! The students worked hard, listened well and made lots of good choices. We had a fun day with lots of great stuff happening. There was a note that went home today regarding the upcoming science projects students will be doing in class as their final projects for our Buildings and Structures Unit. Here is what the note says. I have also put a copy of the note in the box.net widget on the right side of the blog if you would like to download a copy.

Dear Parents

The Grade 2/3 students have been working very hard in Science. Our first unit this year was on Building and Structures. Throughout this unit, students were learning all the ways that buildings can be built to make them strong and stable. This includes using strong shapes like circular columns, triangles and supportive structures like arches and beams.

For their final project, students will be taking everything they have learned and apply those concepts and ideas to building an actual model structure. Using materials brought from home, students will choose one of three structures to build. Through this process, each group will also have a budget to stay within when “purchasing” their materials, as well as strict guidelines to follow in order to successfully complete the project.

As we are building models from actual materials, it would be appreciated if you could send any of the following recycled material with your child to school:

Popsicle sticks                                                               Milk cartons
Cereal boxes/cardboard                                            Shoe boxes
Empty paper towel rolls                                           toilet paper rolls
Scrap pieces of string (any type) and wool         Straws
Yogurt and margarine containers                        Pipe Cleaners
Strawberry baskets
Spools                                                                              Flexible wire
Toothpicks                                                                     Clothespins
Paper Clips                                                                    Egg cartons

Please ensure that containers have been washed before sending them. We appreciate your assistance.

We did our Daily 3 today with all the 3 elements of the program. It went very well, though we had some technical difficulties with the equipment! However, we worked through everything and it very well for the first time. The students also wanted me to put this video on the blog. I don’t know why. I showed them the video today during our Daily 3 time to show what another class did to learn the Acronym “IPICK” which is a way to help students pick books that are a good fit for them. It’s a little hard to understand but the students thought it was hilarious!

It has been a couple of very busy weeks recently. The students have been working hard and we are now just putting the finishing pieces onto our Daily 3 Language Arts Program. It has been a long process but the modeling and all the work that went into setting it and getting the students comfortable with the process is paying off. We started the last piece. “Listening To Reading” today with the introduction of the media players. Students will be listening to audiobooks on tape, CD and the computer. Hearing professional readers reading pieces of literature is a great way for students to build reading fluency. Hearing the reading on the tape or CD while following along in the books helps the brain hear and practice good, fluent reading. As well, we will be using a website called RAZ Kids as part of the Listening to Reading Program. This website allows students to read books at their own level at home. The system has been set up for their level already. Once the students log in, they can read books, have books read to them, and take quizzes about their book to earn stars which they can use to add things to their “Rocket Ships“. Once our program is flowing well, I will release access to the students to work on it at home. For now, we are just using it at school.

So with the addition of the “Listening To Reading” portion of the Daily 3 program, we now have all elements in place. Students will now be choosing on of the three parts of the program to do each day, with most days allowing opportunities for more than one choice. By the end of the week, all students should have had a chance to complete all three areas. This will also be replacing our D.E.A.R time which was a free reading time.

The three areas students will be working on now, in summary, are:

• Read to Self: Students working on reading by themselves focusing on reading the words, reading the pictures and re-telling the story.
• Read To Others: Students read with a partner choosing either to read the same book or read different books. As they reading they are either practicing reading fluency or reading comprehension. Students have summarize each page or section that has been read to them to show that they are listening and comprehending.
• Listening To Reading: The newest section of the program, students read books while listening to them as a way to practice fluency and vocabulary.

We have also talked about how to pick good books that are the “right fit”. A “Good Fit” book is one where the student gets to pick the book, they are picking it for a purpose and they are interested in it. It should also be a book where they are able to comprehend most of what they are reading AND it is a book where most of the words are familiar and can be read by the child with high accuracy.

If you come across any used cd players or tape players you would be willing to donate, please continue to send them our way. We can always use more!

Here is the spelling for this week:

Spelling N 1

I have also included the link for Spelling City here. Remember, if you print off your certificate and bring it in, it will count as an extra point on your spelling test on Friday. Also, parents, if you do not have access to a printer or it breaks down, just sign your child’s planner with a note stating that they did complete the test and got 100% and that will count as well. Make sure to tell your child to show it to me as I may not see it in time otherwise.

Our memory verse this week is from Matthew 7:7:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

The students have once again earned a party, which we will have on Friday afternoon. I have asked the students to bring a snack for the class if they are able to. As the year is now fully into swing and expectations have been set and understood, students will be having to earn more stars in order to earn further parties. They are now working on 50 stars and will then be required to earn 75 stars. I have stressed to the students that these are their choices as to whether they earn stars or have stars taken away. By stressing this, I am helping students to understand that they are the ones that decide their own behaviour; that it is not me arbitrarily deciding when they get stars or have stars taken away. They are the ones that choose. I believe that this is a very important distinction.

Finally, I want to thank everyone for the hard work and effort that went into the Science Challenge. All the vehicles showed great creativity and team work! It was so neat to see how such simple materials could result in so many different yet wonderful realizations. I hope that you also found this a rewarding time as you had a chance to work with your child and see the wonderful capabilities a child has for creativity. Now, don’t worry! We will not be doing this every week but about once a month or so I will throw another challenge out there for your family! I have taken photos of all the projects which I will turn into an Animoto for you. For now though, I thought I would end off with a science video as a reward for getting this far and reading all the way to the end.

Just a quick post of some fun things. In the rush of last week, I forgot to mention that tomorrow is School Colours Day – jeans, and red, white or black shirt. If you do not wish to wear those colours, you must wear your uniform. As well, please try to pick a shirt that is mostly red, white or black with as small a logo as possible if there is a logo on your shirt.

I just discovered that today, Storybird.com is now allowing you to embed stories into your blog. So let’s get going!!! I have added the very first storybird I ever did below! Enjoy!

An Animal Alphabet on Storybird

Finally, a fun video from a series that my wife and I enjoy. The Simon the Cat series of videos are always hilarious. Enjoy the rest of your day! I am off to do some singing!!!! Ta ta!

Here is a little bit of fun to start of your weekend. We have been listening to the Brad Mehldau Trio this week. They are a jazz trio using piano, bass and drums. They probably are one of the bigger names amongst the most recent of jazz groups coming out and we have really been enjoying them. The low key, soft sounds have really been nice to have as background. Anyway, I found this video a few days ago and I thought it would be a nice compliment to what we had been listening to. It is a jazz piece by John Coltrane called Giant Steps. The author of the video took the music and matched it with the sound of the music to create a really neat video where you can follow the music along with the sound to get an idea of how they match.

Have a great weekend!

Well, the house challenges are in and, I have to you, I was really impressed not just with the finished product but also with the response. I had many of you come to me and tell me how much fun  this project was and how you enjoyed the time you got to spend with your children working together to do it.

The finished projects were truly amazing, each and every one of them. Every student had a different idea and a completely different solution to the problem which is exactly what I wanted. I wanted the students to think outside the box; to look creatively at a problem and that is exactly what they all did; with your support. Thank you for really coming together on this. Every students got the full marks for the project.

I created an animoto of the product which is displayed below.

Hello!

Your children probably came home with some strange homework. Their homework was to get you, the parents, to figure out something. You have probably heard the phrase, “dig a hole to China”. However, I asked the students on Thursday whether that would actually happen. If you dug hole straight down through the core of the Earth from where you are in Chilliwack, would you end up in China?

Using a map of the world, the children all guessed where they thought they would end up. There were some close answers. Next, we used the site Antipodr.com, typed in our address and found out that, actually, we would not end up in China but would indeed probably need to take our snorkel gear and rubber ducky with us if we were going to actually dig this hole as we would indubitably find ourselves in a very watery situation.

But where is that place, you ask? Ahh, that is the question and your homework!!! Take a guess and check the site out. Please let us know where you thought you would end up by getting your child to bring your guess in on Monday. Also, if you can let us know how you tried to determine where you would end up!!

But that’s not all!!! There is a second part to this!!! Where would you have to be in order to actually dig a hole to China?

Some of the answers I was given by the children were interesting. Some of them said that you can’t dig a hole to China. So the answer was “nowhere, you can’t dig a hole to China!” I said, “But that wasn’t the question”. Of course, the children are right in that we can’t actually dig a whole to China. What made me think, though, was how tough it was to think outside the box; to imagine things outside the realms of possibility. How many times do we inhibit the imagination of our students and children and force them (inadvertently or on purpose) to always think practically or realistically instead of encouraging them to imagine other worlds, places and dreams? Do we empower them consistently to dream big dreams; to reach for the stars; to say to people who say we can’t do things, “Why are you limiting yourself?”

For my Friday list this week, here is a video you may have seen before but I thought might go with this topic. If you remember last Friday, I said that every Friday I would list things that I love or would like to do or things that have made me and the class happy. Here is today’s:

There are a couple of things I wanted to remind you of for Monday.

1. Monday is Black Monday. Students are allowed to wear a black shirt as long as it is mostly black. The school is following the same guidelines as the Red Shirt Day we had a while back. Small logos are fine as well as jeans or pants other than uniform pants. If they don’t have a shirt that is mostly black than they need to wear their uniforms.

2. Photo Order forms – Order forms for the photos need to be back by Monday as well. Please make sure they come in by the end of Monday.

Here is a great science video I saw at the teacher’s conference last week. I thought it was just great and showed off some great science concepts. Plus it was quite funny.

Lots of stuff happening today!!!!

We started our Oobleck machines today! They are looking really good. Aftre looking at the Oobleck, the students wrote down five important properties of Oobleck. After discussing those properties with the class, each group chose 5 properties that we titled Laws of Oobleck. The five laws we came up with were:

• It melts in your hand sometimes but not always and after it has been used a lot.
• It melts and dries because it was a solid and a liquid
• The liquid evaporates but the other stuff doesn’t
• It hardens in a quick amount of time.
• It hardens when we squish it.

Now that the laws have been established, students are working on designing a vehicle that could move around on the surface of Oobleck and collect specimans to further study Oobleck before it takes over the world!!!

Students also got their first ten spelling words today. I have put the entire list here in the post. If you can’t see the list, you can click on the document in the Box.net widget on the right side under where it says Class Files. If you click on the file, it will give you the option to download it. You can also click spelling-l-1 to download it.

This weekend, the school is holding a golf tournament in support of purchasing more equipment for the playground. The information is as follows:

September 20, 2008 Aquadel Golf Course, 9am Shotgun Start, includes lunch and prizes for all!  Cost $60.00 please purchased tickets at the school office. :

Students also have their first bible verse today. They will need to have these verses memorized for FRIDAY!

The verse is Ephesians 2:10.

“We are God’s Masterpiece. he has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good thinkgs he planned for us long ago.”

I have had lots of great comments about doing the favorite verses as memory verses. I believe it is really affirming to hear how the bible affects people and how each of these special verses speaks to each of us. I also have been reading verses I have not heard before which is great for our growth in studying God’s word.

Finally, I was told that I just have to add some of the songs from the Bungee Jumpin’ Cows on the blog. This group is a band from the States that goes around to schools and sings songs that are science related. They are great fun and I actually met one of them when I went down to take a science course. It was great fun and the kids just loved the CD.

Have a great evening!

DANCE, POPCORN, DANCE!!!! Buwa-ha-ha-ha!!!

Oh well, apparently it is not meant to be! Check this article out!

Physicist Debunks Cellphone Popcorn Viral Videos

By Jenna Wortham June 09, 2008 | 5:37:20 PMCategories: Advertising, Video, Viral, Web/Tech

YouTube videos that show a group of friends apparently cooking kernels of popcorn with their cellphones have been viewed more than a million times since they were uploaded last week.

The clever parlor trick (see embedded clip) looks amazing enough, but there’s a hitch: It’s not physically possible, according to University of Virginia physics professor Louis Bloomfield.

“[The videos] are cute,” said Bloomfield in a phone conversation Monday. “But that’s never gonna happen.”

In a microwave oven, energy excites the water inside popcorn kernels until it turns into highly pressurized gas, causing the kernels to pop. If mobile phones emitted that much energy, the water in the fingers of people holding them would heat up.

“It would hurt like crazy,” Bloomfield said. “Cellphones probably warm your tissues, but studies indicate that’s not injurious.”

Bloomfield, author of How Everything Works: Making Physics Out of the Ordinary, dismissed theories bubbling up in comment threads about the videos that suggest harmonious vibrations are heating the corn.

“Ringing the phones doesn’t help because they’re interfering with each other and receiving a signal [from a cellphone tower] — not transmitting it,” he said. Furthermore, while it is possible to heat with sound, it’s not likely to happen at the low volume emitted by a mobile phone. “It would be like gathering opera singers together to sing, and trying to make the corn pop,” Bloomfield said.

So, what’s really causing the kernels to ricochet off the table in the YouTube clips? Bloomfield suggests tricky video editing or even a covert heating element beneath the table. Debunker website Snopes.com also points out that cooking popcorn with cellphones is impossible (same goes for eggs).

The popcorn videos, like the slew of YouTube clips showcasing ordinary people performing extraordinary feats that came before them, has the distinct markings of a viral-marketing campaign. Let’s look at the facts.

First, all four videos — French, Japanese and two American editions — were posted to the YouTube accounts of users  bobtel08 and benzin513 (with French descriptions) within several days of one another.

Second, a cryptic bit of commentary posted alongside one of the videos says: “We tried but didn’t make it … maybe only with phone brands or models???” It could be a subtle hint to get viewers to notice the phones more than the stunt. And, indeed, several comments have suggested the phones all appear to be similar makes and models, possibly Nokias or Sony Ericsson mobiles.

For now, however, the clandestine origin of the videos is under wraps. Bobtel08, benzin513 and Nokia did not immediately respond to Wired.com’s requests for comment, and a representative from Sony Ericsson North America said he wasn’t aware of the videos at all.

We saw this video today and could not believe what it was showing. So, having learned that all good scientists “question, discuss and check each other’s explanations”, we decided to try it out for ourselves. This has been a big theme this year; working as real scientists. it also really reinforced the idea that not everything on the internet should be believed! Many students think that everything on the web is real without checking the facts. So that is what we did at the end of the day today. We got some parent helpers to come and lend us their phones and tried it out. First though, the students wrote out the whole experiment including their hypothesis before doing the experiment as a written record of what we had done. Here is the video that we saw in preparation for the experiment.

Needless to say, when we tried it in the classroom, the experiment did not work. One of my students made the bright observation that we never see under the table and he thought that they could have a heating element underneath warming the table and heating the popcorn. Anyway, it was at the very least, a lot of fun and the students really got the message. However, I think they were disappointed that the popcorn did not pop!!!