Beyond The Desk – Page 125 – The Class Blog for Mr. Hancock's Grade 5/6 Class

Concert Night in Chilliwack

May 27, 2008 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Well tonights the night. Spring is in the air and the Spring Spectrum is the perfect place to be to celebrate. Come and join our wonderful singers and musicians. Apparently, an art show might just break out as well. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Something for all the senses! Students should be in the class by 6:45 tonight.

We also finished off some poetry work in Language Arts and did the next 10 words for our spelling. The spelling words can be found in the last post under this one.

In Math, we went back and did some review work on multiplying numbers as the students still are not sure on how the process works. Combining that with our work on rounding also confused them a little. Consequently, we spent some time going over the concepts again to make sure the students understand everything. I am working on some voicethreads to help students with this concept.

For Science we worked on a quiz today on distances of objects in space. I think the students did quite well which is reassuring. We followed that with making Mars Polar Landers. I was able to find a pattern that we could fold and make our own Polar Lander. Inserting a balloon allows it to float and land on a surface just like the actual Mars Polar Lander ( though of course that didn’t use a balloon).

We’ll see all of you tonight!

Landing on Mars

May 26, 2008 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Devotion:

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Oh give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 136:1-3

All the students were very excited this morning to tell me the news about the new Mars craft landing on the surface of Mars. Called the Mars Polar Lander this spacecraft is different from the previous machines as it does not move. Instead it will stay in one spot and do research on whether there is water there and whether there is any kind of life. There is lot of information on their website at Phoenix Mars Mission. Here are some of the videos.

If you go to these sites, you can download some images and make your own animotos. We will then put them on the blog if they turn out. Part of their homework tonight is to think of a question to ask the scientists.

We also previewed a new game which is very addicting, challenging and takes a great deal of logic and brains. There are some ads on the site though so please do not click on the ads. The game is called Magic Pen.

The rest of the day went very well. We are continuing with our poetry unit. However, we are just reading some poems now. Today we read a Robert Louis Stevenson poem about going to bed in summer. The students were really able to relate to the poem. We also had a look at the first 10 spelling words for the week. Here are the spelling words:

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Art Work in the Class

May 23, 2008 eoin24 Comments 1 comment

If you haven’t been in our class lately, you probably have not noticed our neat Stick figures. Inspired by Alberto Giacometti, these stick figures represent and action from a picture the students brought in to class. Alberto Giacometti originally designed bronze figures much the same as ours as a way to characterize the anonymous interactions people have everyday in a city. As he sat watching people in a busy city square, he noticed that no one was talking to each other or even acknowledging each others existence. He created his own city square to represent that feeling. Here is his famous sculpture.

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After we had studied some of his sculptures, we designed our own using pipe cleaners and tin foil. I think they came out very nicely as you can see below.

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Hello from Bob!!!

May 22, 2008 eoin24 Comments 12 comments

Hello everyone!! It’s Bob here. I know you haven’t heard from me for awhile and Mr. H (my brother) said that you were getting worried for me. That is very kind of you! I didn’t think anyone would miss me. But Mr. H (my brother) has been telling me all sorts of things about you all and you sound like a very nice group of children. Very kind and considerate. Anyway, when I talked to Mr. H (my brother), he said I should try to write a blog post on this fantastic blog my brother has going for you. He also said that I should explain why it has been so long since you have head from me.

As you know, I was doing some cattle rustling. In other words, I was moving cattle from one ranch to the other across the great plains of Texas. It was quite a trip. Needless to say that there were no telephones or anything to call my brother so we were out of touch for quite awhile. But you should have seen the stars in the sky . They were so beautiful. You can’t imagine how many stars there are in the sky until you go out to some deserted place and see them without all the lights of the city. I think the only bad part was that our cook was not a very good. Actually, let’s just say he was bad. You know, beans every night and morning and lunch just doesn’t fulfill a person. It also gives you a few other problems but I won’t get into that . . .

Anyway, here’s a picture of me on the cattle drive. It was a wild experience. There were three other guys with me. Hank, Billy and Sally. I don’t know why he was called Sally and he didn’t want to tell us. In fact he didn’t talk at all the whole time. He was a bit weird. The other two guys were nice but kept stealing my boots at night and hiding them. They thought it was funny but it got very annoying especially when they hid them in the stream. I got them back though. One night I tied their ankles to the saddle of one of the horses and in the morning, before they woke up, I slapped the horse on the rump. Needless to say, woke up pretty quickly!!! It was very funny and they didn’t steal my boots after that.

Anyway, I’m wondering what to do next. Mr. H (my brother) says I should come home and meet all of you but I’m not sure. I don’t think my brother’s wife likes me too much especially after I tried to give the cat a haircut. I ended up shaving the cat’s hair all off. She was not happy with me. I said, at least it’s not shedding anymore and now my brother doesn’t sneeze all the time. Problem solved you know! I’m a problem solver!!!

So anyway, I’d like you all to give me some reasons to come back. Leave a comment here with at least 5 reasons I should come home and meet you all.

Talk to you soon!

Mid-week Happenings

May 21, 2008 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

earth Devotion:

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it. Psalm 24:1

We took some time to get back into our other subjects today after spending yesterday on our poems. We did our monthly 30 word spelling test. Following that, we discovered multiplying two and three digit numbers with one digit numbers. The students caught on quickly and I think had a good understanding on the concept by the end of the class. We teach multiplying multiple digits differently from when I went to school but I think this way gives the students a better understanding of the concept which they can then build on when we get to larger numbers. tornado

Students will be having a short quiz/test next Science period on sizes of objects in space. Basically, I am testing to see how well they understand that the farther things are away from us, the smaller they appear. So the Sun appears to be the same size as the Moon because it is much farther away from us than the Moon.

Mr. Beynon also came by today and showed us a neat way to create tornado with two pop bottles and blue-dyed water. Basically, take two pop bottles, glue the caps together, drill a hole through the two caps, put the water with the dye into one of the two bottles and screw the lids back on. Finally, flip the bottles over and swirl them around until you get tornado going. Cool! I’m glad I’m not swimming in there though!!!!

A Topsy, Turvy Day!

May 20, 2008 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

It was one of those days where everything you plan goes out the window. We had lots we were going to do but it got put to the side as we focused on getting our poems done for the book. It took us all day but we are one day closer to having our published book. As the students finished up any remaining poems that needed to be finished, we also looked at various covers to bind our books in and staring thinking of titles. So far we have a very creative list of titles including:

Poems for Family and Friends

Poems That Fill Your Head With Pictures

Mom, I want to Stay Up and Read

Peace to Poems and Goodwill Towards Books

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, Good Night Poems

Poems That Fill Your Head With Good Thoughts

Poems For Life

For Poems Give Me Strength to Read

Poems For Reading Out Loud

Everlasting Poems

Listen Once, Read Twice

We Write, You Read

We should be ready to send in the poems by Friday and then we wait . . .

There is no spelling this week as it is a short week. The kids are strangly happy about that. Hmmmmm . . . .

In homes without rules about Internet use, 74% of children report that an adult is never present when they use the Internet.

I didn’t get a chance this week to continue on with our discussion on Internet Safety. So here is another way for your child to stay safe on the Internet.

2. Doing Safe Searches: While not foolproof, many search sites give you control over what types of images or sites should be displayed when you are doing a search. For example Google allows you to choose from 3 types of searches as shown below:

You can also use sites like Yahoo Kids or Quintura for Kids. Both sites work hard to make sure that your results are kid friendly. They’re still not perfect though so make sure that your child knows what to do should they come across anything inappropriate. I usually suggest the 3 sec rule in that if a child comes across anything inappropriate, they have 3 secs to turn the screen off and come find you (though that part might take a little longer than 3 secs!). However, make sure you child understands that coming across these things accidentally will not get them in trouble.

Even at this age, and especially as they get older, children and teenagers are afraid of telling parents about anything bad or inappropriate that may be happening on the internet, whether it is coming across inappropriate sites or being bullied online. They are afraid of having their computer privileges revoked or having the internet disconnected. Particularly at the older ages, students would rather try and deal with these things themselves and not get parents involved if it means their internet use is disrupted. For students, their use of technology like instant messaging, texting on cell phones or even the cell phones themselves is an important part of their social life and is important to them in connecting and retaining relationships with their peer group. To them, taking away this technology substantially hurts their social standing. Thus they would rather go try and solve these issues alone. We need to make sure that the door to communication is always open and that our children are not afraid to let us know when these things are happening.

Getting Ready to Publish!!!

May 19, 2008 eoin24 Comments 1 comment

This is going to be a busy week for us in 3B. We are going to get our poems read to be published. I am very excited as are the students. One of the things we have to do is decide on which cover we want to use. I have put a number of choices below to choose from. We will be voting on which cover to use in class. This should be an interesting experience. Here they are:

A Big Shout Out!!

May 16, 2008 eoin24 Comments 1 comment

bullhorn We would love to give a big shout out to anyone who has been enjoying our blog. If you have visited our blog and have enjoyed our content, please take the time to give us a shout and let us know where you checking us out from! Any nice comments would be welcome!

A Trip Through Space!

May 16, 2008 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Devotions:

Pray in the spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18

Just a quick blog entry today. I have been having lots of fun with the WWTelescope. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, please get it as soon as possible! It is a great program and those of the students that have downloaded it, many of them are already creating their own slideshows and presentations using the images available. I’m hoping that Microsoft will add some music soon so I don’t have to look for free, usable music.

icecream It was a busy day and it was made harder by the beautiful weather outside. We did get to go out and play some kickball which helped (and I think I got a sunburn because of it). Students had a math test today which was fairly long due to the fact that they also had a review test to go along with it. Tomorrow, students will have their spelling test. We have moved the memory verses to Tuesday as I will not be in the class on Friday. The students will actually have a sub tomorrow even though I will still be in the building. Tomorrow is the Spelling Bee and I will be busy helping out with that event.

Have a great night. I think I will go and get a bowl of ice cream!!!!

Sk . . Sc . . . Schoa . . . School!!

May 14, 2008 eoin24 Comments 0 Comment

Today is our qualifying round for the Spelling Bee on Friday. We will select five students from the class to join with the five students from Ms. Starks class. We had lots of things happening yesterday. Poetry in particular is a big push right now as we try to finish all our poems by Friday. We also had our part yesterday to celebrate how hard the students have been working. It was a good time had by all.

logo Some really great news popped up yesterday. It was funny, but just after I wrote about the new space program coming out in late May; lo and behold, if it doesn’t pop up ready to be downloaded yesterday. I am very excited. My wife says I’m like a boy in a candy shop. Anyway, the program looks brilliant and I am going to download at school as soon as I get there. The site is called WWTelescope and it comes to use from Microsoft. It’s also free!

pict

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