Book Clubs!

What an exciting day we had! Today students were introduced to book clubs!  We watched book trailers, discussed responsibilities and handed out books.  Each group had a chance to get together and decide on their first roles.  Our first meeting is Tuesday!  I think you will all really enjoy the experience of sharing your ideas and opinions about the books you're reading,. I can't wait to hear what you think of your books!

PS Here are all 10 books we are reading:

The Lion, the With, and the Wardeobe by C.S. Lewis (So, so, so good and a must read for anyone who loves fantasy!  I remember studying it in Children's Literature in University.  It is quite the deep book!  Some of you have probably already seen the movie)

Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick (Loved it! Quite the tear jerker for me!)

The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop ( Rated 3.94 on Goodreads, sounds like a winner to me!  Might try to read this one with you.) 

Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop  (Same author as the last one.  Great for those of you interested in Social Justice, especially child labour.  I think I may read this one after you so I can have it count for my historicla fiction!).   

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Such a fabulous author!  An awesome sci-fi mystery!  It is a series, so get ready to get hooked!)

Alexandria of Africa by Eric Walters (The one I would have chosen if I got to pick a book for book club, can't wait to read it when you are finished!)

Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby (I was sad that I didn't get to read this one right away either since all 6 copies were taken - from what I know, this too is very emotional)

Doorway to Danger by Vicki Blum (A passage into another world with ogre and elves - gotta love fantasy!) 

Loser by Jerry Spinelli (A great author!  I just loved this book trailer!  Looks like it will be a great tale about rising above bullying)

The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse (You'll have to pay attention to the font and decide why the author has chosen to change it throughout the book.)

Today's awesomeness.... Drum roll please....

Book Clubs!

What could be better than getting together with friends to discuss a great book you have read? It is a great opportunity to get a deeper understanding of the text, appreciate other peoples points of view and maybe even learn something about yourself along the way. AWESOME!
 

PS Bet you saw that one coming!
PPS Yes, I know I am backlogged on awesome things...  I am working out a list :)

Smartie Pants Math

We sure had fun during math on Friday!  We reviewed the measures of central tendency by working with a small sample of smarties.  After finding the mean, median, mode and range, students created a circle graph or a bar graph with their data.  You guys did an awesome job!  I sure am lucky to have a class full of Smartie Pants!

     

Mean, Median, Mode Math

We are all about data management lately!  We completed a "databet" and I was amazed at how much vocabulary you already know (we have a a minimum of one word for each letter!).  Today we started talking about measures of central tendency.  To help us remember which is which (who decided they should all start with the letter m?!), we watched a video and listened to a song about it.  Check them out below to help you at home!  Just remember:

"MO"de: is the "MO"st popular (or think of the French expression "à la mode" which means to be in fashion.  Keep in mind that data does not always have a mode.

Median: is the middle(sing it with me now!).  Don't forget to order those numbers first! When the totals of the list are odd, the median is the middle entry.  When the totals of the list are even, the median is equal to the sum of the two middle numbers divided by two. Be sure to remember the odd and even rule.

Mean: is the average.  Add together all of the data and then divide it by the sum of the total number of data there are.  Mme Charles sure is mean to make us calculate the mean of all this data!

 

Range: is the difference between the largest and smallest values.

Wait til you see tomorrow's activity for measures of central tendency!  You're gonna love it!

PS  Don't forget to go under Math links - Mean, median and mode and test your skills!

Helping others around the globe

Sorry I haven't posted in a while!  We have been keeping very busy at school!  This week we are helping raising funds and awareness for Typhoon Haiyan.  We started by wearing green ribbons to represent hope, then we wore red, white and blue, the colours of the Philippines flag and today we dropped everything to read for a block.  Tomorrow there is a games block and Friday is Pyjama day.  Don't forget to bring in a loonie or a toonie to participate in these activities and help raise funds for victims of this natural disaster.  So far we have raised over $1000, but we are still quite shy of our $2000 goal.  Since the Government of Canada is matching funds, our donations will be going twice as far.  Thank you to everyone for your generous contributions for all of our local and global campaigns.  You truly are a light to others!


I know I am behind on my awesomes, promise to catch up tomorrow!

Lest We Forget

Today, we had a beautiful Remembrance day ceremony to honour all of the brave Canadian soldiers that have fought and continue to fight in the wars. May we never forget the sacrifices they have made.

A special thank you to Lieutenant Colonel George Boyuk who came in to speak with all the students in the school.  He was very inspiring and reminded us how we aught to strive to make a difference in the world.   I couldn't agree more.

Remembrance day awesome

Living in a free country.
Awesome!

Friday's Awesome

High Tea
Mini cucumber sandwiches, perfectly-steeped tea, scones and crème fraiche.  How utterly civilized.  Awesome! 

PS  Don't forget to do your  math review!  It is under Math links - Patterning (Lessons 1,2 & 4).

 

One Grain of Rice

Over the past couple of days, we have been reading a mathematical folktale entitled One Grain of Rice. This is a great story that shows how important Math is in the real world! It also became a great patterning problem for us to solve! At the end of the 30 days, thanks to doubling, 1 grain of rice became over a billion! WOW!!!

Today's awesome

Rocking a baby

Gentle swaying back and forth, listening to the sounds of their quiet breaths.  Moments to cherish forever. Awesome!  

Sadako & the 1000 Paper Cranes

As it is Remembrance day next week, we have been discussing war and peace. Today, after a very emotional reading, we finished the novel Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. It is the true story of a 12 year old Japanese girl who develops Leukemia due to radiation from the atom bomb dropped in Hiroshima. Inspired by a Japanese legend, she begins to fold paper cranes in the hopes that she will get better. According to this legend, if she folds 1000 paper cranes her health will return. Unfortunately, she only managed to fold 644 cranes before she died. This story is a powerful reminder of the consequences of war and the need for peace.

Little bit of awesome

Origami
The Japanese art of folding paper. So many options for what to fold; a crane, a frog, an elephant, a flower. The possibilities are as endless as they are beautiful. So grab a piece of square paper and fold up some awesome! 

Being a light to others!

Wow!  Can I just say how proud of you guys I am?  Together our class raised 221 cans for our We Scare Hunger drive, we were also the number one grade 6 class in the school (Woot! Woot!), so that means we won the competition.  This means we will be getting a pizza lunch sometime soon.  A huge thank you to Mr. Armstrong for arranging this prize and a big shout out to Toppers for donating the pizza!  It truly is great to see how much our class and school came together to support the needs in our community.  We will be sorting and packing all the food up for the Barrhaven Food cupboard tomorrow.  I'm excited to see how many cans we raised as a school.  One thing is for sure though - I am teaching a class of superheros ;)

PS  Don't forget there is no blog homework this week (short week!).  I will be handing out postcards for you to write to a Soldier tomorrow instead, these will be due Thursday.  You do still have to so the math question - be careful, it's not hard but it is a little tricky! 

Friday's awesome

When someone makes your day

When someone gives you a compliment that touches your heart and makes you want to cry.   Awesome!

Today's awesome

Win-wins

Winning s definitely not everything but winning when it's for a great cause sure feels great!  A win-win situation?  Awesome!