What I love most is the genuine, deep smiles on everyone’s faces. We’re in love!

And we’re learning a lot, too. More on that on the student blogs soon.

Do we make babies smile--or do they make US smile?

Yes, a baby boy!

And how very fortunate we are. A lovely baby named Elliot is going to visit our class. He’ll teach us a lot about how to care for and about him and the people around us. I bet your curiosity has been piqued. I will leave the details about Elliot and his visits to two of our hardworking Huzzahnian bloggers.

From Sophie:

We recently found out that we are getting a new student! His name is Elliot and he is barely 2 months old! Elliot will be coming into our class every three weeks for a visit with his mom. He is coming in for a special program called Roots of Empathy. It is basically where a baby comes into our class and we learn from him/her by their actions. What is empathy? Empathy is a way of showing compassion by reading other peoples’ body language and acting on it. For example, if you noticed someone was hurt you would show empathy by helping them.

Just from our first visit with Mrs. Kennedy I have already learned lots about babies. One of the things that I was most surprised about was that newborn babies can hear just as well as adults can. When Elliot comes to visit, we will all sing songs because babies enjoy the sound of singing. Did you know that babies like the sound of soft, high voices? That is why we will be singing.

From Mara:

Roots of Empathy is a program that is designed to help stop violence in youth. We are learning about understanding other people’s feelings. We do this program with a baby because babies don’t know how to mask their feelings as apposed to kids where they can look happy but inside feel very sad.

Our baby’s name is Elliot; he is now 2 months old and although we haven’t met him yet we are still having classes to prepare. Today is Monday, our first class and on Thursday Elliot will come to our class to visit us.

What is empathy you ask ? Empathy is the ability to put yourself in some one else’s shoes, to understand some else’s perspective.

(You can read other responses to our first ROE lesson with Mrs. Kennedy on the student blogs.)

So, Huzzahnians, today you met Elliot for the first time. What did you observe about him? What did you notice about your reactions to him? Think about Mrs. Moore’s relationship with Elliot–how is she helping him as he grows?

And guests–we value your thoughts. Do you have a little brother or sister? What can babies and toddlers teach us about how to treat each other?

Image: Look at my chompers! by nick see

The last week before holidays includes a bit of fun and creativity. Here we are after our concert, looking festive following our rendition of Jingle Bell Rock.

Jingle Bell Rockers

Some things we do at this time of year are secret, and some things we share right away.

We were inspired by the Grade 3 students of Our Forest to make door swags as gifts for our families. We had our pruners ready to hit the woods to collect some cedar boughs (this is permitted on Crown Land that is not park land), but the day turned out to be a very rainy, stormy one. It looked like we would be drenched.

Luckily for us, another class was making centrepieces and we got some of their remaining cedar, fir, and holly. Thank you, Mrs. Harris!  Take a look at the fun we had.

Hoot! We have had over 25 000 visitors to our blog! It must be true because our ClustrMap says so.

Well, maybe. I think we can agree that  just because a car passes your house and the passengers look at your front door that doesn’t mean they have visited you. A lot of “site seeing” goes on while people are looking around online. Sometimes people come back for a second look, but many just drive by. And then there are spammers who come to leave digital crumbs so we will buy their handbags or shoes. So while the milestone of 25 000 visitors sounds substantial, it is important to have perspective on it.

A Question

So I ask: do the dots on the map distract us from our real purpose of reading, writing, thinking, and connecting? Are we too mesmerized by the maps, like crazy collectors? If so, how do we switch our focus back to what matters?

We are grateful to readers. We love the visitors who arrive, look around, READ, and perhaps leave a thoughtful comment. Our goal is to connect with others and to create blog posts that are worthy of their time.

Celebrating With a  RrrAWRRRR!

One class we are (re)connecting with is the Pirates of Rm 162 and their teacher Mr. Miller. Last year they sent the Huzzahnian Dragon, a geocaching travel bug our way and we tracked it as it travelled from California to the eastern United States and on to our own back yard. He waited in our room for the right moment, and a milestone day seemed like the right moment to send him home.

On the Hunt

Seeking the Cache

The brave Huzzahnians remembered exactly where the geocache was from last year hunted high and low for the location of the geocache.  We walked into the woods trekked over arduous terrain over a light skim of snow through a raging blizzard to get to the hidden treasure. Keen eyes noticed that the cache was exposed spotted the cleverly disguised geocache. We logged our visit in the log book performed a ritual dance dressed in feathers and furs to appease the forest trolls and then headed back for Music class began the onerous journey back home. What a day!

The Deep, Mysterious Woods, temporary home to the Huzzahnian Dragon

Friends, Romans, Huzzahnians–

–Lend me your thoughts: go back to the question I asked–does the ClustrMap distract us? Motivate us? Give a false sense of audience?

And if you have something to say about geocaching–well, say that too!

Cooking with gas is a favourite idiomatic expression of mine. It means you’re on fire–full of enthusiasm–efficient–getting things done.

And we are! The student blogs are loaded with great writing worth reading. These bloggers have only been at it for a month, but I think they are really getting the hang of it, don’t you? (By the way there is a lot of great reading beyond the posts listed here–take a gander, read a little or a lot, leave a comment, leave some more…but I digress.)

There’s something here for everyone (student names are linked to the post):

• Are you interested in penguins? Do you know the difference between crows and ravens? Colt and Chelsey are experts.
• And more on birds–Mya shares cool facts about owls.
• Turtles, too. Jared has deep knowledge to share.
• Are you a sports fan? Read about Bekkam‘s love of hockey and Colton‘s latest soccer goal.
• Are you a skateboarder? Kyle, Jordan, and Jackson have reviews for you.
• From rap to a capella, Sophie‘s got the history of music.
• Want a little Halloween fright? Read Kehana and Summer‘s blogs.
• Family pets? Reece is a fan of gerbils and Kenzie has dogs, cats, and chickens!
• Do you want to remember the summer? Travel to Italy with Julia.
• Have you done something that made a difference? Read about Tristan‘ s efforts.
• Are interested in Minecraft? Max dishes the dirt on the latest 1.9 release.
• Like TV shows? Nic tells you about his favourite.
• Want a dose of creepy? Tommy has a post that will curl your toes.
• Are you hungry? Try a yummy dessert on Caitlyn‘s blog
• Looking to try designing video games? Griffin as a great post on Stencylworks.
• Find out about Charlie‘s favourite book, Brianne‘s first books,  and where Mara likes to read. Oh, and read all the other Me as a Reader autobiographies on the student blogs.
• And of course you want to read some great monster stories with ink monster art by Dylan and Jack (and the whole gang–just look).

You can cook with gas, too. Read, think, comment!

image: 3D Frozen Flame – 2D friendly! by bufivla

We did!

Halloween is a big favourite in our class. We like the candy, for sure, but we seem to love the costumes more. There was a lot of variety this year and scads of creativity. Notice the homemade costumes and the great ideas for enjoying this spooktacular day.

Did you dress up on Halloween? What costume did you wear? Any funny or spooky stories to share? Maybe you did something different this year…ask Tristan what he did. He says he knows he got less candy than you…find out why. Thanks for visiting!

For a little Halloween fun, we sought out the creative inspiration of graphic artist Stefan G. Bucher. Several years ago he shared his imagination and talent with the world by creating The Daily Monster. He filmed the process and invited people to make their own. A simple process with infinite variation.

You see it in high speed in his videos, but the video below shows how much time and care he takes in the process.

So, we had to make our own! Stay tuned for stories about these monsters on our student blogs.

Do you find these monsters scary? Funny? Silly? Let us know!