Just a quick little video–we seem to love our bears.
Category Archives: Classroom Life
We’re Having a Baby!
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
Enjoying the Holiday Spirit
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.
Who had fun on Halloween?
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!
Monster Madness
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!
The World is a Good Place
Although news reports might suggest the contrary, there is plenty of proof that the world is a good place, full of good people doing good things. Some people make life better for people who are facing cancer or poverty, others help the environment.
Take a look at what Mr. Carmichael, his students and their school have been doing to help Cops for Cancer and Tour du Rock. Like us, Mrs. Braidwood’s students have taken part in the Terry Fox Run. Read an excellent post about Terry’s life and commitment on the Ripple Effect. Division 1, our friends in Vancouver, are joining others who want to inspire and celebrate the youth movement for global change at We Day. On Ms. Clayton’s blog, you’ll find a remembrance of a boy who made a difference and won’t be forgotten.
We have “done good” here too. Recently we took part in the national Shoreline Clean-Up.
We worked in teams.
We kept a record of the garbage--look at all the cigarette butts!
A hard-working but happy team!
Garbage is gross!
We found a lot of garbage and recyclables.
And we kept our smiles on for the Terry Fox run:
Sprinting to the finish!
I did it!
Yes!
Even after all that, we had enough energy to share our advice on how to make the world a better place. We turned our messages into a video.
Blogging friends, tell us about the good done by you and others. How are you, your classmates and community working to make the world a better place? Please let us know in a comment.
We’ll tweet about it!
Vegemite: a new taste sensation?
We had the honour of welcoming Miss Wyatt–international superstar of the edublogging world–to our classroom, along with her four-legged friend Davo the Tasmanian Devil. We had a lovely chat about the wonders of Tasmania and she described for us her grand North American Adventure. Since leaving us, he has already written a post about her visit to our class, Mrs. Braidwood’s class and the Comox Valley.
Davo met Mac the Huzzahnian Chicken, and we all had a photo op. We look fab!
Miss Wyatt showered us with gifts! Aussie stamps, books on Tasmania and about “Tassie Devils”, which Mac enjoyed immensely.
Mac learns about Davo
And–what’s this? a tube of Vegemite. It’s a popular spread for toast. Popular in Australia, that is.
Vegemite is this big.
We got out the crackers, did a little spreading, and sniffing, and some of us had a taste. Then we did some writing.
“The container looks like a small yellow tube of toothpaste. I thought the paste would look like garlic spread, white with specks of green in it. But to my surprise, it looked like chocolate.” –Chelsey
“When I got my Vegemite, it blobbed out of the tube onto my cracker. I had expected it to be humus colored, but it turned out to be a dark, blackish brown goop, sort of like melted chocolate. Before I ate it, I thought that it might have a peanut butter-like texture. I thought that it would taste like peas, cucumber and asparagus mixed in a blender. I was wrong!” –Jared
“Vegemite is a good source of Vitamin B and Folate and is made from fermented yeast, a component found in bread. Funnily enough, Vegemite is usually served on bread. Yeast is grown on barley, by the way. Want some more big words? Vegamite includes Niacin, Thiamine and Riboflavin, three minerals/vitamins that are good for you (maybe…).” –Griffin
Spreading gets an audience
Some positive reviews and enthusiasm:
“I thought Vegemite would be yellow and like peanut butter, and I thought it would be very yummy. Well, I was right that it’s yummy. But it is nothing like peanut butter–it’s dark black like chocolate. I thought it was super yummy, delicious, but most of the other kids thought it was very different.” –Kyle
Thumbs up!
Silly thumbs up!
Some dubious faces:
Want mine?
Some were, well, not fans of Vegemite.
No thank you.
More reviews:
“Vegemite, a gift from the devil. The outside looks like a fattened bottle of tooth paste colored bumble bee yellow, with Vegemite printed big and bold on the front. But don’t be fooled by the outside, it’s the inside that’s the horror.” –Colton
Yuck.
“Apparently it’s been made since 1923 by Kraft foods (sorry Kraft! I like your dinner!) so it must be an acquired taste. However it is not a taste I wish to acquire! This was an off-putting experience, an experience that I wouldn’t do again.” –Colt
“I can tell that I had my salty face on and my sour face on. I could just feel myself starting to swallow and as I did slowly my face was turning up side down and my taste buds stood up right away. Then I knew I didn’t like it. I was in shock! –Julia
“It squelches out of the tube with the consistency of a slug and smells like manure mixed with a dash of burning rubber. According to hapless victims of Vegemite it is very salty. When the Vegemite was placed on my cracker I froze, the blood drained from my face and I shoved my bile back down my throat but only succeeded in making my throat burn. I would rather eat mulched toads than Vegemite. It looks like the offspring of a failed science experiment on the cracker, *sigh*.” –Max
We did have fun with experiment, and as you can tell it let led to some great writing. Have you ever tasted anything from another country that was new to you? What was it like? What do Canadians eat that is unique to our country? And if you are an international guest, what food is part of your national identity?
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts!