Jun
24

We know how to have a good time!

Filed Under (Classroom Life) by Jan Smith on 24-06-2009

The last week of school is always melancholy for me: I’m happy for the approach of summer, but sad to see the school year end. So the best plan is to go out on a high note.

  1. We played marimbas for Monday’s Gr. 7 grad–and we sounded great!
  2. We tie-dyed t-shirts with a logo designed by Chaeyoon and our names on it.
  3. We painted Ms Snowdon’s car–just look at the results–


More fun to come as we head out to beach day in the rain…

Dec
21

Holiday Cheer Through Silly Gifts

Filed Under (Classroom Life) by Jan Smith on 21-12-2008
On the last day of school we held a Wacky Gift Exchange. The rules were simple: bring a wrapped, non-store bought gift, and secretly give it to Ms Smith.
Ahead if time we talked about the difference between Wacky and Junky: ie a Barbie is ok, but a Barbie with hair cut off and marker on her face is not. The gifts ranged from helpful to hilarious, and there was a lot of laughing.
Here’s how the worked:
  • The pile of gifts was placed in the middle of our circle of chairs.
  • Student names were randomly drawn.
  • The first person chose a gift from the pile and opened it, saying: “Wow, I always wanted a…..”
  • The group responds with ooohs and aaahs.
  • The rest of the people, in turn, can take from the pile or “steal” from another person, who can either take from the pile or “steal” from another player.
  • Gifts can be stolen only three times.
  • The very last player can take any gift.

As you can see in the slide show below we had a blast and everyone had a great attitude about the “gifts” they received.

(I am experimenting with different slide show formats–let me know what you think of this Image Loop. I do find ads & logos distracting, but is this tool still worth using?)
Dec
13

(Temporary) Winter Wonderland

Filed Under (Seasons) by Jan Smith on 13-12-2008

Well, it didn’t last.

(Spoke too soon: 24 hours later–now have 15cm of new snow!)

We are back to green grass and snow-free skies. But that’s ok, because we can see the snow accumulation on the mountains (where it belongs!). While it was here we enjoyed it. We dashed around the soccer field and then came in and wrote poems. Look for the results on student blogs soon. And enjoy our first snow of 2008 in the video below.