Picasso Pastel Art

This week the class did Picasso art. Its where you split a face in half. You draw one side as a side view of a person and the other side is a front view of a person. You colour it with pastels. We could layer the colour. The light colour is on the bottom. Then you put a darker colour on top. Afler you use a popsicle stick to make designs. The bottom colour shows through. It really shows my creative side. I like the pastels.
by kelly.

Classroom seating

Last week the Manitoba Association of Multi-Age Educators (MAME) offered some after school workshops at HS Paul School. I attended the session presented by Lana Warren called: Warren's Wonderful Workshop: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades. Along with information about Daily 5, I was also able to get some ideas about classroom organization. Lana had her students arranged in two groups of 11-12 desks. Currently our classroom had six groups of four to five students and I was struggling with finding a meeting area to accommodate all of us. The next day I shared the idea of arranging our desks in two groups of 14 which would open up a centre area for class meetings. The students were eager to give it a try and so far it has been well received. The open area in the centre allows for all of us to meet comfortably .......some students may also say this space is perfect for a game of Twister during indoor recesses! :)





T.W.A.S.

This week at school we got a new seating plan. Before we had 6 table groups of 4 or 5. Now we combined are groups. there are 2 groups of 14. I love the new seating plan because on the right it goes Tobi, Kelly,Jessica and me but there are 3 more people in the row.  

Also this week had indoor recess all WEEK!! I don't like indoor recess! but for most lunch recess I played Twister. Some recesses I  talk with friends. One recess I played chinese checkers with Kelsey.   

Also this week we did French. In French we did four corners. four corners is when someone closes they eyes and counts to 10 in French. Well the people run and find a corner. The person counted says a corner and the people who are in that corner sit down. The corners were different weather in French.

Also this week we had gym. The game we played was army dodge ball. I was on the red team. There was a red team and a green team. Each team had mats and hockey nets to hide behind. the point is to hit and get the hole team on your team. 


                                                Hope you like my T.W.A.S.  

                                                          -Abby M.

Write On!

A student in our class entered the Polar Expressions Publishing Contest in December. Jessica wrote a wonderful poem about Christmas. Her poem made it through the first round of judging and it will be published. She has also advanced to the final round of the competition to possibly win a monetary prize. Congratulations Jessica! Here is Jessica's poem.

Why Do We Like Christmas 

Is it because we like feeling so jolly

Or because we like hanging the holly 

Is it because we like giving

Or is it because we like getting

Is it because we like hanging the stockings

Or is it because we like decorating the perfect tree

Is it because we like lighting the fire and sipping hot cocoa

Or is it because we like setting out those cookies and milk

Is it because we like wrapping up presents

Or is it because we like looking at the presents all under the tree

Is it because we like going to bed that night knowing St. Nick will come
with his jolly old sack filled with delights

Or waking up that morning with that rush of excitement

Well we really don't know what every person likes or doesn't like about Christmas

Maybe it's all

Or maybe it's just one

But I like them all!

By Jessica B.

Scotiabank Skaters Program

This morning Ms. Wasney shared some information about a neat program called the Scotiabank Skaters Program. Mrs. Dent Scarcello had already posted the information on her blog so we were able to see the entry form and watch the video after recess. This is a contest hockey players can enter to lead the Jets onto the ice at a home game! Hockey players between the ages of 7 and 14 can apply using this entry form. You can also watch the video of one boy who was lucking enough to experience this opportunity as shown by the Winnipeg Free Press.

Welcome Liam!

On our first day back at school we welcomed a new student named Liam. He was eager to offer to write his T.W.A.S. on our blog. Here are his thoughts about his first week at Bird's Hill School.

Hello my name is Liam. I just moved over the holidays and I was very happy with my first week of school! During the week we had daily 5. Daily 5 is when you choose from many activities and do it for 30-60 minutes. example: w would mean writers  workshop. There is also topics such as ep (expert project) and r (read to self)and word work.Right now I’m working on an ep project on the Great Lakes. we also get to use the netbooks to get information and type information.

In gym class we made up our own games. Mine was called army dodgeball. We also played a game called steal the treasure. Later that day we played a dodgeball game called mission impossible. I think that this schools gym is better than my last schools!

On Thursday we had library. I couldn't find any books except when I searched "fishing" and I'm really into fishing. The librarian helped me to find the book and I started to read it. It had lots of infomation on fishing! I was going to take out a diffrent book but I couldn't find the first version of it.On January 12 I finished my science project. It was on hurricanes. I actually started it on the first day back but we didn't have computer lab on the 11th so I couldn't finish it. on the 12th we had computer lab and thats when i finished my progect.

I think this is going to be a GREAT year!

Liam

Hello 2012!

Wow, it is hard to believe it is already January 10, 2012. It was such a great holiday break. Having the week off after Christmas is so relaxing and this gives us a chance to spend more time with family and friends. I must admit it was a bit tough getting up for school Monday morning. I think a few of us could have used an afternoon nap! Now we are busy getting back into the swing of things. I am looking forward to a wonderful 2012 and I wish you all a year filled with love, laughter and learning! :)