Inline Skating

What a surprise we all had this week!  Alien Inline , a company based out of Calgary, was booked to spend the week teaching all the students about skating!  What a fitting activity to participate in, as an Apple School!

Dallas, our instructor, was one cool dude, and he made sure that all of the students learned about the safety gear that they should be wearing every time that they skate.  Love his rule that no skates go on before a helmet is on!

Here are the independent Gr. 3 students putting on elbow pads, knee pads and wrist guards.  Add a helmet and skates and they were ready to go.

After a good warm-up each day, Dallas would gather the students to explain a particular skill that he wanted them to practice.

Here they are all learning the right way to fall!

Some are ol' pros...

...and could just 'zoom' past me.  You would have never known that 6 of the little darlings had never been on inline skates before!

Here's the answer to "Did you have fun?"

 

 

Here's another little reminder that Monday, January 27th, we are going on an all day field trip to the Royal Alberta Museum.  I have three confirmed parent volunteers.  Remember to send a disposable bagged lunch.  The students will be back in time for busses at end of the day dismissal.

What a day it was!

Friday was an AMAZING day at our school.  Although this was the third annual "Student Faith and Wellness Day", it was the first time that most students and staff had the chance to participate since the reconfiguring of the schools in June.

This was done up right with a welcoming atmosphere as you entered, a hospitality room for the speakers and guests, and a day full of activities to show the students that learning happens everywhere.

We are truly blessed to have the REAL Foundation, a non-profit organization who supports Catholic Education in our district, again bring us the talented group known as Face To Face Ministries, out of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Through story and song, witnessing and praise, they shared the message that we have 4 purposes in life, which are:

1. to know God

2. to serve God

3. to praise God

4. to get to Heaven

The students sang and danced and shouted their love for God!

The students had chosen earlier in the week, a couple of 'break-out sessions.  They could choose from about 10 different activities and were able to participate in two.  They had three authors to choose to visit.  Here is Darcy Polny, author and illustrator of Butter Bean Books, found at http://www.butterbeanbooks.ca

He shared two of his children's books and one group even got to help him create an original piece of art!  Every child got to become a 'jelly bean' too,

So cute!

The students were enthralled with Hector Larrazabal, author of Indian Lemonade, who shared his adventures around the world.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7115551.Hector_Larrazabal

The third author, Alison Neuman, inspired the students to write a mission communication, just like a spy would, in their own spy journals.  She recently published her second book.

http://www.alisonneuman.ca/blog/ice-rose/

What better to have in an Apple School, than the opportunity to find out how much sugar is hidden in some of the foods we eat and then work on creating a fruit salad, which is a better sweet alternative?

Students loved the opportunity to get 'hands-on" in this session and they were able to eat up their work!

We were lucky enough to have Nicole Balsdon, a biologist from British Columbia, lead two different groups on a nature walk, using their senses and their powers of observation to really learn more about what is in our world. (Here's a little secret...this beautiful young lady was once a student in my classroom back at Father Kenneth Kearns School...a decade or two ago!)

Twenty three Djembe drums gave many students the opportunity to explore different beats!

In the morning, a master (but I don't know how to spell his official title) taught small groups self defence.  In the afternoon, a father/daughter team assisted more students in the fine art of Karate.

This lovely gal was in my class last year but I never got to see her dance so it was a real treat to watch her.  Her mother and Grandmother ran a session, teaching a whole group of children how to make bannock, which was so good, they didn't offer to share!

She explained to the students of the school that she was wearing a jingle dress.

The original jingle dress dance is said, by the Ojibwa, to have originated in Ontario.

A medicine man's daughter was very sick and through prayer and meditation, he was given a powerful vision about a sacred healing dress from the Creator.

- See more at: http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/healing-gift-jingle-dance#sthash.BqqbPxFw.dpuf

For many, the highight of the day was the concert during the lunch hour by twenty six year old Teddy Anderson, who has travelled the world with his message that "we are all one people."

http://www.hoopdanceproductions.com

After an awe-inspiring message, song, prayer and dance, Teddy asked for some volunteers to try what he does...

...here's Mrs. Littlemore putting her best foot forward!

Each child was willing to try and they learned it was a bit harder than Teddy made it look.

As Professor Ivan Gorborchof said "This is amazing!"

Thank you to all the staff at our school who worked tirelessly to ensure that the students' PD day was a success!  It was!

Circuit Training Thursday

Madonna Catholic School is an 'Apple School', which means that we are consciously attempting to bring healthier living choices into play with our students and to instill these better choices into their lifestyle.

Every Thursday, our gym is set up with stations that promote active participation. What I learned is that I don't do a good job of capturing the activities onto film!  The students are to jump as high as they can, in this station, and put a sticky note onto the wall.  Then for the next four minutes they attempt to jump up even higher and touch the wall above the sticky note.

Another photo that doesn't quite capture the action!  This gal has a foam paddle and with that she is hitting a foam ball, aiming to hit the stars that are taped to the wall.

Another station is dribbling a basketball from one pylon to the next and back again.

This station has a set of small markers in a row and the students walk around each one.

Using the rings, the students attempt to throw them so that they go over a pylon, similar to the old-fashioned carnival game.

I didn't capture them all.  This is the ninth station which is the drink break station.  The group at this station can leave the gym for a drink at the fountain just outside, then return to move with the hoola hoops.  Thursdays make our heart happy!

Happy New Year on January 16th!

Happy New Year to everyone!  Even though the blog has not been updated since we've been back, that does not mean that the students haven't been actively engaged in new learning.  It means that the reality of having soooo many new things to do as a teacher is just a bit overwhelming.  We are piloting a new report card, which sadly comes from a program that is not at all user friendly.  We are now required to enter our students Fountas and Pinnell assessments into another computer program and then there is the RTI work to do and updates to IPPs.  That's all on top of the regular work of being a dedicated teacher with its many, many hours of preparation.  Now that we are well into the 'swing' of things, the blogging will be 'back on line.'

The students spent the first couple of days focusing on New Year's resolutions and made these adorable little look alikes (original pattern from The Glyph Girls) to showcase their personal goals, such as "This year my goal is to be better at swimming" and...

"This year I will not fight with my brother."

Our science unit is focused on "Rocks and Minerals" which is why we have our upcoming field trip to the Provincial Museum, where we will have the chance to try out our new learning.

We looked at what we already know about rocks and learned what 'attributes' are.

In science, the attributes of rocks are called 'properties.'

In Language Learning, the students will be focused on reading for information in both fiction and non-fiction texts.  They will use that information to create a report. 

The fictional text that we will read is this Magic Tree House book "Polar Bears Past Bedtime."

Last Friday's art project focused on Polar Bears.  Using an idea from prudentbaby.com, we used watercolour paint on wet watercolour paper to create a background that reminded us of the Northern Lights.

It was a multi-stepped process...

...and required a light touch...

....but the results were fantastic!