Grade 5 & 6 Class Blog: Gabe

Showing posts with label Gabe. Show all posts

Friday, 1 May 2015

Vancouver Aquarium Field Trip #3

Our last field trip this year was to the Vancouver Aquarium. We left the school early and started our program as soon as we arrived at the aquarium. In groups, the students got to learn about, touch, and perform some experiments with sea urchins (Experiments with no harm to the animal, of course!). Some students tested whether the creatures preferred light or darkness. Some found out sea urchin food preferences. The coolest thing was touching the urchins! Pinkies only, please!
Here, Tory enjoys touching the spiny creature! Everyone expected them to be slimy, but they were not gross at all!

This group listens attentively; and below, you can see our instructor and some of the aquarium volunteers reviewing the scientific method with the students.

Jeremiah posed with a magnifying glass, looking very official!

After our classroom experience, we went on to the Wet Lab. Here, there were four tanks, each with a different variety of creature. As the students visited each tank with their aquarium volunteer, they got to learn about and touch creatures in each of the tanks.

All of our volunteers were very good. They were very interesting and kept everyone very engaged in learning about the underwater animals.

After about an hour in the Wet Lab, it was time for the class to explore the aquarium! Each group could pick the parts of the aquarium to explore and what shows they wanted to see. I think the favorites were the 4-D show (Which I loved as well!), the dolphin show, and the beluga show. Here are Zack and Justin in the 4-D show with their awesomely cool glasses!

The Amazon display with all manner of snakes, frogs, and spiders was another favorite. Above, Gideon checks out one of the frog displays.

The day was over all too soon, and we headed back to BCA. Everyone had a great time and wrote the next day in their school journals that it was an awesome day and on of the highlights of our year.

A special thank you to our parent drivers and to the students who were so enthusiastic and represented our school so well.

--Miss Leonard

Sunday, 15 February 2015

Surrey Art Gallery Field Trip

Last Wednesday our class got to go on our second field trip of the year. This term we went to the Surrey Art Gallery for a tour of the gallery and a clay workshop. The highlight of the day was definitely working with the clay, and there were some very creative and interesting pieces made. We will show some of the finished pieces later in the week.

Below you see Joey getting into the art display!

April is the talented artist that teaches the students to work with clay and runs the workshop. Every time we go to the gallery, she comments on how our students are such good listeners and workers. I was proud of our class again this year. They were very respectful and interested in what April had to say.

A big shout out to our driver volunteers. We appreciate them taking time out of their busy schedule to make our trips possible!

Here you can see the students getting some last minute instructions before they head to their clay stations.

As you can see from the smiles, everyone was very excited to get started. Each student was supplied with some ideas, a clay slab, and various tools for working with clay. They were also taught several techniques for properly making their masks--like scoring and making slip.

Here is Sharon making her first cut. And after a few more directions...it was off to construct their finished product. Everyone's ideas were so diverse! Even the adults of the group were encouraged to make a mask!! April circulated the room and offered help and instruction to everyone who needed it.

After a VERY short hour, some of the final projects began to emerge. Here we have Jed with his mask. He has some very cool tusks going on there!!

The rush to the finish! You can do it, Miss D!!

All the final masks were put on the table for sort of a class gallery for everyone to look at.

Once our workshop was completed, the students were allowed a final walk around the gallery before we met outside for a group photo. After the 17th try, we got a good one.....ALMOST everyone is looking and smiling!

...And then there is always the goofy shot.

We headed off to Bear Creek Park for a picnic and games in the park in the afternoon. It was a bit chilly, but everyone had a great time and enjoyed the wide open spaces!

Of course, no day would be complete unless Gabe climbed some pole, tree, or

building....See below!

All-in-all a great experience and fun had by everyone!

--Miss Leonard

New Pen License Awards

Congratulations to these three students: Gabe, Joseph, and Tory. They have been working for a year to earn their pen license. Due to their neat work and excellent penmanship, these students are allowed to use a pen on their written work in class. I am so proud of them, all their hard work, and their super accomplishment!!

Good work, folks!! I'm so proud of you!!!

--Miss Leonard

2015 BCA Geography Challenge

After a long wait.......The 2015 BCA Geography Challenge is underway!! We went to the devotions room right after lunch, and thanks to the hard work of Miss Alexandar, everything looked great and was ready to go. Here you see some of the competitors ready to begin!

The contest was long and arduous....but our very own Sharon was second place in the Junior Category.

AND........The FIRST PLACE CHAMPION was GABRIEL!! Congratulations to all the students what qualified and especially to our winners!! It was a great job by everyone!

--Miss Leonard

Friday, 23 January 2015

Bible Times Drama--Queen Esther

As you can see we have had a bit of drama going on in our classroom this week! Above are the ferocious guards of King Ahasuerus. These men strong-armed their way into the house of Mordecai and took away the beautiful Esther.

As we finish up our unit on Esther, yesterday we acted out her story in three parts. Each group had a lot of good pieces. Some groups really went out of their way with costumes and props. Some groups spent a lot of time working on the drama and doing rehearsals. They had time in class, but most of them worked in their spare time (lunch and recess) as well. They went much further with this activity than I had originally planned, and the results were fantastic. Good Job, class!

Below, you see a very pampered king getting fed grapes at his royal party.

Unfortunately, while Ahasuerus was eating grapes, his Queen Vashti was actively denying his request for her presence--Here played by Anais. (Voted MVA--Most Valuable Actor--by her group)

Having done away with Vashti, you can see below the sentries as they knocked on Mordecai's door to capture Esther.

Above, we see the next group as the king and wicked Haman discuss affairs of state.

Below, the king is read to from the Chronicles because he cannot sleep.

Ahasuerus: Really, what was his reward?

Reader: He didn't have one. That always happens around here.

(This was one of my favorite lines! I laughed so hard!)

Here the third group's king displays his royal scepter as he prepares to extend it to Esther.

This was the royal banquet of ....grape juice. Haman was dragged away and killed at the end of this skit.

Everyone had so much fun with the story, and we all got a lot of laughs. All the students begged to do something like this again soon.

--Miss Leonard

Monday, 15 December 2014

Door Decorating Contest--Merry Christmas

Christmas time is just around the corner! We started all the festivities and decorating at BCA with our annual door decorating competition. Our class had a bit of a rough start. We realized after we had done all of our planning and gotten all the supplies, etc., that we had the same idea as the Pre-K class. Since they have the "cute factor" going for them, we didn't want to compete with that!! We reconvened Monday morning to come up with a new idea. You can see the result of our vote and the sketch of our idea below.

Our door started off with great vim....but not without a HUGE mess!!

This is a bit of the work in progress....You can see the gradual stages of the work.

We worked hard--Monday with glitter! Yay!!--all week until Wednesday at 3:30 when the judges arrived.

Well.....most of us worked.....Some of us clowned around and made faux beards instead of snow and icicles!

Here we go! Here is a hard worker--the winner in the argument for who got to run the vacuum.

And another hard worker under the direction of Miss Dingwall.

This was the competition across the hall in the 3/4 classroom.

SO proud of the finished product!!

Each little snowflake had a different student's picture on it.

Jack with our super cool snowman.

Here you can see the full effect of all the pieces together.

AND the bonus of all this?....We won first prize in the competition!! Our class won donuts and thoroughly enjoyed our little victory party! The students should be very proud of all their work and team effort. We had a great time and enjoyed using everyone's special talents to their fullest.

A special thank you to our judges who gave up time to look at all the doors.

--Miss Leonard