Or maybe not so cool......but we had a lot of fun!!
--Miss Leonard
Showing posts with label Tory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tory. Show all posts
Friday, 1 May 2015
Cup Tower Challenge
50 cups. 8 minutes.
Who can make the tallest tower......?
The winner....17 cups high....
Which of these four groups do you think was the winner?
--Miss Leonard
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!
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
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!!!
Good work, folks!! I'm so proud of you!!!
--Miss Leonard
Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Today we got the privilege to hear (and sing with) the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Bramwell Tovey. The Orpheum Theatre itself was breathtaking with the ornate gold trim, chandeliers, and "bathrooms covered in marble". Here we are posing for a brief class shot.
As you can see Jonah and Silas took time for some "chillaxing" in all the grandeur. Don't they look right at home!
Inside the Theatre, it was even more beautiful!! Once we found our seats, there was an infinite amount of things to see and food for the imagination.
Here we have our relaxed gentlemen again. This was directly before they broke into an ear wrenching rendition of "Oh, Canada" full of enthusiasm and patriotic verve......not a hockey game, fellas!
Yes, we waited long enough to get a bevy of pictures, but when the concert started, all was quiet, and we listened to the amazing compositions of Beethoven, Mozart, Gershwin, and even a segment from the Opera "Carmen". It was hard to pick a favorite, but among the ones I heard talked about were "The William Tell Overture" and Beethoven's 5th.
In addition to the beautiful sounds, talented musicians, and riveting conductor, another great thing about the music today was that the students recognized almost every piece. There were lots of over the shoulder smiles to Miss Leonard and whispers of "We know this!" or "The Five Browns play this!" It made me very proud of them!
After the 1 hour concert, which we all decided was not that long at all, we hustled out of the theatre to beat the hordes of "bus students". Unfortunately, we didn't get to look at the wall of composers on the way out--this discovered by the bathroom frequenting crowd just before the concert began. It would have been a great place to explore, but not with a full house of 500 other students!!
On the way home, we stopped at McDonald's for a quick lunch....generally these lunches consisted of a lot of ice cream and french fries....delightful treats before they hit the playland area. "Yes, Miss Leonard! We are allowed in here! It says 3 to 12! We are 12!"
And so they played.....
I think a good time was had by one and all. It was a wonderful day away from our normal learning environment with some wonderful music and new experiences. After all....how many kids can say they sang with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra!!
Thanks to our volunteer drivers and Miss D for their help. You all were great!!
--Miss Leonard
Thursday, 18 September 2014
Relief Maps of Canada
Salt maps....I remember making a salt map of West Virginia when I was in grade 4. What a great idea for teaching the major land forms of Canada! We started with amazing parent participation. Everyone sent in 2 cups of Salt. THANK YOU!
The students had previously traced the outline of this very complexly shaped country onto a pizza box (Very kindly donated by Panago). The pizza boxes were then spray painted by each student, covered in an economy sized garbage bag as a smock--don't want a bright royal blue on those uniforms!!
Miss Leonard supplied the flour, and the next step was to make the dough. It was a bit of a messy process (upon reflection, I would cover the entire room with a drop-cloth next time!), but we managed to get it all mixed up without any major damage!
The next step was to start filling the outline with dough. It is not as easy as it sounds and took some of the students a LOT longer than they thought!
But the result was amazing! Some of the students really took their time and put a lot of effort into this project with great results!
After the pizza box was folded and the map was labled....We are finished! Here is Joseph with his final product. Great Job, Joseph!! Well done!
--Miss Leonard
Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Force, Motion, Slope, and Load
In Science we are studying Force and Motion. Today we did a lab. The first part of the lab was to explore the effect of slope on moving an object (a Hot Wheels Car).
The second part of the lab was to discover the effect of various loads moving down a fixed slope (a full and empty can).
As per usual, we took a little too long with this activity, but we will wrap it up tomorrow and see what conclusions were drawn!
--Miss Leonard
Thursday, 11 September 2014
Picnic at Don Christian Park
What a BEAUTIFUL day today. We left for the park just before lunch. We got there and all picked a favorite spot to eat. Some of us ate on the picnic blanket....
Some ate under the trees!
And some ate IN the trees....to each his own.....
After eating everyone convinced Miss D to ref a game of Capture the Flag for PE. As per usual, no one won the game, but a lovely time was had by one and all. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the sun and the beginning of another fall.
God bless you!
--Miss Leonard
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