Pumpkin Day!

What an exciting day we had! To start, everyone became a pumpkin in my patch and each person had to convince me not to pick them. There were so many persuasive techniques applied I almost didn't know how to choose (or who not to choose!). In the end, I was most persuaded by Tessa's letter. She appealed to my emotional side and said that she was cursed and whoever chose her was doomed. I didn't wan't to take that chance (I once heard of a Math curse that a teacher put on her students, and they still haven't gotten over it ;)! Next, we did lots of math with our donated pumpkins (estimation, measurement, etc!). The students all dove right into those pumpkins to get those seeds! Awesome! Between this, our haunted house house story and extra Phys Ed - we had quite a day! Hope you had a great Halloween night! Remember not to eat too much candy and to brush your teeth!

PS I have been very busy the last few days, and it would appear I owe you some awesomeness

Halloween Awesome

Trick or treating with young children

Not sure what I loved the most. The anticipation to get the candy, hearing them say Trick or Treat with their French accents or having them go to the door, say Trick or Treat and leave without their candy prompting the homeowners to run after them. Trick or Treat? Awesome!

Friday's awesome thing

Sticker labels

Okay. So I have to admit, lately I have become enamored with sticker labels. They are so fantastic! I use them to label books in my library, as address labels, to label gifts, to label bins. The possibilities are endless and the sky is the limit! I add a picture of my choosing and print them off. Within seconds, and for pennies, I have my own sheet of 30 labels! There is only one label for that...AWESOME!

Thursday's awesome

Not having to wait at a clinic

Seriously???? Soooo awesome!

You sank my battleship!

Today, we learned about coordinate grids! We talked about ordered pairs, the x-axis, the y-axis, and the origin on a coordinate plane. To help consolidate our learning, we played a modified version of Battleship. Students called out ordered pairs and tried to sink each others battleships. It got pretty intense! One thing is for sure, I think everyone had a great time and can now locate coordinates on a grid. Woo hoo!

Today's bit of awesome:

Tim Horton's

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.... 1)Because you are a symbol of national unity & pride 2) Because your drive-thru is always open... 7) Because Tim Horton was an actual person... 18) Because your camp is AWESOME!... 26) Because your first store was opened on Ottawa Street... 39) Because of your French Vanilla Cappucino.. So tasty and... Awesome!

FUNdraiser Kickoff!

Today, we had a school wide assembly to kick off our exciting FUNdraiser! On November 16th, we will be having a school wide Walkathon to raise funds for equipment and resources that will be used to increase student achievement! There are all sorts of mystery prizes to be revealed, including a special prize that would allow you to be principal for a day and go out to lunch with Mrs. Fitzgerald! So cool! Can't wait to find out the other prizes! Start raising funds so that you will be entered to win!

PS A HUGE thank you to our School Council for organizing this AMAZING event!
PPS Do you think teachers can win ;)


Awesome thing of the day

Yoga

Such a great way to clear the mind, ease the body and nourish the soul. Downward Dog, Sun salutation, anyway you shape it, it's just plain awesome!

Avoir et être

Today we reviewed the verbs "avoir" and "être". These are some of the most commonly used French verbs and they are even more important since they are used when forming " le passé composé". Verbs can be a little dry, so to liven things up, we sand some songs! Believe me whn I say there is nothing like French rap to get you to learn something ;)

I got to looking tonight and I found a video on youtube that plays our song for avoir. There is one HUGE mistake in it. See if you can spot it right away! Don't forget to sing along!



Monday's awesomeness

Homemade chocolate cake

Okay, okay, maybe not exactly homemade. To be fair, I did have to open the box, add the water, eggs and oil, cook it, then use the icing from a can to ice it. Does that still count? Doesn't really matter because either way it is fresh, fabulous and... you guessed it! Awesome!

Shine on!

Our spiritual theme is all about being a light to others. So this week, during our canned food drive, we started to see just how bright our light can be! I am so proud of you for bringing in food that will help others in our community who are not as fortunate as us.

In the spirit of our quotes week, here are two quotes that demonstrate the importance of what we are doing:

Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you. ~Mother Teresa
and one of my favourites...
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. ~William James

Friday's awesome thing

Bubble Bath

I love, love, love bubble bath!!! Who could help but smile when you are surrounded by bubbles. And bubble beards? Don't get me started :) Getting lost in a sea of bubbles? Awesome!

Giving Thanks

Today, at our Thanksgiving Liturgy, Mrs. Fitzgerald reminded us how blessed each one of is. We have so many things to be thankful for, love, shelter, food, friendships, education, etc. Even though we are thankful for all of these things, we often forget to say thank you for the little things that others do for us each day. She challenged us to say at least one thank you a day that we might not usually say.

My thank you goes out to you, all of my students, who inspire me and teach me something new everyday. I feel very blessed to be part of your learning journey and your lives. Thank you for coming to class with a positive attitude, thank you for all the risks you take and mostly, thanks for being you! I am especially proud of the quotes that you chose to share this week, they are amazing! I thought I would share one of them here in case you haven't all read each others.

“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit”
- Conrad Hilton

I think this quote is inspiring to me because it motivates people to never give up. You will make mistakes in life, but you should learn from them. This quote applies to my life because as a hockey player I sometimes make mistakes, but I learn from them. I take advice from my coaches and my dad to learn and improve my skills. I think this applies to other peoples’ lives because all the successful people (like inventors, sport players, singers etc.) they all never gave up to get where they wanted to be. This is important to my faith because when Jesus was on earth he never gave up to please his father; our God. He died on the cross for us. This is why I think this quote is very inspiring. So remember, to never give up and follow your dreams.

Powerful words and interpretation!

Today's awesome thing

Saying I love you

It is incredible to me that 3 little words can hold so much power. Often times, we forget to tell those who mean the most to us just how much we love them. Take every opportunity you can to let people know how much they mean to you, whether it be your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your grandparents, your friends, etc. We never know what tomorrow will bring. Never missing a chance to say I love you? Awesome!

Making Meaningful Connections

Today we learned about making meaningful connections by using four different types of connections: text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world and text-to-faith. To see what meaningful connections looked like, we read a traditional Abenaki legend today entitled, Raccoon's Last Race. It was a great story with a great lesson and it allowed for lots of connections!

PS Doesn't raccoon look sad in this picture? I think he is sorry for his trickster ways!

Little Bit of Awesome

Tea and biscotti

Tea - tasty. Biscotti - fantastic. Biscotti dipped in tea? Awesome!

Nice to meet you!

Today we worked on a math patterning question that involved figuring out how many handshakes would take place if we each shook each others hand once. This was not an easy question and required us to use all of our patterning knowledge (creating a t-chart, finding the common difference, finding the recursive pattern rule, etc. ). It was great to see you all working so hard - and acting the problem out! Tomorrow we will find out what the answer is by reviewing the great work you did in class!

PS I have been so inspired by reading your quotes that I found another one:

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. —Aesop

Time for some awesome:
Heated car seats

The leaves have started to fall, the days are growing shorter and the weather is getting colder. While it may seem as though there are dark days ahead, my mood is brightened by one thought - it's time to turn those heated seats on. Oh, heated seats, how I have missed you. Being reunited is just plain...awesome!

Legend has it...

Today we learned all about legends, what they are, how they started and why they are so important. We will be reading more examples of legends in the next couple of weeks and you will even have the chance to write your very own legend (more details to follow!). We will be having our Patterning test on Friday. To help prepare, you can go to the patterning link under Math and do the problems for lessons 1,2 and 3 (this won't take long!).

PS So impressed with the work you did while I was away! You guys are AWESOME!!!

Speaking of awesome...

Quotes

I just love quotes! They can be funny, sad, inspirational, thought-provoking, etc. One of my favourites:

Sing like nobody is listening,

Live like's it's Heaven on Earth,

Work like you don't need money,

Love like you've never been hurt,

And dance like no one is watching.

My other favourite quote: Awesome!

I'm back!

My dearest students,

I am finally back in Ottawa, safe and sound after a very exciting few days away in Stratford. I had an amazing time at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival! I first visited Stratford when I was in Grade 11 and my English class was fortunate enough to take a trip to go and see The Taming of the Shrew. From that moment, I was hooked both to live theatre and Shakespeare. I am excited to tell you about some of the tings I did while I was away!

On the first day of the conference, we got to have a discussion with some of the Stratford's Festival's actors and a university professor. What I found very interesting was that the actors said that they really want the audience to be engaged and be on the edge of their seats. Also, they said that we would be surprised how much time actors spend talking about the audience. This was something I had never thought of before! Even more reason to be attentive since they are keeping an eye on you (not in a creepy way though;). Next, we went to a workshop that involved lots of fun, hands-on activities (we will definitely do some this year!). That night, we went to see the show Grapes of Wrath. The actors were amazing although I did not really enjoy the play that much (it was quite depressing!). The next morning we went to a dance workshop where we learned how they danced in Shakespearean times. It was hard but really cool! Finally, we went to see Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It was phenomenal! They had modernized it and it was done with rock and roll music. It was funny, interesting and the actors were unbelievable!

I had such a great time learning all about Shakespeare and his time! I will share my passion for this great literature as the year unfolds. I am very excited to see you all tomorrow!

Warmest regards,

Mme Charles

PS I really enjoyed reading about your week on your blogs! It was always one of the highlights of my day!

PPS In honour of you guys, I went looking for a geocache called Biebermania (since Stratford is his hometown and all). Found it and dedicated it to you guys in my comments :)

PPPS Hope you enjoyed my recount!

Oops! Almost forgot my awesome things

Thursday's awesome thing
Live theatre
So I am the first one to admit how much I love movies. Not just a certain kind of movie, but movies in general. However, watching even the best movie could never compare to the thrill that I get from watching live theatre. There is just something about the fact that each performance is unique, no two are ever the same. The lights, the people, the costumes, wow! It is just plain incredible, not to mention....awesome!

Friday's awesomeness

Riding at the back of the bus

Okay, so I know it's been mentioned before, but it truly deserves to be mentioned again. Yellow school buses are really cool, and as an adult it is very rare that we get to ride them. When we do, we are usually at the front of the bus, sometimes in the middle, but never at the back. So when I boarded the bus and saw that back seat free, I ran to it with a smile on my face (I actually walked because you should never run on a bus as it is dangerous, but you know what I mean!) and sank into that dark green bucket seat. Feeling cool at 31? Awesome!

Miss you already!

Well, I've only been gone a day and I already miss you all! I hope you had a fabulous day! I know you worked hard and I am sure to be blown away with your work when I get back back. I'm especially looking forward to reading your pop can recounts! Well, I didn't have a chance to post yesterday so I thought I'd post my awesome things for you now.

Yesterday's little bit of awesome

When someone apologizes

We all know it's not easy to say I'm sorry. Mind you, being the receiver of an apology, especially when you had done nothing wrong, is truly great. Being able to recognize when you are wrong, and taking the time to apologize no matter how difficult, awesome!

And a second helping of awesome

Being the only ones at a hotel pool

You know how it is, you usually arrive at the hotel pool to find a huge group of people. They're splashing around, yelling, screaming, jumping, etc. Now picture this scene, you arrive to the hotel pool to find....peace and tranquility. No one else around to bother you, the whole place to yourself. So jump in that water and soak up some...awesome!

One Grain of Rice

Over the past couple of days, we have been reading a mathematical folktale entitled One Grain of Rice. This is a great story that shows how important Math is in the real world! It also became a great problem for us to solve! At the end of the 30 days, thanks to doubling, 1 grain of rice became over a billion! WOW!!! Thank goodness some of you had scientific calculators that could handle those numbers!

Awesome thing of the day

Voting

I know you are all to young to vote now, but give it a few years and you will be at the polls! It's easy to believe that one vote won't make a difference, but it has in the past and it will in future. Our ancestors have gone to war to make sure that we would live in a democratic country. So I say, come election day, do your civic duty, be informed and go out there and vote! Having your voice heard? Awesome!

PS On my way out the polling station I held the door open for someone who was walking in.. Turns out it was Mrs. Fitzgerald going in to vote! Crazy!

PPS Un vote pour Rhys est un vote pour Rhys! :)

Cheese!

Today was picture day! I am delighted to say that everyone looked fantastic and there was not a hair out of place (I seriously don't think I've ever seen that many hairbrushes at once!) . Can't wait to see the final shots!

Today's dose of awesome:

Dancing like no one is watching

Ever notice how you dance differently when you are alone than when you are with others? Well I say forget that! Instead, pretend that no one is watching, pull out your best moves and give it all you have. Letting the beat take over... Awesome!

The Power of Prayer

Every morning, we begin our day by listening to a different prayer. Each prayer is a song and has been chosen carefully by myself or one of the students. We always discuss the song after listening to it. How could this song be seen as a prayer? How does it capture our faith? When could this type of prayer be used? We have had some very deep conversations thanks to many artists who have chosen to express their faith through music. Today we listened to Waving Flag sung by Young Artist For Haiti (a song originally done by K'naan).

Young Artists for Haiti is a movement that saw more than 50 Canadian artists gather to record this song. They were hoping to inspire an ongoing effort and contribution to Canadian charities for their work to help the people of Haiti overcome the devastation from the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that rocked the country on January 12, 2010. All proceeds of the song go to three charities: World Vision, War Child and Free The Children (Craig and Mark Kielbergers organization).

Talk about being a light to others! Here is the video we watched:




Today's awesome thing


Public Libraries

A library is truly a magical place. You can get lost in the bookshelves, find that novel you've been wanting to read, escape into another world by cracking open a book right there and then.
And all this for free... Awesome!

Math Monday!

Well, we did lots and lots of Math today! We started by matching up patterns up with their rules and expressions. Then, we learned about explicit and recursive patterns. Next, we tried to figure out how much money Autumn will have in her wedding fund depending on how old she is when she gets married (did I mention she's not getting married until she is at least 23?!). This is when we learned how important it is to start with the right data and read the question carefully (there are 52 weeks in a year!). I was very impressed by your answers! Keep up the great work!

Awesome thing of the day

Hot tea

Alright, so I'll admit it's no hot chocolate with whipped cream. Mind you, it is pretty fantastic in its' own right! It is like a warm hug on a cold day - so comforting. Next time you are chilly, and need something to warm you up, may I suggest a cup of tea with a side serving of...Awesome!