Moving to a new blog

I couldn't change the name of this blog so that meant that I needed to have a new one for our new class.  That blog is located at Division One Trudeau 09/10  and you can also find it on the side bar. Life is settling down at Trudeau although of course we miss those of you who have gone to high school.  We hope you are enjoying your new schools.  Don't forget to come to visit!  Here is one of my favorite pictures from my recent trip to Newfoundland.  I took it from on top of Signal Hill in St. John's and that is where Marconi sent the first radio message.  The picture shows an area called The Battery.

Summer Pictures

Well I have posted on Moodle but I realize I haven't posted here!  I am still not very skilled at posting pictures on Moodle so I am better off trying to do those here.  As I have mentioned on Moodle, I feel as if I have had a fairly busy summer, doing lots of things in Vancouver and have been to Whistler three times and to Gabriola Island for mini-holidays.  I am just going to put a few of my favorite pictures. This is looking down Blackcomb Mountain at Whistler.  The next is a bear cub I saw when I was on the chairlift.

Now here's a starfish on the beach on Gabriola. And here's a picture of my friend's dogs going for a beach walk. 

Good-byes

The last day and I have been promising to post some pictures!  What a year!  Just think of all the field trips alone- Writers' Festival at Granville Island, Robin Hood at Waterfront Theatre, the Symphony at the Orpheum, a couple of trips to John Oliver for JOlympics and to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sun Yat Sen Gardens, Science World, and Spanish Banks.  We also hosted lots of interesting guests with whom we have done great activities and learned new things from the aerodynamics of paper airplanes to moodling to photography to visual journals, to how to write a thriller, how to conserve energy, and even sang the National Anthem of Dormia.  We learned lots about the Olympics and got to be part of the thrill of being in the host city.  We also helped make a difference in the world with our fund raising for the Haiti Relief Campaign and the Nepal Library Foundation plus of course being peer helpers and supporting the Me to We efforts. 
Anyway a few pictures

Here are our friends in Division One at Spanish banks. At the right you can see our grads-what a gorgeous group!  Do you think they will come dressed up the last day of school?

Here's a picture from our afternoon with the buddies.
I will try to post more pictures so check in later on.  It's been a fun year and I hope you all have a great summer!

Sun Yat Sen Gardens

I lured you to Sun Yat Sen Gardens with promises of making gunpowder but in the end we made rockets.  I think that everyone really enjoyed our visit and really got a picture of life in Ancient China.  It is such a beautiful place and I know how much you all enjoyed the fish!  Also I think making and launching our rockets was more fun than making gun powder would have been! 

And I think Neil enjoyed being a scholar and the head of that household of 200!

  And then we got to launch the rockets we built...

And finally after a look around Chinatown we got to go and play in Andy Livingstone Park! 
I hope you have an opportunity to visit Sun Yat Sen Gardens and Livingstone Park again this summer!

Science World

We had a great time at Science World doing a chemistry lab and watching a movie all about gold and checking out all the exhibits.  Our lab included learning about catalysts and acids and bases.  You can see how attentive you were except for that guy eying the camera.

 And below here are a few scientists at work.  Do you think Harjot looks a bit like a Einstein?

  And how surprised were you when you saw what was happening in those bags???  

News from Dormia

I think we had a lot of fun doing wolves today and really enjoyed having our guests from Ms. Heinrich's class as well join us.  We hope all the track meet participants had a great day as well!
I had an e-mail that I thought I would share with you... I am afraid you will have to finish reading Dormia on your own-I promise to read some more though!  This letter is from Peter.  I think you all should enter his contest!
_____________________________
Dear West Coast fans of Dormia -

Before the school year ends, I thought I'd drop you a quick update about Dormia-related happenings.  My road trip up and down the West Coast has a special place in my memory, because it kick-started all of the Dormia activities listed below. 

- Because of strong nationwide reaction to the first book, Houghton Mifflin decided to move up the release of the second book in the Dormia series.  WORLD'S END is now being released in November 2010, just a few months away.  We're so excited about the book - Alfonso is 3 years older (15), and the adventure begins when he starts sleep-walking in the Paris catacombs.  We just received the cover sketch for the second book (it's done by John Rocco, the illustrator of the Percy Jackson series and illustrator of our first book)

- We're on the verge of signing the movie rights to the Dormia series!  Over the next few months, we'll be working with our producers to choose a screenwriter, director, etc.  If you have any suggestions based on movies you've seen and would think will really get into the Dormia series, let us know!

- We have an updated electronic newsletter - the Dormian Tribune.  The most recent issue featured the first cover sketch of World's End, and other hints about book 2.  We'll be sending out a newsletter every 6 weeks or so.  You can sign up on our website. 

- You might also want to let your students know that for those who sign up for the Dormian Tribune between now and the end of the summer, they will be automatically entered in a contest.  The lucky winner will receive 1) an advance, signed copy of World's End, and 2) THEIR NAME will be a character in the third book!

- And last of all, the paperback version of Dormia just released and is in bookstores everywhere.  It's $8, significantly less than the hardcover  :)

I'll keep it short and end here, but if you'd like to continue following the exploits of the Dormia series, make sure to sign up for the Dormian Tribune.  And I'm hoping to return to the West Coast sometime over the next 18 months or so.  Hopefully, we can arrange a return to your school!  You can always keep in touch with me via this e-mail or by e-mailing us at info@worldofdormia.com

Thanks again, and sleep well,

Peter

Wolves

Tomorrow I am planning to celebrate wolves, fact and fiction, and since some students from Ms. Heinrich's class will be joining us, I thought I would put a link to a National Geographic article on wolves here so it's easy to access.  We are going to practice on note taking skills on this article but we are going to be exploring some fun books as well, while the athletic students are off at the track meet.  Go Trudeau go!

The world after moodling

I am afraid I have been too busy going to Chicago and then with moodling to keep my blog updated.  Last week's excitement was a visit from Mr. Martens from Gladstone High School and the Vancouver School Board who taught us lots about the physics behind paper airplanes.  Everyone had a great time or sometimes frustrating time learning about the ways to make paper airplanes fly straight and how to turn.  We also had a good time looking at everyone's Heart Smart Ads. 

Song for Haiti

I just found this good video made for Haiti by young Canadian musicians so here it is. 

Moodling

Well I am working on the moodle and soon we will get you all linked in.  You can try and let me know how you make out.  Julie has successfully signed on so far.  We can try again tomorrow.  Don't forget that we don't have school on Wednesday and are walking up to John Oliver on Thursday to see A Midsummer Night's Dream.  You will need to bring your lunch to school and tell your parents you won't be going home for lunch.  I am adding a couple more pictures for you!

After the Musical

It was a pretty busy week last week what with the musical and the grade seven projects on Egypt.  Since the projects were done with Ms. Wong in the library I only saw bits and pieces as the grade sixes and I were busily trying to get a bit of Social Studies and Science done, but I know you really enjoyed learning about Ancient Egypt. 
The musical was fun for everyone I think.  I know how much you enjoyed working with Holly and Kevin and I know it's taken me most of the weekend to get the songs out of my head.  You all did a fantastic job.  It's kind of neat to have this experience and maybe some of you will get involved with music and drama at high school. 

One thing that seems kind of neat is it seems there is something fun every week at school.  Next week we will be going to John Oliver to see a famous play by William Shakespeare entitled A Midsummers' Night Dream.  I am sure you will enjoy it.  The following week I am going to be away for four days in Chicago at a conference so that you will get a change of teacher.  Now another good part of this is I know I will be bringing back lots of books.  And you love new books.  The school year seems to be going rapidly.  Anyway here are a few more pictures of Up the Watershed. 

This and that... updated on Tuesday-

I promised that I would give you the link to the writer of the Dormian National Anthem, our friend, Nancy's new website and you can hear her new album.   The website is under her stage name, Celia Rose.  As promised here is Holly Arntzen's website
And here is Blue Sky.  Wow can't believe we are performing this week.  I know you have all really enjoyed working with Holly and Kevin.   

Today I promised the grade sixes that I would find them some links to look at elk and help them do research so as promised here is a start.  You can also find out about marmots and other BC animals and wildlife.  Speaking of Vancouver Island marmots here you go with an interesting website.

In Social Studies in Grade Six we have been studying the Fraser, and here is a good map for you.

For all of you this is a very cool website with all sorts of neat stuff, Learning Science.  This is a great site to explore!

I think I will put an animal picture on for you all.  Let's see if you can recognize this animal!  Or how about this one??

Our new friend, the Yeti Crab...

It was nice to see everyone today though I am sure we all enjoyed having a holiday and I was happy that most of you even did your holiday homework!  Anyway we were rereading the article on the Yeti Crab and you had many questions so I found this site that can provide some more information!  I really liked the diagram I found there and it also shows where its habitat is.  Now would you like to dine on a Yeti crab?  Why or why not?

Curling anyone

Ten students and myself were able to go to an Olympic Women's Curling event.  We saw three games with six teams.  The Canadian team were not there but we still had a great time and Rohit had a profitable time as well!  You can see the mitton in this picture! 

Looking back at our day at the JOlympics

I am really behind posting pictures.  We were so busy for awhile.  Some of highlights have been the JOlympics and ten students and myself going to see women's curling.  We also got to go skating with our grade one buddies for the third time.  Anyway I am going to share a few pictures here.  We have a few iron chefs here. Then we have our cupcake chefs.  While some people were into bucking brocos!  And then we had our rocket scientists! 

Science 6-how bills

Grade Six is learning about bird beaks which is a structural adaptation depending on what birds eat.  Study these pictures on this site..  Use the information to complete the worksheet you will receive.  Here is another site to learn about bills and beaks!  Check out the Pintail Duck's beak!  Why do you think he needs a bill like that?

More on the Olympic Project

Here is your assignment sheet I gave in class today!  I so wish I could take you all to see curling.  You were really good sports about it.  I hope we have a great time at John Oliver tomorrow!
             
 

You are doing a multimedia project on an Olympic sport of your choice.  You have instruction a sheet telling you how to do a multimedia report plus other guidelines.  You all have the fact sheet from the Vancouver Sun plus online sources noted in my last entry on this blog.

Each group has one group, which they are focusing on.  In your report, which will be about five minutes to the class, you need to teach us about your sport.  What is it? How do you win?  How long has it been part of the winter Olympics?  What is some of the memorable history of the sport?  Who are the current and past stars? Tell us something about some of the current Canadian athletes involved in the sport.  Is there a special vocabulary for this sport?  What is some of the vocabulary that can be used in this sport?  You need to keep count of the medals awarded. 
Remember you must tell us where you got the information about your sport-site your references. 
You also need to be able to answer questions from the audience. 

When you give your presentation you will be marked on
1.    Information
2.    Visual impact
3.    Evidence of using different forms of presentation
4.    Is presentation loud and clear- remember have cue cards –don’t try reading off posters so your back is to your audience.  Maybe if you are shy you can record yourself?
5.    Are we engaged? Are we interested?

Remember you are the expert on your sport! 

We will see where you are on Monday!!!  Project presentations will be on Friday, February 26… be ready-we are going to see what they look like and maybe we can share them with other classes the following week-as you get your final look at the games.

Olympic Project

I am excited to see your projects on Olympic Sports.  First of all, where can you get information?  The official Olympic site is a good place to go where you just click the icon for your sport at the top of the home page and you can get the latest information about your sport.  Every day the Vancouver Sun has a special section that gives information on each sport.  You can also get information from CBC and CTV.
If you are feeling like being creative here's a website with some great ideas!  You will become an expert on your sport, able to field questions from your classmates.  Check out the information on the assignment that you have received so far! 
I think that we will see what you all have this Friday and then decide our final due date.  These will be presentations that we may possibly share with other classes. We will work on our criteria for judging these in class!

Kevin is quoted... and lights

To read a book review by Kevin just follow this link to a blog of one of your favorite writers, Melanie Jackson.  Kevin's review of her new book is there.  From the picture I guess you can figure what is missing in this mystery.
Today I was talking about the cool light displays for the Olympics.  Some of you have seen the light sculptures in the sky because you can see them from quite a ways but if you haven't take a look.
And then along Cambie between King Edward and Broadway you can see these cool lights.
Don't forget to get your permission form signed if you would like to walk up to Sunset after school to see the Olympic Torch Bearer pass by on Thursday!

Grade Six Microscopes etc.

I have been checking the Science Probe links and finding others for the Grade Sevens so now it is your turn!  This site helps you identify pond life
We are going to be looking for tarnigrades today.  To see cool microscopic pictures and learn more just go here.
Check out other cool sites on Science 6-check links on the side. Some links no longer work but others do!
Another website that I enjoy and has lots of information for social studies and science is the National Geographic Kids' site. 

Protecting our Environment and learning more...

I have been looking for interesting science websites and have found a few.  First of all let's look at biodiversity!  Just go here to learn about biodiversity in B.C.  You can download a very neat brochure about this.  Something I got interested in was Frogwatch.  I thought this was neat because we had written paragraphs and essays recently on frogs.  Learn all about how you can become a frogwatcher!  Also you can find out all about the different frogs you can see in the Lower Mainland.

Looking at websites on ecology I remembered a great organization, Roots and Shoots
which has so much interesting information-I think we once had a group at Trudeau.  I think it would be neat to get one going again maybe in our class!

January 27-Mesopotamia and more

Great work-we made over 1600 dollars for Haiti relief!  Wow!  And also about 360 dollars for the Nepal Library Association.  I am going to have to take a picture of our bulletin board with all your great projects describing this! 
Grade Sevens have an assignment on Mesopotamia and they need to visit the British Museum's section of Time and Mesopotamia.  Here is the website you will need.  By the end of using this website you should be able to tell me what a tell is and learn more about how we know what we know about Mesopotamia.  Happy digging!

A few days later -Wow!

This is a picture of Haitians receiving badly needed water! 
I can't believe that we have raised over 1000 since Monday to donate to UNICEF for Haiti!  It's amazing!  We were hoping for $300 but as the Trudeau community realized the need they certainly were generous! Plus we have made more money, over 200 dollars for the Nepal Library Association.  You have become champion fund raisers!  You should all feel very proud of yourselves for what you have done!  It's amazing what a small group of committed individuals can do!  That's a quote from someone!  You have really stepped up to the challenge. Well done!

Trying to Make the World a Better Place

The theme of the week seemed to be how to make the world a better place.  On Thursday we had a really great presentation by Allison and Paul Bird on the Nepal Library Foundation.  As you know our class sold journals and had a raffle and has already made over $300 for this cause.

Friday we decided to spearhead fund raising for Haiti earthquake victims with our campaign Help for Haiti which will begin Monday.  I  just watched a beautiful video entitled Together about Haiti, how we can work together to help these people rebuild their city.  On Tuesday people are asked to wear red to show support Haiti.  I plan to!


Friday we also had a great assembly put on by the We to Me Club and learned how we at Trudeau are going to finance building a school in India brick by brick.

Today I went to a presentation by Greg Mortenson, the author of Three Cups of Tea, and bought a copy of his new book, Stones into Schools.
  Greg Mortenson is changing lives building schools mainly for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

I am excited about our opportunity to help with all these projects.  I, personally, felt so inspired by hearing Greg Mortenson once again.  He told one story about how some village elders in Afghanistan, probably Taliban agreed to build a school after they spent an hour and a half playing in the playground at a school in another area.  They had never had the opportunity to play when they were children, living in a country at war.  The playground actually convinced them to build the high school for girls in their community.


The opportunity to play as well as  the opportunity to learn are two opportunities all children deserve.

Today's assignment for the Grade Seven's

We have been studying Mesopotamia.  Today you are going to become a farmer and learn more about irrigation.  Just go to this website from the British Museum.
You must follow the directions and take care of the fields.  Hints-you need to start write away-and be ready to do the next step when it is time.  I have had my crops fail several times.
When you are finished
1. Write the steps
2.Write about the challenges of being a farmer in Mesopotamia
3. What you learned about how they farmed there from this website!
4. Include a visual
This can be presented as a folded four page booklet with your visual showing what you have learned about farming on the cover, second page steps, third page challenges, fourth page what you have learned.
This picture is of a courtyard of a wealthy person from a neat website I found. I had difficulty finding a farming one but this one did show a canal!

Welcome back and welcome to Mesopotamia

Welcome back!  Two weeks sure goes quickly.  Anyway, the grade sevens are going to be studying Mesopotamia in the next while.  I found three great websites of you so I wanted to just put them on here.  The first is the British Museum one and we will be using that one a lot.  The next is the Oriental Museum in Chicago which I visited and first got me interested in Mesopotamia.  Finally I have given you one that accesses lots of resources for kids on Mesopotamia.  Grade sixes will be doing a unit on Japan with Ms. Wong so Social Studies should be lots of fun again this term!