Friday, October 28, 2011

Mobiles

Today the students in the After School Programme will be watching "Alvin and The Chipmunks go Trick or Treating."  Yesterday they made some dangling mobiles after they coloured in the pictures of ghosts, pumpkins, witches, cats and bats. Here they are:  All of the students enjoyed the Danceathon yesterday, some won prizes for their crafts that they made in their classes, and a lot of funds were raised. 

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Eeeek! SPIDERS!!!!

The JK - grade 3 students had some 'spooky' fun creating some creepy looking spiders today! Take a look!


A funky spider web with a glow- in-the-dark spider and a fly.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Pumpkins! Pumpkins!

Some of the students in JK - grade three in the Before School and After School programme used paper mache to cover balloons and then after they dried the students painted them orange. Then the students had so much fun with the decorations that most of them sprinkled their pumpkin with sparkles and topped them off with a stem made of construction paper. Take a look! Tomorrow we're making spiders...





Monday, October 24, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin People

The Pumpkin People camp inside
Your Jack-o'-lantern's pumpkin hide,
Though you won't find them much about
Unitl you scoop the center out-
The seeds and all that stringy stuff.
Make sure you scrape it clean enough
And neatly carve eyes, ears, and nose,
And-carefully-the teeth in rows,

Since that's where Pumpkin People enter
To set up camp right in the center.
Around the brightly gleaming candle,
Which as you know's too hot to handle,
They toast marshmallows on long forks,
Pull sparkling-apple-cider corks,
And stuff themselves with trick or treats-
The same that everybody eats-

Until their belts are stretched and groaning
(Just listen hard, you'll hear them moaning).
There while your Jack-o'-lantern glows
Through eyes and teeth and ears and nose,
The Pumpkin People loll inside.
You'll almost see'em where they hide
Between the flame's flash and its ficker;
Look quickly!- Nope, they've scrambled quicker.

But when the candle stub is snuffed,
The Pumpkin People, crammed and stuffed
With sweets to hold them for a year,
And smiling still from ear to ear,
Roll round the floor and out the mouth
And far away-North, East, West, South-
Until next Halloween rolls round
When once again they-won't-be-found.

By John Ridland

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Substitute Teaching - Music

When I arrived I read the teaching plans/schedule for the day and every period had been planned with the exception of one period with the grade 2 class. This period was left up to me to do whatever I wished and the regular teacher made a couple of suggestions on her day plans. I took this opportunity to design, develop and deliver a music lesson rather than just play games. I looked up the grade two curriculum in the Arts document and read the expectations. I reviewed what they would have learned last year and began creating a lesson during one of my planning periods. I used a variety of music from three CDs and a poem from my Music resource book and taught staccato and legato successfully to the grade two class. They really enjoyed it. I first began with a reminder of what pitch was (high and low) and then I reminded them of another element of music, duration (ta and ta-ah) then I introduced staccato and legato using different types of music. We proceeded to play 'guess what type of music it is' and they were to raise their hand as soon as they knew what kind of music it sounded like. Then I asked them to read the poem (that I had written on the blackboard) which they did successfully. Then they were to read it with staccato emphasis and then legato emphasis followed by using both staccato and legato in the appropriate places in the poem. We finished the lesson with a movement game where the students were to move like an animal to demonstrate either staccato or legato depending on the type of music I played. They absolutely loved all of the interaction especially the movement. As a result it was a very rewarding experience for me too!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

A couple of grade four and grade six students in the After School Programme created turkeys for Thanksgiving. Here are some in the process of being created.


This is how we made them - Cut off a small portion of a paper towel roll.  Cut a larger round piece of brown construction paper and glue it to one end of a popsicle stick. Tape the popsicle stick to one end of the paper towel roll vertically so that the round piece of construction paper is at the top in order to be the head. Cut out two round pieces of brown construction paper and tape to either end of the paper towel roll. Measure a piece of brown construction paper to fit around the piece of paper towel roll and cut it out. Glue it onto the paper towel roll. Cut out a waddle from red construction paper. Cut out a triangle of orange construction paper and glue it onto the waddle. Glue the waddle onto the face of the turkey. Cut out two feet from the orange construction paper and glue to the bottom. Paste a variety of feathers onto the back end of the turkey and cover with a brown piece of construction paper. Finally glue on some googlie eyes to the turkey and voila! You have a Thanksgiving turkey!