Year End Wrap Up!

It's been far too long since I last posted! I thought I would do a wrap up of the month of December.

Twin Day was a hit - I had trouble telling some of them apart! Ms. Terry and I had fun calling them by the wrong names all day.

Now that Christmas is over, I can show you the hard work that was done with Artman!

Thank you so much to Mme Bawa, Mrs. Terry and Mrs. Hornick for helping us out. It was greatly appreciated!

I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing break. The kids seem happy to be back and, despite all the indoor recesses because of the cold, are right back into the swing of things.

Congratulations to Owen Thompson, whose photo of a bee won Honorable Mention at the Emerald Level in the Roberta Bondar Foundation's Summer Camp Challenge!

And congratulations also to Karlee, who won 3rd place in the local Royal Canadian Legion Remembrance Day poster contest, in the junior black & white division!

Some important dates for January:

le 12 - Electives begin - 4 weeks (+1 in case of snow days)
le 14 - **special event** - Planetarium from Science North for all grade 5 and 6 students - ALL DAY!!
le 29 - Book Report Due (English Mystery Novel)
le 30 - PD Day

Remembering

As usual this time of year, everything takes a back seat to teaching my kids about the importance of Remembrance Day. I share pictures and experiences with them, videos, stories and history. They learn about the sacrifices made by Canadian men and women that allow them to live in a glorious country like Canada.

We had a wonderful visit this week from a friend of Tieran's, Mr. Brian Hutchison. He brought in his huge collection of Canadian war memorabilia. He had cap badges from all the units in the two World Wars, uniforms from all branches of service, pictures of his family members who served, medals, shrapnel, stones from the beach at Dieppe, sand from Juno and chalk from the tunnels at Vimy Ridge. He was full of information but the best part was when everyone was allowed to try on uniforms!



Some people look good in uniform! 

Even without full pockets,
some things weighed a lot.  

Army... 

Air Force...



Women in uniform!

Remembering.

We will be running the school Remembrance Day Service on Tuesday at 11:00. You are most welcome to join us in the gym.

 

Don't forget we're off to the Royal Winter Fair on Thursday! We leave the school at 9am and are hoping to be back at 8pm.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Joyeux Hallowe'en!

Have a safe and warm night - remember to check your candy over with your parents before you start to scarf it down!

Don't forget - only 3 pieces of candy at school per day - one per nutrition break and one for after school.

One final reminder: clocks go back tomorrow - a great time to check the batteries in your smoke and C02 detectors!

Important dates for November:

3 - last day of the Book Fair in the library
5 - money and permission forms due for the Royal Winter Fair
  - School Council Meeting
11 - Remembrance Day Service - we are in charge
13 - Royal Winter Fair!!
14 - 2nd round of Healthy Lunch orders due
21 - PD Day

A View From the Other Side

Normally,  I share with you all of the wonderful things we are doing in our class. Today, though,  I thought I would show you what I do with Ms. Terry's class while she is teaching your sons and daughters English.
Since the beginning of the year, we have been watching the movie Ratatouille (in French!) as a way to learn about French culture, particularly the importance of food in the lives of French citizens.
We decided to make 2 versions of ratatouille, a traditional peasant stew, and an upclassed, nouvelle-cuisine confit version like the one that the rat chef Remy makes in the film.
WE. HAD. A. BLAST.

I started the night before, preparing the base sauce for the confit. I roasted yellow and red peppers in the oven, then put them in a Ziploc bag to make the skins loosen so they could be peeled off. The chopped peppers were then added to the carrots, onions and garlic sautéing in the pan. Add a can of tomatoes and then mix it all up in the blender. Word to the wise: make sure the blender is properly screwed together before turning it on.

The next day, we got our chef on. These kids were amazing chefs! They worked so well together. We had 1 station for the confit (merci Hailie for bringing in a mandoline!), where the kids spread the peperinade on the bottom of the pan, then sliced up zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes and fanned them in a spiral around the pan.

The kids at the herb station made a chiffonade of basil and oregano, then mixed it with olive oil to drizzle over the confit.

Doesn't it look delicious? We could have eaten it raw!

The last group had the most time consuming job. They had to chop up zucchini, eggplant and onion, sauté each one individually and then add it to my crock pot. Ratatouille is not traditionally made in a crock pot, but I thought this would be the easiest way to do it at school.

Crock pot turned on, confit in the oven at 280 for the afternoon and staff and students with watering mouths walking around the school.

Today, it was time to eat! Like most homemade soups and stews, ratatouille is better the next day, after the flavours have had time to blend and compliment each other. I bought some freshly baked baguettes and butter, and said bon appetite!

Normalcy?

It is hard to get back on track at Monck. We have so many activities happening that many students miss parts of the day. Friday was the Mud Run, and more than half our class was taking part. What makes me feel good is that the students who were at Morrison Meadows were students who love to run and are athletic, not students who just wanted to miss a day of school. They came back covered in mud, and even Yasmine, who brought 3 pairs of shoes and 4 pairs of socks, had cold toes! (Sidebar: several of them learned from Yearley that dry socks are essential. As a former Girl Guide, I know how important this lesson is!). I really would love to see any pics they may have taken of the 'mud slide' though. I have images of my monsters acting like seals.

And in case your child does not understand the importance of division:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/17/sir-ian-mckellen-students-shall-not-pass-video_n_6005240.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education

Oh frabjous day!!

Calloo callay!

Boy, did we have a great time at Yearley! I always seem to get weather that isn't exactly nasty, but not nice, either. We had drizzle, wind, pouring rain and humidity, all in the two days we were there. Fortunately, it never matters what the weather at Yearley - Judy, Lea and Stephanie are well prepared, the facility is supplied with rubber boots and rainsuits, and the programs go on. BIG thanks to all the parents who came to help out, either with shopping last week or at Yearley yesterday and today.
After arriving and having a quick snack, we took a hike around the property to learn the layout, familiarize ourselves with the trails and see the boundaries for certain activities. And, of course, photo ops.


We learned the history of the property from Lea.

She taught us about how Mr. Yearley himself dug out the three ponds.





We saw where the canoes are kept.

We learned the names of the 3 ponds - test your child!



We were goofy.

And we had the best group photo EVER.

After our lunch, we went into the house and travelled back in time to meet Jean, Coureur des bois, and Crazy Two Loons, Ojibwe Chief, to learn about the history of the fur trade between Canadian Natives and French traders, following the routes along to French River and Fort William (Thunder Bay). Students were then divided into small groups and sent out to trade their goods with the local Natives (the adults) for our many quality furs such as beaver (needed for men's hats), coyote (women's muffs and fur trimmings), rabbit (fur trims), and, of course, black bear, which is still used on the hats of the Grenadier Guards who guard several of Queen Elizabeth's Palaces. I must admit I was having so much fun as 'Chief Soft-in-the-Head, along with my 'cousin', 'Chief Rotten Fish', that I didn't' take any pictures at all! But Judy has sent along the memory cards from the Yearley cameras for me to download more pictures that I may not have taken.





Following an amazing taco dinner, we then played the Ecology Game. Each child was pre-assigned a role, from mouse up the food chain to disease. They had to find the food and water stations, stamping their cards to prove they'd found them, all the while keeping themselves safe from the predators hunting them, including Tieran, starting out as a deer hunter then having a horrible scientific accident that turned him into a tanker spill of toxic waste, and Morgan, who was some sort of disease that we eventually identified as Ebola. And in the meantime, we adults were patrolling the boundaries as Mack Trucks, ready to create road kill whenever we could. Fortunately for all our darling animals, Alex was patrolling the forest in the form of the Conservationist, ready to give life to any poor critter who needed one.

 

A night hike with the fewest flashlights we could handle was our second last event of the night. We howled our best, but we didn't hear any returning sounds from either the local wolf or coyote populations. Is it possible that they knew we were human? NO, NEVER!!!

 

A lovely campfire with s'mores provided by the group in charge of snack and we were off to bed. A little later than the adults would have preferred, I'm sure, but it wasn't as late as I have experienced in the past.

 

Up early at 7am (your child can no longer give you a hard time; I'm the witness. They can handle it!) for a scrummy breakfast of bacon (Annette, we love you!), eggs, pancakes and cereal, we did our big cleanup and then headed out for our programs of the day.

 

We had voted to do the Wetlands Study and Canoeing. I headed off with the Wetlands group. Judy used a dipping apparatus to show us how much tannin was in the water, which meant that in the areas of the wetland with too many tannins; the water was dark coloured and could not allow enough light in to let plants grow. Those plant-free areas were where we could wade in wearing our gaiters. We used sieves to scoop up as many different life forms as we could. The more life forms one can find means that the wetland has more oxygen present and is therefore a healthier wetland.

We found mayfly (shad to we North Bayers) larvae and nymphs, damselfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs and caddis fly nymphs (my personal favourite), not to mention frogs, water skimmers, boatmen and more! We used a microscope hooked up to the Smartboard was amazing. I'm going to have to see if I can borrow one from the Board, or, better yet, get the school to buy one!

 

 

While one group was having fun digging around for critters in the pond, the other group was learning basic canoeing skills: the role of the bowsman and sternsman, the different paddle strokes, and how to raft up (join canoes). Can't you just see they're having fun??

 

 



 

 Another quick snack and it was time to load the bus! It just doesn't seem right. We LOVE Yearley and all the staff and everything we learn there! Thank you!!

Fun, Fun, FUN!!!

Sometimes I need to remind not only the kids, but myself, that we are supposed to be at school to learn. We are having so much fun that learning almost seems to get in the way! But, of course, as a teacher, I make sure that it happens no matter what.

We've had a very busy couple of weeks. I was one of the lucky teachers selected to go to We Day on October 2nd. Many of the We Day causes are near and dear to my heart, so we had some great class discussions about it. Then, today, one of my personal heroes, Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside the amazing Kailash Satyarthi. Both of them, along with Canadian Craig Kielburger, were inspired by 12-year-old Iqbal Masih, who, before his assassination, worked to free child slaves and educate them. On October 22, Malala Yousafzai will become only the 6th person to receive honourary Canadian citizenship, alongside such dignitaries as Nelson Mandela, Raoul Wallenberg and the Dalai Lama (both on my Hero List).

This week, students made oral presentations about La Francophonie, an organization supporting former French colonies. I wanted my students to understand that there were many more, and many diverse, countries that spoke French. We concentrated on former African colonies. Students did a brief oral presentation, and then shared the national dish of the country. We had Ndole from Cameroon, bread from the Comoros, benne cakes from Senegal and much, much more. It was such a great time!

 

A sample of our great chefs!

 

Enjoying the 'strange' food.

 

 

Despite Paighton's protestations, many of us felt that her Ndole ROCKED. It just wasn't to her taste.

 

Thursday saw us grocery shopping for Yearley. Un grand merci à Dr. & Mrs. Bawa and Ms. Slater for helping us at the grocery store, doing that horrible math and estimating our total spent. Food wise, we are set for Tuesday and Wednesday at Yearley!!

 

Visiting Yearley is a wonderful opportunity for the students. We are SO lucky to have had this property left to our school board and incredibly grateful for the staff that runs the program.

 

At this point in time, the weather forecast for our 2 days at Yearley is warm and wet. Yearley supplies us with rubber boots and rainsuits, so I'm sure we will be well equipped, but students should bring their own raincoats and boots. No matter what season, or what unexpected weather, when I have been at Yearley, students have a wonderful time.

 

Students do not need to be early on Tuesday morning. We will be present for morning announcements and the playing of the National Anthem as usual. We will then leave the classroom and load up the bus to head out to Yearley.

 

Students are required to bring a regular packed lunch to Yearley on the first day. After that, all meals are supplied. All students are expected to help out at Yearley, whether it be meal preparation, cleaning or kitchen cleanup. It is never too early to learn cooperative skills!

 

Thank you SO much in advance to the parents who will be joining us at Yearley. Without you, this trip would not be possible.

 

I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving and, just like the students, I can't wait for Tuesday!!