The Final Buzz

Divisions 1 and 2 have been buzzing around all week in the beautiful sunshine.  This week has been full of events and action including school photos and preparation for our upcoming Sports Day.

The Grade 2 students jump started their math unit with a fun game of 3D Shape BINGO.  What a fun way to learn the characteristics and names of the 3D Shapes!

This past week concluded our theme unit on bees. We wrapped up the unit with a trip to a neighbour of Evan's who keeps bees. The bees were flying in and out of their home and it gave the students a great chance to see an active bee hive up close in person.

A huge special thanks to Jason Landry, Evan’s dad and our bee lecturer, who did an amazing job teaching us even more about bees on our field trip! 

 

 The student's last day learning about bees included a series of different stations... 

 You can see Aubrey playing dressup at one of the stations wearing a bee keeper's hat and holding a bee smoker used in beekeeping to help calm honey bees.

 Division 2 created their own edible bees using fruit and chocolate sauce while Division 1 made bee cookies and used a series of different candies to decorate them. Yummy!!!!

 

 Throughout their studies the students began to learn the importance of bees to human survival.  At this station, students made posters helping raise awareness of the importance of bees on our planet and advocated for their protection.

At another station, students created their own bee puzzles and cut them out for friends to put back together.

Lastly, the student's learned how to make bees out of origami paper and then decorated them by drawing on their stripes and eyes.

The students really seemed to enjoy the Bee unit but I'm sure they will love the next theme we move onto just as much... STAY TUNED!!!

 

On another note, the students made beautiful cards with fun pictures we took of the classes for both Jen and Ahmed.

Ahmed has been sick in the hospital, so we sent a fun goofy picture to help cheer him up and wish him a speedy recovery!  We miss you both Ahmed and Jen!!! 

Before we sign off, we would like to wish all the mom's and special women in our lives a very happy Mother's Day.  Here is a big kiss from Divisions 1 and 2! 

Thank you for everything you do! 

The buzz

The sun is up and shining as are the faces of the students in Divisions 1 and 2.  This past week has been full of excitement and great learning!

Before we begin with the week at a glance, we would like to share some wonderful news with all of you.

With her cuddly new puppy named Dickens (named after her favourite school), Jen has a beautiful smile on and with great reason!  Thankfully, Jen has just recieved a clean bill of health and is now on her way to full recovery!! Yippee!!!  

The week began with the children learning about bee pollination.  Some of the children were asked to be flowers in a garden.

Then, some bees flew to the garden.  The process of pollination was demonstrated as our bees (named Theo and Richie) flew from flower to flower picking up and delivering pollen.

Afterwards, the students attached pictures of things into one of two categories: things that bees pollinate and things that bees do not pollinate.

Then we all went outside to look for things that are pollinated by bees.  We recorded our findings on a sheet of paper.

Because it was such a windy day, there were no bees flying around.  The only thing that was flying was Aubrey's paper!  Can you find it way up in the tree?

This week, the students also learned the "waggle dance".  When bees find pollen, they return to their hive and basically give driving directions to the other bees by doing a waggle dance.  Your child will be able to teach you this dance!

There's nothing sweeter than the taste of honey and we had the opportunity to taste  some that had been collected by bees from many different types of flowers. These flowers were clover, blueberry, blackberry, wildflower, cranberry and fireweed.

Then we decided if we liked or disliked this particular type of honey.

Finally we graphed our favourite.  Which flower do you think the students preferred?

Now that this week is coming to a close on this beautiful, sunny day, we would like to share another exciting tidbit of information.  Mason bees are actually moving into our bee house!  Although Sarah and Olivia painstakingly rolled up paper and inserted them into the holes to make moving in easier for our busy friends, it appears they would rather go with the "westcoast style" of natural wood.  They are actually chewing, shredding and removing the paper from the holes!  Fascinating!  If you look closely, you can see a hole that has already been plugged with mud.  This means that eggs have been laid inside.  Take a look!

Enjoy the sunshine and happy bee viewing!

A "buzzee" week for Divisions 1 and 2!

Greetings once again to all families and friends.

As you may have already heard, we are studying bees!  Our classrooms are gradually transforming into beehives as we learn about different types of bees and all of the wonderment surrounding these amazing little creatures.

On Monday, Sarah's father was our special guest and he visited our class and showed us something very special that he had built just for us!

These are Mason bee homes!  These particular bees are native to B.C., are ten times better pollinators than the European Honey Bee, and they are typically non-stinging.  The great thing is that we now have a Mason Bee house in our outdoor garden area!

Here is a picture of the Pupa developing inside.

Many thanks to Sarah's dad for this very special gift.


On Wednesday, we had another guest.  This guest was from the Burnaby Art Gallery and she lead us through a wonderful experience of music and creating print art.

The children sketched images then added colour.

Here are some finished masterpieces!

Thursday was a very exciting day for Divisions 1 and 2 as we went on a field trip to the Honeybee Centre in Langley. 

The children first watched a bee keeper open up a hive box and show us a cross section of the hive.  It was so interesting!

Afterwards, we participated in a variety of activities that taught us more about bees.

We tasted different types of honey.

And we even got to dress up like real bee keepers!  Hey who's the guy in the background?

We also visited the bugs and insects room where we saw several of our familiar hairy-legged friends - tarantulas!

Next week, we will be planting sunflower seeds in the classroom and in our plant bed by the bee house.  On Wednesday, we are looking for parent volunteers to help us with this potentially messy activity.  If you would like to help, please talk to Sarah or Olivia.

* We are collecting books for our fundraiser.  If you have any gently-used books that are looking for new homes, please bring them in!

* Spring Fling Silent Auction Basket:  Divisions 1 and 2 will be creating baskets for our annual silent auction.  Each class chooses a theme and then we all donate things related to that theme. Once the basket is full, we wrap it up and then put it in the auction.  Funds raised by the event go right back into the school.  It's also a lot of fun!

This year, we have chosen a BEE theme!  We already have a Mason Bee house made by Sarah's wonderful dad, a book on Mason Bees and some honey treats.  Let's fill this basket!  Many thanks in advance for your continued support, help and generosity.

Have a great week and BEE happy!

Karen's supplemental post

Hi Karen,

Here are the video segments.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

Happy Spring Break!

Hello everyone.  To commence, I would like to thank all of the students and families in Divisions 1 and 2 for making our Student-Led Conferences such a great success!  The children showed a lot of leadership and were genuinely proud of their accomplishments this term.  Parents, thank you for being so engaged and involved with your children's learning.

I would also like to welcome Karen Armstrong to our Blog this week.  She is an instructor from the Education Department at UBC and she will taking a look at Multiliteracies in our classrooms.  Welcome!

As we all start to relax and get into Spring Break mode, we would like to highlight some of the activities we did over the past couple of weeks.

On Thursday, March 7th, all of the primary classes met in the gym to dance, dance and dance some more!  This was our annual school fundraiser called The Dance A Thon.  We went through our extensive repertoire of dance moves to songs like The Bunny Hop, The Twist, The Cuban Shuffle, The Mexican Hat Dance and of course, The YMCA!

Multiliteracies in the Classroom:

We continued our exploration of music by listening to two separate compositions then responding to them in a variety of ways.
First, we listened to Camille Saint Saens' "Aquarium".  You all had the opportunity to see the finished products of this project during the Gallery Walk at our Conferences.  Here is a brief history of the process involved in creating these masterpieces!

1) What is this music about?  Listening with eyes closed, the students formed an image in their mind.

2) Sketching and outlining their image:

Painting:

Enjoying the moment:

Thinking, creating, and developing the Cinquaine Poem to accompany their painting:

Painting the background of the poem:

 

Voila!  In case you missed the Gallery Walk, here are some video clips.

 

On Thursday Sarah and Olivia, our UBC teacher candidates, read the students another entertaining Mo Willems book entitled, "Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs".

The students discussed what they thought were the beginning, middle and end parts of the story.
Then they illustrated and wrote about these three parts of the book.

Taking this concept of beginning, middle and end in a story, we listened to another piece of music by Sergei Prokofiev entitled "The Dance of the Knights". We gave no infomation about this piece so the children could form their own perceptions and images. We discussed that not only do books tell stories but music does as well. Listening to the music a few times, the children were able to recognize changes in the music and then identified the beginning, middle and end parts.  Then they met in groups and talked about images and storylines.

After a lot of collaboration, the students created their story and illustrated the beginning, middle and end parts.

Next was preparing to present their stories.  Within their groups, the children decided who would talk about the following items:
1) Introduction & Conclusion
2) Beginning
3) Middle
4) End
Each student had one job.

On Friday, we met with our big Buddies who are seasoned professionals when it comes to speaking and presenting in front of audiences!  Using two big Buddies per group of four, our students were mentored and coached.  Our Buddies offered amazing guidance and feedback. Thank you!

When we finally presented our stories on Monday, we were truly amazed at the clarity and volume of speech, the organization of each group, and the overall comfort and confidence our students showed through this entire process.  Furthermore, we had quite a few students away sick so some people had to take on other speaking parts without any rehearsal.  As many of us know, speaking in front of large groups can be a daunting experience but these guys made it look easy!

As we look ahead to term three, Sarah and Olivia will be commencing their extended practica with us.  They have many exciting and engaging events in store for us so stay tuned!

In the mean time, we hope you all have a relaxing and very sunny (oh, please) break.  We will see you on Tuesday, April 4th.

Thanks for visiting :)