The learning continues...

I have enjoyed my three years as teacher-librarian at Katzie Elementary. This year my learning continues as I take on the role of teacher-librarian helping teacher for Surrey Schools. I encourage everyone to continue to read, find your passion, and never stop learning! This will be my final post on the Katzie blog. My new blog will be a place where I share links and learning for teacher-librarians and can be found at www.tlslearningtogether@blogspot.ca  I hope you'll visit me there!

Katzie Welcome Posts

On June 21st, National Aboriginal Day, we had the official opening of our school with the installation of our welcome posts! Here are a few pictures of the day.

National Aboriginal Day

This year marks the 20th anniversary of National Aboriginal Day in Canada. We have been listening to stories, enjoying our "campfire" and telling our own stories. Students have loved the teepee set up in the library learning commons. Reading, researching, building and creating have all happened this week!

Stay tuned...we have a very special event coming up on June 21st! 

And the winner is...

Lion vs. Rabbit, by Alex Latimer.

Thanks to everyone who voted! I'm looking forward to next year's nominees! 

Summer Reading Club

Kindergarten to Grade 4 classes had a presentation given by staff from the Cloverdale Branch of the Surrey Public Library to learn about the Summer Reading Club Program. The theme of this year's club is "Book a Trip" and there are fun contests, presenters and the opportunity to earn a medal for reading for 49 days. Thanks to Laura and Lucy for coming out to visit our school and tell us about this great program!

Now on display...

We are all learning about cells because some of our Grade 6 students have brought their projects into the library learning commons! Younger students are enjoying looking at the models and wondering if they will get to make one when they are in Grade 6! Why not make a model of something you are interested in? Raid your recycling box, grab some scissors and glue and away you go!

Kahoot it!

This week students in Grades 2-4 are having a friendly competition playing Kahoot!  We are seeing who can remember the main ideas and events in the Surrey Schools' Picture Book of the Year nominated titles.  The game is played with iPads and students try to answer the questions as quickly and as accurately as possible.  This game is lots of fun and is a great tool to review concepts.

Rodeo Scavenger Hunt

We've been talking about cowboys and cowgirls all week because the Cloverdale Rodeo is coming up this weekend, right here in our community. Grade 4's had fun with the scavenger hunt. They worked in teams of 2 or 3, and using an iPad, they searched for the answers, having one team member be the recorder. Students loved this activity and learned about how to search and read carefully for the information they were looking for.

Rodeo artwork was done on the app called "Draw and Tell" by younger students. 

Our Sweet Potato

What great success we've had in growing our sweet potato! It took a while to get going but is now looking very robust. After a little more research, we found out that new sweet potato plants grow from slips that have been rooted before being planted. So I twisted off three of the slips (the stems with leaves) and have put them in water to see if they will root. Have you ever grown a sweet potato?

Update: May 25th

Update:  June 8th

The sweet potato slips have now been planted!  Thanks to my grandson, Isaac, for finding a place for them to grow in his garden.  I wonder how big the plants will get? I wonder if we will get any sweet potoatoes in the fall?

The Imaginary Garden

This week we have enjoyed reading, The Imaginary Garden, by Andrew Larsen, and worked hard to create our own imaginary garden wall in the library learning commons. What a beautiful garden!

What is your favourite flower?  I love hydrangeas and roses! Do you think gardens are important? Why?
Do you have a garden? What do you grow?  Please tell us in the comments section below.

What is composting?

This week we are reading Charlie's Dirt Day, by Canadian author, Andrew Larsen, illustrated by Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli, also a Canadian. In this story, Charlie learns all about composting so I thought it would be fun to try composting in our Library Learning Commons!

I wonder how long it will take to make our compost?  We know that it needs brown (dry leaves, twigs), green organics (grass clippings, orange peel, banana peel), water (just until it's crumbly), and air.  We will have to give it more water and a stir every few days.  Now we wait!  Maybe we will be able to use the compost for our avocado seeds that are looking ready to sprout any day!

Can you tell what went into our compost?
We started with some dirt, twigs and dry leaves and added grass clippings, orange peels, banana peels, coffee grounds and tea leaves.  Then we added some water and mixed it all together with a gardening fork.  

The bottom picture shows what our compost looked like once it was mixed up.  The plastic container has small holes in the bottom and we put the black lid on top and put the compost in the window where it will get some sun.

Update:  May 2nd

Update: May 9th

Can you spot the mold?  What does the mold do? What do you notice that's different since last week?  Since the beginning?

Update: May 16th

What changes do you notice in this week's photo?  Do you think the compost is ready yet?  Why or why not?

Storytime and Lego Saturdays at Katzie

The Surrey Public Library staff will be at Katzie Elementary on April 16th, May 7th, and June 11th.
Please note the dates in May and June have changed from the originally published dates.

The Promise

This week we are enjoying reading "The Promise" by Nicola Davies. It is nominated for the Surrey Schools' Picture Book of the Year award. Have you ever planted a seed or grown something? I love plants and flowers and have created a windowsill garden where students will be able to watch plants grow. We have avocado seeds, a sweet potato, a pineapple top, and the cut off bottoms from celery and romaine lettuce. We've talked about the plants needing water and sunlight and look forward to watching the changes over the next few weeks! Here's a picture of the garden on the first day.

Update: April 11th

Update:  April 22nd, Earth Day

Here's what's still growing:  Celery is getting very leafy, carrots are growing taller leaves, avocados are starting to crack on the top, and sweet potato has tiny shoots starting on top.  Stay tuned!

Update: May 2nd

So after waiting patiently for a month, we can now see the leaves sprouting on the sweet potato!  So exciting!

Update: May 9th

Wow!  Look at the growth since last week!  We are still waiting for roots but the leaves are doing well.  

Update: May 16th

The sweet potato continues to grow well.  Still no sign of roots.  I've been talking to students and we are thinking that maybe it needs soil.  We may plant it in a pot soon.

Beginning to code

This week Grade 4's began learning about coding. We went to code.org and after a short introduction they were off to the races! As I walked from group to group, I heard, "Oh, I get it!" and students asking their neighbour for help. Students quickly realized they might not be successful on the first try but with persistence they were successful. There was much excitement and cheers when I told them we would be continuing coding next week!

www.code.org is easy to use in a classroom or library because it does not require a login to play the levels and provides personalized feedback to students as they work through the activities. And it works on the ipads! Why not give it a try?

Puppets!

Primary classes have been enjoying true stories about animals over the last few library classes. This week we read, "The Tiger Cubs and the Chimp", by Bhagavan "Doc" Antle with Thea Feldman. This is "the true story of how Anjana the chimp helped raise two baby tigers." After reading we talked about the other books we have read about animals, particularly the nominees from the Surrey Picture Book of the Year list. Then each student chose an animal face to make a stick puppet to take home. Students loved this activity and I encouraged them to raid their recycling box at home to make other puppets or theatres to tell puppet stories. Maybe this would be a nice change from watching tv or playing video games! Create! Invent! Play!

Makerspace Airplanes

Some very enthusiastic Grade 2's came up with the idea of making paper airplanes during our Makerspace time this week and the courtyard outside the library was the perfect place to fly them. These students created and decorated their airplanes and then challenged each other to see whose airplane could fly the farthest! 

Attack of the Marbles!

We had some Makerspace time today and a group of students built a great marble maze!  It was fun watching them cooperate and figure out how to make it work in the best possible way. Take a look!

 

Love Your Library!

This month we are celebrating with our "Love Your Library" promotion. Students can participate by taking home a heart to complete after reading their library book. When the heart is returned, the student's name is entered into a draw for some fun prizes! And the hearts are certainly showing everyone how much our students love the library! See me or Ms. Rogan in the library to get a heart and start reading!

Mogie, the Heart of the House

This week we are reading Mogie, the Heart of the House, by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal.  It is one of the nominees for the Surrey Schools' Picture Book of the Year. Students enjoyed drawing their own pictures of Mogie and building a special house out of Lego.

Students are welcome to come in and check out our collection of dog books and
enjoy a few of the dog jokes on the book display!

Can you spot the Lego dog?  How about the tree house?

Can you imagine sitting by the warm fire?  And check out that swimming pool!

Ted Harrison Tribute

Beloved Canadian artist, Ted Harrison, (1926-2015), was celebrated by students in Ms. Ferris' class who created artwork in his style. Tomorrow is the first anniversary of his passing. Be sure to come by the front hallway and take a moment to appreciate the beauty of these paintings! 

SPL Storytime and Lego Saturdays

The Surrey Public Library staff will be at Katzie Elementary on the 3rd Saturday of the month (except March) from 9:30-11:30 for families to come and share stories and build together with Lego.

Dates: January 16th
            February 20th
            April 16th
            May 14th
            June 18th

Time:  9:30-11:30 a.m.

Bring:  Your family and your enthusiasm!

Learning about Nonfiction Books

This week the Grades 2 and 3 classes are learning about the features of nonfiction books. Some words are very familiar, such as author and illustrator, but other words, such as index and glossary, are new to most students. We looked at a nonfiction book together and discussed the meaning of each word. To help students learn the vocabulary I made cards with the words on them (two of each) and they played "Concentration", also called "Memory" in small groups. All the players said the words as they were turned over to reinforce the vocabulary. Everyone enjoyed playing this word game!