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! 

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. 

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?

Shh! We Have a Plan

Students loved creating their own paper collage characters and birds after reading Shh! We Have a Plan, by Chris Haughton. Other students created a scene from the story on the Draw and Tell app on the iPad. This is one of the nominated books for the Surrey Schools' Picture Book of the Year. 

Skippyjon Jones Artwork

Today the Grade 1 students enjoyed the book Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner and then created their own Skippyjon with iPads or pencil crayons and paper. Here are a few of their pictures. Enjoy!

Creative Learning with Book Creator

Grade 4 students have been working on a book about a sea animal and today they were delighted to share their creations with Grade 1 students! We used the Book Creator app and the students were very proud of their finished books! They learned how to search for and save an image, add text and resize it, add their own drawings, take a selfie, record their book and upload it to the iBook shelf on the iPad.  Primary students were very interested in learning about the animals the Grade 4 students had researched.  We all learned a lot!

Inspired by Surrey Picture Book Nominee, The Hermit Crab, by Carter Goodrich, Grade 4's created their own nonfiction book about an animal that lives in the sea.

Learning through Play

This week we have been exploring symmetry and being creative with the iPad app,  Geoboard by The Math Learning Center.  Students were challenged to make their name, an object, or a design and just play with the app. There were many "aha" moments as students figured out how to use the many features of the app. You can try out Geoboard on your computer or download the app.  It's free!

Here are some of their creations:

Have you tried Geoboard?  

Santa is Coming to Canada

This week we have been reading a book called, "Santa is Coming to Canada," written by Steve Smallman, illustrated by Robert Dunn, and finding the places mentioned in the book on the Google Earth app. Students were excited to find they could go inside the Peace Tower in Ottawa when they used the street view feature. They also discovered that our school, Katzie Elementary was not even built when the map of our neighbourhood was made!

Genius!

Genius hour is happening in the Library Learning Commons! Some of our Grade 6 and 7 students are exploring their questions.  Here's an example of what some students are working on:  sending a rover to Ceres! They are naming it "Dusk" because it will help Dawn (the Nasa orbiter) study and learn about Ceres.   Who knows what we will find!

Lost Cat

This week we are reading "Lost Cat" by C. Roger Mader. We have been talking about our pets, including pets we have lost because they have run away, died, or we had to give them up. Students have really enjoyed this story and have been delighted with the ending.

Hallowe'en Doodles

This week in the Library Learning Commons we are reading spooky stories and creating spooky pictures with the Doodle Buddy app.

Grade 2 students had fun drawing with the Doodle Buddy app.