Amazing Marble Maze!

Look at this amazing marble maze! There was much excitement in the library learning commons this morning when some students from Mrs. Smith's class built a very tall maze! I really loved how the students cooperated in building one tall structure.  Check out the photos below.

Lego City

Check out the Lego city being built in our library learning commons! This has been a collaborative effort  by students from various classes throughout the week.  A few students from Division 15 had the idea and it has turned out to be a favourite activity with many students!
The Surrey Museum has a LEGO display on right now!  It's called LEGO: A Fraser Valley Odyssey.
The display is open June 2nd and runs through September 19th.  And it's FREE!!  Lego lovers will want to check it out!

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.

Monkey Traps and More!

This week the Kindergarten and Grade 1 classes are enjoying the book, Warning: Do Not Open This Book!, written by Adam Lehrhaupt and illustrated by Matthew Forsythe.  How would you catch a monkey? Well, with a trap, of course! Students created monkey traps out of Lego, Tinkertoys or Jenga blocks and then explained how their trap worked while I projected it on the Apple TV with my iPad. Take a look at some of the traps! And then check out the author's website.  There's a great book trailer for you to watch!

The Grade 2 and 3 students are loving Marsupial Sue and the Runaway Pancake, written and read by John Lithgow and illustrated by Jack E. Davis.  After listening to the cd of John Lithgow reading the story (very funny!), we talked about what kind of animal Marsupial Sue is and where we would find books on mammals in our library. We looked at a nonfiction book on kangaroos and discovered that mammals are found in 599. This led to our activity of sorting the animal pictures onto the "shelf" they would be found on. I had 4 students hold up the Dewey number cards (see the photo), and then each student was given a card with an animal on it. They had to decide which shelf they would be found on and stand behind that Dewey number.  Many students chose animal books to sign out! 

A fun way to learn about Dewey!

Making connections with littlebits!

This week we have been working with our new littlebits kits which we received through a grant from My Class Needs. I don't think I've ever seen students more engaged in their learning! After learning about the need for a power source, (a 9 volt battery), students worked together in table teams to "make something that does something", the littlebits slogan. Check out this video on youtube to learn more about littlebits or ask one of the students who have worked with them!  

Library Learning Commons turned into a Makerspace!

This week we are reading Going Places by Peter and Paul Reynolds.  It is one of the Surrey Picture Book of the Year Nominees.  After reading and discussing the story, students worked collaboratively with a partner to build something that moves! We saw cars, planes, spaceships, submarines and even a horse and a pogo stick! Katzie kids are sure a creative bunch! Read the book, watch the book trailer, and get inspired!

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!

Our windowsill garden

I was cutting up celery for my lunch last week and decided to try and regrow it. As a child, I loved growing things on the kitchen windowsill. I remember growing carrot tops, avocado, sweet potato and even orange seeds! One orange seed grew into a small bush I had for many years but I never did get any oranges!

Have you ever grown plants on your windowsill? Tell us about it in the comments below. I will add pictures of our windowsill garden as it expands! 

We are going to overwinter this geranium plant on our windowsill.  I wonder how long the bloom will last?

Amazing Mazes!

                                              I made these photo collages with an app called Pic Collage on the ipad.