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! 

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!

 

What's in your Makerspace?

Just a note about the perler beads:  these students created a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam, pieces of bread and a football.  They then created an epipen for their friend who is allergic to peanuts!  Love it.

Division 6 came ready to play in the Makerspace today! Look at some of the projects! There was lots of creativity, imagination and problem-solving at play today. What's in your Makerspace?  Tell us in the comments below.

Our Makerspace takes shape

Some of the makerspace supplies.  We also have LittleBits kits and lots of Lego!

A few of the projects from today.  

Create, collaborate, inspire, learn, teach, invent, and create some more! Students from Division 3 had a blast in our newly created Makerspace in the Library Learning Commons. Here are some of their comments: "That was SO fun!" "That was better than doing long division!" (This student loves math!) "Thank you giving us this opportunity!" "Thank you for having this time for us!" 

We had students making perler bead art, weaving (after making their own mini loom), putting together circuits with LittleBits and doing origami. The biggest question at the end of the session was, "When do we get to come back?"

I was impressed with how respectful the students were and how they helped each other and I'm looking forward to working with them again soon. 

Meanwhile, in the Library Learning Commons...

Students have been busy building some very creative structures! I'm doing a read aloud of
 A Creepy Case of Vampires, by Canadian author Kenneth Oppel, getting in the mood for the spookiest day of the year coming up at the end of this month! After sharing part of the book today, students invented "bat detectors", and explained how it worked. There are some very imaginative kids at Katzie!

Keeping with the spooky theme, Grade 2's heard a Winnie the Witch story, written and illustrated by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul. These stories are such fun! Winnie is hilarious and I love her cat Wilbur. Here are some creations inspired by the story, Winnie's Dinosaur Day.

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.

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!

Amazing Mazes!

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