Monday, February 17, 2014

100th Day!

It's hard to believe 100 days of school have come and gone.  Today we celebrated 100 days in grade one and two.  Congratulations!  That's a lot of school days, phew.  It's also a lot of fun, a lot of learning, a lot of growing and a lot of togetherness.



We started the day with a visit from award winning songwriter and children's performer, Max Tell.  He has six acclaimed CD's and was recently named, BC's Dr. Seuss.  Max has travelled the world seven times over, sharing his love of writing and music with children across the globe.  The children enjoyed singing along to a few well loved favourites as well as a few of Max's own songs. They all got to join Max making music, playing various instruments including shakers, symbols, and sticks.  It was a lively start to the day.



For more information, you can visit Max Tell's website:   http://www.maxtell.ca

During calendar, we bundled a group of 10 ones to add to our tens bundles.  Only now we counted ten groups of ten.  Time to bundle them all up to make one hundred!  We shared different ways to make 100 on the board, such as 50 + 50 and 10 x 10.  After recess there was a 'kisses challenge'.  Students had to find 100 'kisses' (chocolates) hidden around the room.  Each kiss was numbered from 1-100 on the bottom.  Students placed them on the hundreds chart accordingly until they were all found.  It didn't take long at all.  We wanted to figure out how to 'fair share' the chocolates.   Since there were 18 friends at school today and 18 is close to 20, we skip counted by 20's to 100 to figure out that everyone would get 5 kisses!  Yum.


The children also estimated how many times they could print their name in 100 seconds before being put to the test!  In partners they estimated how many rolls of the dice it would take them to get to 100.  The rolls ranged from 28 to 31.




We capped off the day with a 100 Day Gym Challenge.  Everyone ran 5 laps around the gym, including the teachers, to make it a total of 100!  Then, students were challenged to bounce, jump, clap and step their way to 100 six different ways.     



Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Artist Statements and Display

Our Splat the Cat artwork made it safe and sound to the Vancouver School Board on Monday afternoon.  Each Splat is displayed proudly for all passersby to see!  While hanging the artwork, people were commenting as they passed by.  Many were stopping to have a closer look and to read the artist statements.


"Those are wonderful."
"I love kid art.  It reminds me of when my kids were young."
"How old were the children that made those?"
"Wonderful!"

Here are some photos of the artist statements and the display.  You can be sure that our collection will be seen, admired and enjoyed by hundreds and hundreds of people this month, if not thousands!  Well done Division 3...be proud.




the lobby at the VSB

Lion Dance

In celebration of Lunar New Year our school watched a traditional lion dance in the gym on Monday.  There were two dancers.  One was the 'head' and the other was the 'body'.  The lion danced to music made by a big drum and cymbals.  The lion moved from place to place looking for vegetables (lettuce).   Once found, the lettuce was eaten, shredded and then scattered to symbolize a fresh start to the new year and to spread good luck.  After the dance, classes were able to have a closer look under the lion to see how the eyes blinked and the mouth opened and closed.  What a special treat!






Saturday, February 1, 2014

Gung Hay Fat Choy

There are so many beautiful Lunar New Year books to choose from.  This week some of our favourites included Legend of the Chinese Dragon, Cat and Rat - The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac and Hiss! Boom! Pop! - Celebrating Chinese New Year.  The class was especially captivated by Cat and Rat, the legend of the Chinese zodiac.  The Emperor calls for a race between all the animals. The first twelve to cross the finish line will earn a spot on the Chinese Zodiac. The cat and the rat didn't think they would be able to outperform their fierce competition from the likes of the tiger, horse and other large beasts.  They scheme up a plan to outwit the others by climbing aboard the buffalo's back to cross the river.  As the competition intensifies, one friend betrays the other and only one ends up crossing the finish line in the top twelve.  

 

Hiss! Boom! Pop! shares the traditions of Chinese New Year through beautiful calligraphy and Chinese brush painting.  Each page highlights a different tradition such as the Lion Dance, Firecrackers, Lucky Money, Fruit, etc.  

To celebrate Lunar New Year the class made cityscapes decorated with red and yellow lanterns. They used strips of recycled Chinese newsprint and gold tissue paper to create the buildings. Then, they added windows and doors using black markers.  Plastic bottle caps dipped in red and yellow paint created the round lanterns.  Gold glitter was sprinkled onto the wet paint.  The final details were added the following day once the paint had dried to complete the lanterns.  Don't they look amazing?!

lantern stamping
sharpie time
creative windows
lantern details