Week Eight - Giving Back

Day 33

Yes, the title for this posting is "Giving Back".

Thank you to all the families who have sent in a donation for a great cause.

Today our co-op student started her placement in the class.

She will be here for the week.

She snapped this shot of Mr. Hamer with the students.

We've just returned from having our class picture taken.

The students are hard at work, but they love to pose for the occasional picture!

They are all dressed nicely for the class photo.

A lovely dress.

Handsome lad in black.

"That Mr. Hamer always has his camera out!  But I love it!"

"We love working together!"

Cool kids!

"We're colouring our newest song!"

"Hi there!"

The new song is called "Aikendrum".

Happy friends!

After recess it was on to some Halloween activities.

The children brainstormed and came up with three choices for each letter in the word Halloween.

The above image shows our three possible choices for a phrase beginning with the letter "A".

Here's Mr. Hamer's version of his acrostic poem.

"Here's my version."

"I really like my choices!"

Thanks to our great co-op student who made a great difference in the class on her first day with us!

Here is our food mountain taking shape in the lobby of the school.

We've already brought in so much from each class.

Our EDP (Extended Day Program) class is also fund-raising.

For 25 cents a ticket you could win this item.

Or this fun gourd.

How about this pumpkin?!

The children in EDP ran the cash register as well!
Way to go kids!!!

Have a great evening everyone!

Mr. Hamer OCT

Our Weekly Spelling List - Week Eight (Quiz will be next Monday)

                            Grade One  (short 0)                                Grade Two  (long a)

                                 1.   mop                                                  1.   date

                                 2.   not                                                    2.   came

                                 3.   on                                                     3.   make

                                 4.   mom                                                 4.   rate

                                 5.   got                                                    5.   mane

                                 6.   hop                                                   6.   tape

                                 7.   crop                                                  7.   lake

Day 34

More food goods are coming in each day!  Yabba dabba doo!

Great job grades ones and twos!

Yup, it's that time of the year...Halloween.

Today we learned all about compound words.

The students enjoyed completing their worksheet with Halloween compounds!

These two friends enjoy working at the table near Mr. Hamer's desk.

Our co-op student stands behind this little darling who brought Mr. Hamer a lovely gift which you can see directly below.

Great colouring!  I love it!

Say, your top matches the colour of the great picture you coloured for Mr. Hamer.

Another young lad shared a picture he drew of his family.

That's a great picture as well, laddie!

Our co-op student is doing a great job!
Today we also enjoyed a visit from a lovely parent volunteer.
I didn't get any pics of her, but she sure did a great job helping out with the class!

Our board at carpet is getting busier by the day.

Our Halloween poem to the "Twelve Nights of Halloween" is rapidly growing verses!
Check out the compound words we played with on the chalk board.

Day 34 brings us closer to Halloween.

So we read a witchy story called Piggie Pie!

She needed eight little piggies to make her pie so she visited a farm to find some.
Fortunately for the piggies they had advance warning and were able to wear a multitude of animal disguises to play a "trick" on her!

Another young lad really likes to play hockey as well.

Hi Clifford!  He likes to hang out on the top shelf by Mr. Hamer's desk.

Tomorrow we'll read all about his Halloween adventure.

Let's check out some of the selections the students made for their Halloween acrostics.

Remember that we had brainstormed three possible choices for each letter in the poem.

So...if you study the poems you will find that they vary somewhat from each other.

It's fun being a teacher everyday.

But it's really fun witnessing the excitement that builds at special times of the school year.

And...Halloween sure is special to little children.

Love the poems.

Love the variety.

It's also fun to read about fall from the perspective of the child.

We'll end with a couple of fine examples from our bully awareness lessons.

Today we also visited our third kindergarten class to sing.  I didn't have my camera with me as we ran quickly across the playground in the falling rain.  The lady teachers in kindergarten snapped a few shots of our visit and I hope to be able to post them tomorrow.

Have a lovely evening everyone!
Mr. Hamer OCT

Day 35

As promised, here are a couple of images from our visit to kindergarten yesterday.
Thanks, Ms. Adams for sending them along.
By the actions I can say with confidence that we are singing the song "Sambalele".

Sister act!  What a great photo!

A reminder of our food drive.  Some more goodies came in today.
Thanks families for your support!

As a staff we celebrate our friends at important times in their lives.

Today we celebrated a dear friend who has been battling illness and is rising above.  Yeah!

As every family has a member or knows a friend who is battling cancer, we offer our daily prayers for our family members and our friends and we remember those such as Terry Fox who have inspired us greatly.  

Yup, chemo sucks, but you can lick it!  A great play on words..and the treats look so yummy!

Back in class, a friendly ghost taught us how to add two-digit numbers.

"Hmmm...let me think..."

"You start in the ones place first!"
"Five plus one is six."

"Then you head over to the tens place."
"Four plus three is seven."
"Wait a minute...that's not how I make a seven!"

"Ah, yes...that looks about right!"

The students then worked in their groups solving the ghostly additions.
Their instructions were to colour only the ghosts that hold an "even numbered" sum.

Our high school co-op student always has some great advice to offer!

At carpet we studied a few short vowel words.

 Then Mr. Hamer reminded us of the magic letter "e" placed at the end of the word which turns the short vowel sound into a long vowel sound.  

Later in the AM we headed to the Learning Commons.

"Should I take this book?"

"How about this one!

We turned the visit into somewhat of a "catching up" period.

"Hi Mrs. Carderelli!"

"Hi Mr. Hamer," she smiles back.

Students hard at work.

At the "business" table.

Then, more time to read.

Or...time to head over to the "MakerSpace."

I snapped a few shots from outside the Learning Commons.

A big wave.

"What'cha making?"

Cool creations.

Too much fun!

A colourful area.

"I'm a master builder."

It's great to see pupils hard at work.

Look at my creation.

"It's fun to catch up!"

Back in class, Clifford was waiting for Mr. Hamer to read his Halloween story in which he is the starring character.

Mr. Hamer puts his glasses up high in order to read the words!
We did an exciting experiment today which Mr. Hamer will show you tomorrow on the blog, but for now he has to eat dinner and head out to his band practice.

Have a great evening everyone!
Mr. Hamer OCT

Day 36

Birthdays are so exciting, especially when you are a child!

Well, this young lad celebrated his birthday today!

Now, that's what I call a "Party!"

Surrounded by all the little lovelies in the class!
Ya can't beat that, can ya!

Well, let's balance things out a bit.

All the handsome lads help him celebrate as well!

We've published our ninth class book!
Yabba dabba doo!

Our co-op student offers guidance to the young lady leading calendar today.

Lots of eager enthusiasts!

In Block Two it was off to gym.

While the ladies play their shift, the lads wait their turn.

Lots of action.

On the court.

Handball is the game on this day.

You can only run when you do "not" have the ball!

A great workout.

Children love to share their drawings.

And...we've got some great examples of their art.

It's fun when kids bring things in from home to share!
Mommy did this drawing of a mummy!

This lovely young lady brought two gifts in for the class!
Thanks so much!

In the afternoon three grade three students came in to speak about a young lady who saved her can tops to help purchase a wheelchair.  So...we ask all of our families to save their can tops and send them in to school for this great cause.

Yesterday we conducted an experiment on surface tension in relation to water.

The boys and girls sat around in a circle.

To see what they could see.

But, we'll have to check in tomorrow.

To check in on the results!

Remember, tomorrow evening is the school's Halloween dance.
Also, book orders are due Halloween Day!
Have a great evening everyone.
Mr. Hamer OCT

Day 37

Indeed, as I write this, the 2017 Halloween Dance is taking place at the school.
Have a haunting time, for those who attend!

I love the witch's hat on this little trickster and treater!

This morning we had to solve a Halloween coded message.

To find the secret message we first added a few two-digit numbers.

The code was listed on the worksheet the children were provided with.

First word solved.

Our little magnetic images dictated who would solve each algorithm.

One young lady has her pink thinking cap on!  (Usually a no-no!)

It's a joy to watch the children solve the work as a team.
Overhearing their discussions is priceless!

This lad is checking his sheet for the answer he has already solved.

He's found his response.

Math-a-magicians!

Any method counts!

"I've finished this word!"

"And...I've finished this one!"

So far we have solved "Have a fun filled..."

While some pupils were at the board, others worked in small groups in their attempt to solve the puzzle.

Lots of hard workers.

"We're thinking...we're thinking!"

One final word to go!

It contains nine letters!

"I think I can, I think I can!"

Our co-op student steps in to help.

Look at those hands move!

Almost there!

The fab four!

Solved!
"Have a fun-filled Halloween!"

A young lady checks out our new file system for our "Still to Finish" work folders.

Three lucky students from all over the school won these prizes and the money collected went to some great causes.

The teachers enjoyed a chili lunch.

With all the proceeds going to our United Way campaign.

Yeah!  Boxes and boxes of food supplies have been collected over the past couple of weeks!

In the afternoon we visited our grade four buddy class.

Mr. Hamer read a Halloween story.  Then we all made these mini-monster puppets.

Mr. Papineau in action.

Mr. Hamer too!

Buddies!

Helping each other.

Encouraging words.

Our co-op student in discussion with a grade four friend.

Fifty children.

Squished into the one class!

Cousins!

Brothers!

Brotherly love!

An overall shot of the room.

Sharpening skills.

Staying inside the lines!

Siblings!  Yup, she's a great big sister!

Back to the other day.

Could this lad break the surface tension of the water.

Nope!

"Can I have a try, Mr. Hamer?"

Here goes.
No luck.

"My turn!"

No way Jose!

Then how did Mr. Hamer do it?
Check in next week!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Mr. Hamer OCT
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