Blue Spruce Vote, Making Kites and Earth Day

Blue Spruce Vote
This week, the 'Blue Spruce' book voting took place in each primary classroom. Students have read all the new books by various Canadian authors over the course of the year and created memory booklets to remember which books they enjoyed and why. Mr Cann read some during our library visit and I introduced the others during our classroom read aloud time.  Here is a picture of the books to choose from for this year. 

My class selected these 3 books as their top choices with Kate and Pippin by Martin Springett as their favourite. 

This is a story about a dog that befriends a small fawn. I guess my students are animal lovers :)

We will have to wait for Mr. Cann to announce the overall winner after all the votes are tallied from the school. 

Art - Grade One Kites
The Grade Two students are just finishing their abstract art and I will share those with you soon. The Grade One students have been making symmetry art. By taking paint and folding it to make a similar impression on the other side of the paper, they created these amazing symmetrical butterflies. On the drive home that day, it suddenly hit me that we could make equally amazing kites with them.

When I first started teaching, my board introduced a wonderful design and technology program for primary students. I remember the first time I was told that 6 year olds were going to be given saws!!

 I have to admit, I was pretty worried. However, after receiving safety training and doing this for a few years, I have quite changed my initial hesitancy although I still really hover close by...don't worry.  You can really see students applying the knowledge they have learned. In this case, students had to measure how long the length of their butterfly kite was and then cut the wood accordingly. It was interesting to see which students could measure accurately. What was even funnier was having to actually teach a lesson on how to put on safety goggles and yes, that shape on the bottom of the glass is where you put your nose! Many students had them upside down and were complaining their noses hurt. I am proud of how safely they worked, cooperated, carefully measured and followed through to complete the task. As one Grade one boy said to another, "Isn't this the best day of Grade one ever".

Earth Day
For Earth Day we watched the movie the Lorax (the older Dr. Seuss version). Students then went on Pebble Go to research which animal was in danger of becoming extinct and why. Currently students are writing an article about their animal using the Lorax format (e.g., I am Fred and I speak for the Polar Bears). We have had some interesting discussions and I know students have learned a lot about what we need to do to help all the living things on our planet. 
Eco Girl would be proud! To watch her in action, click on this link!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOstNIfNbpw

Also, I was telling the students how 'knitters' came to the rescue of some little penguins in New Zealand but forgot to show them the link at school. Here it is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pqsxjgBjCQ

May 6th is Music Monday
Wow, when I look at my May calendar there are a lot of fun things happening! Music Monday starts at 1:45p.m. and is outside. Please feel free to come and see the whole school perform for you. If it is a nice day, bring lawn chairs and invite the Grandparents to come and enjoy an outside concert. If it is raining then the concert will be held in the large gym. I believe this year you might recognize one of the songs as the song astronaut Chris Hadfield created with Ed Robertson while in space! 
                                     See you there!