Grosse Ile Cycle 2 Class

Making Hydrophones

2012-01-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

Do sound waves travel under water? That's what the Cycle 2 investigated yesterday during Science class. Each group had a hydrophone, which was a 2 litre pop bottle cut off at the base. They then put the pop bottle in a tub of water and each partner banged 2 rocks under the water to see if they could hear the noise of the rocks banging. They discovered that yes, sound waves do travel under water. Actually the noise was louder under water!

Christmas Card Project

2011-12-16T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Cycle 2 class joined the "Christmas Card Project", which was another great project on the "Projects By Jen" website. Our class was grouped with 29 other classes from the United States, as well as in Canada. Then, each class had a make a snowman themed Christmas card and send it to the other project members in their group. They also had to include the number of boys and girls in their class, their teacher's name, average temperature for this time of year, etc. We are now beginning to get some wonderful looking Christmas cards in the mail. It is a very interesting project for any grade level. All students love to get mail!

Pumpkin Seed Project

2011-10-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Make your own free picture slideshow

Quackers is going to California!

2011-10-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

Quackers will leave shortly for another school visit! He will be going to a grade 3 class in Fresno, California. We have just skyped this class yeasterday and they are very excited that Quackers will be visiting their school. I am sure he will have a wonderful time.

Wind Turbines

2011-10-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

We have been studying different types of energy in Science class. This week we talked about wind energy, and we certainly have lots of this type of energy on our islands! We then made wind turbines out of construction paper, stick pins and a pencil. Whose turbine was going to go the fastest???? We blew so much on our turbines that some of us started to get dizzy! We learned that the harder we blow, the faster our turbines went!

Iroquois Hunting Teepees

2011-10-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

Customize your own ecard

Visiting Grosse Ile Church

2011-10-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

The students visited Grosse Ile church last week in order to study the stain glass windows. We were discussing diffrent types of churches as well as different types of windows in ERC class. Many students forgot what the windows looked like, so on a beautiful sunny day we took the opportunity to visit our local church. Rev. Brian Woods did an excellent job in explaining the windows as well as other interesting objects/memorials in the church. Thank you Rev. Woods. The students really enjoyed their visit.

Oreo Cookie Project

2011-09-24T17:54:00.001-07:00

How many oreo cookies can you stack? The Cycle 2 joined an online project where they had to estimate how many oreo cookies they thought they would be able to stack. Then, they had to actually stack the oreo cookies with one hand only and no support! The highest stacker was Taylor, and he stacked 23 oreo cookies before his tower tumbled. The average tower was 17 oreo cookies high. The students loved this project, and of course they got to eat the oreos after. We plan to have a skype call later this week with a Gr. 3 class from Ontario to discuss our results.

Swirly Whirly Milk

2011-09-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

The students enjoyed making different food color creations yesterday with very simple ingredients: milk, food coloring, dishsoap, water and Q-tips. As the students dropped food coloring into the warm milk, other students dipped Q-tips in dishsoap then preceded to touch the different food coloring drops. They were amazed how the food coloring reacted with the dishsoap. Many swirly whirly colors formed on the surface of the milk!

Back with the Daily Five

2011-09-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

The students are back into the Language Arts program with the "Daily Five". This is a great program where students read and write at their own pace. In these photos they are doing "working with words", where they choose materials of their choice to practice different words that they are working on.

Back to School

2011-09-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to school everyone! I have a lovely class of 11 students - 3 girls and 8 boys. We will do many interesting and fun projects this year. We will also try to send our class mascot "Quackers" to some international schools again this year. Skyping is definitely on the agenda as well as connecting with other schools from the States as well as Europe. I would like to wish everyone an exciting school year!

Our Inventions

2011-05-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

Our Inventions Are Complete

2011-05-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Please check out our new inventions :
Yannick and Ronnie - a board game called "Zippazoo"
Maria and Haley - Eye Spy Camera
Gavin and Robert W. - a board game called "Tunnel to China"
Taylor and Jenna - a board game called "Pirate Land"
Drew and Hayley - a board game called "Cheers"
Nickolas and Robert B - a board game called "Buried Treasure"
Ashtin and Brianna - clothes for a dog

Cycle 2 Inventions

2011-05-10T05:16:00.000-07:00

As part of the Cycle 2 Language Arts evaluation, the students in Cycle 2 had to invent either a game or a toy that would actually be worth while playing with and that would work. They had to physically construct their new invention, then later they must make an advertisement to be able to sell their new product. They students were working really hard today on their new inventions.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Today is St. Patrick's Day and almost everyone showed up with green on. One student was dressed from head to toe in green!

Cycle 1 and 2 are "I Poding in the Classroom"

2011-03-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

After a technology workshop on the use of I Pod Touches in the classroom, I decided to experiment to see if they actually had many useful educational applications. Many of the students in my class have their own ipods and didn't mind sharing with those who didn't. We reseacrched to see which free apps were actually benefical to what we were doing in the classroom. We found several interesting apps for math, language arts and science. We will continue to experiment with the i pod touches and so far we are quite impressed with this "gadget". It is so much fun to use different technological tools in the classroom!

March is nutrition month!

2011-03-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

The Cycle 2 class had a wonderful guest speaker in their class today. Sharla Goodwin, who recently graduated in nutrition, came in and gave a presentation on the benefits of eating healthy and taking care of our bodies. She talked about the Canada Food Guide as well as having a nutritional game set up for the class. She ended her presentation with a fruit smoothie and some veggies. The students really enjoyed the activities! Thanks Sharla!

Poetry Tea Party

2011-02-14T05:25:00.001-08:00

The grades 2, 3 & 4 had a poetry tea party to end their poetry unit. Each student chose their favorite poem that they wrote and read it aloud to their parents/guests. At the end of the poetry readings we had treats and of course tea!!!!

It's My Birthday!

2011-02-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday and I had a wonderful surprise. Haley and her mother made me a delicious cake and brought it in to share with the class. It certainly made my day! Thank you Haley and Tammy!

Cereal Box Cover Contest

2011-02-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

The Grades 2-4 classes participated in a cereal box cover contest for their media class. After discusing the important components of making a cereal cover that will sell the best, the students went to work on creating their own covers. Much work went into designing their boxes, and also coming up with slogans and eye catching cereal names. The judge was quite impressed with the outcomes, but had to chose one winner from each grade. The winners are as follows : Grade 2 - Bryna Matthews,
Gr. 3 - Ashtin Clark, and Gr.4 - Ronnie Clarke. Congratulations to all three winners!

Invisible Drawings

2011-01-24T05:40:00.000-08:00

Our latest science experiment was making "invisible lemon juice drawings". The students had to come up with a drawing using lemon juice and their fingers as a paintbrush. Of course the pictures were "invisible" the firt day. We let the drawings dry overnight and then we colored over the top of them. They turned out to be "bumpy" or slightly raises drawings.

Christmas Around The World Projects

2010-12-15T10:25:00.000-08:00

This free greeting card generated with Smilebox

Halloween Party A Success!!!!!

2010-10-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

The Cycle 2 Halloween party was definitely a success! We bobbed for apples, played limbo, and did other games such as: pass the duck and musical chairs. We also had a delicious lunch provided for by our parents. Thanks so much everyone! We had a super time. Check out our slide show.

Create a picture slideshow

Taylor Swift Webcast

2010-10-28T05:28:00.000-07:00

The Cycle 2 and 3 had the wonderful opportunity to watch a live webcast of Taylor Swift in New York to celebrate Scholastic's 90th Anniversary Literacy Event. Taylor Swift was invited to discuss her feelings about the power of books and reading. She told the audience how this had an impact on herself and on her career as a singer/songwriter. She loved reading and poetry as a small child and out of this came her inspiration to write songs about her life experiences. She ended the webcast with one of her favorite hits. We throughly enjoyed her interview!

Mad Scientists in Cycle 2!

2010-10-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

The Cycle 2 class did a science experiment today called the "imploding pop can". The students had to make an hypothesis on what would happen to a pop can that had an inch of water in it, and was heated on a lab type burner. Once the can was hot and steam was coming out of the it, the can was then submerged in a bowl of ice cold water. So, what happened to the can? The can crushed immediately. Check out our photos!

Our Hands

2010-09-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of all our hands in Grs. 2,3 & 4. We are proud of our hands. We can do many things with our hands. We need our hands to play, to do school work and to help us lift things. We had fun trying to take a picture of all our hands. It took a couple of trial runs t get a good picture.

Oreo Cookie Project

2010-09-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

Our class participated in an Oreo Cookie Project that I found on the internet. In this math based project, the students had to stack as many oreo cookies as they possibly could in one single pile. This proved to be more difficult than it looked. Each student had 2 tries and then they decided which result that wanted to keep. It was later tallied together to make an average for the class. The highest cookie stack was nineteen oreo cookies. Some stacks fell with even just 8 or 9 oreos. The students had a great time with this project and they got to eat a couple of cookies after the counting was completed. YUMMY!

We Are Authors!

2010-06-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

Our class, along with the Kindergarden class has written our own Valentine's Day book. We started this project way back in February using a ICT tool called Ticatok. The whole class came up with their Valentine's Day sentence - "If you would be my valentine....." and then we made illustrations to accompany our sentences. We sent our project to Tikatoc and they published our story. We were hoping to get our story back slightly after Valentine's Day, but there was a problem with the shipping. Our book was sent to the U.K. by accident and it couldn't be found. Ticatok then sent us a new copy, which we received in May! We were very pleased to see our book. We had a special celebration with juice and muffins. Congratulations Kindergarten and Cycle 2 students!

Glow meet with Scotland

2010-05-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

Our class once again had another "glow meet" with our Scottish friends. This will be one of our last meets for the year. We discussed our favotite authors and books. Our Scottish friends showed us their stories and read a couple to us. A couple students in the class read parts from their favorite books.

Exploring Media

2010-05-26T10:15:00.001-07:00

The Cycle 2 class has been exploring media this term. Our first project was to create our own special cereal boxes. The students came up with quite a few interesting ones. This also turned out to be a little contest. They were judged on their creativity and originality. The winners were Zack Vigneau, Courtney Scott, and Jordan Clarke. Congratulations to all three of you!

Olympics 2010

2010-04-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

The Cycle 2 students each did a research project on an Olympic event that was taking place in Vancouver at the 2010 Olympic games. The students all had wonderful ideas and each gave a presentation to the class. The students then did an illustration on the event that they researched. Please check the smilebox below for their creations.

Free digital slideshow made with Smilebox

Lucky Charms Project

2010-03-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

Our class decided to join the Lucky Charms project which I found on a site called "Projects by Jen". This website has many wonderful projects that anyone in the world can join. In this Lucky Charms project the students were given a zip lock filled with Lucky Charms cereal. They then had to sort out all the different shapes in their ziplock bag and count how many they had of each. The goal of the project was to prove the assumption that each bag of Lucky Charms has more four leaf clovers than any other shape. Our class did not have more four leaf clovers, in fact our box had more pots of gold! We then enjoyed eating our zip lock bag full of Lucky Charms.

Pyjama Day

2010-03-09T05:08:00.000-08:00

On February 25th the elementary students of Grosse Ile School had a pyjama day as part of the Carnival activities. Most of all the students as well as their teachers came to school dressed in their pyjamas. Most classes did special activites in their individual classes as part of this fun day.

Video Conference With Scotland

2010-01-28T09:32:00.000-08:00

On January 25th our class had the opportunity to do a Glow video conference with a Primary 4 class from Lenzie, Scotland. We were invited to particpate in their annual Burns Supper (via Glow - which is a type of video conference). Robert Burns was a well known poet from Scotland and January 25th is his birth date. The Primary 4 class recited various poems as well as sang a couple Scottish melodies. They also has someone playing the bagpipes. They had a lunch which consisted of oatcakes, cheese, shortbread cookies and other delightful sweets. The teacher of the class, Mrs. Irene Parfect, sent our class some of these yummy treats. We were happy when the package arrived on the day of the activity! She also included a beautiful calendar of Scotland and a bookmark for each student. We felt really spoiled!!! We were very fortunate to be included in such a wonderful event. The class had a wonderful experience. Many thanks go out to our Scottish friends!

Hamish - Our Travel Buddy

2010-01-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

Hamish, our travel buddy from a Scotland Primary 4-5 class as arrived at our school this week. We were very excited to see him and was happy that he arrived safely at our school. Each student will have a chance to bring Hamish home and write in his travel journal. We will also take many pictures of Hamish and then we will send him back to his classmates who are anxiously awaiting his arrival. They were quite worried that Hamish got lost in the mail because he did take a long time to get to our school. The Christmas mail must of slowed his arrival down. I believe they were quite relieved when I e-mailed their teacher to say that he had arrived.

Holiday Card Project

2009-12-08T04:23:00.000-08:00

We are participating in a holiday card project with 24 other classes from around Canada, the United States and Scotland. Our class had to make 24 Christmas cards and send them out to 24 other classes from around these areas. We had fun making 3 different homemade cards. The other classes are also sending us Christmas cards. So far we have received 3. We look forward to getting the mail everyday!!! You can see where we are exchanging our cards on the map below.

View My Saved Places in a larger map

Quackers is on his way to Scotland!

2009-12-04T08:27:00.001-08:00

Quackers departed early this morning for his long trip to a school in Scotland. The class made estimations on how long it will take him to arrive. We hope he will get there safe and sound.

Our Travel Buddy

2009-11-26T05:46:00.000-08:00

Our class now has a travel buddy. He is a mallard duck and his name is Quackers. We plan on sending Quackers to has many different classes around the world as possible. His first destination is to a Gr. 4 class in Scotland. We hope he enjoys his trip there.

Cycle 2 - Our First Video Conference

2009-11-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

The Cycle 2 class had a chance to experiment with video conferencing on Friday, Nov.13th with a school from Athabasca, Alberta. We "hooked" up with Pamela Clarke's grade 4 class at the Landing Trail Intermediate School. It was the first time for both classes. We did experiment some technical difficulties, but both groups enjoyed the experience. We plan to do this again in the near future.

Pumpkin Seed Counting Voicethread

2009-11-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

Our Cycle 2 class joined a pumpkin seed counting project on the "Projects by Jen" website that we found on the internet. Check out our voicethread below.

Pumpkin Seed Count

2009-10-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

Our class joined an on line "pumpkin seed counting" project. We had to estimate how many seeds our class pumpkin had. The class estimates varied between 100-300. We then cut open our pumpkin and actually counted how many seeds there were. To make it easier to count, the students decided to make groups of ten. It was quite easy to count once we did this.

How many seeds do you think our pumpkin had? Leave us an estimate. You are not allowed to ask your child the actual amount!!!!

We love to read!

2009-10-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

The Cycle 2 class loves to read. We read everynight to ourselves or to a parent. We know how important it is to practise our reading in order to become a better reader. We have a reading caterpillar in our classroom. Each time we finish a home reading book, we add a new body part to he caterpillar. We hope our caterpillar will be quite long by the end of the school year.

We love to read!

2009-10-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

The Cycle 2 class loves to read. We read everynight on our own or sometimes with a parent. We know how important it is to practice each night, so that we can become better readers. We have a reading caterpillar in our classroom. Each time we finish a home reading book, we had a new circle to our caterpillar. We hope he will be quite long by the end of the school year.

Daily Five

2009-09-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

Our school has been really keen on implementing the Language Arts program called"The Daily Five". Some teachers have been doing this program for a couple years now. It seems to be working quite well and the students enjoy it. Check out our photos below as we work on the Daily five in the classsroom.