Morning Message for Tuesday, April 21

Watch Ms. Brown's message for you HERE!

Before you read the message you need to look outside and decide what the weather is! Is it Sunny? Cloudy? Rainy? Snowy? Windy? or a mix of 2 (or 3)?  Where the blank space is in the message, you have to say the weather. 

Darcy! Happy Birthday! You are our helper! You can take the attendance to the office :) Darcy, you can write the names of the people who are home right now and bring your paper to someone else. Even your brother and sister! You need to be extra helpful today. What will you do?

** Parents! I am hoping to do some planting next Tuesday - April 28. If you have any seeds and soil, please have them ready. A bean seed (kidney bean, white bean from a bag of dried beans that you will cook with and eat) would be perfect. Soil could be a bit of dirt from the garden. If you don't have any - don't make a trip out! I will show all of the steps on the blog and will have a video that shows a time lapse bean plant growing.  

Earth Day is Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day that we focus on helping the earth. We are all great helpers in Room 9, so I think that you will all be very good at this!

The Earth is the planet that we live on. It is important that we care for our Earth, because it is the place that we spend our whole lives! 

To get ready for Earth Day, we are going to read along with this book called Earth Day Every Day by Lisa Bullard.

Try it! 
Get ready to move -- this is an active song! It celebrates trees (This video was recorded for the Jewish Holiday of Tu BiShvat which celebrates the earth and especially trees. The holiday was celebrated on February 9-10 this year, but it wasn't spring in Canada yet, so in our classroom, we usually put it off and celebrate it at the same time as Earth Day).
Sing along and move!

Why do we need trees?
Trees, (and all plants) make oxygen, which is in the air that we breathe. We need this oxygen to live. So our planet needs lots of trees! 

The trees also help to clean the air.

In the summer, trees give us shade and cool the air. 

Many animals live in trees. They are the home to many birds, squirrels and many insects.

Try it!
Today, please look at a tree. Can you see any animals in it? (birds, squirrels, bugs). Draw a picture of what you see. Really look hard at the tree.That is called observing.  Do you see leaves on the tree? You could draw the whole tree, or just the part with the animal in it.  

We are going to learn more about trees and plants next week!

Morning Message for Monday, April 20

Watch Ms. Brown's message for you HERE!

Before you read the message you need to look outside and decide what the weather is! Is it Sunny? Cloudy? Rainy? Snowy? Windy? or a mix of 2 (or 3)?  Where the blank space is in the message, you have to say the weather. 

Genny! You are our helper! You can take the attendance to the office :) Genny, you can write the names of the people who are home right now and bring your paper to someone else. You could even add some names of your stuffies! You need to be extra helpful today. What will you do?

** Parents! I am hoping to do some planting next Tuesday - April 28. If you have any seeds and soil, please have them ready. A bean seed (kidney bean, white bean from a bag of dried beans that you will cook with and eat) would be perfect. Soil could be a bit of dirt from the garden. If you don't have any - don't make a trip out! I will show all of the steps on the blog and will have a video that shows a time lapse bean plant growing. 

Heavier and Lighter

Today we are going to compare the weights of some objects. Weight is the measure of how heavy or light something is. 


First we have to make a Balance Scale. I'm going to show you how to make two different kids of balance scales. This part will take a lot of parent support! Sorry parents!

Hanging Balance Scale
You will need:

• A clothes hanger with slots in it so the clothes don't slip (or a plain clothes hanger and some tape)
• string or yarn
•  2 matching containers that have a "lip" empty sour cream or margarine containers or Rubbermaid containers (we won't hurt them)

First cut 8 pieces of string or yarn about 80 cm long
Wrap one around the container under the lip and knot it.

Continue with 3 more on one container and make them even around the container

Tie the strings together near the loose ends of the string.

Repeat for the second container - try to make the tied strings the same length on both containers. 

Slip the strings over the hanger notches .

Hang the coat hanger on a doorknob or cupboard knob. 

You have a balance scale!

Balance scale #2

If you cannot make a hanging balance scale, then you can try a teeter totter kind of scale. Use a small can (tomato paste works well) and a large hardcover book or a shoebox lid. You will need sticky tack or play dough to hold the can so it doesn't roll around your table or floor where you will be using it. This is simpler, but harder to use independently as it might take two people.

Now lets compare some weight. 

Find a small stuffed animal. You probably all have one of these! It has to be small enough to fit in the container. Don't choose a really tiny one! Put it in one of the containers on the balance scale. (or on one side/ end of the teeter-totter scale)

What happens? Why does this happen?

Put a spoon in the other side of the balance scale (now you have your stuffie in one container and a spoon in the other container).

What happens?  What is heavier, the spoon or the stuffed animal? How can you tell?

Find 3 (or more) objects that are heavier than your stuffed animal.

Find 3 (or more) objects that are lighter than your stuffed animal. 

Make a chart!  You can fill in the chart using words or pictures. Or both!  

Can you find anything that weighs the same as your stuffed animal? How can you tell that it is the same? What does your balance scale do? 

Does bigger always mean heavier? 
Think about one of the stumps (logs) in our Kindergarten playground.  Have you tried to move one? They are so heavy that they are hard to pick up. We usually roll them because they are really heavy!  Now think about a pillow. Have you tried to move one? Was it easy? But the pillow and the log are about the same size - the same "bigness". Why is the log heavier? 
Size and weight are not always related! Small objects can be heavy and big objects can be light (another example of this would be a baseball vs a beachball)

Morning Message for Friday, April 17

Watch Ms. Brown's Message for you HERE.

Before you read the message you need to look outside and decide what the weather is! Is it Sunny? Cloudy? Rainy? Snowy? Windy? or a mix of 2 (or 3)?  Where the blank space is in the message, you have to say the weather. 

Theo! You are our helper! You can take the attendance to the office :) Theo, you can write the names of the people who are home right now and bring your paper to someone else. Even your brother and sister! You need to be extra helpful today. What will you do?

Fabulous Friday! Learning About Warm and Cool colours

On Friday we focus on the arts.

Please check out:
Ms. Stecyk and Ms. Donovan's music sing alongs  and activities (emailed and also the YouTube link on our blog sidebar)
Ms. Swire's active living and dance activities (emailed)
Ms. Tirkos's Drama site (on our blog sidebar) 

Here on our Blog, we will focus on Visual Arts.  I like to create things with my hands. I like to sew, sculpt, paint and draw - and also mix it all together to make mixed media art. 

We have learned a lot about colour this year in Room 9. We have learned colour names and what happens if you mix certain colours. 

One of our favourite books was Mouse Mess! You can read and listen to it again!

When we talk about temperature,  we talk about warm and cool. Colours can be warm and cool too. We say that red, orange and yellow are warms colours. Blue, green and purple are cool colours. 

In this painting, an artist named Georgia O'Keeffe used warm colours to paint this flower. She called it "Canna Red and Orange" (canna is the kind of flower)

Mark Rothko used warm colours to create this painting. He called it "Orange and Yellow"

Vincent Van Gogh painted this landscape (an outside picture of the land around him) using cool colours. It is called The Olive Trees.

 Pablo Picasso painted this family in cool colours. This painting is called The Tragedy. Tragedy means that something sad has happened. They say that blue colours are also sometimes sad colours.

When Vincent Van Gogh painted his Sunflowers, he used a cool background colour to help the warm coloured flowers stand out more. 

Georgia O'Keeffe used a warm red background to help her cool coloured leaves stand out in "Calla Lilies on Red"

Ms. Brown used a warm background to help her cool coloured dog stand out more in this painting called Tilly. 

We are going to make some art with warm and cool colours. 

Take a blank piece of paper and colour the bottom half with cool colours. Colour the top half with warm colours. You could use paint, or markers or crayons - or even watered down food colouring if that is all you have.  Just use one kind of medium - that means use one kind of colouring tool - don't do part crayon and part marker (it will be hard to add the details later). If you don't have markers. crayons or paint, you could use coloured paper. Use a warm colour for the top and a cool colour for the bottom.

I used crayon for this one: 

I used watercolours for this one: 

Your colours might be much brighter than mine! Our school paints are still at school, and I am at my home!
Now you have some water at the bottom and some red sky at the top. Red sky? When is the sky red? The sky might be red at sunrise or sunset. 

So now we have to add our sun! 
If you painted your background, then you could use a black marker  or crayon.
If you used crayon for your background, then use crayon for your lines.
If you used marker for your background, then use marker or crayon for your lines.
First make a circle or a half circle for your sun.

Use different kinds of lines to make the rays for your sun! Wavy, dotted, squiggles, zig zags.... Don't do them just like mine -- YOU are the artist - make your lines however you want them. 

And make more lines going straight across the bottom like waves! 

Don't forget to sign your name!

Morning Message for Thursday, April 16

 Watch Ms. Brown's message to you HERE.

Before you read the message you need to look outside and decide what the weather is! Is it Sunny? Cloudy? Rainy? Snowy? Windy? or a mix of 2 (or 3) ? Where the blank spot is in the message, you have to say the weather. 

 Sadie! You are our helper! You can take the attendance to the office :) Sadie, you can write the names of the people who are home right now and bring your paper to someone else. Even your sister! You need to be extra helpful today. What will you do?