Where It ALL Began:
     It was still summer season in September when our class began its number line.  We used it for a variety of reasons, including identifying odd and even numbers, number patterns such as 5s, 10s and 11s.  It quickly took on a Life of its Own, as students  translated the day's number into money, using as many or as few coins as possible.  They would subtract the number from Loonies and Twoonies and each student made their own estimation where the number line would be on the 100th Day!
     Several students, teachers and even our Principal and Vice-Principals received 'BOO-HOO' letters when the number line made its way past their guesses.
     Tuesday, February 21st was our 100th Day of school! 

     Melissa; one of our student volunteers from Semester 1 guessed EXACTLY where the number line would land.  She is The 100th Day WINNER!  CONGRATULATIONS!

     *100 DAY ACTIVITIES*

     Janelle made another announcement to congratulate the students who had found the 'Hidden 100s' that Mr. Stroh and some students had hidden around the school.

     Students received a 100 Day duotang with pages of Fun Activities to celebrate 100 days of school.  Some of these were:
-researching Centurions in Canada
-getting 100 signatures
-researching 100 ways to say 'Hello' in other languages
-100 Fitness Fun
-writing a story about what the world will be like 100 years from today
-100 Math Magic
-Me at 100 years old

     Nolan uses the ipad to do his research.

     Some Great Artwork.

     100 Baggies of macaroni, buttons, erasers, elastics, cereal, cookies, jellybeans..100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100!

     Gagan and Jayden complete 100-piece puzzles.  Brandon works on a 100 day Art challenge.

     Melanie and Brandon stand on 1 foot and Mr. Stroh encourages Kat to complete her sit-ups.  All for The Fitness Fun portion of 100 Day Celebration!    

     Caitlin wears her 100 day balloon as a hat.

     We plan to continue with our number line for the remainder of the school year, incorporating our Math work and number sense along the way. 
     We have some more Exciting Activities in the coming months, including our school garden, a wonderful trip to the Aquarium, Social Circles and Make a Future.
     BASES is Always BUZZING! 

Written by:  Sue Fuller

OUR CLASS PREPARES FOR 100 DAY CELEBRATION!

Ellen is helping to load the candy prize bags!

Our number line at the halfway mark.

Hamza proudly holding a few of our 100 candy prize bags.

Janelle makes a school announcement about our 100 day activities, including our

'Hidden 100 Bills' around the school.

Which jar of candy has 100?

Jeena, Jasmine and Kat prepare candy prize bags.

Maryam and Kat take some student guesses in front our display case.

Students trace 5 footprints and tape them around our classroom for 100 Steps Around the Room.  Melanie decided to walk along the door window.

Mr. Neufeld and Caitlin put the last candy into the candy prize bags.

The number line reaches close to 100, with Sukhjit's guess at the 95th day.

Our display case with Jar 1, Jar 2 and Jar 3 of candies.  Which one has 100 candies? 

WE HAVE A NEW ADDITION TO OUR BLOG; TEACHER'S CORNER, for BASES Teaching Staff to share the MAGIC and the MOMENTS that we experience, on a daily 'basis'.

Reflections of a Lesson Taught

An ongoing theme in our classroom is a focus on words and language and communication, both written and verbal. I have a background in linguistics and a personal love and almost a sense of wonder for words.  Therefore, “Words are Wonderful” is a common phrase in the BASES classroom, as we focus on rhyming words, synonyms, antonyms and homophones.  We have created lists and students are continually adding to them as they make their own discoveries, particularly homophones. 

      One particular day, we began the morning by brainstorming all the homophones that we could think of.  Before long, we had filled the white board.  With such an array of verbal and cognitive abilities in our class, it isn’t always evident or easy to assess whether or not a lesson has been learned and absorbed by every student.  Nevertheless, we had compiled a list and students wrote the words on our homophone list on the wall.

      After lunch, long after our homophone brainstorm, one of our SEAs, Joanne Smith, hurried from the other classroom.

      “You have to see this”, she said excitedly. 

She was holding Brandon’s response journal. 

      “Remember that lesson you were teaching this morning on homophones?” she asked.

      She put Brandon’s duotang down in front of me.  He and another student had been working on their ‘Chocolate Fever’ novel study.  She points to the 2 circles at the bottom of the page where students are to compare 2 of the novel’s characters.  Brandon had written I - Eye.

      “He got it!”  Joanne exclaimed.

Indeed he had.  Brandon is autistic, with very limited verbal skills.  In his own time, he processed that lesson and came up with a homophone that had not been written on the white board that morning.

Joanne and I were filled with pride as we asked Brandon to add his 2 words to our class homophone list. 

The MAGIC of learning- it is at our own pace, in our own time. 

Brandon reminded me of that!

Every time I look at our list, I-Eye makes me SMILE!

Written by:  Sue Fuller

BASES students have been busy these past few weeks!  With Semester 2 turnaround, Valentine's Day and 100 Days of School ALL arriving within weeks of each other, there is never a dull moment!

Students helped put together a Beautiful Valentine's display in our Display case outside our classroom.  They made Valentine's Day cards for one of our community Seniors Centres. 

It was baking week so Chocolate Fudge Heart Brownies were a natural selection.  We made 3 trays of brownies and then made individual heart-shaped brownies.  Students chose from blue, pink or bright pink for their icing.  Some even chose to top their brownie with multi-colored sprinkles!

Mrs. Becker and Student council stored several buckets of beautiful red roses in our freezer.  Our students took much interest in the delivery of these roses to fellow Sullivan students.
Mr. Bucci made use of our kitchen for the Annual Valentine Pancake Breakfast in the HUB!

ALWAYS smells YUMMY in our Kitchen!

As usual, our classroom was a BUZZ of Activity!

Tune in for the next BLOG post on ALL the 100 Day Activiites BASES students have been working on.

Semester 2

*As hard as it is to believe, Semester 1 and 89 DAYS of school has come to an end!  Students were busy wrapping up their assignments, projects and enjoying final blocks with their teachers and peers

 

*Some BASES students participated in the Sullivan Dance Show on January 19

*Students received their Semester 2 schedules and are settling into their new classes

*BASES Teaching staff for Semester 2 will include Sue Fuller, Shawn Stroh, Ryan Neufeld and Robert Dewinetz

*Alyssa Becker is leaving BASES, for Semester 2, and will be teaching Math, Science and Yearbook.  We will miss her contributions to the BASES program but hope that she will continue to visit our class.  Students were asked to reflect and write about their Semester 1 Highlights and write a personal message to Mrs. Becker

*in keeping with Sullivan Heights, its school-wide use of technology and the Enormous success of our class BLOG, we will continue with our BLOG.  We look forward to continued communication with our followers for the remainder of the school year. 

Semester One Highlights

**I enjoyed PE10 with Mr. Hepting and Chris for the past 6 months and there Awesome dudes and Alisha and Melanie and Mrs. D join the club as well:

I also Enjoyed BASES with Ms. Fuller learning new Subjects like French, Science and Postcards.

I also Enjoyed Dance with Ms. Yahn and meeting this new girl from Germany and sorry I chickened out in dance performances.

I also Enjoyed BASES again with Stroh and Becker and There is something about Ms Becker because Next Semester.  She is out of BASES and hopefully see her Next Year.

By:  Shiv

**In Semester 1, I walked a lot in my walker.  My friends in BASES encouraged me to walk quickly.  I walked all the way to the staffroom.

What I would like to say to Mrs. Becker is I LOVED the cooking!  I watched the students in the kitchen.  I laughed watching Saved by the Bell. 

By:  Arman

**Thank you Mrs. Becker for teaching the BASES class this semester.  Thank you for teaching us to use IPads and the postcards exchange.  I liked the class when you came to the class and had fun with BASES.

I enjoyed the wood The wood shop, and all the equipment and machines.  I learning about making things out wood at the wood shop.

By:  Jayden

**What I am going to miss is social study because I had so much fun meeting new people and I wish that next sem I will have class with them again.

What I would like to say to Mrs. Becker is that she really nice.  She help us with cooking and my favourite dish is macaroni, cauliflower and cheese.  And what I like to see is the show save by the bells.

By:  Fatima

**I will miss my Dance class But I will always Dance in Bases.  I had a great time in sewing because I made lots of things.  I can’t wait for SEMSTER 2!

I can’t wait to see Mrs. Becker in the Hallways and talk to her and give her a Big Hug.  I would say to her that I miss her and the Great lunch repies!

By:  Katarina

 **I will miss watching saved by the bell it was a funny show, I will also miss cooking on Thursdays I want to do more science experiments with Mrs. Fuller they are so fun! 

I want to thank Mrs. Becker for all the nice things she’s done for the class I will miss her cooking program My favourite dish was macaroni and cauliflower pasta it was my favourite

By:  Raheel

**Semester 1 is finished.  I learned Math Reading Journal Mrs. Procter Foods orange cake chicken breast

I would like to tell Mrs. Becker thank you lunch macaroni and cheese was Favorite

By:  Brandon

**What I would like to say Mrs. Becker I like the thankfull to for lunch and post crossing and We will miss you a lot.  I like chocolate chip cookies.  I take food.  I like working with Mrs. Becker.  I am getting 80% percent in foods and 72.7% percent in Infotech.

By: Hamza

**In semester 1, I had dance and I will miss it because in the classroom we performed in front of Ms. Yahn.  We did a lot of different types of styles like musical theatre, Jazz, Hip-Hop.  I will miss Ms. Yahn in semester 2.

Some specific thoughts I will miss about Mrs. Becker is about cooking. She told me to be careful with knife, being careful with the hot stove and etc. My favourite dish was the mashed potato soup.  Goodbye, Mrs. Becker we hope to see you around.

By:  Jeena

**I had lunch with my friends.  I liked the mac and cheese.  I helped with baking.  I made cookies with Ms. Jackson.

By:  Caitlin

**I would tell Mrs. Becker the cooking, I kinda like the macaroni and cheese party and also, the cauliflower part which it was so delicious, and tastes good as well!  And, the postcards mrs. Becker always deliveres postcards to the classroom because they know where they live! 

By:  Nolan

STAY TUNED for Semester 2 BASES Adventures!

We are PARTICULARLY EXCITED about our 100 DAY CELEBRATION on Tuesday, February 21!