A Spooktacular Week!

Lots of Halloween themed events going on this week! (and some not so Halloween themed)

1)  Carved our pumpkins.  Also toasted the seeds and had a yummy snack.

2) Painted our Halloween lanterns

3)  Decorated our classroom door (for the Student Council door decorating competition!  Hoping to win the class pizza party!)

4)  Continuing our study on money, collecting coins in our money bags (BASES market in November)

5)  Bean garden! Our plants are growing.  We've started painting the ceramic pots for our beans and are measuring heights and graphing our bean growth.

6)  We have been writing personal autobiographies (as seen on this website).  If you have the chance, please take the time to comment (you can use your name when you sign in, but don't need an account to do so).

7)  We have received more postcards - from Japan, Tuscany, Russia and Germany!  We love learning about the world through the postcard program.

8)  Cooking program is going to start next week!  More details to come soon.

Postcards, Plants, Acronyms, Synonyms, Homonyms and other Goodies

We're well into October and have fun with fall in the BASES classroom.

We've started doing a FAST 5 - our quick brain awakener in the morning.  This keeps our Math facts 'sharp' with 5 quick measurement and money questions.  Keeping with our Postcards and geography unit, we are learning about the 7 continents, memorizing by using an acronym (the first letter of each continent name).  The students created the acronym 'After Auntie Ate Nuggets, Squirrels Arrived Elephants.'  In other words, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, North America, South America, Asia, Europe.

And speaking our Postcards - our first two have arrived.  One from Germany and one from Finland!  We were excited to put these up and start our collection and learn about these exciting countries.  We've also sent off a few more - Melanie and Caitlin were kind enough to walk them out to the mailbox for us.

We are keeping a close eye on our beans - which are now planted in soil - and are starting to see green.

Did you know that we have been at school for 22 days already?  The students have decided that Mr. Hayes, Mr. Whitham's and Mr. Ranu's guestimation of where our number line will be at 100 days won't even be in the ballpark (Shhh....don't tell them).

We are also beginning a unit on 'Words are Wonderful.'  We have been learning about synonyms and homonyms.  Three of our students, Jasmine, Jeena and Janelle, delivered a coloful note to our vice-principal, Mr. Whitham, with a slew of synonms for his favorite word, 'STELLAR.'  These included outstanding, heavenly, fantastic, delightful, joyous, amazing and fabulous.

In keeping with our synonym theme, we collected words for our BLOG word - buzz - and came up with whir, hum, whiz, murmur and drone.  We also started "catch up" time on Fridays symbolized by the similar sounding "ketchup" bottle on the door!

Also, the students created a Thanksgiving Bulletin Board with typed copies of their journal writing about what they were thankful for.  Our peer tutor Jennelle also taught them how to make hand turkeys.

And as much as the BASES kids are thankful, we as the BASES teaching staff are thankful to - for our wonderful SEAs, supportive administration, collaborative colleagues and amazing kids with whom we work each and every day.

Wishing a HAPPY THANKSGIVING to ALL our BASES students, their families and to ALL our subscribes who follow our blog.

A Brief Tour through our room...

I mentioned in our last post some of the amazing things going on in the class - but it's always more fun with pictures.

Learning about Geography by sending postcards Internationally

  Learning about plants by growing beans

Learning about our community through current events

Learning French language in the areas of colours, phrases and fruits and vegetables.

Valuing our shining stars!  (And a little organization never hurt...)

Things in BASES are buzzing...

After an ‘interesting’ first few two weeks of school, which included several glitches with the bus company.  However, we seem to be settling into our school routine.  THANK YOU for your patience and understanding.

The BASES classroom is buzzing with activity!  Highlights of the Week include:

• a morning routine of lockers, checking schedules and handing in planners.  This is followed by calendar, weather and current events (in the coming weeks, students will be bringing news stories as part of their homework)
• beginning a Science unit on Plants.  Each student has a bean seed germinating in a plastic cup.  We are excited to observe the first signs of growth so they can be planted.  We will be graphing each stage
• learning some basic French vocabulary, including les actions (actions) and les couleurs (colours)
• delivering the fruit and vegetables to the whole school as part of the school-wide fruit and vegetables program.  In keeping with this, our students are learning vocabulary for  les fruits (fruit) and les legumes (vegetables) .  Mr. Stroh and Mrs. Becker plan to play French BINGO with the new vocabulary words, during Block 4.  BRAVO!
• preparing their duotangs for Response Journal, Journals and Math.
• a collective effort in creating our first display in the display case of ‘Signs of FALL’ from leaves and branches we found on our Nature Walk
• beginning our unit on Geography and the world by sending our first 5 postcards to  Finland, Germany, Russia, Netherlands and Michigan.  We look forward to receiving our 5 postcards from Around the World!

Upcoming Events:

• In-class music program on Tuesday afternoons, with Sheila Lee
• Swimming program start-up for some students
• Grocery shopping trips to prepare for our...
• Thursday lunch program