Have a Super Summer!

Wow!  This is the 100th post on the Room 21 Blog.  Thanks to all my faithful readers and I hope you check back in September for more news from my classroom.  Enjoy the summer!  Sharon

Class Field Trip

Here are a few photos from our class field trip.  We started the day boarding the bus with Ms. Zarn driving us.  Miss Simpson and Mrs. Boulton came along as well to help supervise.  Our first stop was the Discovery Center in Brandon.  They are still rebuilding their facilities after the flood in 2011 but our guide Whitney had lots to tell and show us about nature.  She showed us a turtle shell and a snake skin.  We learned that snakes have larger scales on their bellies as compared to on their back so they are able to slide.

 

Our next stop was to McDonald's on number one highway for lunch.  All the students did a great job of ordering and paying for their own meals.  The staff there was very helpful and accommodating and everyone enjoyed a little play on the indoor structure before we had to carry on.  

Our short bus ride took us out in the country east of Brandon to the Westman Reptile Gardens.  Candy and Mike were great hosts and although we found the building hot and smelly, we learned a lot and the pictures below show some of their many reptiles and amphibians.

 It was a great day!

Water Cycle Craft

 We are continuing to learn about the Water Cycle and today the students were challenged to make a model of it using the materials given in the photo above on a paper plate.

 Many great ideas were used to represent the cycle and students had a chance to explain their model.

 Blue and white yarn, coloured construction paper and quilt batting were the materials to manipulate using scissors and glue.

 Every one is different but they all show the same scientific process - The Water Cycle! - Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation and Collection. 

Teach Your Monster to Read

This morning was one the Grade 2 and 3 class have been waiting for!  Today was the release of a third game in the very popular "Teach Your Monster to Read" website.  A previous blog post about it can be found here. 

This third game takes what the kids have learned about phonics and letter sounds in the first two levels and applies them to sentences and more complex words.  The website remains free and the students have their user name and password in the front of their agenda to be able to use the site at home as well as at school.

Some comments from the kids in Grade 2 and 3:

• You have to fight a goblin in this level.
• At the end, you find a spell book.  You need to get there without him hearing you.
• You go to different planets.
• You can customize your character if you want.
• There's a Queen Jessica who tells you the question.  She also tells you whether to go up, down, right or left. You have to follow her directions so it helps you learn left and right. 
• You get onto a spot and there is "Trickies" which are words like "their" and "oh". 
• I love this website!  Maybe there will be a level four where you need to read a story and then say what happened in the story. (That was actually our teacher's comment!)

We hope you try out the website and teach your own monster to read!