More fun with the grade one buddies

Well we always have fun with Ms. Micozzi's grade ones and the exchange of the Christmas crackers was definitely a fun event. They were of course worried about the fate of their gingerbread men but fortunately they were located hiding out in the staffroom!!! The second picture is of course Santa's elves at work in our room. The first picture shows a few of the happy recipients!!!

Santa came to town...

Well once Joban became Santa for the school musical, he was much in demand. When Santa was late and the preschool was worried the children would be disappointed, Joban, had to come to the rescue and then he and the other Santa worked together.
Later Joban helped hand out candy canes to the school with yet another Santa. Joban's helpfulness benefited our class as we got an extra round of candy canes in gratitude! Mr. Lattimer thought that the suit would be too big for Joban but little did he know what a good investment it would be. Hohoho!!!

New pictures from Paint the Town December

Here we go some pictures the actual day of the musical. I didn't take many pictures the night of the musical but have quite a few from the afternoon. But the night of the musical you can see the African dancers getting ready in the library. And then we have Scrooge rocking away.
I promise next posting you can see some of our friend, Santa!

Paint the Town December

Well I thought I would start this blog with a picture of an unofficial member of Division One. I think she seems to be following her sister's lead in enthusiastic participation in school musicals!
I think that it is going to be an exciting day today. I want to thank you all for your enthusiastic participation. All the actors have done a great job in learning your lines, cues, and looking like you belong on a stage. I hope many of you will get involved in drama productions when you get to high school. I can see that many of you really enjoy this type of thing.
You will all also have the opportunity of singing in a choir or learning a musical instrument and being in a band or orchestra so take advantage of these opportunities. Also special thanks to our dancers who have been so patient as well and did the great research projects that are displayed by the library. It's neat that you learned about some of the artists mentioned in the show. I get busy watching and don't take shots when things are really happening so will try again today!!! Break a leg!!!

Vow of Silence

This blog entry should have gone in a bit earlier but here we go. I really wasn't sure it was possible but basically Division One and many other students at Trudeau were silent for one afternoon.
I am using the words of Sanman first and then Jane to tell you about this event.
On November 19th, 2010, was the Vow of Silence. We did the vow of silence to speak up for the kids that are living in poverty. They do not speak up because when they do they may be threatened or beaten.
In my opinion, it was kind of difficult because it was hard to communicate with others including Ms. Forsyte(in gym) and Ms. Kezar. I was thinking about all the kids that can not speak out for their rights. Anyways, I think the day went successfully because it was a very quiet day, it was even quiet, in PE, surprisingly.
by Sanman
Today we did the Vow of Silence because we were staying silent for those around the world who can not speak up for themselves. If they do, they 'll get punished or even killed. Now, people may say it wasn't hard, but it is. i think that if someone said it was easy they're lying because it's hard to communicate when you're doing a group project.
For me, it was between easy and hard. Sometimes it was tard to tell someone something and for someone to tell you something. While I was doing this I was wondering if this would change the lives of others.
I think it was a success because the people with masks didn't speak at all. That made the people without a mask take a Vow of Silence too.
by Jane
It should be noted that the masks priced at $2 sold out. We had a nice celebration at the end of our silent afternoon. For additional information visit this link.

Skating fun

We had a great time during our three sessions of skating and as many of you commented, everyone made great progress with their skating. It really helps having all you there to help the buddies get their skates on and then to encourage them with their skating. As Julie said, you have to know that falling is part of learning. Skating lessons are a great idea. We have our resident skating expert, Meili, and she has only been taking lessons a couple of years.
I think it is really neat to see how the grade one students gain confidence in their sessions and we have some great pictures to show that.

It's almost holiday time-writing with buddies

I just really wanted to put up some pictures. Lots of fun yesterday writing with our buddies. Ms. Micozzi thought their stories were much better with you there to inspire them. I am having a bit of trouble getting these pictures where they should be. Oh well. The pictures were all so cute-hard to choose!

St. John's and studying rocks

Well we have all learned a bit about Newfoundland. You did some great projects and I think one of our favorites was the model that Van made. We have also have done a bit of studying about rocks so you can see a couple of people hard at work.

finally some pictures

I get busy with moodling and neglect this blog. I finally uploaded some pictures from my new camera so I thought that I would share a few. Here are Kevin Sylvester, Richard Scrimger, and Richard Newsome at the Writers' Festival. Then you can see a few shots of the audience!

I also thought I would post a few pictures from school. Here is a picture of your buddies at Halloween.

And here is one of a couple of buddies reading together.

One full week over

I think we got off to a good start and I am really happy to be your teacher this year.  Please note that now you have links at the side.  I have started to post onto our Moodle.  We need to register our new students.  You can register yourself if you have an e-mail account, if you don't we can help you get one.  If you have problems we can help you out.  Parents, please note that this Moodle site is created and monitored by the school board.  You are welcome to visit as a guest.  I am happy to give you our password.
I look forward to meeting all parents next week on Sept. 28th when we have our Meet the Teacher Evening.  I am posting another famous rock here.  Can you find out what it is and where it is?  Now what is this rock made out of and what was our last famous rock made from???

I just had to post a picture of Middle Beach in Newfoundland where I went rock collecting.  One day I hope you will be able to go there too!

Good morning

Well I promised you rocks and I am going to give you a site to learn more about them, Rocks for Kids.   To learn more about BC's minerals please visit this site.  Yesterday we were trying to sketch the natural geography of our school, you may find this site interesting and helpful for learning about Vancouver's natural geography.  But travelling a little farther away I have a picture here of one of the most famous rocks in the world.  Can you find out what it is and where it is???

Now a bit more on that province sometimes called The Rock, Newfoundland.  I am planning to begin reading Charlie Wilcox today and I would like you to visit Brigus where the story begins.  Brigus was a much busier place when Charlie lived there in 1915.  You can visit Hawthorne Cottage the home of Captain Bob Bartlett, a famous Arctic explorer.  Captain Bob is mentioned in the novel and you can see what life was like in Brigus then.  Here's a picture of Brigus now

Welcome to Division One

I realized that I needed to create a new blog this year.  I am sure I will be changing it as I go.  It's great to have classes settled and I am excited about our new year.  As I warned you we are going to be studying a bit about Newfoundland so that I thought I would put one of my favorite pictures up for you.  This is taken in the town of Brigus, the setting for a novel I plan to read called Charlie Wilcox.  The novel takes place when Brigus was an important centre for sealing and fishing.  Now it is more of a tourist town.
I will be working on our moodle and getting new students on to it but I thought that I would just put a list of supplies on here for now.  I am also linking our old blog to this one until I get this one all updated.