Back at Moberly Arts Centre

We had a very good time at the Moberly Arts Centre even though I was confused and thought we were going to be having a cooking demonstration!  Instead we had a great time listening to Zac Jackson, the performance poet.  We got lots of good tips from him, and Natalie, and Naomi, on how to use our diaphragms to project when we are speaking.  It was nice to see that our onions are indeed growing and the story is coming along nicely as you practiced your lines with an action.  I hope our picture book turns out nicely as well (shh... don't tell Naomi how we are going to surprise her.  I should have taken a picture of your beautiful tri-fold projects that we gave to her this week.  It's really exciting that your artwork and drawings are being displayed at Sunset Community Centre.  I will have to go and have a look. 

Here are your onions peaking out of the garden!!!

Here's Zac reciting one of his poems!

And here is a sample of the tri-folds that you gave to Naomi!  The dialogues were fun as well. 

How did it get to be May?

Time is just flying by... The grade seven students will be graduating before we know it!!!  Anyway thought I would post a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.  Here's a few from you doing drama at the Human Eyes workshop.  I think these were the tableaus about a time when you felt supported. 

Reel to Reel Festival

It's been a fun week and I am sure many of you will say that our field trip Tuesday was a highlight!  We went to the Reel to Reel Festival at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown.  This of course involves a short bus ride to the Canada Line Marine Drive station and then six stops later we were in Yaletown.

The morning was fun as we were able to watch seven short films, one of which we were the first group even to see.  You all had your favorites, but I think we liked them all.  It was really neat that two of the film makers were actually there to talk about their films.

After a short break where we got to have something to eat, we took part in our workshops.  Our workshop was on creating a story board and we got to learn from a person, Deb Dawson, who is a film maker and an animator so that was special.  We learned how you work in a team for one thing.

You can see there were some very "animated" discussions!!!












When we had finished this activity, we were able to explore the walk along False Creek.  We were fortunate that the rain held off!

Here is a our beautiful walkway...

 Now these are really large rocks!

 There you are enjoying the sea wall and beach.  How would you like to live down here!

And some people just like to appreciate the view!














Finally it was time to go home on the Canada Line and Number Three bus!  We may have been tired but we all had a really good day!!!

Time speeding away...

It's been a busy couple of weeks with an Easter weekend in there.  We have welcomed two new students into our class, Shekinah and Mark!  Grade Six is busy working on their poverty projects and the Grade Seven's are just finishing their Roman projects.  We have started two new science units, the Grade Sixes are doing Extreme Environments and the Sevens Earth Science, beginning with Rocks.  We are enjoying access to the ipads and using them in many ways. 

The Tuesday before Easter most of the grade sevens spent the day at John Oliver, and we enjoyed having a few of Division One's grade seven students visit us and everyone participated in some great workshops organized by Val to help be even better peer helpers and hall monitors.   We had a nice end to the week before Easter with making cards with our Grade One reading buddies and of course there were a few chocolate Easter eggs involved! 

This week was a busy short week.  We had two early dismissal days as it was Parent/Teacher/Student conferences.  It was nice finally having an opportunity to meet with all your parents.  It's been a different year due to the teachers' job action so that we have not had formal report cards.  Mind you, I think you did well writing your own report cards! 

I know you were thrilled to be able to go back to Moberly Arts Centre, especially to plant the onion plants!  It was fun to be able to work with Natalie and Muneera as well as Naomi.  And of course in addition to all the great activities involved with story telling you enjoy a chance to play in the park for a few minutes. 

Another highlight this week was the Human Eyes workshop, the first in a series of four... I know you all enjoyed participating in this and thinking in ways you haven't thought before.  I was going to take pictures but we were all so involved it didn't seem appropriate.  And we had a visit from Phyllis who got to see your work in the showcase!!! 

Next week will be exciting as we will be going to the Reel to Reel festival and doing a bit of film making...

Moberly Arts Centre-Day Four

 Here are a few pictures from our last day there.  You can see exactly where we are planting our onions!!!

Naomi is explaining about the garden with Cyndy who is the coordinator at MAC

 Planning the parts of the story...

 Interesting approach to working together

Terry likes looking down at people I see...

The Florida Panhandle

The next part of my Florida trip involved going from Orlando to just past Panama City on this map to a place called Sandestin just outside of Destin, Florida.  Here we stayed in a beautiful apartment for four nights between a bay and the ocean.  For the next few days we had a very fun and relaxing time. I had never been to this part of Florida so that it was very interesting.





 Club Intrawest had pools and hot tubs, was a short walk to the Village at Baytowne Wharf where there were lots of restaurants and shops.  We could use bicycles for free and even go kayaking.  Several times we went to the nearby beach where we had access to umbrellas and beach chairs.  The water was turquoise, the sand really white and fine and even cool as it is made out of quartz.  There were quite big waves so that it was fun to be carried along though our last day the waves were a little too strong for swimming so we decided to retreat to our pool.

The sunsets were amazing.  Every day the sky was blue and the temperatures warm but with a nice breeze.  One day we drove along highway 3A to the town of Seaside.  It would be expensive to live there but fun to visit.  It was used in a movie called The Truman Show.  Along the way we saw beautiful sand dunes and more beautiful beaches.  I am going to include a few of my favorite pictures...







Beautiful waves... turquoise water...

Sand Dunes...

Seaside with houses all with picket fences and ocean views...

Second Day at Disney World

The second day at Disney World began at the third theme park, Epcot, and I just didn't have enough time there.  We were able to go there by boat so that was fun and it's absolutely beautiful especially because of the garden festival that was on.










It has two main parts, Future World and The World Showcase.  By boat you actually enter through the World Showcase.  I was instantly transported to England for instance. 

 But we were hurrying through to try to get on an amazing ride in Future World called Soarin'.  We had a long wait but it was worth it to do a simulation of flying above California,  You felt as if you could touch the grape vines for instance.  You would love it.  It was my favorite ride at Disney. 

Next we went to see Captain Emo, a three d video experience starring Michael Jackson that I had seen when it first came out in the 1980's but still amazing.  Our final ride Space Ship Earth was a journey through time in the big Geodesic Dome.  It was great as we peaked in on Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, saw the dark ages, viewed the invention of the printing press etc. and even got to check out our own personal future.  Future World is great and there is lots about ecology and looking at sustainable futures. 

Unfortunately our time was running out so I kind of hurried through the World Showcase, not actually going inside of any of the Nation pavilions but it was absolutely beautiful and fun to feel as if I was traveling to Germany and  France and Italy, and even Canada.  I needed a couple of days here!  It's huge!

After a quick break at the hotel we were off by boat to Hollywood Studios.  Hollywood Studios makes you think you are in Hollywood in the 40's or something.  It has lots of fun things to do and is a fun place to be. You can even be on a version of American Idol but I passed on that.  We took the  Studio Back Lot Tour and saw how they do a lot of special effects.  We waited in a very long line to do Toy Story Mania, that I know you would have all loved.  I really liked The Great Movie Ride where we rode through sets of some famous movies.  My friend didn't warn me that we were going to be hijacked by a 1930's gangster though!!!

I loved where we had dinner at The 50's Prime Time Cafe.  Our waitress told us to keep our hands off the table and we got to watch old TV shows from my childhood.  The food was delicious!

 The highlight of the evening though was Fantasmic.  This is an amazing show, breathtaking 25-minute fireworks and water show starring Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer and all your favorite Disney characters are there.  It was the perfect ending to a whirlwind tour of the Wonderful World of Disney.