The Grade Ones Experience Science through their 5 Senses.

On December 7^th, the four Grade 1 classes put on their hand made green tie-dye shirts and went on an excursion to the Telus World of Science.  They spent the whole day exercising their brains making predictions and testing their educated guesses with hands on experiments.  They attending workshops on two different themes: Mixing Colours and The 5 Senses.

The students listen attentively at the Mixing Colour workshop.

At The 5 Senses workshop, they learned about sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell.  Here a boy gets to hear what it would be like to have a hearing aid.

Here are a couple of reflections from Mme. Chepelsky's french grade one students:

This educational excursion concluded the Grade One unit of colours.   In the upcoming term, they will continue to explore their senses.



Madame Brassard's Grade 2 Students: Growing Our Spirits

In 2B, we have the tradition of taking the time as a classroom family to wind down at the end of a week of hard work! Armed with the essentials to have physical comfort, the students take the time to tap into their spirits and fill their inner needs. Our Friday afternoon meditations are a time when we each go onto our inner sacred spaces and spend time with our Lord.

We start by finding ourselves a private place to relax in the classroom. Each student has their little nook or favourite spot, whether it be beside a friend, under a desk, or in a corner of the classroom.

These girls like to meditate under their desks.

Bringing things from home help these children to relax.

We begin to calm ourselves down as we close our eyes and take a few breaths.  Next, the students are guided into the rest of the meditation as they visualise their own meeting place with God and spend some time sharing our thoughts and feelings with Him.

Special friends are welcome to meditate too.

Spending time with God can happen anywhere.

Here’s what a few of our students have to say about meditation:

“Meditation is good for settling down when you feel stressed.”

“It’s really relaxing, and it feels good to be with God.”

“It’s a place where you get to think about God.”

“It makes you feel good.”

Grade 4's Strengthen their Mind and Body through Social Studies and Science Curriculum!

Social Studies - History of Alberta
The grade 4's have been participating in many activities to learn about personal responsibility in keeping our earth healthy and protecting our natural resources.  On a beautiful September afternoon, we imagined that we were European immigrants who settled in Alberta over 100 years ago.  We had to carry water from the nearby pond to our home (aka...our school) for cooking and bathing.  Well, the pond was waaaaaaaayyy farther from the school than it seemed and when some water accidentally spilled from our buckets on the way back, it was a catastrophe!  Everyone was hot and sweaty by the time we were done hauling water to fill up our buckets.  Not only did we find out how hard that lifestyle was, but we developed an appreciation for our easily accessible and endless supply of clean, hot water. 

Fetching water isn't as easy as it sounds!

Science - Waste in Our World
We've also made plant-compost teabags, created our own classroom compost bin, planted radishes in compost rich soil and best of all, each student got to have a pile of worms on their desk to handle and explore!  They found egg sacs to babies to teenagers to pregnant adults.

Composting in the classroom.

Red wiggler compost worms.  Cool and gross at the same time!

  This week we are carrying the weight of our garbage with us for a whole 24 hours so that we can educate people about the amount of waste we each create in one day.

Rainbow Lunch is Back!

We are participating in the Rainbow Lunch activity earlier this year.  Our hope was to get the students to begin the school year with a knowledge of what should be in their lunches.   This activity will be over three weeks instead of two this year.  Yes, you are correct, that means over Halloween! 

Include one milk and one meat or alternative from the Canada Food Guide

and

Include one fruit or vegetable and a grain product to complete your "Rainbow Lunch".

Don't forget to pack two snacks in addition to your lunch for morning and afternoon recess.  It seems that the two most frequent items absent from a healthy lunch are adequate quantiites of vegetables and an appropriate amount of protien.

For more information on portion sizes please see the attached link to The Canada Food Guide

Good Luck Students.  Remember your class could win a free trip to the Terwilliger Recreation Centre and an afternoon off school!

Snack Time in Madame Carrie's French Kindergarten Class is F-U-N!

A regular part of the day for every Kindergarten student is snack time. 

An attractive table is always inviting.

Inspired by theT.V. shows ‘The Ocean Room’ and “The Jungle Room’, snack time has changed in Madame Carrie’s classroom.  On most Fridays, snack time has some or all of the students responsible for bringing a grocery item to contribute to the communal snack.  The recipe or snack choice is often linked with what has been happening in the classroom throughout the week.  The recipes have also been designed to allow students the ability to build their snack themselves, allowing them to choose how much or which items they would like to try.  There is only one rule, you must try one bite.

Taking just one bite!

Snack time is a great time for gathering as a community and sharing knowledge about food and healthy eating.  Some of the less adventurous eaters are learning that there are items that maybe aren’t as “yucky” as they thought.  As one Kindergarten student said after taking a few bites of her snack,“Wow, this is delicious!  I think it’s delicious because I made it." 

Helping to prepare and serve themselves engages children in the fun of snack time.

The children have also been gaining other skills such as building their fine motor skills as they have to serve themselves and prepare their own plate.  Learning to be responsible for the clean up is also a part of this new routine.   Each child must scrape their own plate and place it in the sink when they are done.  Furthermore, the students have also learned many new French vocabulary words! 

The Fixings for a school bus shaped snack.

So far, this experimental project has been a great success! We have made ‘Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom’ trees, cracker school buses, rainbow fruit salad and apple sauce.  Each week holds new adventures, new recipes, and new learning opportunities. 

Mmmh!  Rainbow fruit salad.

Congratulation to the Breakfast Poster Winner!

Congratulations to Lola Belanger in Grade 1

for winning the draw after entering

the Healthy Breakfast Poster Contest

 Lola won a gift certificate to take her family to the Terwilliger Recreation Complex.

Welcome back to a new school Year!

BUILDING A BETTER BREAKFAST

The lazy days of summer are now behind us and our routine of getting up early and heading off to school are back. Father Bill's Kitchen would like to help remind you on the A, B, C's of a healthy breakfast.  It is really quite easy.  Simply pick an item from at least three of the four food groups each morning to be part of your fast breaking. Vary the foods you combine to make interesting and nutritious morning meals that never get boring.

Here is one of Monsignor William Irwin teacher's, Mrs. Flanagan's, favorite breakfast.

The Breakfast Sundae

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of rolled oats

1/4 cup of water

1 tbsp. of peanut butter

1/2 cup of fresh fruit

3 heaping tbsp. of yogurt

a few walnuts to garnish

Combine the oats and water into a microwavable dish and cook for 1 minute and 20 seconds on high.  Stir when you remove the oatmeal from the microwave.  Scoop out a tablespoon of peanut butter and insert it into the hot oatmeal covering it over.  Put your fresh cut fruit on top of the oatmeal, and top with the yogurt, garnishing with the walnuts.

New Contributors to the blog:

In the upcoming issues of Father Bill's Kitchen you can look forward to the contributions from different teachers on how their classes are demonstrating and participating in our Wellness Goals pertaining to the  Mind, Body and Spirit.  Look forward to photos and posts that will include your children and what they are doing in their classrooms. 

Remember, if you see something you like to make a comment.  We would love to hear from you!

Healthy Bake Sale Recipes

On May 4th the Grade 3 students with the help of their parents, put on a healthy bake sale.  They made and brought one of two items, a light candy apple or healthy chocolate puffed wheat squares.  The students went classroom to classroom before one of the recess' to sell their wares to the delight of the students.  Here are the recipes they used:

Healthy Chocolate Puffed Wheat Squares:

5 cups puffed wheat cereal

3 ounces dark chocolate 70%

1/4 cup chocolate protein powder

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup unsweetened  apple sauce

1 teaspoon vanilla

1)  Grease a 9x9 inch pan.

2 ) Measure out the puffed wheat into a large bowl.

3)  In a medium saucepan on low heat, melt and mix the remaining ingredients.

4 ) Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl of puffed wheat and stir.

5 ) Press the chocolate puffed wheat mixture into the greased pan and refrigerate for a couple hours before cutting into squares.

Light Candy Apples

Your favorite variety of apple, Gala, Ambrosia, Granny Smiths all work well

Popsicle sticks

Dark chocolate

Caramels

1) Remove the stem and push the Popsicle sticks in far enough that you can pick up the apple.

2) Melt the chocolate and/or caramels in a double boiler (separately if using both) until it runs off the spoon.

3) place the apples on wax paper and drizzle the chocolate then the caramel over the apple to make a pretty pattern.  Before the drizzle cools stick several M& M plain candies into the drizzle around the apple.  When cool and dry wrap the apples in saran wrap and  tie with a ribbon.

The students make over $300.00 to purchase the supplies to buy and make healthy lunches for an inner city school that has had their Thursday lunch program funding cut.  Good work Grade 3's!

Cidney's Hairy Tale Adventure!

Once upon a time in a Towne called Terwilliger, there lived a brave little princess named Cidney.  Cidney was a cheerful happy girl with long golden locks of hair and a sparkly crown.  She was unlike most little princess as she was very grateful for all the things she had in her life and wanted to help others less fortunate than herself.  Cidney was particularly sad about children who were sick, especially with cancer.  It just so happens that Cidney had never cut her hair, not even once since she was born.  She had heard that sometimes people who suffer with cancer go bald during their treatments and needed to wear a wig.  One day she asked her mother and father, Queen Christina and King Ken if she could donate some of her long hair to make a wig for them.  They were very proud of their daughter and immediately went about to find out how they could do this. 

 On a beautiful spring day Cidney called her royal hairdresser and had her cut her hair in front of all her subjects to set a fine example of giving. 

Cidney did not flinch, even once as the royal hairdresser braided her hair and set about to cut it off. 

In, fact she had the biggest smile of all when she saw the gorgeous braid she was to donate. 

All her royal subjects cheered and clapped to show their approval and love for their princess. 

Even some local scribes came to record the event in the Kingdom's Big Book of History.  Not only did Cidney give away her hair, but she found her loyal subjects so moved by her generosity that they donated over 800 gold pieces to help the healers to find a cure.

The moral of the story is; Save lives by giving to cancer research.

( This is based on a true story of a student at Ecole Monsignor William Irwin who raised money for the Stollery Children's Hospital by cutting her hair and donating it to make a wig.  She is five years old and made over $800.00 in donations to the Hospital)

Easter Celebration and New Life!

Easter Alter

On April 26, 2011 Ecole Monsignor William Irwin School celebrated the most cherished time in the Catholic liturgical calendar, Easter.  Easter is the most important liturgical season as it reaffirms our belief in everlasting life.  It teaches us that Jesus died for our sins, like the scriptures said and He was buried and He rose to life on the third day.  Soon after He went to heaven to be with His Father.

Spring Tree in Atrium


Through out the entire school there are signs embracing new life during this Easter season from artwork to baby chicks being born. 

 These are photos taken of Mrs. Novak's English Kindergarten's chicks hatching:

A small crack in the egg.

The crack gets bigger.

The crack is almost all the way around the egg.

The wet chick begins to emerge from the egg.

There's the head!

The fluffy new born chicks in their cage.

Many grades celebrated the melting of the snow and warmer temperatures by creating wonderful floral works of art!  Take a look at some of the beautiful examples from around the school!

A construction paper collage.

A water colour cut out collage.

Tissue paper flowers.





Father Bill's Kitchen Spring 2011 Wordle

Please follow this link to see a wordle that reflects our most recent activities!


Monsignor William Irwin Catholic School Wellness in a "Wordle"

"Getting Springy With It"

April's theme is physical activity.  What a better way to celebrate Spring than by getting outside and doing your favorite physical activity. The Canadian Guidlines for physical activity for children and youth 5-17 years of age is an accumulation of 60 minutes of moderate-vigorous-intensity, daily.  Adults quota should be 30 accumulated minutes of daily exercise. Canadian Guidlines to Physical Activity

 If you prefer an indoor venue, don't forget to try out our new Recreaction Center.  Terwilliger Recreation Complex

The Grade three and grade four classes from Monsignor William Irwin decided to kick off April with a trip to the University of Alberta's Butterdome for a session in track and field with physical education students.  The warm up was really alot of fun and games, which is what exercise should be for children and adults alike.

Here are the students warming up with the "A,B,C's" of Track and Field

The end result of the afternoon was an exciting obstacle course that included track and field sports such as sprinting as well as hurdles.  Check out this video to see how much fun exercising can be!

The grand finally of the afternoon was an obstacle course.

To borrow a well known slogan...Just Do It!

March is Nutrition Month -Breakfast Posters and Student Video

At Monsignor William Irwin it feels as if every month is nutrition month as we forge ahead with our goal of educating students about the benefits of eating well and exercising.  Using the "Field to Table" concept, our student Wellness Team created a bulletin board using pictures and words to demonstrate that we should be eating the freshest of local ingredients to maintain our health.  They also created a video that demonstrates why we need to eat healthy and how it is the key to our energy.  We also held a school wide Breakfast Poster challenge.   Finally, the grades 3-6 participated in their second ski trip to Rabbit Hill on March 8th,  a glorious sunny day.

Student created bulletin board in our atrium:

From Field,

 To Market,

To the Table,

 Our most recent Healthy Hot Lunch featured this delicious pasta recipe.  The children loved it!

Meat Vegetable Pasta Sauce
Ingredients:
450g (1lb) Lean ground beef
450g (1lb) Ground turkey breast
1 large Onion, chopped
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 large Green bell pepper, diced
1 large Red bell pepper, diced
4 (796mL) cans Diced tomatoes
1 (284mL) can Mushroom pieces, diced
1 package frozen Chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water
1 Tbsp Dried basil, crushed
1 Tbsp Dried oregano, crushed
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning

Directions:1. In a large stock pot over medium heat, brown the beef, turkey, and onion. Drain fat, and return to the heat.
2. Stir in the garlic, green and red pepper, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach. Stir in basil, oregano, and Italian seasoning.
3. Bring sauce to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Let simmer for three hours.
This recipe can also be cooked in a Crock-Pot or slow cooker.
Tip: Kids can help out too! Ask children to help wash vegetables, measure ingredients, and set a timer. Always supervise children who are helping out in the kitchen.

Breakfast Poster Challenge

We have also been promoting a home to school connection with a special project, our Healthy Breakfast Poster project.  Every student was given a template to draw, photograph or paint their favorite healthy breakfast recipe on.  The result was very creative.  Some students took photos, some used cutouts from magazines and many drew beautiful pictures of their favorite foods to break their fasts!  The result is a great looking wall of posters motivating others to try new ways of getting their day started.  All the students names that handed in a poster had there names entered into a draw.  Curtis from Ms. Stang's Grade 2C class was the lucky winner of a PBA free water bottle.

Here are several examples of some of the posters students created.

Adaptation of the book, Bread and Jam for Frances by the MWI Student Wellness Team:

March 8th Ski Trip to Rabbit Hill:

It was obvious that the students had improved immeasurably since the last trip.

No fear for Amy the first time skiier.

The sunshine certainly put a smile on Rashmeen's and Lorelei's faces!

Jayda loved using her new snowboard.

The rope tow was no problem for Ryan and Kala

Even though Spencer was bundled up properly for the sport, the -5 C weather, the sun was glorious on our faces.