What’s going on in Mr. Pagacz’s Classroom!

Amazing Race

Mr. Pagacz’s grade two students love a challenge. In May the students took part in amazing race. They had to run all over the school yard looking for the clues. As part of the magnets unit, they needed to use a compass to help them in their journey. It was very exciting to see them work as a team to reach the finish line!

Science and Space

The students have discovered many books in the library that deal with space exploration. So one day they all decided to explore space on the iPad. They love reading facts about space and all the different planets we have in our solar system, and using technology is a great way to get engaged.

Young Authors

In the month of June the students experience “author month.” They learn to become little authors and write short stories with pictures depicting their story! The students LOVE Science Fiction, so all their stories have a unique scientific, action packed endings!

Cup Stackers!!!

Mr. Pagacz’s grade two’s took part in crazy fast speed stacking challenges. They first learned how to stack and unstack them, and memorized a specific 3-3-3 and 3-6-3 pattern. Once they learned those tricky patterns, they had to work together to get the fastest time. They also enjoyed competing against one another to see who was the fastest speed stacker! This challenge was a blast!

French Kids Eat Everything!

This is an introduction to a book by Karen Le Billon to help cure your children from being picky eaters.  It might even help an adult or two.

As I sat reading the Sunday paper and eating my oatmeal with bananas and coconut yogurt I came across an article in the books section.  It was titled, "Picky eaters? Mais non!  Working at a dual track immersion school and being the Teacher Wellness Champion I was curious as to what the article had to say.

Karen Le Billon is an American author married to a Frenchman from Northern France and a self confessed picky eater.  Like some dual cultural families they returned to her husband's home town to live for a year and found that her children's and her own eating habits stood out like a sore thumb.  Karen's French in laws took no time in passing on their traditional skill of training children to be "bien eduque."
That is to be well spoken, well mannered, and well behaved.  Part of the training involves the education of preparing and eating healthy food.  Listen to her book trailer from Amazon.com:

French Kids Eat Everything book trailer.

Le Billon's children learned to try new foods and enjoy them.  Many of the foods they learned to love came right off their school's cafeteria menu like, endive salad and blue cheese, mussels and muesli.  It doesn't sound much like the offerings at a North American school does it?  This article helped me believe that Monsignor William Irwin parents and staff are on the right path.  I was curious then to see where Canadians ranked versus Americans and the French in our fight on obesity.  I found some encouraging and astonishing information.

I found some stats from some 2005 research that ranked countries by the percentage of obese people.  The definition of obese are those individuals with a body mass index of 30 or greater.  The country with the highest number of obese people was, you guessed it...United States at 30.6%.  I looked for Canada who was ranked number 11 out of the 28 countries surveyed and found that we had substantially fewer obese people at 14.3%.  France came in at 9.1%, while Japan had the lowest number of obese individuals at 3.2%.  So the conclusion is... we are right in the middle.  Still time to help ourselves and our children.

I was also curious as to where Edmonton in particular stood on the health scene, especially since the BMI stats were from 2005.  I found a Health Canada site that gave specific statistics for not only provinces but cities.  Here is what I learned;
The number of overweight or obese males in Edmonton as of October 2011 was as staggering 60.8 percent of our population while 43.8 percent of women are found to be overweight.  The same information told that 27.8% men in our city were smokers and 19.5% of women still light up regularly.  The statistics even included information about heavy drinkers.  27.8% of male Edmontonians drank heavily while 11.1 % of women imbibed more than usual.  I also learned we still have a way to go to encourage  the consumption of fruits and vegetables of 5X or more each day.  36.2% men were able to consume adequate quantities of fruits and veg., while more women at 45% were able to meet the criteria of the Canada Food Guide.  The last interesting information regarding the health of people living in Edmonton to startle us into activity, was that 26.4% of male residents participated in limited physical activity while 31.7% women engaged in exercise on a regular basis.

If you or your children are picky eaters, there is a cure.  Karen Le Billon ends her story by saying, "In North America, many parents will simply shrug if their child refuses to eat well.  The French, meanwhile are thinking:  show me how your kids eat, and I'll now what kind of parent you are."

Kindergarten creates an Art Centre Piece in the Learning Piazza

Collaborative Kindergarten Glasswork Project

The Kindergarten students at Monsignor William Irwin love their school, and LOVE working together to create magnificent works of art.  After witnessing Mrs. Novak’s students working with glass, Miss Hart’s and Madame Carrie’s students became very interested in glass work and things that we could create using glass.   

In December, Miss Hart gathered her students in the Learning Piazza to draw our glasswork ideas.  We focused on drawing tall buildings.

Our drawings were magnificent, and we were very excited to turn them into glass work!  Here is an example of one of the designs that we decided to transform with glass:

Next, we became busy glass workers!  Each of the six Kindergarten classes created buildings and houses out of glass – all were designed by the students!  The greatest part of this project is that we worked together, and each student contributed to these works of art.

Here are some pictures from Miss Hart’s class, and some her Kindergarten students talking about the glass work process:

Joshua:  “It’s kinda like a mind thing, like, because we need to figure out and use our mind how which piece goes where and how it fits together.”

Olivia:  “We did it with glass, we put the pieces of glass on the other glass with glue.  My favourite part was gluing it on the glass, it was like putting it together like a puzzle.  We worked with each other!”

The Kindergarten teachers and students decided that our Learning Piazza was the perfect place to display our glass work so that everyone who visits can enjoy it!  Next time you walk by the Learning Piazza, take a moment to enjoy the collaborative Kindergarten glass work project!

William:  “Our work went in the Piazza!  Everyone can look at it now!”

Mrs. Novak's Class Experiments with Freezing and Melting

Typically, ice cream is the last thing that you think of eating in the winter.  Maybe it was the unusually warm weather that we have been experiencing or maybe it was experimenting with freezing and melting that led us to wanting to make ice cream in kindergarten, but whatever the reason, we had fun!

We talked a lot about the kinds of foods that help to make our bones strong.  We looked in our snacks each day and identified the foods that help us to build strong bones and teeth. 

We made ice cream by putting milk and syrup into a small ziploc baggie.  We put course salt and ice into a large baggie.  We placed the small bag inside the large bag and swished it back and forth for about 5 minutes.  We were amazed by how our milk turned to ice cream.  It tasted delicious!  Who knew that it could be so yummy to give our bones calcium?

We made ice cream cones for the birds too.  We mixed birdseed and lard together and scooped it into ice cream cones.  We put hangers on them and hung them on a tree.   Now the birds will be well fed too!















Bone Health in Grade 5

The grade 5 class has spent the last few weeks learning about Bone health.  They have discovered that the easiest way to help their bones is to include bone building foods in their meals and snacks.  Good choices include milk, cheese and yogurt.  Adding milk instead of water to recipes is one quick and easy way to increase the intake of bone-building foods.

This is a PSA that the grade fives made to encourage bone health.

Grade 5's building bone health.

Hopping and jumping strengthen your bones.

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.”