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!