Last day of school!

This has been a very different year -  to say the least.

I am extremely proud of each and every one of you.

You are amazing people and I look forward to seeing how you will make this world a better place.

I leave you with some of my favourites.

My favourite poetry slam piece (right now anyway):

My favourite song:

This is my message to you...

My favourite student:

I hope to see you in 3D in September!

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful summer!

Community circle today (Thursday) at 1:00!

Each of you gets your two minutes of fame!

I look forward to seeing what you want to share with us.

Remember our last community circle will be on Friday at 10:30.

It will be a quick "farewell" together.

Summer Reading Book List - Made By Us!

Anchal suggests:

- Out Of My Mind by Sharon Draper

- Doll Bones by Holly Black

- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

- Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Sam suggests:

- Diary Of An 8-Bit Warrior (series) by Cube Kid

Ziyad suggests:

- The Doldrums by Nicholas Gannon

- David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

Sara suggests:

- The Handbook by Jim Benton

- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

- Wondergirls by Jillian Brooks

Brandon suggests:

- The Warriors Series by Erin Hunter

Kaynaz suggests:

- Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

- The Endling Series by Katherine Applegate

- The Remarkable Inventions Of Walter Mortinson  by: Quinn Sosna-Spear

- The Poison Apples  by: Lily Archer

Crystal suggests:

- The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Rehan suggests:

- The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling

Winston suggests:

- Out Of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

- Dry by Jarrod and Neal Shusterman

Joanna suggests:

- The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson

Saleh suggests:

- Holes by Louis Sachar

- The Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey

- Diary Of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

- I Funny TV by James Patterson

Ed suggests:

- Animal Farm by George Orwell

- Life Of Pi by Yann Martel

Mrs. Nye suggests:

- The One And Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

- The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

- As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds

- Mr. Terupt Falls Again by Rob Buyea

Community Circle today (Tuesday) at 1:00!

We are going on a field trip to Wonderland!

Change of time!

Our community circle on Friday will be at 10:30 - not 11:30 as I have a staff meeting at that time.

Summer Reading Booklist

If you have not had a chance to write your suggestions for summer reading in your learning journal, please do so today. I am posting our summer reading list tomorrow.

The Talent Show is ready!

I am so pleased to see our class represented beautifully - well done!

Check it out on the We The Kind Website

Community Circles this week!

Tuesday at 1:00 - we will be going on a virtual field trip!

Thursday at 1:00 - you will each get two minutes of fame!

Friday at 11:30 - a farewell Community Circle

For your 2 minutes of fame, you will have leadership in the community circle. Think about what you would want to do? show a quick video? Tell a joke? You really only have two minutes each. Please make sure we keep it appropriate for school.

Yesterday was National Indigenous Peoples Day. 

In celebration, let's watch some Pow Wow dances.

If you ever get the chance to attend a Pow Wow - I highly recommend it.

It is a beautiful experience.

This hoop dance is AMAZING!

 I love the jingle dress regalia.

Not the same as experiencing it live, but this is the best we can do right now.

Men's Grass Dance.

Again - the regalia is a wonder!

Your survival skills are superb!

I would be comfortable in the wilderness with your guys - as long as there is granola!

Thanks to everyone who joined the community circle.

Today (Friday) is the MHPS Jump Rope for Heart!

Find out more on the We The Kind Website

Catch- up day!

- Have you shared your letter with me?

- Have you made your suggestions for our summer reading booklist?

- Did you complete the surface area and volume math?

Celebrating Indigenous Voices

One of my favourite bands right now is A Tribe Called Red.

If you get a chance - you should check them out.

Friday Fun Song!

I let my kids pick the Friday fun songs this week.

Holly's Pick: Chopstick Chickens (she LOVES TwoSet)

Thijs' Pick: Minion Idol 

Have a great weekend!

One week to go!

Community Circle Today (Thursday) at 1:00!

I will be testing your survival skills!

Hope to see you all there!

Math

Assuming the measurements are in centimetres, 

please find the surface area and volume of the following shape:

(refer to the video we watched two days ago if you are having trouble)

Summer Reading Suggestion List

Some of you have made some really great suggestions for our summer reading list.

Keep the suggestions coming!

I will post the list next week.

The Ongoing Saga of the Robin's Nest

Sad news. We woke up this morning to find the nest empty.

I don't think the birds were mature enough yet to fledge (fly away on their own), but they were not there this morning. I don't know what happened, but I am incredibly saddened by this. I was hoping to see them safely fly away. I am so grateful for the joy and wonder that they brought me and my family. 

Thanks to everyone who joined in our community circle.

You guys are clever riddle solvers.

Next community circle is Thursday at 1:00.

Hope to see all of you there!

Celebrating Indigenous Voices

We continue to celebrate indigenous voices in Canada in this our Indigenous History Month.

Please watch this profile on ShoShona and tell me in your learning journal what you learned from it. What advice does she give that you could apply to your life?

Summer reading ideas!

In community circle we did some riddles from The Hobbit (an amazing book you should read) and it reminded me to start a list of suggested summer reading for everyone. In you learning journals, give me a book or two that you would recommend to everyone for good reading this summer and I will create a list on the blog.

Here are my suggestions:

Community Circle today (Tuesday) at 10:00!

I'll be testing your brain power with some fun riddles and brain teasers.

I'll also take any questions on Math, Literacy, etc.

Math

Please watch this tutorial on how to find Surface Area and Volume

These little guys are growing every day!

It is truly amazing.

They thought I was Mama or Papa bringing them food, so they were opening up for a food delivery.

Community Circles

This week's community circles will be on:

Tuesday at 10:00

Thursday at 1:00

Please continue to use the same meet code.

June marks Canada's celebrations of Indigenous culture and Indigenous people in our community.

Please watch this short video about Jesse Wente who is a well known advocate for lifting Indigenous voices - particularly in the arts. He is also someone who I admire greatly. In your learning journal - tell me about what you learned from this profile video. How can you apply this to your life?

More and more feathers!

Look closely - eyes are opening!

Look at these little beauties!

Their feathers are coming in.

Math

Please complete your tessellations.

Literacy

Continue on your letter.

Friday Fun Song!

Make 'em laugh!

I LOVE this movie (Singin' in the Rain)

Community Circle today (Thursday) at 1:00

I'll take questions on math and literacy.

Hope to see you all there!

Sam is creating another Kahoot for us. Thanks Sam!

Math

Please complete your multi shape tesselation project.

Literacy

Last major writing assignment!

"Advice From Those Who Know"

You are challenged to write a letter to my class next year. Tell them what it takes to have a successful year with me as their teacher. Tell them what to expect and give them advice from your experience. I will be looking for it to be in letter format and proofread for spelling, punctuation and grammar. Please put it in a separate document and share it with me.

This will be due next Wednesday.

MHPS Talent Show!

A note from Ms. A:

Good morning everyone!

A reminder to continue checking into the Learning Commons site for new book suggestions and activities.  

Also thank you to those students who have already submitted their Talent Show videos.  The date for submission will be extended to Monday June 15.  Make sure you videotape your special talent to be showcased in our own Virtual Talent Show!!!!

https://sites.google.com/gapps.yrdsb.ca/llc-at-mhps

Thank you to everyone who was in our community circle.

I appreciate your open hearts and open minds.

Math

As we talked about in community circle, your second tessellation assignment is to do a multi-shape tessellation. Create a tessellation on grid paper using more than one geometric shape. Please describe the transformations of shapes within the tessellation. Translation? Rotation? Reflection? and describe the movement within the grid using co-ordinates, point of rotation and/or line of reflection. 

Again, take a couple of days to do this. Due: Friday.

Here are a couple of examples:

The Ongoing Robin's Nest Saga!

They are starting to look like birds now!

It is so awesome to watch Mama or Papa come with food and their little heads pop up waiting to be fed.

The top of Jeffrey, our wonderful pineapple, has been pushing out some beautiful roots!

I will let the roots establish a bit more than pot it in soil.

Community Circle Today (Tuesday) at 1:00

We will be discussing the math - tessellations and the article from Teen Vogue that I posted yesterday.

Literacy

In the article we read yesterday, I asked you to tell me why an article about the United States was important for us, here in Canada, to read. Today I would like to watch our Prime Minister in a recent press conference. 

1. Why do you think he pauses for so long before answering the question?

2. What Canadian problems does he address in this answer? How are they similar to what is going on in the US?

Lip Dub!
I'm filming my Lip Dub today! I hope to see some from you guys too!
All the info is on the We The Kind website.

Community Circles.
This week our community circles will be on:
Tuesday at 1:00
Thursday at 1:00

Literacy
Please read the following article and answer the questions below in your learning journal.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/beyond-the-hashtag-how-to-take-anti-racist-action
1.  This article is about the United States not Canada. Why am I asking you to read it?
2. Choose one line that really stood out for you and tell me why.

Math - Tessellations
"A tessellation is a regular pattern made up of flat shapes repeated and joined together without any gaps or overlaps. These shapes do not all need to be the same, but the pattern should repeat. Another word for tessellation is tiling."

On a piece of grid paper, please create your own single shape tessellation. Please use only one shape - multiple shape tessellations will come later. Photograph it (if possible) and put it in your learning journal. Also please describe the translations between shapes in your tessellation.  Are there reflections? Rotations?
Take a couple of days to do this. There won't be new math until Wednesday.




The Ongoing Robin's Nest Saga
Hatched!!!
Sorry my pictures aren't great. I wanted to be as respectful as possible to Mama.
So I snapped these really quickly while she "stepped out" for a moment.
I'll keep trying to get pics each day as their feathers grow in and they get bigger.
I'm so excited!

June 5th is World Environment Day

I watched a livestream conversation with four AMAZING youth activists. 

I HIGHLY recommend you watch their film Citizen Kid Earth Comes First.

Join 4 special activists as they take up a cause that affects us all, on a special Earth Day mission!
CitizenKid: Earth Comes First | Friday June 5th at 5:30pm E/P on YTV!
https://www.ytv.com/

June 6th is the First Great Canadian Camp-in!

Girl Guides of Canada, in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation, is inviting all families across Canada to explore the fun and connection of camping from wherever you are. You can sleep outside, under the stars or snug inside a blanket  fort.  Get creative and transform your backyard or living room into the ultimate home campground with us, and have fun while at it.They’ll set you up with great ideas for creating your ultimate camp-in shelter, activities, and nature games to get you into the spirit of exploring the outdoors – right from home.  

PLUS! My personal hero - David Suzuki - will be reading a special campfire story. So awesome.

You can register by clicking on this link: Camp-in registration

Friday Fun Song!
"I don't know why, but I've always loved the idea of summer..."

I am really enjoying seeing your wellness activities. 

I love how some of you are making posters and poems for others.

When we think about the wellness of others - we help ourselves too.

Wellness Week Part Two Choiceboard

Community Circle today (Thursday) at 3:30 PM

Today we will be working on music - playing Guess That Tune!

Sam will also be leading some games.

Hope to see you all there!

Look what arrived!
The actual hard copy books!
I wish I could show you in person and we could flip through our awesome work together.

Excellent discussion in our Community Circle.
Remember to always get the whole story of a person, not just what you think you can see.
Here are some books by Jason Reynolds you might want to check out.
I'm reading Miles Morales Spiderman (for the second time!).




Wellness week  - Part Two
I am enjoying reading about what you guys are choosing to try out on the choiceboard. I have seen some awesome poetry, posters, art and more! Keep trying new things each day.

Wellness Week Two - Choiceboard

Continue your learning through our Mental Wellness Week Two Choiceboard.

Mental Wellness Week Two Choiceboard

Community Circle today (Tuesday) at 10:00 AM.

In today's community circle we are going to talk about this interview with Jason Reynolds - my favourite author right now. Why is what he is talking about so important right now?

Interview with Jason Reynolds