April 13 - 17

Ukrainian Day

This past Monday we celebrated the culture of Ukraine. Students were able to try various types of food that is common to Ukraine: cabbage rolls, borscht, sour kraut, kutya (wheat pudding) and of course, we couldn't leave out the perogies!!!

It was a whirlwind of an afternoon, and I am so deeply indebted to Tammy Huber for volunteering her time to come in and help. She was instrumental in helping the students with the their pysanky and we would never have completed all of them without her help.

For those of you unfamiliar with pysanky - it involves drawing designs on eggs with melted wax in between dipping them into different colours. Let me tell you - it is quite the process and I, as well as the students, are so in awe of some of the very finely detailed eggs that we have seen. Students were asked to design an egg using some of the common symbols used for traditional pysanky. Then they begin the lengthy process of decorating their eggs. I have to say it was harder than we expected. Therefore, it was quite the panic to make sure everyone had an opportunity to complete their pysanky and I totally forgot to take any pictures that afternoon!!!

We also did not have time to take the wax off - so I spent some time this weekend melting the wax off of the eggs and here is a picture of the final products:

They turned out so awesome!!! Good job guys!!!

Science Update

This week in science, the students completed a Unit End Show What You Know - and I am so proud of how well they did. There were some students away - so I haven't handed them out and I won't until all of the students have completed it - but "Great Work" on understanding the concepts in our Testing Materials and Designs unit. 

We also started our new unit, Building With a Variety of Materials. In this unit the students will apply the concepts that they previously learned in some hands-on building projects.

Their first project was to construct a Gift Bag that had to meet the following criteria:

1. It had hold a package of fruit gummies. 

2. It had to have a lid - it could be attached or separate.

3. It had to be sturdy.

We discussed the purpose of containers, in particular, gift bags and then we talked about shapes and how we might go about making a gift box. Students needed to plan their gift bag first and then attempt their design. This was definitely a learning experience as many students just wanted to try it without really having a plan.

Here is what they came up with - there were some pretty awesome gift bags created in class - and a heck of a lot of enthusiasm, too!!!

Some of the designs worked really well, while others needed some work - but it was a great introduction for the students to realize the importance of a plan - and that sometimes things don't always turn out how we anticipated. 

I hope everyone has a super fabulously awesome 4 day week - as there is no school this Friday April 24 due to a PD day.