Haikus on a topic...

Horses are so cool,

In the sunshine where it's hot.

And horses love the heat.

=================

 I have five brothers.

They are annoying. 

They like to play games.

====================

Gillises are cool.

Better than what Dawn thinks.

Dawn is a dummy.

======================

Rain is wet and fun.

I like to roll in the mud

When it is super wet!

=======================

 Sophia Lillian

The cutest baby ever.

I love her so much!

=======================

 Mom's have so much style.

They are loving and caring.

They love us so much!

=======================

Hoodies are so warm.

And I like to wear them.

They are very cool.

=======================

Gaelic is so cool.

In Gaelic there are accents.

You would like it, too.

=======================

I have a sister.

She is a pain in the butt.

That's why we have them!

=======================

Rain made by water

Water is good for everybody

Its gonna rain water all day.

====================

You can play music.

You can play the piano.

Listen to music.

======================

I have a dirt bike.

My dirt bike goes very fast.

My bike gets dirty.

======================

They are physicists.

Penny is a bad waitress.

Ah hah! Bazinga!

======================

Cards are very fun.

I like card tricks very much.

I know cool card tricks.

=======================

Family is cool.

Family takes care of you.

Family is nice.

=======================

I am a nice aunt.

Olivia -- three months old

I love her so much.

=======================

Greg and Roderick

Hate each other very much.

Manny poops a lot.

=======================

Neve and Shayde are twins.

They share all of their birthdays.

Neve is the oldest.

======================

Guitars are awesome!

There are different guitars.

I play the guitar.

=======================

Ontario rocks!

Ontario is awesome.

Mississauga rocks!

========================

all poems created by Grade 5/6 students.

-all rights reserved-

Party Rockin'!

Here was our class's entry into our school's Spring Fling Talent Show!

*all participants were asked if they wished for this video to be posted on our class's blog

OUR VIDEO IS LIVE!!!! You Can Do It NOW!

Our video for the Energy Diet Challenge is now LIVE!!!!!!!!!! The video as it's seen on the Challenge website is below. We ask that you please go to http://energydiet.canadiangeographic.ca/home/video_gallery/379/ms-macdonald-gillis#the_title ,VIEW our video, then click the Facebook "LIKE" button at the bottom right. 

 OR you may.... Go to Facebook and:

1. Search for "Shell Canadian Geographic Energy Diet Challenge" 
2. "Like" the page.
3. Find our video "You Can Do It NOW!" by Rankin Grade 5/6 Class 
4. LIKE our video

(please and thank you very much) 

The likes for our video count for 25% of our total judging for the video contest. Voting opens to the public on April 2, 2012 at and will close on April 13, 2012 at 11:59:59 (Eastern Time. No votes will be accepted by any other means. All votes must be received on or before the Voting Deadline in order to count towards the results of the Video Contest.

  We would really like it if you commented here on our blog as well so we can get an idea of who's seeing our video!

GreenTeam Saves the Day

Here's the children's story book some members of our class submitted as part of our Energy Diet Challenge! Congratulations, girls!!!!!!!!!

Giving it up...

Giving up something we really like and use a lot isn't an easy task. Here's our journal entries on giving up one of our "wants" -- as part of one of Energy Diet Challenges

Drawing 3D figures and Exploring Volume

Remember that 3D means that the figure has 3 dimensions: length, width, height (or depth).
To find volume we multiply these dimensions:

volume = length x width x height

Here's tonight's homework, based on what we did in class today:

 If you need to review the online drawing we did in class today, you can click here.

Independent Novel Project Outline (for those who misplaced their's)

 Novel Project Due Dates:

#'s 1-7 due Friday, April 13th

#8 due in class sometime week 16-20

#9 due Monday, April 23rd

 Independent Novel Project: Term 3

You are going to be choosing a novel you would like to read, and explore.

The following project will be mostly completed at school. Reading will take place at home and at school, especially during our designated silent reading time. Time will be given in class to complete some of the written components, but not all.

To begin the project, you will select a novel from the library, classroom, or bookmobile and complete a mini conference with your teacher to ensure the book you have chosen is grade appropriate and challenging. Class time will be set aside for reading conferences where you and the teacher will meet, and the teacher will assess your reading fluency and interpretation of the novel.

Each task must be completed on a piece of loose leaf, and presented in an organized manner. Write in blue or black ink, one side only, double-spaced and note page numbers where supporting information can be found in the text. Please create a cover page for your project as well as a table of contents (label each assignment with the corresponding page number listed). Please be prepared for a final presentation of your project to your classmates. Your project must be put together in the following order:

 Tasks:

1. Give a brief summary of the plot. 1-2 full pages, tell the story. Include 2-5 of the main events and describe what happens at the end.

2. Explain the significance of the title (5-10 sentences). Authors do not choose a title randomly. Usually the title is symbolic in some way.

3. Describe the setting and genre – time period, location, etc. (5-10 sentences)

4. Discuss in 1 full page your ideas about the main character(s). Answer what you like or dislike about them and why they are worthy of praise and/or criticism.

5. In 1 full page, identify what caused a major change in the main character(s) and explain how the character(s) changed. These changes may have been a consequence of choice, a conflict, a display of some outstanding trait like courage, or even a result of events that occur during the novel.

6. In a journal style entry, copy 5 of your favourite phrase/sentences from the book and explain why you chose them.

7. Make up 5 true and false, 5 multiple choice and 5 matching test questions for this novel. Put the correct answers on a separate piece of paper.

8. In 1 full page write a general review of the book. Would you recommend the book? Why or why not? Would you have changed any element of the story (plot, characters, setting, resolution, conflicts, point of view, etc.)?

9. Select and complete 1 creative project that relate to and reflect the main points of your novel. Suggestions: book jacket, character scrap or memory book, theme or symbol collage, diorama, newspaper, character diary, character/scene sketch, menus from the text, comic or political cartoon, song, travel brochure, scene rewrite from a different point of view, movie poster with a cast of stars and justification of your choices, etc. Please run your ideas by me before you start.

 Your project’s assessment will include:

a) Selecting an appropriate novel.

b) Student/Teacher conferences.

c) Complete all of the tasks (some tasks have early due dates and will be shared as the term progresses). 

One Hour Without Power

When you are faced with an hour without power it can be boring, but you can always READ! If we were in 1860’s it would be really HARD because you wouldn’t have any power. Back then you would be making mittens or weeding the garden. I don’t know if I could even survive a DAY without power because we have TV’s, ovens and even computers. If I had to survive a day without power it would be REALLY HARD.

       For our hour without power in class, all we had to do was READ because we were in a small space. A larger outdoor space would allow us to do more activities like play tag. If we didn’t have any books it would be a long hour. With no power at home, all of our main course meals are made in the oven. We could always use the stove, but it would take longer than the oven. We would have to find other ways to cook our meals.

Anyway, I think we would be doing the earth some good if we cut back on the use of power every day! There are things we can do each day that don’t require power usage. Giving up power for one hour each day, is not a huge sacrifice; everyone should give it a try!

submitted by: Jessie Helen

The Classroom Energy Diet Challenge

Wow! Have we been busy working on this challenge! Everything from a logo contest within our own classroom, to researching types of energy, tracking our trash, calculating our water usage, and simply turning things off... we've been immersed in energy use awareness!

Here are the logos designed by our class, with the class' chosen winning logo for our site in the Challenge, designed by Emily! Way to go, guys!

Perhaps the most exciting step thus far in the Challenge has been creating a script for a infomercial on reducing energy. We submitted our script to the contest, and, low and behold, our script was chosen as one of 50 semi-finalists across Canada! That means, we won a video recorder to shoot our infomercial! 

We're going to start shooting before March Break, and , hopefully finish the week after March Break! Once it is finished, we will be needing your help, as the video will be posted on the Energy Diet's Facebook page, and we'll need your "Likes" to win!

To keep updated on our Challenge progress you can check out:
Grade 5/6 Class Challenge

A little game of "What is it?!"

We've been working on descriptive writing in class. I'm trying to get my students to have more creative confidence in their writing! I, nor their classmates, can't be giving them all their ideas all the time. So, I decided to try a "Pull an item from the bag, Hide it, Write about it" activity. It was kind of fun! Here are some examples of their very descriptive writing:

Fraction Practice!

We've been hard at work in our understanding of fractions. We've looked at how to make equivalent fractions and have also started exploring adding and subtracting fractions.

Here are some equivalent fractions links for practice:
http://www.mathplayground.com/visual_fractions.html
http://www.aaamath.com/fra42ax2.htm
http://www.mathsisfun.com/equivalent_fractions.html
http://www.learningplanet.com/sam/ff/index.asp

There is also this website which helps with all kinds of fraction concepts.

To review how to add fractions, you can explore these websites:
http://www.mathplayground.com/fractions_add.html
http://www.math.com/school/subject1/lessons/S1U4L3GL.html
http://www.mathsisfun.com/fractions_addition.html
http://www.aaamath.com/fra66kx2.htm

And, I was wondering... what fraction of our day was spent in awe looking at this today?!

Wow. We're lucky to have this view at our school!

Starting 2012 -- Fractions

Using www.linoit.com we created a word / concept map about fractions today!
Good for reviewing information!

Math Nifty-ness!

We've been working on 2-dimensional geometry in class for the past few weeks.
While working with angles, Richard came up with a cool little "animation" with his hands to represent right angles. This goes hand-in-hand (no pun intended) with the Math Lab we did on angles, as well.



Furthermore, when we were looking at the relationships among the angles in triangles, Riley came up with what we thought was a neat theory on how to calculate the missing angle in a triangle. We tested his theory many times and have proven it to be true of any triangle! Very cool!

We can make math pretty fun in here!

Prejudice Is Something We Can Do Without :: a poem by Rita Joe

Scroll through our thoughts on this poem by the famous Mi'kmaq poet, Rita Joe.

Our Skype Call with Students from Saskatchewan!

This morning we Skyped with a Book Club at a school in Regina, Saskatchewan. The students were grade 4,5 & 6 students. Shayde thought is was "interesting." Lainee thought it was "cool, fun and cool hearing everybody's thoughts." Sidney thought it was "awesome!"

Thank you, Mrs. McMurtry for setting up the Skype 'date' with us! We hope we can do it again sometime!

Reading Buddies @ Rankin School of the Narrows

Reading Buddies @ Rankin School of the N - slide show

Grades Pr-6. Every week. Enjoy.

Our Great Canadian Mail Race!

Where did our letters go? Who's going to win the race? Stay tuned... The Race is on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
View Our Great Canadian Mail Race Destinations in a larger map

Chapters 3 and 4 :: Tuck Everlasting

We have just read chapters 3 and 4.

We are intrigued with this man in the yellow suit.

• Tyler -- "I think he is trying to scheme something..."
• Zoe -- "I thought he was going to kidnap that girl, Winnie!"
• Logan -- "I think the guy in yellow is going to help in some way..."
• Jessie Helen -- "When we saw the yellow guy... in the suit... he was asking lots of questions, so I thought he was going to do something..."
• Mikayla -- "I think he might be a spirit..."
• Jon -- "I think he might be looking for information."
• Richard -- "What if it's [the man in the yellow suit] Tuck?!?!?"
• Sarah -- "I thought maybe he lived there before them, and maybe his house had burned down or something.
• Shayde -- "I think he's evil!"
• Neve -- "I think he was just hungry!"
• Matthew-- "I think he might be an elf because when he was leaving he was humming the song/melody"

 And... about that song...

• Tyler -- "It reminded me about Mae Tuck's music box."
• Jessie Helen -- "I didn't really understand it. She said she remembered it. How would she remember it? How are they connected?"
• Mikayla -- "I think the man in the yellow suit is Tuck because he heard the music before..."
• Logan -- "I think the music box is Mae Tuck because she said she was going to walk through the woods."

Questions for other classes reading Tuck Everlasting:

1. Who do you think is the man in the yellow suit?
2. How do you like the book so far?
3. What is your favourite chapter so far?
4. Why do you think the mom is always so mean to Winnie?
5. How are you keeping track of what you're reading? 

Starting the Global Read Aloud 2011 :: Tuck Everlasting ::

Today we started the book Tuck Everlasting as part of the Global Read Aloud Project.
We've read the Prologue and Chapters 1 and 2.


Our thoughts?

• Mikayla -- "I've figured out why it's called 'Tuck Everlasting'! They've looked the same for 87 years!"
• Logan -- "I think the book is going to be pretty awesome... and Hi!"
• Lainee -- "I think the book is going to be very interesting!"
• Emily -- "It's a very interesting, good book!"
• Jon -- "Pretty Good book!"
• Neve -- "It's creepy"
• Jessie Helen -- "It's scary; the woods are scary!"
• Zoe -- "Tuck is weird."
• Shayde -- "It's awkward..."

These are our initial thoughts. Please stay tuned as we blog about the rest of the chapters!

(If you are participating in the Global Read Aloud, could you please leave us a comment? Thanks.)

First day, first post of a new year!

Welcome back to school!
What could we have done that was blog-worthy on the very first day of school?


Today we got into the routine of our silent reading time each day. As a follow-up to our silent reading (where you could hear a pin drop, and students were asking for more time to read!) our crazy teacher handed out baggies that contained play-doh, a pencil, a piece of lined paper and a piece of unlined paper. We were given a number and if we had the number 1, we had to write about what we read:

If we were given the number 2, we had to draw what we were reading about:

And finally, if we were given the number 3, then we had to create something that showed what we were reading about:

And, as their teacher, I just have to say... these kids are impressive! LOL! Right from the first day!

Hope you all enjoyed the day! Welcome Back!

Mira Provincial Park Field Trip

On June 9th, we went on a field trip to Mira Provincial Park. This day of activities and informtaion booths was set up by the Department of Natural Resources. Our tour guide, Tracey, works for Dept of Natural Resources in Halifax, and had never been to Cape Breton before!

Thankfully, we didn't require the services of CB Search & Rescue!

Ready. Aim. FIRE!

Here are some snapshots of our trip:

Our first station: Geocaching!

These firefighters were leaving on June 13th to fight the wildfires in Alberta. They told us about "Mountain Money"!

The race is on!

Nope. This wasn't lunch.



Learning about tents & tenting



It's all about place...

A quick lesson on reading directions, led to a lesson on knowing one's mailing address...which led to a lesson on filling out forms... which led to a lesson on creating one's own business... which led to a lesson on creating logos and business cards... which led to this picture being taken. The business cards were awesome! If you ever need to make cute, professional looking, personalized business cards, you can check out: www.degraeve.com/business-cards/

This photo was the one that Andy was using for his business "kickflip" -- a skateboard accessory company.

And this one is Riley's image for his company:

Rockin' the Lip Sync at School with a Message

Here we are performing "Loser Like Me" from Glee as part of the Spring Fling Lip Sync afternoon!
We picked this song because it's fun and it has a good message. The message is that it's not ok for people to call others 'losers', but in the end, those that do are essentially "losers" themselves.

No, we weren't robbed!

These two characters were among the many that came to our classroom this week. They weren't robbers... more like "Robbers Munsch".

We've been reading and re-reading and exploring Robert Munsch books as a way to improve our understanding of how authors use words and punctuation to engage the reader. Each student read a variety of his books and had to pick a favourite book to share with our grade 2 reading buddies, and also had to prepare a presentation on the book.

The presentations were so well done that I ended up laughing, groaning, and even had tears in my eyes as the students gave their all to present their favourite books. The two characters in the picture above are from Robert Munsch's book "Boo!". 

I'm so proud of you guys for doing such a fabulous job with your presentations. It is a teaching moment I will remember forever, and something I will surely do again in the future!

Thank you for making my job fun!

Blog Posts about the Books We Read in Guided Reading

The following 3 entries are about the books we read in groups for Guided Reading.
Maybe you will enjoy them...
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog post  -- by Lily, Andy, Emerson, Breagha

In the last couple of days we have started guided reading. And it tells us about health facts.

By: Jeff Szpirgals

Illustration by: Alisa Bald

Title: *That’s gross*
Summary

This has some gross and some cool things in it like…

1) did you know that when you sneeze a thing called mucus comes out and it FULL of germs ( that’s why to must cover your mother)

2) Also…When you chew your food your mouth full up with saliva.

3) And another thing is.. When you get hurt or get a scrap there are little thing in your cut called cells. That with only a microscope.

4) One last thing is. There are thousands and thousands of mites on your pillow when you go to sleep. When you are asleep they eat all of the thing that are in your hair

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Camden, Rochelle, Shazia, Zach M, Dayna

Getting It All Done


By: F. Romall Smalls

This report was about young children that have a very busy schedule. It talks about how kids need to learn to manage their time. According to studies children have less free time than kids did 20 years ago. It talks about managing your time by using a book to write things down in, this is helpful. Some kids cut activities that are less important. Prioritizing is very important in managing a busy schedule. It also talks about getting the proper sleep each night.

Things to help you stay on track:

• Take notes

• To-do-list

• Most difficult first

• Study in a quiet place

• Make a check list

• Prepare for things early.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Logan, Mikayla, Ailig, Jon, Tyler, Zach C
Keeping fit
By: Peter Winkler

This book is about ways to keep fit and live a healthy life style here is some things that we thought were interesting in the book!

Facts:

• The USDA food guide is the best food guide in the world because it shows you what you should consume in a day.

• Every kid should have at least 20 to 30 of physical activity a day.

• Stretching exercises help build flexibility. If you have flexibility you can bend, twist and turn your body easily.

• Muscular endurance is the ability for your muscles to work over a long period of time.

• Your body must intake water every day.

 • Your body must contain 13 vitamins and 22 minerals a day to stay healthy.

Our Entry in the Teach with Techonology Contest

How do we use technology in our classroom? Well, let’s write a blog post about that…




That’s right. Blogging on our class blog is one of the ways we use technology in our grade 5/6 classroom at Rankin School of the Narrows. Our blog “Class Act : Rankin Files”  tells all about our forays into the world wide web and beyond.


Since September, we have worked to open our minds and classroom walls to areas outside of our rural community. Through our twitter account http://www.twitter.com/ruralteacher we read a book in a “Global Read Aloud” project, with other classes all around the world. We shared our ideas and predictions about the book through tweets and blog posts. Through this one project, we have made connections with other classes and have engaged in ‘conversations’ through blog posts with these students.


Weather is a big topic in our class. We love our storm days, but they also provide us with a chance to explore technologies used to inform meteorologists and weather reporters. Using tweets from twitter, highway web cameras, and radar imagery, we tracked a recent snow storm. Our tweets were so exciting for others to read, that CBC NewsWorld caught our tweets and mentioned us on air! We literally put our community on the map!


Because we are a rural school, we use technology to help put faces, words, thoughts and feelings of others into our thoughts. We use technology every day. Be it using the internet, writing blog posts, using the classroom computer for research, checking out something neat on Youtube, we find as many ways as possible to log in and connect!

Family Literacy Day -- January 27th

January 27th is literacy day in Canada.
We will be celebrating this special day all morning in our classroom.

The theme for Literacy Day 2011 is: Play for Literacy

What are some things we will be doing?
-- having an Alphabet Loop scavenger hunt around the classroom
-- discovering the fun in word games such as crosswords and word searches
-- playing a board game, or two, or three
-- reading to find out how to do origami and really creating stuff
-- picking one thing to share with our families Thursday evening to engage them in literacy, too!

We'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them on here!
Please check this link for more info on Family Literacy Day!

Weather / Storm Predictions

We researched weather/storm predictors that happen  or are talked about in our families.
Here are some of the sayings/ predictors that we think can be tested to be proven right or wrong:

• Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red skies at morning, sailors heed/take warning.
• To test this theory: keep track of the sunset colors and the colour of the sky in the morning.
• Calm before the storm.
• To test this theory: When there is a forecast of a storm, watch the sky/environment to see if it's calm. Then see if there's going to be a storm.
• If the wasps' nests are high in trees, there is going to be a lot of snow.
• To test this theory: In the summer, watch to see if their nests are hig in the trees or not. Then you'd have to wait to see how much snow came that winter.
• When a storm is going to come, you can hear the sea or the lake.
• To test this theory: Listen outside on a winter's day.
• When the cows lie in the pasture, rain is coming
• To tests this theory: Pick more than 1 farm/pasture to watch. (because cows lying in a field could just be a coincidence) If the cows are lying down, see if it's going to rain.
• Birthmarks/Scars get really red or change color when a storm is coming.
• To test this theory: First, find someone with a birthmark/scar. Then, make sure you're watching the birthmark/scar to note any changes in colour. Do the colour changes align with the weather changes?
• The TV goes fuzzy when a storm is coming.
• To test this theory: Note when your TV is turning fuzzy when you're watching it.
• Hamsters will start to shake when a storm is coming.
• To test this theory: Watch your hamster; make notes.
• Seagulls on the land is a sign of a storm.
• To test this theory:  Make note of land near water. Are the seagulls on the ground?
• If the frost on the trees is sparkling, it is going to rain.
• To test this theory: Note when there is frost. See if it sparkles. Wait.
• Little snow (flakes), Big snow (lots of it).
• To test this theory:  Look at the snowflakes. Make note of their size. Then note how much snow actually fell and for how long. Alternative: If you see small snowflakes. In 2 hours go check how much snow has fallen. On another day, if you see big snow flakes, check in 2 hours again to see how much snow has fallen. Then compare which has more.

Made on  http://www.wordle.net/

Gr 5/6 Storm Watchers make the news!

Hey, guys!
Hope you're enjoying the snow day!
I received  tweet this morning from CBC NewsWorld saying they were going to mention us on their Weather report this morning, for our storm tracking yesterday! I recorded it for you, in case you didn't see it!
Here it is:


Here is a http://www.twitvid.com/SC309 sent us in a tweet as well.
We put Iona on the map!
Enjoy!

Thanks, CBC!

Tracking the storm...

We spent time thsi afternoon tracking the pending snow storm for Atlantic Canada.
We collected information (data) using:

•  tweets from Twitter
• radar imagery from Environment Canada
•  highway webcams from Nova Scotia

Here are some of the cool tweets we received today:

It's fun learning about weather live and online like this!
We also research homework to do about weather sayings, folklore and indicators of stormy weather.


(And we may be wearing our pjs inside out and putting spoons under our pillows, too... maybe ...)

Meeting Mrs. Fennemore's Class...

Mrs. Fennemore's class in Newfoundland posted questions for our class on their blog. Here are our answers:

Ellav asked: Where are we in NS?
Andy's reply: We are in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia... more specifically Iona. You can do a Google Street view of our school here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=45.947633,-60.816885&z=19&t=h&hl=en This is our new school which opened 2007. It is a P-12 school.

JasmineG (who was born in NS! Where? we wonder) asked: what do we like best about our school:

1. Camden -- the gym & that we can learn Gaelic
2. Emerson -- playing dodgeball!
3. Zach C -- Everything... it's hard to pick
4. Nathan -- our new swing set!
5. Ailig -- Our gym -- it's HUGE! 
6. Tyler -- doesn't know what he likes best
7. Rochelle -- field trips we take
8. Zach M -- the swing set
9. Breagha -- art & the walking trail at our school
10. Lily -- the classes
11. Logan -- loves the swing sets
12. Andy -- our new outdoor skating rink
13. Dayna -- Dawn & gym
14. Mikayla -- Dawn, gym, and swings
15. Riley -- our new triple hoop
16. John -- huge gym & our new teacher, Dawn & our swingset
17. Shazia -- art, drama, and Mr. MacKenzie, French class
18. Jon -- music class, Gaelic, math, gym and my awesome new teacher, Dawn

Maya asked: What are we doing in school and what do we like?

• Health, Math, Science
• playing dodgeball in the gym
• Gym
• love language arts and tweeting on twitter!
• having fun with education
• checking our blog

Ethan  asked if we had a class pet or not?

• We have a pet rock! And we've got a fishbowl that will hopefully be filled soon

Liam  wants to know what the most exciting thing is we've done this year?

• The biggest thing so far is the additions to our playground. We got new swings and a triple hoop! And, we're waiting to test out our new outdoor skating rink! We're pretty excited!

Questions for Mrs. Fennemore's Class:

1. Where are you located in Newfoundland?
2. Were you affected by Hurricane Igor?
3. Are you guys going to get a new fish? (Sorry about Ringo)
4. What is the name of your school?
1. Does your school have a website?
5. Have you guys ever heard of the Gaelic language?
6. Do you guys have French class?
7. Do you speak French or English?
8. What kind of playground do you have at your school?

Tweeting with a Class in Ontario

This morning we tweeted with a class in Ontario about the Little Prince as part of the Global Read Aloud project:

The students we tweeted with were part of @Gill_Ville 's class in Waterloo, Ontario.
Their school website can be found here  and their class website (which is really cool) can be found here.

Their teacher also mapped the route from their school to our's. You can find it here:
http://twitpic.com/2x9lh1/full

We really enjoyed our twitter "date" with the class!

The Baobabs :: Chapters 4 through 6

• Learning about the planet -- Asteroid B612
• How does the plane land on the planet if it's so small
• BAOBABS!!!!!!!!
• tiny, little planet
• a tree could barely live on it
• about the size of our classroom
• can fit 4 elephants on it... maybe 7
• Little Prince likes sheep
• Thinks smartly; has big words in his vocabulary; but he thinks 'small', thinks 'smaller' in terms of space and room available
•  He has words like an adult but he thinks like a child
• Baobabs are REALLY hard to get rid of if they grow too big; as soon as you find a bad seed you have to take them out!

  

Predictions:

Nathan: The Little Prince is going to get a real sheep. The narrator and the Litte Prince are also ging to move to the narrators planet. (But Ailig thinks the fact that the narrator said, "It's been six years since the Little Prince left me..." refutes this.)

Andy: I think the Little Prince is going to leave the planet a long, long time after the crash and he's going to go back and tell the kids on his planet about it.

Logan (the birthday girl today): I think they're going to find out where the Little Prince's homeland is, and they're going to find out that the Little Prince has magical powers

Ailig: I think the Little Prince is going to get an actual sheep and go back to his planet to kill the Baobab trees

Jon: I think they (the narrator and the Prince) are going to stay and find out what the planet is like.

Mikayla: I think he's going to get a real sheep.

Breagha: I think the Little Prince is going to get a real sheep and the narrator is going to find someone who likes his boa constrictor drawings.
 
Generally, we all think that the ending is going to be sad. The story just has that kind of feeling to it.

We created a wordle graphic about our thoughts thus far; about our predictions, our thoughts, our ideas about the book.

You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover!

We are taking part in a Global Read Aloud. We are reading the book "The Little Prince" with students from all over the world. Our teacher, Dawn, found out about the project on twitter.

A little bit about us:
We are from Iona, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. We are from Rankin School of the Narrows/Sgoil MhicFhraing a'Chaolais, where we learn all kinds of things, including the French and Gaelic languages. (The "sgoil" part of our school name is in Gaelic.) We are the 7 girls and 11 boys, aged 10-12, who make up the grade 5/6 class at this school.

Our First Thoughts on "The Little Prince"

• Ailig says, "Most of the class thought that, by the cover of the book, that the book would be really bad. After 2 chapters, we're hooked!"
• Zach M., "The little dude likes sheep?!?!"
• Jon says, "So far we find the book is really good... really awesome... and we're gonna keep reading."
• Zach C., "Can't wait to read more!!!!!!!!!!!!"
• Shazia: "The book is really awesome!"
• Logan (a girl): "I like the way the main character (the dude telling the story)... [the narrator] chooses his words!"
• Breagha: "I like the way the narrator is 'high class', using big words and stuff."
• Nathan: "The little dude is really picky about the sheep... and pictures!"
• Emerson: "The book is interesting!"
• Mikayla: "I thought the book was really interesting; I didn't think I was going to like it from the start! Now I want to go home and read, read, read!"
• Dawn (Our Teacher) says, "I"m totally pumped that my class is sooooo excited about this project!"

Back at'er

Here we are back at school for another school year.
This is going to be the blog where our grade 5/6 class keeps the world up to date on what's going on in our neck of the woods!

We hope:

• you enjoy looking at our blog.
• you come back to visit us again.
• you leave us a comment so we know you were here!

Can't judge a book by its cover, they say...

... but here are our covers!

Here are the books we're reading independently to end this term:

PHASR poetry

We've taken a different perspective on writing poetry. Using this website, we've used pictures and put them to our words. We feel that it's interesting to see how the poem/words make you feel!! Please check out our links below!

-- Mikaila, Beth & Laura

• Ian's War Poem
• Laura's Think About it Poem
• Sean's Look Around
• Today by Sirena
• Zac's Life
• Was it all a dream? by Lindsey
• Our Changing Planet by Teagan
• Once is Enough by Mikaila
• Life by Hector

ENJOY!

In my room poems

Students were asked to write a poem about their rooms. What better place to write about than their little havens! (activity adapted from Nancie Atwell's book "Naming the World" )

 In My Room      

In my room,

Under my bed,

There lives a monster

Who's name is Ed.

He comes out at night,

And steals my things,

But slips back under the bed,                        

before my alarm rings.                                             

Last night I caught him                         

Right in the act!

And I made him promise

To put all my things back!

My room was so clean,

But now it's all messed!

It's filled to the roof,

My Mom was not impressed!

Ed left my room,

And moved to another,

He said he was leaving,

He couldn't stand the clutter!

He went to a cleaner room,

One with more space.

He packed up his things,

And took my suitcase!

Now in my room,

Under my bed,

There is no monster

Who's name was Ed.

- Lindsey

================================================

My room dances with colors of lemon yellow, a soft light pink, a grass green and, a nice apple green

Pictures, trophies and medals float like stars in the night

And when I lay down, it's like falling in a meadow of clouds

My room is smooth and relaxing and smells like Ralf Lauren and other delightful smells

My room makes me, me , I could never think of changing the lovely colors , textures, scent, and stuff around it

What makes my room me is my sister because we share it!

-- Chynna

POETRY!

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.



W. H. Auden

We've begun a unit on poetry, and I've assured my students that I am determined to find their inner poets.
For the next couple of weeks, we'll be posting our best... our best poems, our thoughts, the work we are proud of!

Stay tunes for works from the poets of grade 7!