Hour of Code at EMU

On Friday December 11 we spent the morning learning about how games and apps are created. "The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics". Almost 5000 Canadian schools participated this year and over 180 countries took part in this event. Student were given their own account and are able to access the site anywhere with wifi. The age range that they give for the activities are from 4 to 104 so parents please feel free to try it out.

Hour of Code at EMU from M. Labelle on Vimeo.

1960s Project

For the school's 50th anniversary each grade level was given a decade. We got to learn about the 60s which was I have to admit an eye opener. Unfortunately there were a few students who seemed to think I should know a lot about the 60s thinking I was born in that decade. Since the students and myself did not know much about the 60s it was really interesting to see how much things have changed. Students researched the fashion trends, music, sports, cars, Television shows, movies, toys and the cost of living. Here's what we found out:

EMU Celebrates 50 Years

Sorry for the lack of posts recently we have been extremely busy completing multiple projects for our schools's 50th anniversary. The video below was created with the help of my very hard working students. We looked through several photo albums from the past and found out many interesting things about our school's past. After finding all the pictures we needed of different areas of the school we then discussed a script that would go with our story. The following is our video that received a very warm reception at the evening celebration.

MUS/EMU 50 years from M. Labelle on Vimeo.

Clay Tiles with Bud Gillies

Yesterday, our class spent the morning in the art room with Mr. Bud Gillies. We started working on our clay tiles for the school's 50th anniversary. Mr. Bud had us trace our image onto a clay tile. After we finished he gave us a carving tool to scratch along the lines that we traced. Now Mr. Bud is going to fire our tiles in his kiln. Next Monday we get to paint our tiles with liquid glass. Stay tuned...

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had fun and relaxing summer holiday. I'm looking forward to seeing some familiar faces along with the new ones that will be joining Crew 204 this year. This is EMU's 50th anniversary so we will be doing many fun and exciting activities to begin the year. For other activities through out the year please check in with our classroom blog as well as messages from "Remind". I look forward to meeting some of you at the Open House on Tuesday and for those who can't make it, I'll see you on Wednesday.

EMU 50th Anniversary

The following is a video invitation to the EMU 50th anniversary. This video was put together with the help of my grade 3 and 4 students from last year.

Ecole Margaret-Underhill School 50th Anniversary from M. Labelle on Vimeo.

Famous Manitobans

Students have been working very hard on dioramas about a historical Manitoba figure. They were divided into 6 groups of 3 and students chose which Manitoban they wanted to learn more about. The top six picks were Thomas Douglas, Louis Riel, Marie Anne Gaboury, Jean Baptiste Lagimodière, Noël Joseph Richot and Poundmaker. Students then researched using World Book online as well as many other online resources to discover their contributions to the development of Manitoba. The dioramas represent one or more events in their lives.

Manitoba Museum field trip

We went to The Manitoba Museum today and did a lot of exploring. We started in the science gallery (formerly known as Touch the Universe for us older folk) and saw some pretty cool demonstrations on sound. After the demonstrations we got to spend an hour of exploration time in the science gallery. The afternoon we spent doing a self guided tour of the museum. I'd like to thank the parent council for funding this outing as well as Mrs. Jennifer Krereluk-Stanley and Mrs. Heidi Dueck for volunteering.

Patrols go bowling

Had a great afternoon taking the grade four patrols bowling. I'm extremely proud of my grade 4 students who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. Some of these students took on as many as 5 jobs. Thank you.

EMU Field Day 2015

Had a great morning for the first half of field day. Grade 4 students are running the centres and helping out the younger students. Grade 3 students got to enjoy some fun activities such as parachute, face paint, Just Dance, pizza delivery, etc. Thank you to all the volunteers and organizers for a great day.

A-Z Bucket Filling

Students worked on a presentation with Mme Shellenberg for the past two weeks. They presented the book Bucket Filling A to Z by reading out the meaning of each letter. Have a look at their presentation.

Crew 204 Bucket Filling A-Z from M. Labelle on Vimeo.

Catapults

We've been learning about the Medieval Times in class this past month. We've studied the feudal system, everyday life for people, castles, food, etc. for this project students had to use recycled material to create a catapult that could launch a ping pong ball 1 meter.

Crew 204 Catapults from M. Labelle on Vimeo.

Perfect day at the Zoo!

We had a great day at the zoo today, not too hot not too cold and no rain! Students were very excited about seeing our new polar bears Hudson, Star and Blizzard swimming around. We were even introduced to species we didn't know existed. We visited the toucan and we were able to escape the area with only a few near misses. Thank you to Mrs. Wyatt and Mrs Kereluk-Stanley for helping out today.

Probability Fair 2015

Crew 204 and TEAM 203 held our Probability Fairs this morning and the students had a blast. Students from kindergarten to grade 4 came to play our games. Those who were lucky enough to win were given a ticket for a draw to be held on Monday the 11th. This wasn't an easy task as the odds were in favor of the house. The students had to create a game where the player(s) had only a 1 in 3 chance of winning. The students also explained the rules and how to play the game to other students in French and all teachers who visited complimented the effort the students put forth in speaking in French. Well done Crew 204 and TEAM 203!

Crew 204's Amazing Scraphic Novels

This past Thursday evening we celebrated the completion of our Scraphic Novels by sharing with parents, friends, brothers, sisters and other teachers. A big thank you to Karin Adams and Anita Lebeau for all their guidance and sharing of their incredible skills. Karin shared with the class the process she goes through as a writer. Anita shared how to express themselves using different colours as backgrounds and many fun and interesting ways of displaying their characters. The students were very sad when our three week project came to an end. The video below is of pictures of our novels which I believe turned out amazing.

Scraphic Novels from M. Labelle on Vimeo.

Le Cercle Molière visits EMU

Today we were treated to a play put on by Le Cercle Molière. It was a play written by René Ammann a teacher at École Centrale. The play was about when to use "j'ai" and "je suis" followed by the students playing a game. Students at first seemed a little shy however by the end of the presentation everyone was a willing participant.

Scraphic Novels

For the next three weeks the students will be working with Karin Adams and Anita LeBeau on creating their very own Scraphic novel. Today students used information that they gathered from our Arctic study to create their main character.

We Did Nothing Trailer

Here's a short trailer about some of the things with have done so far this year.

We Did Nothing Trailer from M. Labelle on Vimeo.

Words Their Way

In the next few weeks students will be receiving spelling words that they will be practicing in class through games and other activities. These words have been chosen to address a certain area that they may be having difficulty with for example short and long vowels. They will bring words home to practice sorting them into different categories. Please see the short three minute video about Words Their Way.

Festival du Voyageur

This afternoon students participated in a Voyageur assembly after a very tasty pancake lunch. We sang some classic voyageur songs and Crew 204 even showed off their dance moves. Check them out in the video.

Festival at EMU from M. Labelle on Vimeo.

Probability Fair Project

We've been working hard this past month on completing our probability fair games along with our backboards. The game designs are very impressive and I'm pleased to see many new ideas. Students are encouraged to make sure they have all materials at school to complete their project. The completed projects are due Friday February 27th and we are hoping to present them to other classrooms and parents/grandparents sometime in late March or early April.