I wanted to do a shout out for a fabulous organization here in town. If you are needing some great gift ideas for the holidays, look no further!!!!
Have you ever heard of Craftworks? It is an organization that offers adults with disabilities the opportunity to create wonderful handmade items.
Oh, and I should say upfront, that I am in no way connected to this organization and have not been given any sort of remuneration for this post. I just love their stuff!
The ornaments are my favourite! I especially love the Richard Scarry ornaments from my childhood. They bring back such good memories. (I learned to read with his books. Check out the link to one of my all time fave books!) And the newer First Nations ornaments are pretty spectacular with all of the detail in them.
Check it out!
I meant to get this post written while Circle Craft was still on because they had a booth there but, alas, the week got away from me!!
But, wait! You can still get these items at a sale near you! (I always wanted to sound like an infomercial!!!!)
They will be at Candytown on the 22nd. So, mark it down on your calendar and get yourself down to Yaletown for Candyland next weekend!
Cheers!
Olwyn
Ok.
You don't have to say it.
I know that Halloween is over and done with...
BUT...
I finally downloaded my pictures off of my camera and I just had to share the Frankensteins the kids did!
This was a community wide craft project (that means we taught it to 92 kids at the same time!) during Community Arts and Crafts on the day before Halloween. And they turned out so gosh darn cute!
Check them out!
Now, Halloween is officially over for this year. I promise!!!!
Cheers!
Olwyn
Today won't be a long post. I'm fighting an ear ache and, so far, the ear ache is winning!
Just wanted to post these spooky (but, oh so cute!) skeletons we did during Community Arts & Crafts on Thursday.
As usual I love how the same craft can show so many differences depending on the student who creates it. So much fun!
We have 92 of these spooky skeletons hanging all over our community. There is no doubt that Halloween is drawing near!
Cheers!
Olwyn
I have been running a weekly Craft Club at my school since this past Fall. The PAC gave me a bit of money to get it started but that is long since spent. Had a pretty strong feeling that $100 wasn't going to take us far and it didn't. Not when I have upwards of 20 kids each week wanting to make the different crafts!!!
So, now I've had to get creative. What can we make with things I already own or that can be easily found within the school? I've delved into some of our community supplies and we've been sewing Spring birds. These have been a big hit! This group really likes anything that has to do with sewing (which is my first love when it comes to crafting, too!)
The kids have been working on these for a couple of lunch hours and are just now starting to finish some. Thought I'd share a few here.
I am going to try to keep the club going best I can what with having already spent the funds for this school year. I might need to do a parent appeal for supplies or something. I'll have to see how it goes after Spring Break.
I just know that for the kids who come regularly it is something they really enjoy. And for a few of those kids, it is something that they NEED. Some of them don't have tons of friends or activities to keep them busy over long lunch hours and the craft club gives them a safe place to come. So, fingers crossed that I can keep coming up with ideas and supplies!!!!
Happy Crafting!
Olwyn
I am continuously impressed with the creativity that comes out when the students get the opportunity to choose where they want to work during Centre time. Here are some things that came out of the arts and craft table this past Friday.
How cute are these two puppets? The one on the bottom is pointing to say "That way!" A whole bunch of kids from the community got into making paper bag puppets last Friday. Wish I had gotten pictures of more of them. Sigh...
It's hard to tell but each of these small animals are about the size of a loonie. The two girls who made them worked very hard on them for the whole hour! The top one is even stuffed! I love that they love to sew!
And I am still dreaming of finding a coffee table that I can use to do this. Know anyone who has one they want gone? I'll take it!!!! You'd think old coffee tables would be everywhere and, if I wanted IKEA tables, that would be the case. Unfortunately, I need a table that has a frame not just four legs screwed to a top (a la IKEA) and these older coffee tables are not quite so easy to find at the used furniture stores. But, never fear, I will keep looking!
Also, looks like we'll be getting two new big arts and crafts tables for our common area. The library just got new tables and I have snagged two of the old ones. One will be near the teacher's sink and paint supply area so that we can do more painting activities and the other will house the craft supplies (that are currently in my studio). I'd like to have just the sewing supplies in my studio (and, hopefully, a sewing table for group projects if I can just get my hands on the right kind of coffee table!!!!)
Honestly, there are days when I wish I could just teach arts and crafts all day long. Sigh...
Cheers!
Ms. Hughes
Things are chugging along in Turtlepond these days! It is hard to believe that we are only 9 school days away from our Winter holidays. How did that happen? Over the last few days I have taken a bunch of pictures that are completely unrelated to each other so I thought I would just share them anyways! So, here goes....
We got mail! Today we got two postcards from Beijing, China! Last week we got a postcard from Texas. If you get the chance to check out the blackboard above our book boxes you will see the map of the world I have hung there with strings going from the places to the mail we have received. We sent off 23 letters to various schools participating in our holiday mail exchange and are hopeful that we will also get more mail from relatives of the students in our class. We can hardly wait to see what comes next!
We have discovered that you can draw a picture with our felt pens and then use water and a paint brush to turn it into a watercolour! This moment of serendipity happened on a day when I just didn't have time to get out the paints during choosing and suggested a student try doing this instead. Tons of fun (and art) ensued!
Four of the boys built this very complex structure during choosing. It is an entire village surrounded by a wall with a blacksmith, horses and everything all made out of Lego. They had me take a gazillion photos from various angles which would take up about 4 pages if I tried to post them all. Cool, huh?
And we have been reading a variety of versions of the Gingerbread Boy story. So far we have read the following versions...
We have been comparing each of the versions to the ones we have read before and discovering many similarities and differences. Reading the Hawaiian version (The Musubi Man) was particularly fun as it ends in an entirely new way from the original. And today we started working on our own class version of the Gingerbread Man story that we hope to finish before the holidays and have our very own "Conan The Librarian" put it in the library for all to read!
In Math Stations we have been working on gingerbread boy patterns, number printing, addition and subtraction games and completing math assessments with me. I am discovering that quite a few of the grade 2's need to work on quick recall of their math facts to 20. We still have a lot of kids counting using strategies like their fingers, objects etc. which is fine as a strategy but really slows down their ability to do math facts quickly and accurately. We are going to be working on place value in the new year and begin doing more column addition with and without regrouping. Knowing their math facts is kind of like knowing sight words. It allows them to spend their time thinking about the question and how to do it rather than having to stop and count on their fingers each time they have to add another two numbers together. A set of math fact flash cards in each stocking this Christmas would be a very good idea!
This Thursday we are looking forward to making Christmas ornaments with our parent volunteers. Before the holidays, we will be doing a scrapbook page about the holidays for our scrapbooks. And next week we are going to be singing Christmas carols in the gym on a couple of mornings. I will let you know which days we are going. Hope that you can join us!
Today we worked with our grade 4 buddies to make a Santa Countdown to Christmas craft. I got the idea from pinterest (my new favourite thing to do!) but changed it a bit to make it work with the supplies I had on hand. This was the idea I saw on pinterest.
via
this site
The class had great fun making these. They took them home today and will start on December 1st cutting off a row at a time until they only have the Santa face they made left. And then it will be Christmas!!!! I didn't have my camera at school or I would show you what ours looked like. I will take a pic tomorrow and post it.
In Science, the grade 1's have been learning about force & motion. We have studied pushes, pulls, gravity and friction. Today we worked on magnetism and then built ramps to try to see how much friction different items had as they slid down the ramp. Great fun!
The grade 2's have been working with Mr. Langille and Miss O on Solids, Liquids & Gases. They made a goop today that is both a solid and a liquid. How cool is that? They get to bring their goop home tomorrow.
I know that there is tons more going on but right now I am too tired to think! More tomorrow.
Look at these wonderful turkeys my class did last week with the guest teacher. I am always a bit worried when I leave a new task for a sub because I have had some guest teachers who did the exact opposite of what I asked! But the sub I had last week was awesome!!!
They brainstormed things for which they are thankful and wrote them on the tail feathers before doing the turkey craft. They were thankful for school - trees - gardens - sea creatures - playing with cars - themselves - vegetables - their parents - dogs - peace - their parents for making money - water - cats - their house - turtles - air - life - turkey - beds - food - candy - the stars and moon - electricity - books to read and the Earth just to name a few! Reading these just warms the heart doesn't it?
Ms. Hughes
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