2013 Monster Masks

After the haunted house last year I took some photos of my students wearing their masks, and now that it’s Halloween again I can share them. Hopefully I’ll get the ones from this year up more quickly. 

Hand-washing Is Important Because Our Hands Are Disgusting!

 This October we've been working on a lot of big projects. Alex is finishing up his unit on microscopic life with bacteria plates. He made the agar at home and the kids have been recording the growth of whatever was on their hands that day. It's pretty disgusting but in the best way.

Their observations include drawing the plate and writing descriptions of what they see. These are skills they can apply to their own science fair projects in the new year.

 

For Grandparents Day in September our class read "The Wednesday Surprise" by Eve Bunting. It's about a girl who teaches her grandmother how to read. Students then wrote about what they could teach their own grandparents to do. 

Both classes are working hard on their monster masks in preparation for the haunted house. This will be the third (and final) year we'll be doing the haunted house, so Alex and I really wanted to improve on what we accomplished last year. The students pictured here are working on a paper mache dragon head which will have glowing red eyes and spew smoke.

September

It has been a difficult start to the school year. Our colleague and friend Patricia McIssac  passed away September 14th, and it has hit us and the school community pretty hard. She did so much for the school and the kids that it's difficult to think of anyone being able to replace her.

We had a relatively cool summer in Ontario this year, and we've had a similarly cool fall in Garden Hill. The few warm days we had this month I spent hiking and berry picking. Jordan and I found plenty of blueberries and cranberries. 

     

Being back in Garden Hill for one more year brings up a lot of conflicting feelings. On the one hand I'm happy to be back teaching, and our students seem excited to be in our classes. On average these kids are stronger in reading and math than last year's grade sixes. I've got plans to improve upon last year's lessons, and I have the materials needed to follow through on those plans. On the other hand living here is proving to be much more difficult psychologically. While I would definitely work at another school on a reserve I don't think I could live here another year after this one.