Gr. 2/3's using Explain Everything for Math problem solving

Randerson's school wide goal this year has been to work on math problem solving.  Students from k-7 have been taking part in weekly problem solving activities.  Each class then submits their solutions to Mr. Mazzei.  Every week a student from each division is recognized for their problem solving skills. 

With our school goal in mind, Gr. 2/3 students in Mrs. MacDonald's worked on problem solving using the iPads. 

We used:
- math problem solving question(s)
- math manipulatives - today we used blocks                             
- iPads (1 per two students)
- app - Explain Everything

Our super-fantastic, energetic kids used the manipulatives to work through their problem. At each stage they took a picture and put it into a slide in Explain Everything. They then recorded their voice, explaining how they worked through the problem and what their thinking was to solve the problem.  While voicing their solving strategies, their partner used the pen in the app to circle the area the student was speaking about.  Teams completed three slides per problem.

Author Marty Chan visits Randerson

Randerson K-3 students and teachers welcomed Marty Chan as part of Bookfest 2014.  Marty is an Edmonton author and playwright who has written numerous books from picture books, to YA and adult books. Marty entertained our primary students with stories, jokes and his inspiration of how he became a writer.

Marty Chan visiting Randerson



Our grade 1's talk about Marty's visit.

Marty Chan made me laugh.                        by Addy

I liked it when Lilly hit Marty Chan with  her hair.  She was very funny and silly. She even stepped  on Marty Chan's foot. I like Marty Chan.    by Haohao

Marty Chan is funny. I liked it when Lilly went up. 
                                                                     by Jessica

Marty Chan has written a story.  It was funny because the cats were silly.  My other favourite part was Lilly performing something funny.       by Esmee

How many books have you written?  My favourite part was the little stage thing. I also liked the jokes. You are very cool Marty Chan!        by Alex

Picture by Alex

Have you heard of Marty Chan? He came to my school.  What I liked about him is he told funny stories.                                                         by Daniel

What I liked about Marty Chan was that  he picked me for a story.          by Lilly
PS You are very funny Marty Chan.

Marty Chan came to our school.  He is funny. He told us about his cats. One of the cats stole 39 pens.                                                              by Lucas

Marty Chan is cool. He rites funny books. Good job Marty Chan.  By Madison

I like wen Lilly went up with Marty Chan.  By Michaela

I was happy he came to our school because he tells funny stuff.   By Yash

Grade 3 & 4's talk about Marty's visit

 

 

Marty's books :)

 

I liked how he acted out how when he told his mom about him making fun of his mom was funny.

 

by Alex

 

Marty Chan is silly and fun and also he is very creative.   by Faith

 

I liked Marty Chan because he was really funny.   By Liam

 

I liked Marty Chan because all his stories are funny and interesting, like the story of Frozen Brains.  by Oliver

 

I think he does good magic tricks that are funny.

 

Rule #1 he is not allowed to pee in the tent! Marty Chan is a great author.  by Luke

 

Have you ever had Marty come to speek at your school? He describes him and his books.  He is a funny man.  I like Marty.   By Jenna

 

Marty Chan came to our school.  He was SUPER funny!!  He told us how he came up with some of the ideas for his (some of) books.  Like how he got his idea for Frozen Brains.  It was HILARIOUS!!!  And his idea for his bigfoot series when he went camping with his best friend Jay.

The #1 rule was NEVER pee in the tent!!! They ended by getting so scared.  Jay broke rule #1. 

 

by Samantha

 

 I liked Marty Chan because he can do majic.  By Courtney

 

Marty  Chan has a good sence of humer.  I think he has a good imagination.  By Serena

 

Marty Chan came to our school he was so funny he did funny jokes his books are really cool my favourite book was frozen cow brains.     by Avary

 

Marty Chan was hilarious.  He enspired me to read a lot since last week.  I recommend it for all ages.

by Trey

 

Have you heard of Marty Chan. My favourite part was his card tricks.  By Carson

 

Marty Chan's book is all funny I like the book 'frozen brains'   by Hannah

 

Marty came to our school he was very funny and I learned that big foot is real.   by Maren

 

I think Marty Chan was awesome and I like his self stories.

 

Marty Chan is a really funny guy.  My favourite book was the Big foot ones and how he told us the story about when he went camping with Jay.  And he thought it was Big foot that was chasing him.  I also liked how him and Jay found frozen cow brains in his freezer.  by Leah

 

Have you heard of Marty?  I liked him he was really funny.  by Kiana

 

I like Marty Chan's attitude.  He's really His books are awesome!!   by Jaden



Beautiful Breeze

Beautiful Breeze

      A gentle breeze was caressing the flower petals of every color and creating small ripples across the clear blue water. As the breeze swept through the air it whispered through the trees. It carried dandelion seeds in its arms and sprinkled them through the fields. It combed its fingers through the tall blades of grass. As night fell, the breeze fell into a soft, warm drift and lay down to sleep.

Delaney, Gr. 5

 

April Book Club - A Big Success!

Gr. 5, 6 & 7 students joined me for a long recess of snacks and discussion in this months book club.

Running Dream by Wendelin van Draanen was our April book club chosen book.  Due to the popularity of this book we had to postpone book club a few weeks to ensure all students who wanted to, could read it.  Book Club was worth the wait.  The students loved the book!  We had great character discussions about Jessica, Rosa, Fiona and Gavin. Students felt Jessica's story was portrayed realistically with some set backs and triumphs.  We talked about Jessica's strength and determination, along with her frustration.  The discussion was lead by the students and boy did they have some great insights.  One discussion was around the important role Jessica's dad played when taking away the pain killers. Students spoke of how easily she could have become addicted to the pain killers and by taking them away, her dad was helping her.  One student mentioned that she probably had to go through pain in order to heal.

Students really liked Gavin as he was genuine and honest to Jessica about his feelings.  Rosie was also a favourite among students as was Jess' supportive friend Fiona.  One thing that hit a cord with students was when _______ mom sat with Jessica at the track meet and apologized at first for her daughter and then (paraphrasing) "no I apologize for myself for raising her that way".  This admission really resonated with the book clubers, feeling it was the right and brave thing for that mother to do. 

All and all we had a very enjoyable long recess discussing Running Dream.  The food was yummy, the discussion in-depth and the students were eager to take part.

Life as a TL doesn't get any better than that :) !

Gr. 7 Poetry

I’m a Police Officer

 I am not a Tim Horton’s donut

   I am not a German shepherd

         I am not a smooth blue

I am not a pair of handcuffs

I am not full of anger

Because actually I am a police officer

Josh

 

Mrs. Radcliffe

I am not an apple

I am not a barking dog

I am not a prickly green

I am not the Eiffel Tower

I am not a red pen

I am not heavy with sadness

Because actually, I`m a teacher

Mrs. Radcliffe's Gr. 7 students

Darkness

 

I am the darkness.

I live all around you, and fill all your nightmares.

My favourite colour is black, for it represents me, all the fear in the world, the dead, the grief.

My job is to scare you, to take away hope, to engulf you in blackness, and let no light shatter my cloak.

I have no friends, but I do have a brother whom I hate with all my heart, for he is my enemy, the light.

I move with the fear, turning dreams into nightmares, and wherever there is grief, I shall be there too.

Catherine

 

 

Storm clouds swirl above

Huge and intimidating

Rain starts to pelt

 

In the morning sunlight

Horses sprint across the land

Powerful and strong

 

Catherine

 

 

The Auto Hairstylist

It brushes, it blow-dries, it braids, and it combs!

It stands on the counter, and is about 30 cm tall.

The base of the Auto Hairstylist looks like a metal spider, but the top of this clever machine doesn’t really have a shape, for the top is what makes all hair look nice.

The Auto Hairstylist reminds me of a hair dresser, only smaller and portable.

It moves like a spider, crawling along, and to get on the counter it hops real fast.

The Auto Hairstylist sound like a blow dryer, buzzing and blowing as hard as it can.

Catherine

 

 

 

 

Poetry by Mrs. Radcliffe's Gr. 7 class

Sandwich Maker Anator:

by Liam Gr. 7

 It gets the lettuce, mayonnaise, tomatoes and buns too!.

It stands at 6 feet tall and rolls on two.

The Sandwich Maker Anator reminds me of my mother.

It moves by rolling around the kitchen like a car in rush hour.

The Sandwich Maker Anator sounds like a happy chef that’s humming on a good day

 

Imagination

 

I have a place for imagination in my mind

We have a place for creativity in our classroom

She has a place for playfullness in her heart

He has a place for happiness in his school

They have a place for dreams in their souls

Our family has a place for love in our lives

Our school has a place for friendship in our playground

Our world has a place for everyone in unity

Where is your place for life?

  

This poem was written by Mrs Radcliffes grade 7 class.  

 

 

International students join Randerson students for a Day of Science

Three grade 6 students share their day.

 

Hi! My name is Melina and on February 5th 2014 my class (Mrs. Epps 6/7) had a group of international students from across the globe came to OUR CLASS and we did a few experiments. There were 9 students. There were 2 from India, 1 from Brazil, 1 from Turkey, 1 from Mexico and 4 from China.  All the students are studying for their masters degree. Since Chinese New Year was on Friday January 31st the four students from China brought some traditional food from their country (rice crackers, coconut crackers, white rabbits, fortune cookies)  Before we ate we had a circle protocol.

Circle protocol is an activity that we do in our class. Everyone sits in a circle and we first acknowledge the traditional territories of Snuneymuxw and Snaw-Now-As. Then we pass the talking stick (a mini totem pole) around in clockwise direction from the teacher. Then we share how our week is going and how we think about how our inquiry and our learning is going. After we have passed the totem pole around the circle we are done.

So we did the usual in circle protocol, Mrs Epps assigned a few questions to a few students to ask the exchange students. After that we shared the snacks.

Science experiments:

Our science group asked “What happens to water when it is mixed with a bubble formula?” Our group leader was a lady from China.

The materials we used where:
v Big bucket of water
v Dish soap
v Glycerin
v Straws
v Pipe cleaner
v Plastic pipe
v Hanger formed in a shape
Our method was:
v Add a third cup of dish soap to a quarter cup of water
v Stir gently
v Glycerin already added
v Dip rim of glass into the bubble formula
v We made a homemade bubble blower with a pipe cleaner and it didn’t work so well
v Then we just used our finger and it worked really well
In the afternoon we taught our buddies our project and they loved it!

Conclusion: I learned that the bubble formed after we dipped the rim of the glass in the formula. But it would pop after a few seconds. So we added a little bit more of the formula to the water. And when we moved the glass around it changed colour. We found out that the smaller shape worked better.

Melina Gr. 6

 

 

Learning about school in the world

This Wednesday was our science experiment day; we had international students from around the world who now learn at VIU come into our classroom. It was quite an experience for all of us there were people from Brazil, Turkey, China, Mexico and India.  We got to ask them questions about their homeland and how it’s different or the same to our school. We learned that in China they just sit in their desks row by row and listen to the teacher teach them, the students would sit and listen and take notes. We also learned that in Brazil the air is much more polluted and even though they have the rainforest they don’t use it wisely. We learned very interesting things about very interesting places.

Science experiments

We got set up in groups of 3 or 4. Our leader’s name was Kim she was a student from China. Our group was learning about frost and dew. We learned that you rarely see dew and frost together because when the temperature is below zero there will usually be frost and when the temperature is above zero there will be dew.

The reason there is dew and frost is because when there is moisture in the ground it freezes in below zero temperature but if there is moisture in the ground and it is above zero it turns into dew. That’s why you might walk through a patch of grass with dry feet and come out with wet feet.  We got to teach our little buddies our experiment and share our learning with them. I liked how we got the experiment about water and how there is liquid, solid and gas.

Halle Gr. 6



We had a really cool learning experience this week when International University students studying at VIU came to visit our Gr. 6/7 class to do science experiments. We started with a circle meeting (something our class normally does to check in and see how the 5C’s are going). We got to ask questions about their culture, homeland and sustainability in their country.   I learned some really interesting facts.  In China you just sit in your classroom and take notes all day.  I found this really surprising because in our class it is the exact opposite!  In my class we all get a say we all listen to each other.  We learn from each other and we teach each other. 

Kaylin Gr. 6