Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Gr. 6 students perform puppet show for our primary classes :)

Thanks Mr. French's Gr. 6 class



Randerson K-3 students enjoyed a Christmas puppet show by Mr. French's class.  The Grade 6's created a puppet stage and made sock puppets. They performed a festive play and the puppets led the kids in a Christmas sing-a-long. Fun was had by all!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Randerson Gr. 7 students reflect on The Cay by Theodore Taylor


The Cay

           The Cay is a heart touching novel with great messages that can change your thought. It’s about a young boy named Phillip who lives during the Second World War.  While his father was transferred to work on the island of Curacao Phillips mother did not want to live there.  As the choice was made to leave Curacao due to the worry of soon being killed on Curacao Phillip and his mother left on a ship back to their home town in the United States in the town of Virginia. While on board of this boat they were soon attacked by the Germans. When getting onto a life boat Phillip got hit on the head and was unconscious. After finding out that he was on a small raft with a cat and a black man named Timothy. After the long days and nights Phillip soon learns to see that black people aren’t as bad as his mother always said and thought.  Each and every chapter something exciting happens and you never want to stop reading. The beginning is a little slow but TRUST me its a great read.  It’s a book I would definitely recommend and read again myself.
            By: Grace



The Cay

         The Cay is an action packed adventure book that leaves you hanging after every chapter.  This book takes place during world war two in the year 1942.  The main character in this novel is Phillip.  Phillip is originally from Virginia, U.S.A but later moved to the small island of Curacao in the Dutch West Indies. After his island was invaded by German submarines Phillip and his mother were forced onto to a boat travelling back to the United States.  Just a few days after they boarded the ship they got torpedoed by a German submarine.  While boarding life rafts, Phillip was knocked out by falling boards from the boat and fell into the water.  He was saved by Timothy that pulled him out of the water onto his raft.  They were lost at sea with no one in sight.  This novel can be a little slow at the beginning but trust me; you end up loving it at the end with maybe even a tear in your eye. 
By: Carly

Thank you for sharing your reflections girls. It truly is a powerful story, timeless in its message of how love overcomes prejudice. Thanks for blogging.  Mrs. Martineau

Wonderful book summaries on The Cay, Grace and Carly! Your personal perspective will entice fellow students to read the book. Well done, girls! Mr. M.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Kurzweil, SmartBoards & IPads - A Great day of Learning & Sharing

Randerson staff had a great day of professional development, learning the ins and outs of Kurzweil.  We would like to thank Set BC's Maureen Lafleche who led us in an informative, hands-on, practical workshop that allowed us to gain experience, tools and ideas that we can use in the classroom tomorrow.

Along with Kurzweil we worked on iPad apps that engage students in the daily 5, increase accessibility to all students and improve math skills  . Other staff looked at apps for music, French and other curriculum areas.

Friday, November 8, 2013

New Books to Check Out

One of my favourite new books is called The Road to Afghanistan by Linda Granfield and Brian Deines.  This picture book tells the story of a soldier's experience in Afghanistan from the beauty of the landscape to the destruction of war. The soldier reflects on experiences in Afghanistan and connects those experiences to those of a great-grandfather in WWI and grandfather in WWII.  This well written book is a great way to bring the heavy topic of war to a younger audience.

New books to check out!
The Series 7 is a great new series that has captured the imaginations and intrigue of our Gr. 6/7 students.
  •  7 stories by 7 wonderful Canadian authors on 7 different adventures about 7 cousins
What has added to our connection with this series is that both John Wilson and Eric Walters have visited our school.  Their tales of how the stories came to be was great. That along with Eric's
dynamic discussion on his journey to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro was enough to have the books flying off the shelf.  I and the 13 students that were at book club all highly recommend this series.

The Mother - Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick has been very popular among the Gr. 4-6 girls. New to our library is the rest of the series, Much Ado about Anne, Dear Pen Pal and Pies & Prejudice to name a few.

For our younger audience we have added a new set of Fancy Nancy stories by Jane O'Connor and four stories from the Mouse series by Lauren Thompson and Buket Erdogan.  For our young and older non-fiction readers we have the Crabtree Contact series which include Snake Bite, Air War, Alien Abduction, Bigfoot and Manga.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Gr. 6 & 7 Book Club The Seven Series

It was a full house for our book club today as we discussed The Series 7 by 7 great Canadian authors. Normally we have one book to discuss but with author John Wilson visiting us last May and author Eric Walters visiting us last month we opted for The Series 7.  Your ticket in the door was to have read one of the seven books.  Not surprisingly many of the students had read at least two from the series and some had read more. 


All seven books were enjoyed by at least one of our book clubbers. We discussed the series as a whole and each book individually.  We looked at connections and differences between the books and the authors' writing styles.  We discussed how each authors' style brought out different aspects of the seven cousins.

Here's reviews by two students:
                                                               Review on 7 series
I read Close to The Heel and Between Haven and Earth!  It was very well thought of, of how there were 7 different authors and they all connect in some way.  I liked Close to the Heel more because it was funny and got interesting really quick!  I highly recommend the whole series and I definitely want to read them all!
 Jacob Grade 7

                                                          Review on Devil's Pass
It is an awesome engaging book with intense scenes.  I would highly recommend this to a friend. I would say this book is for kids with a grade level and maturity of about 5-7.  This is the boss book
and you have to read it if you enjoy funny stories with some combat scenes. Read more reviews for more information. 
Branden (B Dog) Gr. 7
 
 
I was really proud of the depth of discussion our Gr. 6/7 students demonstrated. Their character knowledge, connections and inferences were excellent.

Thank you to our Gr. 6/7 students who took part in book club.  It was a dream discussion.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Randerson Students and Staff take part in Drop Everything and Read

Randerson students and staff took time to Drop Everything and Read. DEAR is part of National School Library month and is a challenge to all BC students, teachers, parents, politicians and local celebrities to take time out and read. Randerson students were joined by 7 members of the Nanaimo Clippers hockey team. To add to the festivities it was pajama day so students got comfy while reading.

Check out the DEAR site to see how people across BC are taking part including Education Minister Peter Fassbender.


                                           Nanaimo Clippers & students hit the hallways to read. 

                    
Nanaimo Clippers join Randerson students to Drop Everything and Read

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Author Eric Walters visits Randerson

Randerson Gr. 4-7 students and staff enjoyed a visit from Canadian author Eric Walters. Author of more than 90 books, Eric took us on a journey from his teaching days in the Peel School District of Toronto, where he penned his first novel, to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, where Between Heaven and Earth sprung to life.  Eric's enthusiasm for life, social justice, and the power of reading was prominent in his presentation.  Student's learned of how his books come to life through ideas, research, experiences, and involvement in his community. We saw pictures of Eric with two Siberian tigers at a school, walking/running the Sahara Dessert in an ultra marathon and fending off poisonous snakes, elephants and lions in Africa.  Eric brought us into his stories through his tales of adventure, his great visuals and his dynamic mannerism.

Creation of Hope is an orphanage in Kenya that Eric and his wife Anita began after a chance meeting with a young boy in Kikima, Kenya. He spoke of the important role we all play in becoming global citizens. He talked about how small acts of kindness go a long way and how respect begets respect.  

Thank you Eric Walters for visiting Randerson. 

* Remember our next book club is on October 30th where we will be discussing the Series 7 created by Eric Walters and written by Eric and six other Canadian authors.