more_class

"Way, hey, hey, it's just an ordinary day and it's all your state of mind. At the end of the day you've just got to say, 'It's alright!' I've got a smile on my face and I've got four walls around me."

We performed flawlessly at our Holiday Assembly Dec. 22, 2000.
The class played Pachabel's Canon in D on the xylophones in 4 part harmony. It was beautiful!
When I get the pics back we'll scan them and show you how great we looked!

For more things GBS in the classroom check out the next page!!
Kids letters to GBS and an enterprising young man hopes for an "A" on a social studies project!
Click here!

Great Big Sea's song "Someday Soon" has provided us with lots of discussion during the 2000 election year. We read it, listened to it, and used it to discuss promises by Presidential candidates. It was an eye opener to me to discover how much the class actually grasped about the promises the candidates make. We put out our own ideas about what the candidates should promise, making them ones they could keep.
Great Big Sea is making my job so much easier by writing and playing such good music. I am having such fun discovering how many subject areas I can cover using Great Big Sea songs!

A few weeks ago, two members of the Philadelphia Eagles- Rashard Cooke and ?, visited the school and came to my classroom to motivate the kids to stay in school and do their best. What a nice couple of guys! The kids were happily surprised and asked lots of good questions. Pictures to get put up as soon as they are developed and scanned.

Great Big Sea is supporting a Laubach Literacy Foundation Chapter in Canada among many other causes. I emailed the Laubach Foundation chapter and asked them if they could send us some bookmarks and posters for my class. They were kind enough to do so and I shared the bookmarks with the class. They really seem to like them and use them daily. They are inspired 5th graders! Nine of them are currently going down to a Kindergarten or First Grade class three times a week to help them read books for the Hundred Book Challenge.
Hopefully, the next time I get to a Great Big Sea Concert, I can get the posters signed and framed for future classes to be so inspired!

Here's a sample bookmark! It says:
A Great Big Idea from Great Big Sea
Bob Hallett, Sean McCann, Alan Doyle, Darrell Power

Jozelle wrote a fictional story about how the town of Joe Batt's Arm in Newfoundland got it's name. This was after I showed a souvenir cup to the class that contained weird names of towns in Newfoundland.
To read her wonderfully imaginative story,
Click here!

For our new reading series, one of my groups has read a book called Chocolate, which tells everything you've always wanted to know about chocolate but were afraid to ask.
We picked two recipes to try out at lunch one day - Brownies and Chocolate milkshakes. Everyone took turns mixing and we ate some delicious snacks after lunch. Now everyone else in the room wants to read the book too!
Kyra helped to make the milkshakes. Here are pics of our chocolate adventure.

Newsflash! To celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. our school had an assembly in January. Room 21 decided to write a play and perform it. I was more than concerned about how it would turn out. It had a loosely-based script and was mostly ad-libbed lines. The play was entitiled "What Has Martin Luther King, Jr. Done for Me Lately?" Set in the schoolyard and at an afterschool rumble, the play was an affirmation of the reason for non-violence. Eight young ladies choreographed a dance and performed at the end.
My students truly rose to the occasion and we got quite a round of applause! Pics to follow.