Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Dancing Through the Snow Book Club

Dancing Through The Snow.
I like this book because it gives a lot of emotional feelings.
My favourite charectar is Jess because she is soft hearted and king, always lets
people off and she always forgives people.  I would reccomend this book to ages nine or ten.
Book club was a great experience for me because we all got to share are feelings about this book.
I felt really sad in some parts because Min always got regected from her foster parents.  I loved when Min and Penny sang Where is love from Oliver.  I think that even though Min might not be the best singer she is always going to be a good singer because she tried.

By:Sarah


This month our book club read Dancing Through the Snow by Jean Little. We had 12 girls from grades 4-6 take part in our lunch hour discussion.  We discussed what it would be like for Min to go from foster home to foster home and how her trust grew by living with Jess.  The girls were chatty about character development saying Jean Little is very good and building strong characters, especially female characters.  Those participating loved the story and offered great reflections.

Some comments included:

The book was a great book and I want to red it again!  At first I felt sorry for Min but things got better.  I think it was funny when Min and her friends chased Laird the bully.  Gr. 4 student

I felt sorry for Min at First.  My favourite character is Jess because she has personality. I liked Maude because she had personality.  Gr. 4 student

I thought it was a good book out of what I read.  It is very interesting.  After the first couple of pages you just dive in!  I think it's beautiful.  The author used lots of good ways to express the characters thoughts and feelings.  My favourite would be Jess Hart.  Overall of what I read so far, it's awesome!  Gr. 6 student

I think that Min at first is quite left out until she meets Jess.  I also think that Jess is very kind hearted person, always willing to help and soft hearted.  I think Toby is a funny, intelligent person.  He is very brave & loves dogs.  Gr. 4 student

Dancing through the Snow


 I thought dancing through the snow was a really cool book. In the beginning it was sad because Min was dropped off at childrens aid for the fourth time. Then a docter that she had met before took her in. Now she has a injured dog. I am not finished the book but i am exited to finish it.

Danielle Fourth grade

Monday, February 18, 2013

Learning with Laptops @ Randerson

For the past two months students at Randerson have been working on laptops as part of the #SD68 technology initiative.

Ms. Burnham's Gr. 3 students are using World Book Online Kids to research structures in science.

Mr. Rosenau and Mrs. Aitken's classes are using World Book Online Student as they research West Coast First Nation Peoples. 

Students are learning how to take notes from webpages including taking key facts from each passage without copy and pasting the paragraph.  They are creating wonderfully descriptive paragraphs using their own words, connections and ideas. They are also learning how and why to cite their work. 

Grade 5 students in Mr. Nixon's class have become experts at Webcat finding fiction, non-fiction and specialty resources.  They are also becoming more independent learners by searching what books they have out and when they are due. 

Mr. MacKinlay's Gr. 6 class is using http://www.tagxedo.com to create word collages based on their novels. Today's lesson was student lead with one boy showing the class, including me, how to create a word design. 

Mrs. Radcliffe's Gr. 7's are working on the laptops for their Ancient Egypt Inquiry project.  Our most recent lesson focused on website citations.  I've been impressed with that attention to detail the Gr. 7's are demonstrating in creating their reference lists. 











  

Monday, February 4, 2013

Book Club ~ January Conspiracy 365

Students discussing the book and writing reflections
Our first book club of 2013 was appropriately January Conspiracy 365 by Gabrielle Lord.  Twelve students gathered in the library over long recess, enjoying snacks of veggies, fruit and cupcakes. The energy and excitement felt by the students could match that of lead character Callum Ormond as the discussion focused on motive, possible clues and details to consider. 

 Students unanimously voted the book as one of their top reads, with excitement and suspense pulling them in. Many students have read well beyond January some are as far as November.
Yummy snacks!

One Gr. 5 boy said "I'm a bit sad I'm on November because that means I'm almost finished the series and I don't want it to end."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uNiX1cFO4g&feature=player_embedded trailer


Predictions

I think that Gabbi will come out of her comma and tell the police that Rafe shot her!!!!!