Batteries

Today Mrs. Malkoske is shipping our first box of batteries filled. We are starting another one. We collected one ful box in two weeks. -Rhianna

Every week two people are going down to classes to collect batteries. Before we put them in a box, we have to put one battery into a plastic bag. -Sydney

I am incredibly proud of the work that the children of Room 9 have been doing this fall to help our environment. We have been collecting and counting plastic bags and batteries for a few weeks now and they have been wonderful leaders in our school community.

Our BAG UP! total is currently at 9460 bags and tomorrow is our final day to count any more bags that are turned in.  Today we took some time to reflect on the project. As we were talking about why what we are doing is important, one of the boys in our class asked an important question:

Why do they even keep making these things?

It's thinking like this that makes me believe in the power of small people. It seems like a simple question, but there is so much behind it. To recognize that this is a big problem and then to be baffled by the fact that people (adults) are still making and using bags despite the damage they cause, is incredible... especially when you're 7. It's a question that adults need to start asking. The kids in our class understand (probably better than most adults) why it's important to take care of our planet. They know that this is their world and they know what they need to do in order to keep it beautiful and healthy. Not bad for a Monday afternoon... these kids are AWESOME.

Bag Mountain!

Today we counted bags and we got 8224 bags. Monday is our last day to collect and count bags. If you have any bags please send them in! -Elly

In our classroom we have hardly any room. We have too many bags! I wonder when they are picking the bags up! -Rylee

We have a stack full of bags. It is giant! -Nick

Today we counted plastic wrap in the hallway. We had to rip off all the labels.  It took a long time. We have 13 bags of bags. -Cameron

We had to do lots of bags. We have to shake and pull the bottom so it's inside out. -Sam

Today we counted bags in a big circle. -Kaspir

We counted lots and lots of bags. We counted them by 10s, 20s, 2s and 4s. -Reegan

We never counted them by 5s. It was ok. -Cayden

We didn't count them by 8s either. -Sofia

Call 2 Recycle!

The children of Room 9 are starting a new recycling project next week... We're recycling batteries! Well actually, we're collecting them and sending them to a company called Call2Recycle . Call2Recycle recycles batteries in an environmentally safe way. Here is a video about what they do:



Our classroom is now a drop-off point for batteries. If you have dead batteries at home, send them to school and we will recycle them for you!

Design Project!

Today we watched this video about Caine's arcade. We are doing a project kind of like this in our classroom. Our project is about building your own machine. Just like Caine, we're going to build stuff out of cardboard or recycled stuff. We're going to build our machines on Thursday. It's going to be fun!
-The Kids of Room 9

Turtle Time!

Today Kaiya brought her turtle and her Dad found it alone from it's group. It was cute. -Brandon

We got to see a turtle today. I think it was kind of fun seeing it. -Sam

I was fun but we didn't get to touch it because it was too scared. She told us it was a painted turtle. -Reegan

Today Kaiya's turtle came in a Ziplock plastic box. There was a turtle and it had dirty water and there were some peas floating in the water. It was awesome! -Cam

Today we got to see Kaiya's turtle and we didn't get to touch it. It eats shrimp and vegetable. Wallace got to see it too. -Carter

The spinach is poisonous to the turtle so it can't have spinach. It was found in the wild and now it's Kaiya's pet. That was my second time seeing a turtle. I saw a different turtle at my lake but it wasn't a very good one because it was a snapping turtle. -Rhianna

Her turtle was a painted turtle and on its tummy it was like almost a painting because it was like orange and black and yellow swirled together. At Grand Cayman I saw lots of turtles. -Syd

Today we saw a turtle and his name was Ernie. -Elle

Kaiya brought her awesome turtle to school. It is very cute. -Rylee

He was floating and he was swimming and he was trying to get out. That turtle looked pretty cool. Today was an awesome day. -Nick

It tried to escape! -Cayden

The turtle is awesome! -Jonathan

Last year under my chair was a big snapping turtle. It almost snapped me when I got off. -Ella

A Room Full of Turkeys!

Today close to the end of the day, we were making turkey hats. The first thing you had to do was go to your table and make a turkey body. Then you got a head band and a red wobble. Then you got your feathers and you stuck them all on. -Rhianna
In the morning when we got to school we listened to a video called Albuquerque Turkey. Everyone sang along. We recorded our voices when we sang the song. -Nick
Today we made turkey hats with feathers out of paper. We put feathers on and glued them an stapled them. We wore them and sang the song. It was awesome! -Cam
I sang the Albuquerque Turkey song and its similar to a song from my old school. It was fun. -Elly
There are a bunch of turkeys in the classroom today. We all got to make a turkey today. The turkey hats had 4 colours for the feathers. I picked one of each and I named mine "Dinner". -Rylee
Today some of the things to do to make the turkey hat was:
1. You had to get a brown piece of paper to twist it like a headband.
2. You staple it together.
3. You trace a turkey body.
4. Then make the beak.
5. Then we made the feathers.
6. Then we had to cut some lines in the feathers to look like real feathers.
7. Then you put it on your head. -Andy
I'm going to get eaten this weekend. -Syd

Here is a picture of some of our "turkeys" and you can hear our recording of the Albuquerque Turkey song!


albuquerque turkey movie from Erin Malkoske on Vimeo.


Today during word work, the children had a special Thanksgiving challenge... they were asked to make the words "Thank You" out of one of our word work or choice time materials. Some of them were very creative. Over the lunch hour I put photos of all of their creations together in the collage below using the Frame Magic app. Each of the kid of Room 9 was given a Thank You card with image on it to write in, and give to someone they'd like to thank. I can't wait to hear who they shared their cards with! Happy Thanksgiving! -Mrs. Malkoske

Bag Up Manitoba!

Yesterday we started Bag Up Manitoba! We had to bring bags to school. We counted them in groups and yesterday's total of bags was 800. -Rhianna
When we count we put them in a big bag. We have to shake them only once, pull them inside out, then make them into an umbrella. They will make them into birdhouses. -Sam
Today we counted our bags again. We got a lot of bags. We got more bags than last time we collected the bags. I had a different group to count the bags. We had to make the bags into 10s and then we brought them to the big bag with all the bags in it. Today our number of bags we collected was 910! I had fun. -Andy
If we collect enough bags, we'll get a bench for the school. Yay! -Reegan
Bag Up 2012 from Erin Malkoske on Vimeo.

Things That We're Thankful For!

Today we wrote a list of things that we're thankful for in our notebooks. Yesterday we did it too. Some of us we're at the Turkey Trot. I was at the Turkey Trot. -Sydney
I started the things I'm thankful for writing yesterday. I am thankful for a lot of things. I had some new ones in there. It was awesome! -Cameron
Yesterday we had a substitute teacher. His name was Mr. Cheyne. We wrote things that we were thankful for in our Writer's Notebook. We made a Tagxedo. -Andy
Yesterday Mr. C wrote a list called Things That You Are Thankful for. On the list was house, people, food, water, pets and school and some other things. -Nick
Today we all came to the carpet and put them on the blog! -Kaspir



What are YOU thankful for? Please leave us a comment and tell us what you're thankful for. 

Read to Someone Video!

Here is the second video in our Daily 5 series!


Read to Someone Final Cut from Erin Malkoske on Vimeo.

This video was made by the Kids of Room 9. We hope you like it. We made this video to show the world what we've been learning at school.