Skip to content

Today, the Grade 5's enjoyed a great day at Springwater Provincial Park, learning how to locate water, build an emergency shelter and start a fire, using traditional First Nations methods.

Our instructor was park manager and Beausoleil First Nations elder Jeff Monague, who infused his teachings with the principles of taking only what is needed from the land, demonstrating respect for living beings, and showing gratitude for nature's provisions. Mr. Monague also gave us advice about animal encounters and taught us several Ojibwa words.

Here are some images from our trip:

This is a short video of students using a fire bow to start a fire (click the link and the video will open in a new tab):

MVI_0344-2nvom7o

We want to thank Mr. Monague for his thoroughly engaging and very practical workshop. We are confident that if students in our class were ever lost in the woods they would be able to find water and build emergency shelters. (Fire-building might take a bit more practice!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

2

What happens when students are given an opportunity to play with words, after spending a month engaged in researching, writing, memorizing and presenting speeches?  Hilarity and high jinks!

For this task, students were given ten story starters to choose from, and fifteen minutes to write as much as possible.  On your mark, get set, go!

Here are some of the results:

 

Image result for ice cream clipart

"If snow was ice cream, there wouldn't be any snow left! Kids would eat it all, and winter would go really fast. No one would eat anything else, like Doritos, because they'd be eating ice cream. Now we know who's causing climate change! R.I.P. Winter Olympics!"
-- By Soren

 

 

 "I was sledding down the biggest slope, when a grizzly came running after me, as if it was a dog running on a treadmill, chasing a bone on a string!  As it chased me, I came to a fallen tree branch and dragged it with me. As I held it in my hand, I tore all the small branches off it, to use as a steering wheel, so I could go around trees, holes, jumps, etc. The bear was gaining on me, and when I was coming to the bottom of the hill I saw the biggest jump. I let the stick go and held on as hard as I could to my sled, closed my eyes, and went over the jump. Just as I got off the jump, the grizzly jumped, missed my sled and landed in a big snow pile. I landed in a tree and couldn't get out of it, because I was stuck between the branches! I found some snow, melted it, and then used it to make the branches slippery. I slipped out of the tree and landed in a snow bank. I quickly got out of the snow bank and ran as fast as I could to my house, shut the door, ran up the stairs to my bedroom, jumped into bed and pulled a blanket over my head. I stayed there for the rest of the day!"
-- By Brooke

 

Image result

"If I saw the Yeti, I would flip out! I would say, "Hey, Dude. How's it goin'?" Then, he would say, "Nothin' much. I'm just sitting on top of a mountain." Then, I'd say something like, "Hey, you, a cool dude, want to catch a movie or something?" From that moment on, we would be best friends for our whole lives! We'd start growing up together, having fun and seeing movies. But, one day the Yeti would disappear. We'd look up and down... well, practically everywhere. I'd be heart broken, thinking I would grow old and weak all alone. But then, one day, a Superhero would break into my house to give me the most important information ever!  He would say, "The Yeti thinks you suck!" So, I would get over the Yeti and become best friends with the Superhero...
-- By Enya

 

"If snow was made of something else, it should Image result for marshmallow clip artbe marshmallows because... first, if the snow was ice cream it would melt and you would get all wet. Marshmallows are soft and if you wanted a slippery hill, you could just eat the top off the marshmallow. Eating is also a good way to snow blow, or should I say marshmallow blow. If you needed help clearing the marshmallows off your lawn, you could just call my name! Mmmm.  I can just imagine it. Next, I love marshmallows. Have you ever had those massive marshmallows? They are just marshmallows, but BIGGER!  They give you more time to finish, and more time to finish means more flavour to crave in your mouth."
-- By Owen, Gr. 4

 

Image result for santa treadmill

If I lived at the north pole I would do Santa's work. I would be rich. I would be at all the parades. I would make the reindeer work extremely hard. I would make Santa go on the treadmill. I'd make Santa run 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,038 laps. I would get fired."
By Ethan

 

dffc4f63e9c983229820c1834aac7162_400x400.jpeg (400×400)"If I met a Yeti I would say, 'Back off!" He would be the one running the other way. If he ran away I would chase him. Once we got to the top of a mountain I would beat my chest and scream like King Kong, forcing him to run off the mountain. If he survived, I would grab one of those flags in the arctic and stick it in his foot, so he could not run away. Then I would walk up and give him a hug, take the flag out and walk him home. We would be be friends for the rest of our days!"
-- By Owen, Gr. 5

 

Image result for ant clip art"I was sledding down the biggest slope when a bear, a cheetah and an elephant were running at me from behind. I screamed as loud as I could, but while I was screaming I got distracted by a butterfly, fell off the sled and crashed into a tree. I felt like I was flying, then I fell into a pond where badgers were ice fishing. One of the fishing hooks got caught on my pants. When I got out of the pond, there were five hundred animals chasing me. I ran into the closest house, but didn't realize I ran into my enemy's house. Before I could get out, she locked the door and started yelling at me. Then the animals started to break the windows and climb into the house. I busted through a window. Then I saw Mr. Phelps swimming with a penguin. After that, something really scary big happened: a saw an ant. By the time I got to the hill, the biggest thing EVER happened to me..."
-- By Grace

 

Image result for bear cave winter clip art"If people hibernated, like bears, I would go crazy. Before hibernating, I would eat all the pizza in the cave. I would also eat ice cream before hibernating. I would probably eat while sleeping, too. I would hibernate with my family. I would sleep at the back of the cave, so I wouldn't get cold. I would cuddle with my stuffy buddy. I would probably kick my mom a million times, while hibernating. I would probably sleep walk out of the cave, and when I got cold I would run straight back into the cave, tripping over everybody. If I went into a bear cave, instead of my cave, I would run to the hills screaming like a madman. When I woke up I might have a bruise from hitting the walls of the cave while hibernating. I don't know what would happen to my dogs and my fish, but that's what I think I might do if people hibernated like bears."
-- By Paige

 

"If I could invent a new Winter Olympic sport it would probably be a food eating competition. I would invent this sport because I am good at eating, so I could probably go to the Olympics for Team Canada. I could probably win gold if it was some good food, but if it was bad food I would likely just win bronze. It wouldn't be bad to win bronze though, because that's third place and still a medal!"
-- By Madden

 

"If I saw a Yeti, of course I'd scream and yell and run for my life! Then, he'd follow me into my house. He'd break my  house. I would grab a sled and go down the mountain.  He would be eating out of my fridge when he saw me head straight for a tree. Owwwwwwwww, I would think, what is that big dot coming toward me? It would be him on my other five sleds! I would move away from the tree and continue my way down. I would get to the end and run into town. Of course, he would follow me, so I would run to the zoo, but before I could tell them, "Get a mansion-sized cage," he would crash the zoo too!  So I would get a cage, thank the zoo keepers for their help, and drop it on him. After that, I would get $1,000,000. The end. Hope that doesn't happen to you some day!"
-- By Phynn

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.caor to add a comment to this page.

 

This year, we paired the Grade 4 Science topic Light and Sound with the Grade 5 Science topic Conservation of Energy and Resources.  Students in both grades read, watched educational videos, and participated in hands-on labs., exploring their respective Science topics.

These are photos of our device-testing lab., in which groups of students measured the wattage of everyday household items, using special watt meters. The Grade 4's took particular note of the conversions from electrical energy to sound, light, heat and/or movement with each device. The Grade 5's considered which types of devices used the most and least amount of energy.

The Grade 5's concluded that devices intended to create heat for the user (e.g. curling irons, blow dryers, curling irons, toasters and space heaters) use the most energy, and devices that create little or no heat tend to use a lot less energy (e.g. LED light bulbs, compact fluorescent light bulbs, laptop computers, radios).

Another lab. involved testing a solar panel and a twig-burning stove that is capable of generating electricity to charge devices. Before going outside to test these devices, students watched the following videos, which explain how these alternative energy sources work:

These are photos of the class outside, testing the solar panel and electricity-generating camp stove.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.caOpens in a new windowor to add a comment to this page.

Skip to toolbar