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This afternoon we celebrated Earth Hour and the beginning of the March Break with (flameless) candles, games, treats, and three special guests.

Our student teacher, Miss M., came by to meet the class. She will be starting a five week placement with us when we return from the holiday.

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Also in attendance was Laura Gallagher, from Speaking of Wildlife, and one of her non-releasable educational ambassadors. Laura was so impressed with our "Shelters for Orphaned Wildlife" project that she offered to bring Pip Squeak the squirrel to meet the class.

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Pip Squeak was one of last year's spring babies. He was found and kept as a pet, and then eventually taken to a wildlife rehabilitation centre. By that time, Pip Squeak was completely used to humans and intolerant of other squirrels. Therefore, he could not be released back into the wild.

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We gave Pip Squeak one of the squirrel boxes that students in our class assembled. It was lovingly decorated by several of the girls in our class.

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After Pip Squeak's appearance, we broke out our Earth Hour crafts...

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... board games, card games, and Twister.

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Finally, it was time to dig into a huge buffet of snacks that students brought for the party!

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Now that's an afternoon snack for a growing boy!  🙂

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Happy Earth Hour and March Break!

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

IMG_2685-cropped This project is a follow-up to Rama Central's "Food Drive for Orphaned Wildlife," which received second prize and a $2,000. grant in the 2015 Our Canada Project Award competition. This is an earlier blog post that describes the wildlife food drive and award:

In consultation with local wildlife rehabilitators, we decided to invest our $2,000. award in materials to construct wooden sleeping boxes for orphaned squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks and opossums, being raised for release back into the wild. We had Orillia Home Hardware supply us with the pre-cut plywood, hardware and glue to construct 96 squirrel boxes and 5 opossum boxes. IMG_2485 The Grade 7 and Grade 8 classes took the lead on this project. They helped organized the materials, learned how to construct boxes, and shared their knowledge and skill with students in Grades 3-6. IMG_2504IMG_2508 Tools, hardware, gloves, and a "practice box" under construction: IMG_2510 Grade 7 and 8 students learning how to make boxes, on gym workshop Day 1: IMG_2532 IMG_2546 IMG_2533 IMG_2545 IMG_2548Our class building boxes with the Grade 8's, on gym workshop Day 2: IMG_2634 IMG_2637IMG_2640 IMG_2642 IMG_2643 After they learned how to construct boxes from the Grade 8's, students in our Grade 5 class constructed some boxes on their own, back in the classroom: IMG_2664 IMG_2665
IMG_2667IMG_2669 IMG_2671 Students were invited to autograph the bottoms of boxes they had constructed: IMG_2563 IMG_2561 This photo depicts about 70 finished squirrel boxes, being stored temporarily in one of the change rooms attached to the gym:IMG_2686 Mrs. Black offered to deliver twelve sleeping boxes (the most the would fit in her car) to each of four local wildlife rehabilitation centres, over four weekends. The wildlife sanctuaries have been asked to send someone to the school to pick up the balance of their boxes. logos IMG_2623 Box Shipment #1 went to Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge, near Pefferlaw: IMG_2629 Our boxes will be used to protect orphaned squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks and opossums from the elements, until they are old enough to be released back into the wild. This is one of our squirrel boxes, mounted in a "pre-release enclosure" at Shades of Hope Wildlife Sanctuary: IMG_2632 Box Shipment #2 went to Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary, near Minden: IMG_0307 This little Flying Squirrel, who is overwintering at Woodlands, gave our boxes her seal of approval! flyer-box IMG_0317 flyer

Box Shipment #3 went to Procyon Wildlife, near Beeton:

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Box Shipment #4 was delivered to Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, near Rosseau:

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This is a video of the Shelters project that our class made, for Learning for a Sustainable Future:

This is coverage of our Shelters project on CTV Barrie news:

ctv-barrie-screencaphttp://barrie.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=819830&binId=1.1272429&playlistPageNum=1

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We want to thank Learning for a Sustainable Future and the RBC Foundation, for making this project possible. We also want to give a HUGE shout-out to Wayne and Tom (pictured), and Bill, at Orillia Home Hardware. They did an absolutely stellar job pulling all the materials together for us. That included pre-cutting, packing and delivering the wood for 96 squirrel boxes and 5 opossum boxes! IMG_2661

The Orillia Home Hardware team also offered to host a display that Mrs. Black made in the store foyer, over the March Break:
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Last but not least, we couldn't have assembled 96 squirrel boxes so quickly and painlessly without the assistance of our amazing Grade 7 and 8 teachers, Mr. Westcott and Mrs. Ross, and their students!  Thank you all!!! IMG_2658 (T-shirts courtesy of Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge)

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

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This morning, a number of special guests, and representatives from CTV Barrie, The Orillia Packet and Times and Orillia Today, descended on Rama Central P.S. to help us celebrate our second place finish in the LSF/RBC Our Canada Project competition.

Our award assembly was hosted by two Grade 8 students and our principal, Mrs. Lefuel.

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After our hosts provided some background information about the Food Drive for Orphaned Wildlife and greeted our guests, a pair of Grade 8 students presented a slide show depicting students engaged in wildlife food drive-related activities. 

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Next, Mr. Stan Kozak of Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) presented an award certificate to two students from Mrs. Black's Grade 5 class.

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Then Ms. Sandra Chevrier, representing the RBC Foundation, presented a $2,000. cheque to two Grade 5 students.

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School Superintendent, Mr. Paul Sloan, brought greetings and congratulations on behalf of himself, Trustee Ms. Jodi Lloyd and the Simcoe County District School Board.

IMG_0138Our final guest speaker was Ms. Monika Melichar, from Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary, in Minden. She thanked our school for the help we have provided to local wildlife rehabilitation centres, through our wildlife food drive.

IMG_0144At the close of our assembly, four Grade 5 students presented Mr. Kozak and Ms. Chevrier with thank you banners, signed by staff and students throughout the school.

IMG_0148We want to thank LSF for selecting our project for this award, The RBC Foundation for providing funding, and all of our special guests for attending today's assembly.

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These are links to media coverage of today's award presentation:

packet-screengrabhttp://www.orilliapacket.com/2016/01/14/students-answer-the-call-of-the-wild

ctv-screengrab http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=788559

Orillia-Todayhttp://www.simcoe.com/news-story/6243804-ramara-students-honoured-for-helping-animal-sanctuaries/

More information about the wildlife food drive, this award, and the project that today's prize money will fund, is located here:

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Wildlife Food Drive Receives Second National Award!

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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.

In September, our class offered to promote and organize the school's annual drive in support of the local food bank. Then, in October, high school ambassadors from Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF), visited our class and helped students identify a pair of outreach projects that would complement the food drive nicely: a winter clothing drive and a campaign to knit scarves for the less fortunate. Our project, which the students named "The Epic Knitty Bitty Clothing & Food Drive," took place from mid-November to mid-December.

Students in our class began their work by decorating banners and boxes for a drop-off station in the school foyer.

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Our drop-off station:

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Next, we created colourful posters and distributed them throughout the school.

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Students in our class also wrote a short piece for the school newsletter and counted out flyers, reminding Kindergarten through Grade 8 students and their parents to contribute. The Grade 4 class helped with promotion by writing and reading reminders on the morning announcements.

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After our drop-off station was set up and promotion was in place, it was time to start knitting! A few students in our class already knew how to knit. Several others attended a knitting course/club, run by our school's Grade 4 teacher.

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Some of us also made polar fleece scarves, for the clothing drive.

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Throughout the campaign students in our class kept the drop-off station neat, by organizing the food items and bringing bags of clothing to the classroom for storage.

When our trio of drives were over, we sorted the donations and readied them to be delivered to local social service agencies. Mrs. Black drove our food to The Sharing Place food bank, and clothing to the Green Haven Women's Shelter's drop off locationShe also delivered a few pet food items that came in with the food drive to the Orillia SPCA.

Here, we are sorting, counting and packing the food drive items:

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At the food bank:

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Sorting and packing the clothing drive items:

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At Green Haven's drop off centre:

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We were amazed by the response to our food and clothing drive! We collected 339 food items (which weighed in at 327 lbs.) and 14 large bags of clothes. Students in our class also made a total of 15 scarves for the less fortunate.

We want to thank everyone who donated food, clothes, knitting supplies and polar fleece, to "The Epic Knitty Bitty Clothing & Food Drive." Your donations will keep some grateful people warm and well fed this winter!

The "Knitty Bitty" drive isn't the only thing that's epic. Mrs. Black wants to recognize her EPIC STUDENTS for their caring and compassion, and congratulate them on a job exceptionally well done!  🙂

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

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My class is once again engaging in a number of outreach projects that meet Ontario curriculum expectations, while benefiting others in the school, community and beyond. This page will be updated throughout the year, as we complete new projects.

Here is a list of our outreach projects, to date:

  1. Food drive for orphaned wildlife
  2. Writing project in support of Habitat for Humanity
  3. Letter writing in support of at-risk turtles in Ontario
  4. Fund-raiser for the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre
  5. Food, clothing & knitting drive for the less fortunate
  6. Shelters for orphaned wildlife
  7. Helping local residents combat flooding
  8. Fund-raiser in support of tiger conservation

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Project Details:

1. THIRD ANNUAL FOOD DRIVE FOR ORPHANED WILDLIFE

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Over the past three years, our school has helped local wildlife rehabilitation centres stock up on natural foods, to get their overwintering orphaned patients through the winter.

Our class organized and promoted the wildlife food drive, inviting students from Kindergarten through Grade 8 to contribute acorns, pine cones, maple keys, black walnuts, apples and sumac. This year, we collected four carloads of food, which we delivered to: Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, in Rosseau, Procyon Wildlife, in Beeton, Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge, in Pefferlaw, and Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary, in Minden. The project met expectations in math, science, literacy and character education.

NOTE:  In the fall of 2015 our wildlife food drive received two national awards. The second one came with a $2,000. prize, which was used to finance project #6, on this page: "Shelters for Orphaned Wildlife."

These are links to BLOG posts about the food drive:

 

2.  EXPLANATORY WRITING IN SUPPORT OF HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

Habitat-for-Canada-300x211-HunanityDuring the month of October, students in our class authored short explanatory writing pieces as a school project, and then entered them in a national writing contest.

The topic for this writing project was "What Home Means to Me."  For every entry received, builder Genworth Canada donated $5.00 to Habitat for Humanity. Our class raised $100. with our writing.

This is the contest website:  http://meaningofhome.ca/

Here is a link to the BLOG post about this project:

 

3.  PERSUASIVE LETTER WRITING IN SUPPORT OF AT RISK TURTLES IN ONTARIO

persuasive-plannerEach year, we focus our persuasive letter-writing unit on a real world issue, in the hopes that our writing can make a difference. This year, in consultation with the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre, we identified a topic we wanted to address: the ongoing legal hunting of Snapping Turtles in Ontario, for food, despite the fact that Snapping Turtles are recognized, federally and provincially, as a species at risk.

This is a BLOG post detailing our writing project:

 

4.  FUND-RAISER FOR THE KAWARTHA TURTLE TRAUMA CENTRE

market-day-signAs our class' charity fund raiser for this school year, we held a "Market Day" in support of the turtle hospital in Peterborough. Students in our class donated gently-used toys and games, created "stores" from which to sell their goods, and took turns purchasing items from the stores. Money spent at the stores was donated to the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre. This project met curriculum expectations in media literacy, math and character education.

Here is our BLOG post about the event:

 

5.  FOOD, CLOTHING & KNITTING DRIVE IN SUPPORT OF THE LESS FORTUNATE

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For the second year in a row, our class agreed to promote and organize our school's annual food drive for the local food bank. High school ambassadors from Learning for a Sustainable Future helped us identify a pair of projects that would complement the food drive nicely: a winter clothing drive and scarf-knitting project. Items collected through our trio of drives were donated to The Sharing Place Food Bank and Greenhaven Women's Shelter.  In the spring of 2016, Nelson Publishing asked if they could use a photo of two students knitting for this project in their new Grade 2 Social Studies resource.

These are links to BLOG posts about our drives for the less fortunate in our area:

 

6. SHELTERS FOR ORPHANED WILDLIFE

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The Our Canada Project Award our school received, for our Food Drive for Orphaned Wildlife, came with a $2,000. prize. The money was to be invested in another student-led conservation initiative. We decided to construct sleeping boxes for squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks and opossums, and donate them to local wildlife centres for use with their orphaned patients. Orillia Home Hardware supplied us with pre-cut lumber and hardware for this project. Students at our school from Grades 3-8 assembled the sleeping boxes.

Here is the BLOG post about the "Shelters" project:

 

7. HELPING LOCAL RESIDENTS COMBAT FLOODING

class-sandbaggingFor the fourth year in a row, Grade 5-8 students at our school answered the call to assist local residents with spring flooding, by filling sand bags at the public works yard two doors from the school. Throughout the day, students filled over 500 bags. These sand bags are available to local residents, for free, to help keep spring flood waters from entering their homes.

This is the BLOG post about this project:

 

8. "HAT DAY" FOR TIGERS

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This year, one of the boys in our Grade 5 class wrote a speech about tiger poaching. Brogan's well-reasoned and impassioned speech was in the top three in our class, top two among Grade 4-6 speeches at our school, and came second at an area competition involving Grade 4-6 orators from six schools.

Our class took Brogan's plea for help to heart, by committing to organize a school-wide "Toonies for Tigers" hat day. (Students making a donation will be allowed to wear their favourite hat at school for a day.) This fund-raiser will be held in April, and proceeds will be donated to World Wildlife Fund Canada, earmarked for tiger conservation. Mrs. Black also adopted a tiger for the class, through WWF Canada.

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

In June, our school's "Food Drive for Orphaned Wildlife" was one of eight projects from across the country to be recognized with the Jack Layton Youth Action in Sustainability Award.

This week, we were surprised and delighted to receive the following note, from the Director of Programs and Administration at Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF):

lsf_rbc_ourcanadaproject_awardlogo_2015_EN-231x300 (1)On behalf of Learning for a Sustainable Future, I would like to congratulate Rama Central Public School on winning the LSF-RBC Our Canada Project Second Prize of $2,000 for the project entitled, "Food Drive for Orphaned Wildlife". The Our Canada Project is a project of Learning for a Sustainable Future and is supported by the RBC Foundation.

The LSF-RBC Our Canada Project Award was established to recognize the creativity and innovation of Canadian youth in modeling responsible citizenship, as evidenced in the vision and action projects posted on the OCP website. The "Food Drive for Orphaned Wildlife" was selected as the second place winner from over 160 action projects posted on the Our Canada Project website in 2015.

These two awards recognize the work of the Grade 4 and 5 students who organized our three annual wildlife food drives, plus all of the Kindergarten through Grade 8 students who have collected acorns, pine cones, maple keys and windfall apples for orphaned wildlife!

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These photographs, which depict orphaned wild animals enjoying the fruits of our labours, were sent to us by local wildlife rehabilitators:

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In January, an LSF-RBC Our Canada Project Award certificate and cheque will be presented to us, at the school.

The prize money needs to be invested in another "youth action in sustainability" project. In consultation with LSF and one of our wildlife rehab. partners, we have decided to give students in Grades 3-8 the opportunity to construct wooden sleeping boxes for squirrels and opossums that are being cared for at local wildlife rehabilitation centres. Older students will mentor younger students, and a team of Grade 8 students will serve as a media crew, to document our activities for the Our Canada Project website.

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Our school's "Shelters for Orphaned Wildlife" project will commence in February!

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March 5th, 2016 update:

Our "shelters" project is now complete and boxes are in the process of being delivered to four local wildlife sanctuaries. This blog post depicts students in action, building the boxes!

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We want to sincerely thank Learning for a Sustainable Future and the RBC Foundation for recognizing our wildlife food drive, and for enabling us to help wildlife rehabilitators provide shelter to wildlife in need!

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.

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IMG_1681Part 1 of our class' turtle project involved researching Ontario turtles, Skyping with staff at the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre (KTTC), in Peterborough, and writing persuasive letters to our local MPP, urging him to ask the government to ban the hunting of Snapping Turtles.

Part 2 of our project was a class fund-raiser, in support of KTTC.  The name of the fund-raiser was "Market Day."  Students in our class were invited to donate gently used toys and books that they no longer needed and were willing to sell to friends. After everything had been collected, the class divided the items into four categories, or "stores." Students then arranged themselves into teams of six or seven, created signs for the stores, and priced the items they would be selling. All items were priced between 25 cents and a dollar. When Market Day arrived, teams set up their stores and students took turns selling, or browsing and purchasing goods.

The Book Store:

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The Toy Store:

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The Video and Game Store:

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The Stuffed Animal and Nik Knak Store:

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Each student in our class was invited to bring up to $5.00 to spend on purchases at Market Day. This event gave students great real-life practice working in a team, marketing, buying, selling, counting money and calculating change.

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When our market closed, student teams counted their store profits.

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This is the tally of money raised through Market Day:

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Video/Game Store: $28.85
Stuffed Animals & Nik Knacks Store: $24.60
Toy Store:  $23.50
Book Store:  $17.25

Some students also elected to donated their unspent money: $15.90

The grand total raised by students was: $110.10

Mrs. Black had previously promised to match the students' donation. With her contribution added, our class' total donation to the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre became: $220.20!!

Thank you and congratulations to all the students and parents who supported our fund-raiser with donations of goods and money. We know the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre will put our funds to excellent use!

Mrs. Black also wants to thank her teaching colleague Lisa MacRae, for sharing the idea of Market Day.

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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.

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This year, our class wanted to focus their persuasive writing unit and annual class fund raiser on helping turtles. A project of this sort would meet Grade 5 curriculum expectations in Language (researching, writing and media literacy), Science (Conservation of Energy and Resources), Math (counting money) and Social Studies (First Nations turtle symbolism). We consulted with staff from the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre (KTTC), in Peterborough, and they gave us some ideas for our letters.

kttc-logohttp://www.kawarthaturtle.org

The Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre is a fourteen year old Canadian registered charity that rescues, rehabilitates and returns to the wild over 1,000 turtles per year. The centre also engages in wild and released turtle population research, conservation initiatives such as establishing "eco-passages" that allow turtles to cross under busy roadways, and education outreach.

We reviewed this poster, showing the species of turtles that live in Ontario. Did you know that seven out of eight species of Ontario turtles are at risk?!

turtle-species-posterhttp://saveconcordwest.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ontario_turtles.jpg

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These videos and websites provided us with more information about turtles in Ontario:

After studying these resources, the class decided we should write to our local MPP (Conservative leader Patrick Brown), and ask him to urge the government to ban the hunting of Snapping Turtles for food. People are allowed to take up to two turtles per day, between mid-July and mid-September in Southern and Central Ontario, and at any time of the year in Northern Ontario, even though Snapping Turtles are listed as "Special Concern" by both the Federal and Ontario governments.

The education coordinator at KTTC offered to give us a tour of the turtle hospital, via Skype, and to answer any questions students had about turtles, prior to writing our letters. We had so much fun talking to Lauren, and meeting the turtles at the centre!

IMG_1477 IMG_1484 IMG_1487 IMG_1502 IMG_1512 IMG_1516Next, it was time to write letters! Students started off by listing their arguments against allowing a turtle hunt:

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They turned their pre-writing plans into rough drafts:

IMG_1519 IMG_1520 IMG_1521 IMG_1524They obtained peer feedback, to help them improve their drafts, and then created "good copies" to send to Mr. Brown.

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These are samples of student letters:

IMG_1628IMG_1629IMG_1630IMG_1631IMG_1632We are looking forward to receiving a response from Mr. Brown. We hope he will take what we wrote to heart and help the Snapping Turtles!

Our next blog post will feature our class fundraiser:  Market Day 4 Turtles!

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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.

High school student ambassadors from Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) recently visited Rama Central P.S. and ran a workshop geared at helping our class identify its next outreach project.

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The workshop began by inviting students to share their thoughts and feelings about images depicting cultural, economic, environmental and social issues.

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Next, students were each given a photograph and asked to identify which category or categories of need the picture addressed.

IMG_1002 IMG_1003 IMG_1005Once students had been exposed to some outreach categories and ideas, they worked in small groups to brainstorm project ideas for our class.

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IMG_1013Then, each group chose its favourite idea and had a repesentative of the group present it to the class.

IMG_1020 IMG_1021The class was then given an opportunity to vote, to narrow down the choices. After two rounds of voting, we had a two-way tie. We decided that helping the turtles could be the focus of our persuasive letter writing unit, so the rest of the workshop was focused on developing the idea "helping the homeless."

IMG_1022The LSF team helped the class more clearly define their project, which will include knitting, a winter clothing drive, and a food drive for Sharing Place food bank.

Once the scope of the project had been determined, the LSF ambassadors entered the project into the "Our Canada Project" database, where others can view it. We will add photographs and more details to our online project listing, as they become available.

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knittingdrive-screencaphttp://ourcanadaproject.ca/place/the-epic-knitty-bitty-clothing-drive-2/

We want to thank the student ambassadors for coming to our class. We had a great time, and learned a lot about outreach projects and how to organize them!

In a future blog post, we will show our class working toward making their new outreach project a reality.

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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.

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Habitat-for-Hunanity-Canada-300x211For the second year in a row, the Grade 4-6 students at our school participated in a national writing contest in support of Habitat for Humanity. Students authored 50-300 word essays explaining what "home" means to them.

The contest involved the usual incentives and prizes for students, but the best part was that builder Genworth Canada pledged to donate $5.00 to Habitat for Humanity Canada for every contest entry that was received.

Students in our class completed their writing just prior to Thanksgiving weekend... a perfect time to reflect upon thoughts and feelings about home.

Students were required to get parental permission in order to enter the contest. We set a class goal of having 80% of permission slips returned, and we met our goal. At the time this BLOG post was written, we had received 20 permission forms back, meaning our class' writing efforts generated $100.00 in donations for Habitat for Humanity!  

moh_sitelogo_enThese are samples of some of the reflections that our class entered into the contest:

A.M.:
Home is a place to be thankful. Home is a place to feel safe and loved. Home is where you are happy and you are always welcome. Home is special to me because it is where all my memories are made. Home is where my brother and I can play. Home is my favourite place to be. Home is where I can be family. Home is where I can go swimming with my Dad, Mom and my brother. Home is where I am sad and happy. Home is where I can go for bike rides and boat rides. Home is a place that I love because I have a warm place to sleep and I have a roof over my head. I am very lucky to have a family, a house and warmth. That is what home means to me!

A.P.:
Home is a place where you feel good. Home is a place where you are safe. Home is a place where you spend weekends together. Home is a place to make happy thoughts. It is a place to have fun, a place to be thankful, so don't complain because you might not always have one.

Z.M.:
Home is where the heart is. Home is where my family is, not just a house. It is where I can rest and sometimes study for a test. My home is the best. I can eat. It is where there is heat... not just heat from the heater, but heat from my family's hearts. Home is like the colour chrome, so grand. Home is where I am so thankful for a roof over my head, and food on the table, and some cable for the TV, with maple trees and pine trees in the Canadian Shield. Home is where the heart says, "Yes, this is where I belong."

W.C.:
Home is not just a roof over my head and some walls. It's where love fills the air, not hate. It's where people won't hurt me. I don't have to worry. I feel safe because when I fall someone is there to pick me up. When I am sick Mom, Dad and Grandma will take care of me. Memories are made with joy. It is where I learned to walk It's where I said my first word. It is where I am always happy, never sad. Home is where I learned to farm . It was where I got my first dog. That's what home means to me.

B.L.:
Home is a place where you keep warm and stay safe. It keeps you dry when it's raining. When you get home your family is there. Home is a place to cry and be happy. A home can be a condo, apartment, shed or a hole, a burrow or anything, as long as you have your family spirit it is your home.

B.T.:
Home is a place where you can play safely without any worries of anything happening. You can stay under a roof, eat food and sleep in a bed. Home is where you can have fun with your friends and home is always warm and cozy... The feeling of home is so nice, the smell, the taste, is just amazing. Not all people in the world have a home. They make shelter in the cracks between buildings, having little food or water each day. I think anything and everything should have a home. A home could be a hole for a fox, a hive for a bee, a rug for a bug, but in the end they're all still homes. That's what home means to me.

M.M.:
A home is not a house, a house is just a building. A home is where you feel safe, loved and happy. Some people live in a shack, house, apartment, mansion or duplex. You could live in a city, country or in the maintains. It doesn't matter where you live, but it's good to have a roof over your head. Home is where I feel safe. Home is where I can cry Home is a place where I can be loved. If I have a bad bad day it feels good to come home. When I go to bed it will be a new day tomorrow. When it's storming, it's good to have a family and a roof over your head. When it's stormy I like to get a blanket and watch a movie with my family. I am doing this to raise money for the homeless I don't care about pizza parties and that other stuff! I just care about helping the homeless. To me, home is the best place in the world. I'm thankful for having a family and a roof over my head.

C.B.:
Home is a place where I feel safe and warm. Home is a place where I an come home from school and be happy. Home is a place where you can cry when you're sad. Home is a place where you can laugh and play. We are lucky that we have a home, because some people don't have a home or a house.

J.S.:
I love that my parents are at home. I sleep, play and watch TV there. I feel safe at home. It doesn't matter where you live... in a cave, a bat, apartment or hotel. If I won a lottery I would give it to people that don't have a home.

R.P.:
A home is where your mom and dad make you happy. If you are sad, they are always there for a hug. They are always there for you, no matter what happens at your home. A home isn't just a building, it's a place to be loved and cared for. A home is where you can stay safe and warm. That is what home means to me!

K.P.:
The meaning of home is where you stay, where you sleep and where your journey never ends! Also, it's where your love is. Home is where you do your happy things in life. A home could be an apartment, a condo, it could be anything. Home is a place where you have fun memories. Holidays with your grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers, dogs and cats. Home is a place where you stay warm, where you have fun, playful memories, where you have your first steps, and your first time stepping out into the world. That is the meaning of home, to me.

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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.

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