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Month: September 2013

Published on Leave a comment on Wildlife Sanctuary: Media Literacy/Outreach Work Now Online

This is an update on a couple of  Media Literacy/outreach projects.

The "Help Me Stay Wild" teacher resources that my 2012-13 Grade 5/6 class helped to create for Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary are now online.  There are five of them.  You will find them on this page:

teacher-corner-bloghttp://www.blackdeer.ca/AV-teacher-corner/

This year's Grade 4/5 class provided feedback on an early draft of an Aspen Valley resource page for kids.  That page is also online now:

kids-zone-screencaphttp://www.blackdeer.ca/AV-kid-zone/

The work of last year's class and this year's class for Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary are being recognized on this page:

honour-roll-screencaphttp://www.blackdeer.ca/AV-honour-roll/

(We have collected enough acorns, pine cones and maple keys to supply both Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary and Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary with food for their overwintering animals!)

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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@mail1.scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

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Published on 6 Comments on Wildlife Sanctuary/Math Project, Pt. 1

Our special math project, which is also an outreach project in support of Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary is now underway.  (Sept. 23rd NOTE:  We have collected so many items that we will now be sharing with Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, as well!)

We have sent home notes to parents, explaining what we are doing (click on any picture to enlarge it):

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Everyone in our class received a paper bag, for collecting items,
with a note attached to it.

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We have started a Community Service bulletin board in our classroom:

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The entire school has been invited to help us collect acorns, pine cones and maple keys, to feed to baby squirrels, porcupines and fawns that will  overwintering at local wildlife sanctuaries:

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Students in our class counting out invitations for other classes

Teams of students from our class have started touring the school, making presentations explaining what wildlife rehabilitation centres do and why it is important to feed orphaned animals the types of food they will see after they are released back into the wild:

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Students rehearsing for classroom presentations

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The collection of natural foods for orphaned baby animals has begun:

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And, in a truly remarkable twist of fate... The week we began collecting food for orphaned baby animals, the family of one of my students rescued a four-week old squirrel they found on their driveway, alone, cold and dehydrated. They did a great job with emergency care, and then I drove the little guy to Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, where I happened to be going for a meeting. "Squirrelly" will be one of those babies who needs to overwinter at a wildlife sanctuary, eating the kinds of foods we are collecting!  Next Spring, he will be released back into the wild close to where he was found.

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"Squirrelly" receiving a feeding of Pedialyte (2 ml), via eye-dropper

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Full tummy = sleepy baby

Next step:  During the first week of October, we will be spending two or three math classes sorting, counting, calculating fractions and equivalent fractions, estimating percentages, graphing and estimating how long our food stash will last, when fed to baby squirrels.

Then I will drive all the great, natural food we collected to Woodlands Sanctuary and Aspen Valley Sanctuary, where it will teach baby animals, like Squirrelly, what foods to eat and provide them with sustenance all winter long!

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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@mail1.scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

Published on Leave a comment on Welcome Back 2013!

back-to-school-banner2013

Dear Parents:

Welcome to our class BLOG.  This is where you will find all the news about what we are doing in class.  We will try to provide you with information and updates at least twice a month.  Sometimes I will author BLOG posts and other times students will be invited to write the updates themselves.

During our first week of school, we developed a "Community Agreement" to ensure that everyone in class feels valued, respected and is able to learn to the best of his/her ability.  This is our agreement (click on it to see an enlargement):

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Some of you have already mentioned that one of the activities your child particularly enjoyed during our first week of school was "field work." For Grade 4 students, field work ties in with their Science topic "Habitats and Communities" and their Social Studies topic, "Physical Regions of Canada."  For Grade 5 students, field work relates to their Science topic "Conservation of Energy and Resources."  We will also be using outdoor sessions as the basis for writing, math and arts assignments.

During our initial outdoor sessions, students began to learn how to focus on schoolwork in the outdoors and to take accurate and comprehensive field observation notes.  After our second outdoor learning session, students used their field sketches to develop more detailed drawings, back in the classroom.  Here is what field work looks like on the front lawn of the school:

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We hope you enjoy this little window into Grade 4/5!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Black

P.S.  Feel free to share our BLOG address with Grandparents and other relatives.  🙂

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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@mail1.scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

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