Foggy Fall

Fabulous Fog

I happened to be up on UBC campus today and

had to stop and take a picture of this amazing view. 

The fog has inspired division 4 to write some incred-

ible poems this week.  We took a break from class to 

sneak outside and study the fog's moisture clinging

to the many spider webs in the trees outside the school.

The webs are so delicate and intricate and as the wet

fog clings to each thread, it highlights these amazing

architectural feats of nature.  The poems need a little 

polishing before we publish them but it will be worth

the wait!  The students have been learning about using

"juicy, delicious" words and similes in their writing

and how using these devices in their writing can create 

vivid pictures in their readers' minds.  

Amazing Structure

Division 4 builds a newspaper Sukkah

Super Sukkah

Celebrating Sukkot in Division 4

Last week, Division 4 learned about the holiday called Sukkot, a cultural celebration to remember both the huts Jewish people built during the time of the harvest so that they could have shade at the sides of their fields and the 40 years of wandering in the desert after leaving Egypt.  Jennifer came in to our class and read us a story and then we both posed a challenge to the children-can you build a sukkah (a hut) out of nothing but newspapers and masking tape?  Well, not only did the students build an amazing creation, they also passed another challenge that Jennifer posed-will it survive the weight of 4 real branches?  It did!  Amidst much cheering, we served apple slices in the sukkah and every one of the children crawled in, enjoyed their apple, and left our sukkah standing.  It survived over night and then sadly, collapsed as we tried to move it to a new place in the classroom.  The most wonderful part of this event was watching all 23 of our kids work so beautifully together to create our structure.  They chatted while rolling their newspaper tubes.  They discovered that some of the tubes weren't strong enough and needed to be rolled more tightly.  They figured out that triangles are strong shapes.   They worked together to hold up sides and bottoms.  They discovered that a strong foundation was needed and so the big blocks were brought out to brace the bottom.  But best of all, they discovered that working as a team yields fantastic results.

Terry Fox in big blocks

Michelle and Chloe's Terry

Michelle and Chloe also worked very 

hard to represent Terry with the big

blocks.  Unfortunately I've cut off the

top of Terry's hair-they used 3 cones

to represent his hair.  Again, the team-

work and problem solving was lovely

to watch.  The girls started building and

then realized that their Terry wasn't

balancing very well on the carpet so they

decided that they needed something that

would provide a flat surface - they got

out more flat blocks and away they
went.

Terry Fox in big blocks

Terry Fox by Gabe, Christian, and Jayden

Gabe, Christian and Jayden built this amazing

structure to represent Terry Fox.  The teamwork

between the 3 boys along with the problem solv-

ing was lovely to witness.  Initially, the boys had

built Terry's 2 legs looking exactly alike.  When

I asked them how you could tell which leg was

his prosthetic leg, they started talking animatedly

about how they could do that.  Look carefully

and you can see how they solved their problem.

Terry Fox in paints

Terry Fox in plasticine

Terry Fox sculpture