"The Bear and the Squirrel Met Friends"
By Augustus

Once upon a time there was a bear, and that bear was sad because he lost his old friend.
But one day the bear set off and he found a friend that was up in a tree.
And that friend's name was Mr. Oldy Squirrel.
Mr. Oldy Squirrel was so scared at first, so the bear told him he was a good bear.
The end.

"Every Pirate Gone"
By Luka

The invisible pirates jump on the ship. 
Two pirates and invisible pirates fight them off their ship.
The two pirates fall in the sea.
They don't know how to swim.

"The Two Girls are the Best Friends"
By Aroh

Once upon a time two girls built an igloo.
They went inside and then a boy named Aroh came along, he wanted to go in the igloo too.
The girls let him in and they stayed friends for the rest of their lives.
The end.

"There's a Snowman"
By Kinan

A boy makes a snowman.
Then the boy is sleeping and the snowman breaks.

Activity Description:
Everyday we will be acting out stories told by two of our class members.  During centre time the two students (who are chosen by pulling names out of a jar) work with Jenny to create their stories.  They then identify the characters in their stories and choose which of their peers will be playing the roles.  A tracking sheet is used to ensure all students have equal turns in both the storytelling and the acting portion of this daily activity.

A photocopy of your child's story will be sent home the day she/he tells it, so that your family can read it also.  Perhaps you will want to act out the stories at home too!    

"Race"
By Finn C.

There was a guy who had a motorcycle with flames and a monster on it and he crashed.
Then another guy went super fast and it was snowing and he slipped off his bike and jumped onto a pole.
Then three more motorcycles cam and they zoomed and they won the race.

"Triceratops"
By Jasper

A mommy and a daddy Triceratops are cooking plants for their babies.  
And the babies are cooking plants for the mommy and daddy.
A T-Rex eats them all.
And then a Velociraptor eats the T-Rex.
Then a giant dinosaur eats the Velociraptor.
The end.

"Pender Island"
By Cooper

Did you know on Pender Island the fridge was really stinky and there was a big blob of mould in it. 
My mom had to use bleach and she told us to stay away.
Sillus had to stay away too.

"Snowman"
By Lowyn

Once upon a time there was two boys named Cooper and Finn.
They built a snowman with Lowyn.

The afternoon children have taken an interest in drawing treasure maps.  We wanted to create an example to demonstrate how pirates have to draw landmarks on their maps so they know where to walk.  We drew a map and then hid treasure, leading the children around the room to follow the map.  Jenn was our captain, so after she spoke we had to say, "Aye, aye captain!"  Here is a video of the children finding the hidden treasure.

This activity lead to the children creating even more maps during free play time on Wednesday.  During our group time on Thursday the map creator described their map to us (videos below).  Drawing maps is a numeracy activity as it helps the children develop their sense of spatial awareness. 

Here is our work on T-Rex

Our work on Yangchuanosaurus:

Our work on Stegosaurus.  The first picture documents what we have learned about this dinosaur.  The second picture is Leia's colouring of a stegosaurus for our floor measurements. 

Here is our work on pirate flags.  The children traced the skull and crossbones / skull and swords and then decided if they wanted their flags to be red or black at the paint centre. 

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this post up!  Here is a look at how our pirate project began.  

We started with brainstorming what we already know about pirates.  We then spent a couple of weeks reading pirate stories, drawing pictures, playing with play dough, and pretending to be pirates.  This lead to thinking about what kinds of questions we have about pirates.  We created our "What do we want to know?" board, and have since spent our project time researching these questions.  

We began our Community Circle by reading Action Jackson, by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan.  This story provided us with more information about Jackson Pollock - the artist who creating the paint throwing technique. 

We then asked the children to think about our field visit yesterday:
- How did paint throwing make you feel?
- What did you like about it?
- What didn't you like about it?


Amelie - I didn't like when somebody's balloon popped in my face.
Augustus - I liked all of it except when I got paint on me.
Finn - The balloons was the best part.
Gabriella - I felt happy and I liked when we threw the balloons.
Jasper - I liked how I made the explosion on my picture.
Justin - I feeled happy when we threw the paint.
Kobe - I liked popping the balloons.
Leia - My favourite part was when I was throwing the paint.
Luka - I didn't like when the paint got on me.
Megan - My favourite part was popping balloons and shaking my hands.
Rayyan - I liked when I put the orange paint on my pants.

Avery - I didn't like the pain in my eye, but I really know that I love throwing the paint.  It was really fun and it looked like I had rainbow hands.
Cooper - I didn't like the popping the balloon bit.
Dorine - I didn't like throwing the paint, it was too messy.
Elisha - My favourite part was the balloons and squirting paint from the syringe.
Kaliko - I liked throwing my balloon and popping it because I saw the colours on my hands.
Kinan - I liked popping the balloons.
Lowyn - I didn't like popping the balloon becasue it was too loud.
Seth - I didn't know how to pop the balloons, but then I popped it!

Paint throwing on our individual canvases.  The children each selected four colours to use for their canvas.