Week at a Glance

June 2-6

The Grade 5 students worked together with the junior high students to see who could build the tallest free-standing tower!

Dandelion Seed Art

Student's have been exploring how a plant spreads their seeds. One of the best examples that students see all the time is dandelions. They created their own dandelion puff art with the wind spreading the plants seeds. We used this time to explore the plant's life cycle as well.

Seniors' Day

We were fortunate enough to have many community members come out to our school's seniors' day. The grade 4/5s were responsible for helping to serve lunch. The barnyard chore managers were also in charge of providing tours of their animals.

Pen - Perimeter and Area

Students enjoyed using panels to design their own polygon pen. They were then challenged to find the shapes area and perimeter.

May 26-30

Geometry Farms

As we wrapped up our geometry unit, the Grade 5s created a geometry farm booklet to hand in as their final project.

Goodbye Mrs. Terietstap

The Grade 5s joined the junior highs for a surprise going-away party for Mrs. Terietstap.

Traditional Healing

We went for a hike outside to look for different plants that can heal certain ailments.

Rock Food Creation

The grade 3 and 6 class was kind enough to invite us out to work on a special project! Each student had a chance to create food rocks for the mud kitchen and for our garden to protect from predators.

Garden Planting

We started investigating the anatomy of a plant and transplanted some of our thriving plants into larger pots.

Chicken Dissection

Students got to watch a broiler chicken dissection as we discussed the anatomy of a chicken and how it helps them survive! There was lots of questions and lots of facial expressions!

May 20-23

Human Heart Models

The grade 5 class made some human heart models to help us learn the differnt parts and their functions!

Osteoporosis

We did an experiment in grade 5 to learn what happens when the calcium is taken out of the egg shells.

Plant Transplant

We started investigating the anatomy of a plant and transplanted some of our thriving plants into larger pots.

Create an Animal

In teams, students were provided a picture of a habitat then challenged to design an animal that could survive in that environment. They all presented their animals and explained the adaptations they provided their animal to help them survive.

May 12-16

Writing Buddies

The cute little ducklings that we watched pip and hatch last week came to visit our class for writing time. Students took writing breaks and enjoyed the writing buddies.

Animal Locomotion Races

As we continue to investigate the external structures of living things students learned about the different ways animals move. They were instructed to move through the race as a bipedal, quadruped, limbless, etc.

Plant Care

We continue to take care of our now seedlings in the greenhouse! Students have been enjoying seeing how the different plants are taking various amounts of time to germinate.

May 5-9

Forever Flowers

Students are learning all about plants and flowers this time of the year so it was a perfect excuse to investigate the structures of different flowers. Each student had a chance to make their own bouquet of forever flowers out of pipecleaners.

SEED Day

This month's theme for our charter SEED day was all about spring and ecosystems. Students had a chance to participate in a schoolwide farm mural, recycling relay, building bug hotels, and playing seed detective to match seeds to their plants.

Turkey Walk

Our class was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to move the turkey poults from their inside pen to a larger pen outside! We also checked out Henrietta's freshly cracked turkey eggs. Later on in the week, we were able to watch the duck eggs start pipping.

The grade 5s did a ruler drop test to check out their reflexes.

Oilers Pride!

Creating lungs to see how they move in our body.

April 28 - May 2

Student Vote

Election day finally arrived! Students got to put everything they have learned about the federal government and their research on the political parties to place their official student vote.

Seed Starting

Our class is responsible for the beets this year. The beets prefer and are more successful when directly sown so we decided to plant some plants for fun as well! Students chose between different types of pumpkins and flowers to start in the greenhouse.

The grade 5s are in charge of planting pumpkins in our garden this year!

The grade 5s acted out some skits to start our new health unit!

Vertebrate vs Invertebrates

Grade 4s love using play-dough when they have the chance! Students were able to create their own play-dough animals with a back bone, vertebrates, and animals without a back bone, invertebrates. They then tested to see which structural design creates a stronger animal.

April 21- 25

Living Systems

Grade 5s paired up with the junior high students to examine cow hearts and lungs as a way to start off our new science unit!

Schoolwide Cleanup

The whole school headed out to do a schoolwide clean up! Our class chose to clean the barnyard and of course say goodbye to Coffee and Espresso who were going to be processed this week.

Broiler Chicken Walk

Our broiler chicks have out grown the brooder and needed to be moved to the outside pen so they can continue to grow. Our class helped carefully move the chicks to their new home!

Book Tasting - World Book Day

For World Book Day, the grade 4/5s had their classroom transformed into a book bistro with snacks and beverages included! They had a chance to try new books that they may never have read before and recommend books to their neighbours as well. This was a great opportunity to practice the reading strategies they have been investigated all year.

April 14- 17

Readathon Celebration

We crushed our reading goal for the month of March and was rewarded with the most fantastic Easter ice cream sundae party!

Student Vote

Students have been reviewing the responsibilities of the different levels of government so they know exactly what issues they will be voting about on April 28th in the student vote. They had a chance to play a knowledge game with their classmates.

Pocket Gopher Trapping

We have been learning about some of the common pests that can impact our school farm and garden including foxes and pocket gophers, often called moles. Students had the chance to learn how to set a fox and pocket gopher trap. We successfully caught a pocket gopher in less than 24 hours!

April 7-11

Balloon Cars

New Decals!

Gravity & Air Resistance Investigation

BeaverHill Bird Observatory

We had a wonderful guest at the school this week, an owl from the BeaverHill observatory!

Dairy Farm Field Trip

We have such an amazing community that is always excited to share their part of the agriculture industry. The grade 3-5 students loaded up to check out Glen Park Holsteins dairy farm this week!

Barnyard Biology

We have started our final science unit for the year on living systems. Student's learned how to categorize animals this week including using proper terminology such as biotic, abiotic, organism, population, and community. We spent the afternoon outside completing a terminology scavenger hunt to find living examples of each term.

March 24-28

Native Plant Roots and Cover Crops

One of the students shared some intriguing photos from their home of the water flooding. We had a great class discussion about what causes the flooding in the spring and what we can do to help prevent flooding. This led the discussion to students investigating cover crops and their purpose as well as the role of agriculture in erosion and soil care.

Clay for Kids

It was time to work on our sculpting skills with an in school field trip by Clay for Kids. Students designed their very own voyageur to wrap up our investigation of the Canadian fur trade and all the different roles that people could play.

C-Section

During Monday morning meeting, I had shared with students that there was a c-section for an abnormally large calf at the ranch I help out at. A few days later one of our classmates had a c-section done on his animal as well. They were kind enough to share some pictures of the vet preforming a c-section on a heifer to show the students and talk about reproductive health and anatomy of cattle.

Barnyard Spa Day

We headed out this week to watch our steers be clipped and fitted for their sale videos. This helped the students notice that Pepper and Triscuit were in need of a spa day. Students took turns helping brush, walk, pet, and trim their hooves.

Orienteering

We have been learning how earth is a magnet in our non-contact forces unit. Students had a chance to practice their orienteering skills. They each created a design map using cardinal directions and then challenged other teams to try their directions and guess what their design was.

March 17 - 21

Math Fair

The whole school toured and presented their Math Fair projects on Friday. Everyone did such a great job!

The Chicks are Hatching!

The chicks began pipping on March 20th, and a few have now hatched! We have a live stream set up in the barn, and the Grade 5s were excited to see one hatch live while they were doing their morning work!

Grade 5 Science

In Grade 5 Science, we made gliders and went outside to test them out!

Magnet Exploration

Students had the chance to explore magnets in class this week through mini magnet challenges!

Grade 4-9 Ski Trip

The Grade 4s and up hit the slopes this week at Rabbit Hill. We had perfect time as the snow was great and quickly disappeared after our trip!

Sheep Moving

We teamed up to make a human fence and get the lambs and their mamas back to their outside pens!

Grade 4/5 Curling

We also were fortunate enough to be hosted by the Calmar Curling Club for an afternoon of learning and curling!

March 11 - 14

Barnyard Fractions, Decimal, and Percent Review

We headed out to the barnyard to grow our animal knowledge and vocabulary while reviewing for our fractions, decimal and percent test.

Anti-gravity Egg Drop

As we continue to investigate non-contact forces, students were challenged to beat gravity by creating egg drop contraptions that could withstand the power of gravity. Students also learnt ladder safety and had a chance to discover how to use a ladder properly.

Egg Membrane

During our egg drop, one of the eggs cracked creating the perfect opportunity to discuss the structure of eggs and their membranes.

What better way to do health class than with the lambs!

March 3 - 7

Ruminant Animal's Dental Structure

Student's posed a great question this week about the dental structure of sheep. We headed out to the barnyard to answer the question do cows, sheep, and goats have top incisors? We quickly learned that no ruminant animal has top incisors and investigated what animals are ruminants and why they have evolved this way.

Paper Airplanes

As an introduction to the Grade 5 science unit, we experimented with different paper airplane designs, modifying them to explore the factors that affect drag.

Jr. High Buddies

The Grade 5s were excited to work with some Jr. High students and show them their math and science skills!

Down vs. Guard Feathers

Our class read aloud book brought up chickens and their ability to swim and float. This took us on a barnyard adventure to look at if a chicken can really float. Students had the chance to compare the water resistant ability of duck and chicken feathers.

Barnyard Relay - Push/Pull

To start our unit on contact and noncontact forces, the grade 4s had the chance to use the contact forces of push and pull in a barnyard relay race.

Archery

The grade four and five students were lucky enough to participate in archery twice this week!

Gravity experiment

We headed to the playground to experiment with weight and gravity on earth.

February 24-28

Spirit Week

Crazy hair day!

Baking Cookies

The grade 5 students made cookies in math class to work on their fraction skills. They learned how to double a recipe or make half of it!

Outdoor Learning

We took full advantage of the weather finally being nice and did a lot of outdoor learning!

"The Bad Seed" book buddies

Students have been reading through "The Bad Seed" series in class to practice their reading aloud expression and fluency. As a group, they were then asked to create a fiction summary of the story using "somebody, wanted, but, so, then." They read book number four to their reading buddies to show off their more expressive reading ability!

The Earth's Orbit feat. Pepper and Triscuit

To review our space unit, we took the goats for a rotation and revolution around the barnyard. Our class and the goats acted as the Earth and our school barn was the sun. They showed how the revolution and rotation impacts life on Earth.

Fact vs. Fiction Races

We are finishing up our social studies unit and decided to play a review game out in the barnyard. Students had to answer the question with fact or fiction by moving their body to the right spot. We of course included Pepper and Triscuit in our running activities.

Hiking with Mrs. Klatt

Students headed out on a hiking adventure with Mrs.Klatt to investigate animal tracks.

February 18-21

Blanche Lambing Date

We used our math skills including division, subtraction, and calendar sense to make our predictions of when Blanche is going to lamb. Students compared the number side with the biological signs of a close to lambing ewe to make their estimates.

Fur Trader Plays

Finally, the sunshine and warm days are coming back! After almost a month of bus cancellations and indoor recess we couldn't wait to head outside on Thursday! Students created a one act play to represent different situations that happened during the fur trade in Canada before presenting them to the class.

Moon Phases Impact

The grade 5s spent some time with the animals, feeding them treats. We started brainstorming and discussing different ways the moon phases could potentially impact our barnyard animals.

Math Relay

The grade 5s enjoyed studying for their unit exam with some fun relay races!

Oreo Moon Phases

There is no better way to learn about the moon phases than with a handful of Oreos! Students created their own moon phase diagram using the cookies to represent each phase. We also looked at how moon phases were used to help keep track of historical seeding and harvesting times.

Snow day Fraction Baking

To practice our fractions on a cold snow day, we had to bake some chocolate cookies to warm up!

February 10-14

Starwest Farms Sale

We are so fortunate at New Humble Community School to have a great community of support including Starwest Farms. They donate a steer to our school each year to raise and sell to fundraise for our programming! We were fortunate enough to tune into their 6th annual simmental bull sale and celebrate their top selling bull!

We played a great game of agriculture jeopardy on February 11 to celebrate the national day of agriculture in Canada. Students were quizzed on their knowledge of crops, livestocks, careers, and by-products of Canadian agriculture. The goal was for students to realize how widespread agriculture is and essential it is to society. They were gifted a book from Leduc county that highlighted agriculture in their own community. We also spoke about rats and wild boars in Alberta and how to handle this risk to agriculture. Students asked great questions leading into a discussion of many invasive species and how to dispose of dead stock. Students finished up by creating two fortune tellers about agriculture, animals and crops specifically, to share some of their knowledge with their families and friends.

Thursday Buddies

We met up with our grade one buddies to create some Valentines' chicken cards. Students helped their buddies to create a cute little chicken out of construction paper hearts!

Play dough Fractions

No better way to learn about fractions than with our hands! Students had a chance to build fractions and equivalent fractions with play dough this week.

Trading Post Construction

As we continue to immerse ourselves in the fur trade of historical Canada, students spent some class time illustrating a picture book of a child's perspective visiting a fur trading post. We have also been enjoying the National Film Board of Canada clips about Canada's fur trade and voyageurs.

Environmental Read Alouds

Students have been showing off their ability to apply the reading strategy of finding the main idea in fiction and nonfiction texts this week, and creating summaries from the information. We chose read alouds that highlight animals and how they survive as well as the importance of rainforests and taking care of trees/ecosystems. Some of the books we have looked at include: The Emperor's Egg, The Great Kapok Tree, and Best Foot Forward

February 3 - 5

Research Project

The Grade 5 students have been studying the Earth's rotation and how its tilt in relation to the sun creates the different seasons. As part of their research, they are exploring how these seasonal changes impact both agriculture and hunting.

Ranch Design Map

Fur Trade Illustrators

Constellation Art

We love the chance to do hands on projects in grade 4 and 5. Students showed off their understanding of constellations by using hammer and nails to create their own. We will now be creating constellation legends, like the First Nations people of Canada, to explain the story of their star design.

January 26 - 30

Fur Trade Game

It was time for my favourite game of the year: the annual fur trader game! Students are tasked with being voyageurs in historical Canada during the fur trade period. They try to find beaver pelts in the woods to trade at two seperate trading posts owned by the Northwest Trading Company and Hudson Bay company. They can only carry a limited amount of pelts and had to speak French or find a translator at the French trading posts.

Reader's Theatre

Our grade 1 buddies have been working on their reader's theatre skills. They came to present "The Mitten" to our class this week!

"How the Bear Lost its Tail" - First Nations Legends and Constellations

As we investigate the constellations in science it is a great time to look at First Nations legends to see how the stories were inspired by the stars. Students loved investigating the legends and started to compare them to Greek and Aztec legends, too. Next week they will get a chance to create their own constellations using wood and nails and write a legend for the stars.

January 20-24

Farm Mystery Items

Students explored different objects found on a farm. This included a hoof clipping and the cap of a foals tooth. We discussed animal anatomy and maintenance of farm animals.

Roping Afternoon

We may have found a brand new activity for students to do during spare time. Students have been absolutely loving and begging to go roping in the afternoon.

SEED Day

January is wellness month with great charter themed activities on how to care for our bodies and our animals health.

Animal Adaptations

As we practice our reading strategy this month of finding the main idea, students have had a chance to explore many non-fiction pieces focused on animals and what makes them unique. This includes "Best Foot Forward," "Glow: Animals with their own nightlights," and Pandas.

Fish Exploration

Our Fish In Schools program, FINs, had their eggs start to hatch this week! Students wandered down to the office to take a peek at the fish.

January 13-17

Grade 5s are learning all about hydraulic systems and were tasked with finding ways the school or barnyard could be improved using hydraulics!

Learning new math games for the numeracy event!

Space Art

With the start of our new science unit, students were excited to explore the beauty of outer space. We practiced our shading and understanding of value in art by creating their own imaginative planets using the sun as a light source.

Pig Weights

It was the last week with our three market hogs, student's practiced their math skills and estimation skills by guessing the total finish weight of all three pigs. We first went to the barnyard to assess the pigs before looking at their previous weights, time on feed, and finally doing some adding to try and make an educated guess.

Roping Buddies

The junior high ranch skills option invited out the class of grade 4 students to join them in a roping lesson. Students were taught the different roping techniques and practiced roping the chairs to use their new skills.

Anemometer

With the crazy winds, we were expecting on Thursday night students were extremely interested in knowing more about wind. We took this as an opportunity to look at wind radar maps and discuss why some areas have more wind than others. Students then headed outside at different times throughout the day to see what the wind speed was at our school.

January 6-10

The Grade 5s worked with the Grade 6s to solve a murder mystery. Each student was assigned a character that they needed to learn about, and then they went around questioning one another until the suspect was found!

Recycling Relay

We challenged our ability to run fast and think fast about recycling this week. Students worked in teams of five to place waste items into the right type of recycling/waste category.

Branding Practice

Some of the grade 4s, stopped by the junior high ranch skills branding to try their own hand at using hot irons to brand wood.

WHMIS Symbols

Students completed a WHIMIS symbols scavenger hunt during our science class lesson.

December 16-20

The Grade 5s made boats out of tinfoil and tested out whose could hold the most weight!

December 9-13

Grade 5 students have moved on to their matter unit in science! They did a viscosity experiment to explore the different thicknesses of liquids. I love how excited they get to do experiments in class.

The Grade 5s headed out into the barnyard to check the buoyancy of different items they could find.

Recyling Different Materials

Students are growing their technology skills through their exploration of recycling. Each student picked an item and explored the steps to recycle that material. They shared their findings on a Google Slides presentation.

Coniferous vs. Deciduous

We headed outside to investigate the different types of trees around New Humble School. During lunch students watched a video on Christmas tree farms including the life cycle of trees, types of trees, and more. Students had to identify deciduous vs. coniferous trees. When we headed back in they then used a dichotomous key to classify what the exact type of trees we had are from a black spruce to a lodgepole pine. Students excitedly used these as models for our Christmas art pieces.

December 3-6

Steer Weight

Coffee and Espresso, our NHCS steers, are heading to get weighed on Friday. This was the perfect time to discuss weight and try and make a prediction of what the steers might weigh. Students looked at different frames, average daily weight of gain, and then made a guess as to what each steer weighed.

Compost

We started a compost investigation to go with our science unit. Students are going to be observing three diferent items for the remainder of the year to see how quickly each item will compost. Item one is an apple core (natural product), item two is a plastic wrapper, and item three is paper.

Hog Farming in Alberta

On our PD day, the teachers headed to the University of Alberta to look at their farm including the hog farm. I shared with students the things I learned and we began to apply them to our own market hogs at NHCS. Students guessed their weights and predicted how long until they are finished hogs. We compared the pen setup that the UofA farm had and the pen that we have setup. Students are really hoping they can convince the school to get a sow to farrow out. We had the chance to do an in school field trip following a hog farmer on their operation.

NOVEMBER 25 -29

Reuse - Animal Sculptures

Our science unit this term is all about waste in our world. Students are investigating ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle. They took the initiative to reuse household waste to create animal sculptures of cats and pigs. These sculptures went on display for the school wide farm glo art gallery walk.

Reading Buddies

The grade one class paired up to practice some of their reading and listening skills as the littles and the big kids took turns reading to each other!

Twin Day!!

Grade 5 Math

The Grade 5s are now working on multiplication in math. We made flashcards to help the students practice with each other or at home as they work on mastering their basic multiplication facts before moving on to long multiplication.

The Grade 5 students were lucky to join the Grade 7s for a biodiversity presentation by Inside Education. The presentation focused on the deer family, and students participated in interactive games that helped them understand how the needs of different animals vary. They also learned how environmental changes can impact the number of species that can survive in a particular area, and how human activities can affect the ecosystem.

Diagnostic and Portfolios

The end of the month is another time for reflection. We headed on to IXL to test our skill level in math and language arts. Students then reflected on their growth so far and set goals for what they would like to learn and work on next month.

Santa Letters

As we prepare for the holiday season, students got into the mood by practicing their letter writing skills. Each student prepared a letter to Santa with their wishes for Christmas!

NOVEMBER 18-22

Enjoying some time in the Barnyard!

The grade 5s are learning about how warm and cold air moves!

Fun in Science! Students are exploring air pressure and its impact on the weather. As part of the lesson, we created a barometer, which they check daily to observe the connection between air pressure and the weather outside.

Preg Checking the Ewes

Our class of grade 4/5 students got to watch both Lemon and Blanche be preg checked by a local vet. Blanche is due for three babies and Lemon was not showing at this time.

Hunting Season

Mrs. Besler shot her first moose this year and was nice enough to bring it to school so we could all see and celebrate with her! Student's had many insightful questions and shared tales of their own experiences.

Swimming Lesson Graduation

Eight weeks of swimming lessons are all finished for the year! They ended with a fun day of swimming games and hot tubbing!

Cross Breeding Animals

A question about crossbreeding between species led into a fantastic exploration of classification of animals. Students explored which animals can breed and which ones cannot through looking at genus, family, and subfamilies. We looked at beefalo, zorses, and more!

NOVEMBER 4-8

The Grade 5 students spent time assisting in the barnyard, cleaning out the water bowls and pens. Afterward, they had the opportunity to watch the Grade 7s and Mrs. Besler as they weighed the hogs, gaining insight into the process of livestock management.

Science in the Barnyard

The Grade 5 students are learning about the impact of climate change on the various animals in our barnyard. They spent time outdoors observing the animals and making predictions about how climate change could affect them. Afterwards, each student selected an animal to research and then presented their findings to the class.

Remembrance Week

Students investigated the roles livestock played in the world wars. They had a chance to hear from two different members of the military to hear of there direct experiences. We also designed a wreath where students created their own poppies.

Natural Resources

We spent time exploring the different resources found in Alberta this week. Students had a chance to touch and work hands on with oilsands, coal, and solar energy just to name a few. There were mixed reviews from students on the smell of the oilsands with many finally recognize their parents smell when they come home from work! They loved using the solar panel so we now have it permanently set up in our classroom so students can check the amount of power it is creating whenever they would like.

Cooperation in Outdoor Education

I've always loved the policy that the dirtier the kids the more learning and fun was had, so on Thursday the grade 4/5s must have had a blast. They headed out on an outdoor education lesson with Mrs.Klatt and worked on team building exercises. I hope the grade 4/5's adults have a good washing machine and a bit of forgiveness for how muddy their kids were!

October 28 - 31

Financial Literacy - Wants vs. Needs

We continued our farm budgetting project this week! This time students had to start looking at what things in our pens are needs and what items are wants. We had a great investigation into how being a proper herdsman and strong producer means providing animals with their wants as well to create happier and more productive livestock.

Halloween Party

Students had to solve a crime using their reading strategy of making inferences during Halloween! They took to the barnyard to find 25 hidden clues to help with their inferences. We completed some spooky writing, skeleton art, and finally headed down to the gym to complete the costume parade!

Biodiversity in the Barnyard

During science this week we investigated biodiversity and how the four spheres of Earth must work together to create harmony. This was a fantastic chance to look at our barnyard and determine how we could make changes to create a more biodiverse and self sufficient ecosystem. Students determined that we would need more space and then could introduce more plants and possibly a pond!

IXL Diagnostic and Portfolios

The end of the month has us reflecting and setting goals for the future. Students completed their diagnostic to see how their language arts and math skills have improved this month. We came together to create a reflection of the highlights of this month. Finally students created a goal for the month of November!

October 21 -25

Music Class

We tried out the new school drums courtesy of the Karma Concerts music grant. Students learned about rhythm, tempo, and the length of each note before heading out to try their recorders!

Cloud Finder

As we learn about the hydrosphere, students had a chance to learn about clouds through a novel study, art project, and finally by creating cloudfinders. We headed out to use our cloudfinders and ran into the Kindergartners. Grade 4s were excited to share their cloudfinders and knowledge with the younger class.

A River Ran Wild

Students finished their predicting reading strategy this week with making predictions during a read aloud of "A River Ran Wild." This book is a great investigation in to First Nations culture, pollution, environmental stewardship, and colonization. We discussed many elements of this book and found the river on the map. Students led very passionate discussions about caring for the environment and treating First Nations with respect.

Charter of Rights and Freedoms vs. NHCS school charter

Student's recognized that word charter in social studies to what kind of school they go to. This created an amazing opportunity for students to learn just what a charter school is and what makes our school so unique. We read through our school's charter and charter outcomes and talked about how the charter shapes our school the same way the CCRF shapes our nation!

October 14-18

Vet Visit

We had the opportunity to learn about pregnancy checking heifers using an ultrasound from Dr. Dana Somers on Friday. This led to a great classroom discussion of over an hour with students investigating anatomy, hormone cycles, and more.

Rights vs. Responsibility

Being a steward of the land and caring for livestock is an amazing privilege that comes with a lot of responsibility. Students played a matching game to start to see the connection between their own personal rights and the matching responsibilities.

Farm Planning

Students started investigating needs vs. wants of humans and animals in the barnyard this week. We started exploring the pen setup in our own barnyard and determining why things are in each animal's pen. Students then had a chance to start designing their own dream pens! Stay tuned on this project.

October 7-10

Class Election

Students had the big election this week! The final step of the campaign process was to present their speeches and engage in a debate. The political leaders had a chance to promote their platform and answer questions about their party. We learned how ballots work and cast our votes. The winner was the Wilderness Party with a platform of going outside for a hike afternoon!

Wild Robot

Wild Robot is a popular children's book that explores friendship, belonging, and the environment! Thanks to a donation from Midnight Sun Inspection Services LTD. the class was able to head to Leduc and watch the movie. They have been reading the series as a read aloud during grade 2 and grade 3. They were challenged to connect the book series with the movie version through comparing and contrasting.

Wildnerness Party - Hike

The newly elected class Prime Minister promised an outdoor afternoon of hiking as his political platform and he delivered! We headed out with Mrs. Besler to enjoy the outcome of our voting process.

When I was Eight...

Our reading strategy of the week was making connections! Students had the chance to connect with different read alouds including an FNMI focused book "When I was Eight" and a locally written book "Moose Toques."

Swimming

Another great swimming lesson this week at the Leduc Recreation Centre.

Fire Safety Week

Fire safety week focused on fire alarms this year. We had the Calmar Fire department come speak to each class and teach us all about staying safe around fires.

October 1 - 4

Harvest Helpers

We headed out to spend the entire day outside in the barnyard helping finish up the harvest! Students buddied up with the Humble Beginnings Playschool's little herd in both the morning and afternoon to help them with their potato harvest. The students were then responsible for weighing and bagging the potatoes into 5lbs bags to sell. When the playschool was finished, students tackled the carrot harvest. Again students, weighed and bagged the carrots into 2lbs bags to be sold at the school. We had a great day of outdoor learning!

Campaigning - Debate

The next step our class election process was to have speeches and a debate. All the campaign posters are hung up and students have had a chance to lobby their classmates to vote for them, but now it was time to have a formal debate. Students worked collectively to become speech writers and write their first persuasive political speech. We will be presenting the speeches next week before we begin our voting!

Goal Setting and Portfolios

Student's set up their first month, September, in their portfolio this week. They had a chance to look at their major assignments and paper accomplishments from the previous month before organizing them in their portfolio. Students created a monthly reflection and set a goal for the month of October. We also updated our IXL scores and learned how to graph the results so we can track our progress throughout this year!

Charter SEED Day

We had the first S.E.E.D (seek, explore, experience, discover) day of the year this year. These days, formerly known as AG fun days, are a chance for students to learn about charter focused topics in intergrade groups. This month the focus was on harvest and the fall season on the farm. Students played pioneer games, learnt about historical harvests from the Leduc Grain Elevator,

September 23-27

Class Election

We learned all about the election process in social studies by doing our very own mock class prime minister election. Students had to pick a platform from a choice of five fun afternoon options. They started by voting to create their group then had to attempt to pick their party leader by using the First Nations decision making method of consensus. The group decision making got pretty heated but students were able to make mature decisions with little intervention. We are now deep into the campaigning process with the creation of posters and a class debate coming up!

Orange Shirt Day

Students acknowledged their ability to be the change through our exploration of Orange Shirt Day and learning about residential schools.

Swimming Lessons

We had the first of our eight weeks of fall swimming lessons this Tuesday!

Pumpkin Harvest

We followed the scientific method to create a pumpkin experiment. Our investigation question was if there is a connection between a pumpkin's size and it's colour! Students harvested the pumpkins before recording their colour, measuring the pumpkins' height, width, circumference, and weight.

Earth Rangers In-School Field Trip

September 15 - 19

Four Layers of the Earth Cookies

We tried our first baking project of the year! Students worked in teams to follow a sugar cookie recipe that they then had to transform into their layer of the earth. We finished up by compiling all four layers to demonstrate the model of Earth's layers.

Air Heads Rock Cycle

Students created their very own rock cycle, recreating each phase that a rock can travel through using airheads. We started by weathering the rock to create sediment which followed into a sedimentary rock then metamorphic and finally melting the rock to create magma that cooled into an igneous rock.

Weather Tools

The grade 5 students explored weather tools this week by learning all about how the school's personal weather station work. They then had a chance to use a professional anemometer before creating their own. Students followed this by creating and testing both a weather vane and rain gauge.

September 9-13

Creek Walk

Our first major creek walk, now that the wasps are gone! The grade 4s spent this adventure time trying to find features for all four of Earth's spheres. The grade 5s were challenged with finding evidence of erosion and documenting it. They created the drawings and made predictions as to what caused the erosion and what they think it will look like in 100 years.

Garden Harvest Art

In preparation for our harvest we tried our hand at creating pumpkins and carrots in oil pastels. Students channeled their artistic abilities into form a traditional orange carrot and pumpkin before they added in the different colours that carrots and pumpkins can be!

Map of Canada Challenge

We raced in teams of four to see who can finish the map of Canada first to prepare for our map of Canada quiz.

September 2-6

Chicken Walk

Mrs. Besler invited our class to help move all of the broiler chicks outside. With the warm weather they will enjoy their outdoor home! Although some students were quite scared, everyone carried or held the broiler chicks at some point!

Barn Exploration

Our new students had a chance to receive a barnyard tour from their classmates. We also got to check out the new animals and the green house! This was a big summer at NHCS with all the growth and major changes. Students got to meet our two new steers as well this week!

Garden Harvest Planning

We are responsible for the pumpkins and carrots this harvest season! Students headed to the garden to see what kind of vegetables were out there and how much they had grown. We started discussing our plan for what to make with our bounty.

The Treble Clef - Music Theory

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