Ecology is a unti where we earn about living systems. Decomposers, producers, and consumers are all found in our barnyard. Students went around creating their energy pryramids using animals and products right in our barnyard!

We were able to put our knowledge of forces to use through a balloon experiment. We set up a string system which would allow the balloon to be shot across the room once the air was released. 

We're wrapping up our Nineteen Something unit by analyzing the lyrics from some of our favourite songs. It's been fun to see which music everyone loves best!

Our Nineteen Something unit has us diving into country music of the past. We've been looking at figurative language in country lyrics, picking out things like metaphors, imagery, and alliteration. We extended our thinking into art when we illustrated some of our favourite music lyrics on ear tags. 

We used gummy bears to  simulate how internal forces such as compression and torsion work on objects. The poor gummies didn't stand much of a chance through our experiments and met a dreadful fate when it was all said and done. Such a delicious experiment!  

While many of us have a passion for eating baked goods, one of our passion projects group has decided to try baking them. Cake pops were first up on the must-try list. 

Mrs. Klatt soon realized that we are not the quietest sardines players, but we tried our best and made some great memories.

Earlier in the week we were able to put our math skills to use by guessing the combined weight of the NHCS market hogs. We used the monthly gain data that Mrs. Beslar provided to estimate what we thought the gains would be for the month of January. Thanks to our experience, we were able to help the Kindergarten students later in the week make their own guesses. 

We've been honing our writing skills by reviewing parts of speech. This week we searched the barnyard for things in motion. Once we found a verb, we then had to think of an adverb that would go along with it. Being able to write more descriptive sentences is helping us to become more expressive authors.   

Mrs. Klatt never disappoints! We enjoyed our first Outdoor Education session of 2025 where we got to explore the snow-covered creek area. We were able to use the steps that the Grade 8 & 9s created on their hike a few days before. We added our own touches to the area by carving out sections where people could sit. 

We have been studying energy in Science so one task we had was to work in teams to build solar ovens. We quickly realized that it was the wrong season to try to build such contraptions but the process was useful as it required us to problem solve and collaborate in small teams. 

We invited the Grade 5 class to join us for a mystery role play activity featuring famous literary characters. Each of us was given a character to portray, then we had to use our dramatic and deductive skills to try and figure out who committed the crime. 

We created our own art journals using some recycled materials, like cereal boxes and used paper. They will certainly be well-used considering we are passionate about all forms of art.

We're so grateful for opportunities to skate now that the rink has been flooded.

Time is a fantastic gift that we can give to others. This week we created a scavenger hunt for the Grade 2 class to participate in, helping them along the way of course. We invited the Grade 1 students to visit our classroom and do a directed drawing of a snow rabbit with us. We also spent some time playing with the Humble Beginnings Playschool class. 

One of our kind deeds was returned to us this week as the Kindergarten class invited us along on their Outdoor Education hike. We also helped Mrs. Kohel bake cookies that we got to decorate and enjoy with our Kinder buddies.  Cookies, hot chocolate, and show - what better way to warm up after spending time outside. 

During December's SEED Day we had the opportunity to create beautiful centrepieces with branches, ribbons, and old decorations that we brought from home. Being able to use natural materials to create decorations is a cool skill we can continue to build on throughout life.

We have been looking for ways to build a positive classroom culture to make sure everyone feels safe and respected here. Writing out compliments for every member of our classroom community was a great practice as it allowed us to focus on what every individual contributes to our class. Reading our own compliments was a huge boost as we all got to hear about ways that we positively impact other people.   

As a class we decided that over the last 12 days of school for 2024 we would make an effort to share acts of kindness with other New Humble citizens. On the first day of kindess we gave the Kindergarten class a surprise sticker scavenger hunt in their classroom and then took them out for a special recess with us.  

While out with our Kindergarten buddies, we made a quick visit to see the steers and make a guess about their current weights. Knowing what the steers' starting weights were, that they've been at New Humble for about three months, and that a typical rate of gain is approximately 2 pounds per day, we made our estimates. We also helped the Kinders write out their estimates - fingers crossed that they guessed well!  

Mrs. Klatt taught us how to build quinzees which are simple simple shelters that can be used for winter camping. In small groups, we made piles of loose snow and then started to hollow them out. The task gave us the chance to collaborate and problem-solve, all while enjoying the outdoors.

Our contribution to NHCS Farm Glow was the duck pond. We used acrylic neon and glow paint to create our ducks on black construction paper, in the hopes that the contrast between the colours and black would make the ducks pop. We also got to help set up the Glow exhibit so that parents could enjoy it during parent-teacher interviews.

We had an online visit with published children's illustrator Meneka Repka, whose first book The Mango Monster came out in September. She taught us about the process of how she became an illustrator, how a book becomes published, and then led us through a guided drawing of our own Mango Monsters.    

We loved the chance to dress up and pretend to be someone new. From a vending machine to a butcher and his pigs to hippies to rodeo queens, we had it all in Grade 6. Joining in the annual costume parade in the gym was a highlight of the week and many of us attended the Halloween dance sponsored by Parents' Council.

With the sale of the land adjacent to our school limiting our exploration of the outdoors for the time being, we enjoyed one last visit out to the creek this fall. Outdoor Education with Mrs. Klatt is a consistent highlight for us.  

One of our activities on Take Me Outside Day involved us observing our barnyard animals. After discussing the adaptations that both skunks and porcupines have, we were tasked with considering the differences that Coffee, Espresso, and the other animals have and the potential reasons for their adaptations. Later in the week we then looked at the animal shelthers and thought about why they were built in the manner they were.  

We boiled down beets, spinach, and onion peels to create natural dyes. The process was a lot easier - but more messy - than expected. We found that the beet and onion peels created the most vibrant dye, but were disappointed with the spinach. The green was very subdued on the fabric compared to the how it looked in the pot. We experimented with two different methods of applying the dye, dip-dye and using the dye as paint. Next time we will leave the fabric in the elastics longer in order to keep the tie-dye patterns more vibrant. 

Dr. Somers, a vet from Leduc, came out to show how to do an ultrasound on a pregnant cow. We had a load of questions about the ultrasound process and what vets can learn from performing an ultrasound.  

In LA we're trying to enhance our writing by including juicy words, like adjectives, in our sentences. Writing about what we see, hear, smell, and touch in the barnyard gives us a chance to think about adjectives that better describe our experience. Adjectives describing size and colour are fairly easy to incorporate into sentences about the barnyars structures and animals. 

During our Science unit on Matter we applied our knowledge of thermal expansion and contraction to build and tests thermoscopes, which are simply thermometers without the scale. The food colouring we added to the water/rubbing alcohol solution allowed for us to see whether the liquid would expand (rise) or contract (lower) depending on whether we set the beaker in hot or cold water. They worked so well that we didn't even have to put them in the hot water in order for the thermal expansion to make the liquid in the beaker rise. The warmth from our hands was enough to get the liquid in the straw to expand. 

2/3 of the Grade 6 students took on the cross country run challenge in Wetaskawin. The grade 6 girls team finished 3rd overall, with excellent times by Celeste, Aubrey, Jessica, and Quynn to get us into the top 3 finish. Celeste was 12th overall and Aubrey was 25th. Most importantly, we represented NHCS incredibly well and cheered so loud for all the New Humble runners from every grade. 

This week Mrs. Klatt had us build the tallest structure we could that could hold a flag for longer than 1 minute. While we find her tasks challenging, the fact that they test our abilities to cooperate and talk through ideas is really important. We always end up remembering her lessons! 

While our peers were off at the cross country run, the rest of us used our knowledge of sewing patterns to cut out fabric to make small stuffies. We based them off our I'm Hungry! unit during which we read The Couch Potato. Students had to cut out the pattern and fabric before hand-stitching the pieces together. We then used fabric markers to add designs to the front and back, stuffed them, and sewed the gap shut. 

This year we are trying something new with our school-wide ag-days. We joined the Jr. High students to participate in a bean farm simulation game. Through a few simple rolls of the dice, we planted, cared for, and harvested our crop. Another roll determined how our beans faired at the market. Some of us were extremely successful bean farmers, growing our net worth far beyond the $100,000 mark in just two or three years, while others had to struggle through hail or the saturated global bean market. 

Throughout our I'm Hungry! unit we have been studying the food characters of John Jory and Pete Oswald's children's books. Drawing on our knowledge of characters traits, we were able to create our own characters based on the vegetables and flowers from our school garden. Stay tuned to find out what happens to our character creations.

We can sure grow beets here at New Humble! The beets we planted in the spring as part of the school's garden project really took root. Some of our beets were fairly oversized and we learned that we likely could have harvested them sooner. Our beet production more than made up for our meagre canola crop and we're now coming up with ideas about how to use our massive vegetable yield. 

To commemorate Orange Shirt Day we created heart pins to show our solidarity with Residential School Survivors and their families. Since many Indigenous cultures value gift-giving, we made pins out of orange felt, using patterns we designed ourselves. Many of us chose to give our hearts away as a symbol of our care for others. 

After viewing Van Gogh's Sunflowers series, we went out and examined the sunflowers growing in our school garden. We took notes about our observations and did some quick sketches in our Field Journals. Rather than paint, we chose use soft pastels for our pictures.  

Mrs. Klatt is helping us become better collaborators by having us try a variety of team building activities that require us to work together to achieve success. 

We became amateur farmers, using a classic board game called The Farming Game to learn about buying, growing, and selling crops. Even though the prices of crops and farm equipment is quite out of date, we quickly realized that farming is an expensive venture. We experienced highs when our harvest was doubled with the luck of a dice and lows when bad weather ruined a perfectly good crop.   

The Grade 1 class taught us how to create mandalas using materials from nature. Mandalas are geometric formations that are thought to help increase calm and mindfulness in both the creator and the viewer. 

We harvested our oilseed crop but unfortunately there were not many seedpods left on the remaining stalks. In spite of our lacklustre yield, we did learn more about the life cycle of canola, how to tell when it is ready for harvest, and the uses for it beyond oil. 

Mrs. Klatt taught us how to build quinzees which are simple simple shelters that can be used for winter camping. In small groups, we made piles of loose snow and then started to hollow them out. The task gave us the chance to collaborate and problem-solve, all while enjoying the outdoors.

As a class we decided that over the last 12 days of school for 2024 we would make an effort to share acts of kindness with other New Humble citizens. On the first day of kindess we gave the Kindergarten class a surprise sticker scavenger hunt in their classroom and then took them out for a special recess with us.