It's the last month of school and our last display of the 2022-2023 school year! June's LLC display focuses on Italian Heritage, Portuguese Speaking Heritage, National Indigenous History, and Pride.
Cardboard Challenge was a great success again this year. The students showed so much creativity. There were Whack-a-Mole games, a ping pong table and arcade games using SCRATCH and MAKEY MAKEYS to name just a few! Students enjoyed the equally creative student made prizes (This or that paper strips, crochet toys etc.). JUST WOW!
The LLC is finished and has reopened! Have a look at these pictures to give you an idea. There is still some minor sorting to do but it's open to students to enjoy for the last few weeks of school. Although there won't be book excange so close to the end of the school year, they can continue special projects/partnerships or just come in relax, read, and get familiarized with their new space. Why not come to see it in person? The entire RRPS community is welcome to come by for our scholastic book fair the week of June 12th. The book fair will be open until 7pm on June 15th for all RRPS families.
A new month means a new display! May's display focuses on and supports Better Hearing and Speech month, Jewish and Asian Heritage month, the International Day of Families (May 15th), and the theme of consent.
The LLC is nearly ready to reopen. This is a picture of the Makerspace/Inquiry non-Fiction side of the library. May 23rd, the library will be restocked and reshelved. Watch this space to see more soon!
Students from room 18 collected foliage from our outdoor spaces to create animal habitats for our ozobot friends to explore.
Next steps include decorating the ozobots as their animal. This activity also connects to our CCEL (Community Connected Experiential Learning) project.
In room 17 (Ms. Jorgensen's class), we've been working on STEM stations with a focus on building and robotics. We will go on to make bee hotels using recycables so please send room 17 into school with kitchen towel or bathroom rolls, cereal boxes, plastic bottles etc. Watch this space for updates!
Johl Whiteduck from Miinikaan visited us at Regal Road to talk about the medicinal properties and significance/use of sacred plants: sage, sweetgrass, cedar, and tabacco. He also discussed the plants at Regal Road and the escarpment. We are connecting this learning to our CCEL: the greening of our spaces with our new planters and Indigneous ways of knowing and caring for the land.
Some of the teachings we learned:
We learned the teaching behind sweetgrass. The braided sweetgrass “grandma’s braid” is stronger when braided as opposed to a single blade of sweetgrass. The teaching is that we are stronger together.
We learned about the significance of clans and governance in Indigenous culture.
We learned about the 3 sisters in more detail. Our students already started planting the 3 sisters at RRPS.
We visited Bickford centre where we continued the learning that we started at RRPS by visiting the Indigenous teaching garden and learning about the 17 murals that were created by the Red Urban Nation Artist Collective which Johl Whiteduck is a member of.
Room 25 students visited Oakwood CI again to decorate the giant wooden Connect 4 game pieces, and add some finishing touches to our planters. Lots of connections to the skilled trades and career pathways during this experiential learning project. Students will plant in the planters soon and connect it to Indigenous wholistic ways of knowing and caring for the land.
This week was the TDSB book fair. Our new LLC will have some great new books added to the collection. These books will be catalogued and delivered to us to enjoy next September!
In Mme Davies class, we are working on creating settler villlages that the ozobots will explore once they are completed, watch this space!
Classes have been exploring STEAM stations as we co-plan long range projects for this last round of partnerships for the school year. Some ideas on the horizon: building early settler ozobot villages, making digital books using book creator on local and gloabl communities, goIT app desgin project, building upcylced structures, and much more!
Students read the Blue Spruce nominated picture book "Granny's Kitchen" by Sadé Smith. They then went on to create their own recipes using colours or plasticine. Some creations included cakes, gingerbread peoples, and rainbow cookies!
Students read the Prix Peuplier nominated picture book "Tommy Tempête" by Audrey Long. We learned some sign language and then also "danced with our hands" by creating artwork with our hands.
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Mme Misner's class had their last STEAM stations session today. They also had an introduction to colour coding with ozobots, bravo!
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Ms. Linley's class continued their Ozobot community building project by adding structures to their ozobot colour coded communites by adding Lego and cup structures (houses, appartments, supermarkets, malls, playgrounds, schools, hospitals, community centres and more!).
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We explored STEAM stations during partnerships with Mme Misner's class to start off the month of March! Students explored makerspace stations such as building structures using binder clips and popsicle sticks, making electical circuits using play dough (Squishy Circuits), and coding with Mice bots.
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We continued STEAM stations with Mme Misner's class today during partnerships. Students made all types of structures in the cup building challenge centre, as well as seesaws and leveled structures with several floors. Lots of future engineers in room 18, bravo!
Today we read the Prix Peuplier book: Mon Chagrin à Moi by Mylen Vigneault. The students practiced yoga and made moves such as downward dog and cat/cow.
Today we read the Blue Spruce book: Meena's Mindful Moment by Tina Athaide. The students practiced mindfulness after the story and will go on to make a Forest of Making craft connected to the book next week.
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Ms. Elango's class made name rockets and counted the number of rocket blocks in their name after reading the Forest of Reading Blue Spruce book "That's not my name" by Anoosha Syed. They then went to count the number of rocket blocks in their names for this Forest of Making activity.
In Mme Ching's FI Kindergarten class, we read "Les Amis" by Paule Brière and the students made friends/des amis using loose parts.
Ms. Ryan's virtual 2/3 class also explored the website metademolab to animate their portraits to break out in cool dance moves after reading the Blue Spruce book Bharatanatyam in Ballet Shoes. Here's a look at one of her student's animations!
A new month means a new display! This month's display in our mini LLC (room 15) focuses, acknowledges, and celebrates African Heritage Month and Chinese Heritage Month.
The 5-6 students from Ms.Ross's class went to visit Oakwood Collegiate today (21.02). They used SketchUP (A Google APP for Education tool) to design 3D Jenga blocks. The pictures on the top left show the steps they carried out to create their Jenga prototypes. The bottom left picture is the woodwork shop at Oakwood where our students will sand and finish the Jenga pieces. The picture on the right shows a 3D printed and personalized yoyo "best yoyo ever". The 5-6 students will have the option to create and print their own yoyos using SketchUP and Oakwood's 3D printer. We will go back March 3rd to sand and finish the giant Jenga pieces. Watch this space to see more of our CCEL project unfold!
One of our students Martha Noseworthy won the Toronto Public Library Design-A-Bookmark Contest! Congratulations Martha, here is a picture of her very creative design!
Students did STEM stations in Ms.Misner's class this week. They made music using apples and a MakeyMakey. They coded using Mice bots, did some making with Strawbees and the Lego wall, as well as added to the red cup building challenge by adding strips of carboard.
Students in Ms. Tiley's class created different types of mazes and connected them to their Core French direction based vocabulary. They made Lego mazes, micebot mazes, Dashbot mazes/obstacle courses, pencil mazes, and ozobot mazes. Lots of collaboration and problem solving/global competencies were practiced here, bravo!
Students in Ms. Tiley's class created their own ozobot story maps and mazes following some co-constructed success criteria such as including at least 3 speed, direction, and special moves colour codes! Here is a look at their work in progress..
The students' ozobot maps in Ms. Tiley's class are coming along nicely! Here's a look at their progress so far!
French immersion JK/SK students read the Forest of Reading book "Les amis" by Paule Brière this week. They will do their Forest of Making activity next week so watch this space!
English Stream JK/SK students read the Forest of Reading book "That's not my name" by Anoosha Syed. Next week they will start their Forest of Making activity so watch this space!
JK/SK Forest of Making: "Are you a cheesburger?" activity
This week, students read the Forest of Reading book "Are you a Cheeseburger"? and will go on to make fantasy plants of their own using loose parts such as pipe cleaners, ribbons, googly eyes, paper and so on. Some JK/SK ideas so far: cotton candy plant, pizza plant, candy heart . Watch this space to see their designs soon! -->
Students created all different kinds of snowflakes in response to Friends are Forever.
Students read "un hérisson dans le bedon" by Justine L-V and did a Forest of Making inquiry based activity by making their own hedgehogs and estimating the amount of spikes each one had.
We read Bharatanatyam in Ballet Shoes from Blue Spruce/Forest of Reading. Students shared what type of dances they like, do, or practice. They then went on to draw portraits of themsleves dancing and I animated them on metademolab, have a look at some of their creative dancing portraits below!
The most recent partnership sessions are always at the top, please scroll down to see more :)
Students in Ms. Da Silva's class are working on stop motion social stories using Google Slides. Here is a snippet of what they have started using storyboards as templates to map out their ideas. We can't wait to see and share the finished product (we are hoping to share some of their social stories in our daily announcements!)
Students in Ms.Tiley's class extended the learning they are doing with her in Core French during partnerships. They coded robot mice and gave directions using only French. Bravo tout le monde!
Our first partnerships of 2023 already started! Excited for all the projects soon to be in the works, watch this space to see more. This week we started off with open STEAM station exploration!
A new month means another new display! December's LLC display focuses on the International day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3rd); Human Rights Day (December 10th); and December celebrations: Hanukkah (December 18th-26th); Christmas (December 25th); and Kwanzaa (December 26th).
Students worked on their social justice STEM project during partnerships with Mme.Irimescu's class. Students read "The Magic Pencil" by Malala Yousafzai and either did a retell of her story or wrote a magic pencil story of their own through code. Students either coded ozobot story maps, coded social justice themed logos and slogans (connected to Malala's story or a social justice topic of their choosing) with micro bits or Scratch/CS First, or created a storyboard for a future PSA (public service anoouncement). One student chose to use a Dashbot instead of ozobots; micro bits, or scratch by creating an obstacle course (that reflected Malala's story). The Dashbot had to navigate the obstacle course that reflected Malala's story. So many great ideas and coding projects in the making! I will share more in the near future. Bravo les amis!
A new month means another new display! This month's LLC display focuses on Hindu Heritage, Indigenous Education, Anti-Bullying and Awareness week, and Remembrance day. Bonne lecture!
In preparation for our Social Justice STEM project (watch this space for more updates coming soon!), students took part in a Microbit workshop with Kids Code Jeunesse. Microbits are a lot of fun to code with! There are many coding possibilities with these pocket sized computers! Students worked on coding words and images but we will delve deeper and embrace some more complex coding projects as we move forward. Have a look at the website to learn more. Students can also use microbit code even if they don't have a microbit! https://makecode.microbit.org/
Students from Ms.Vasic's class worked on coding their communities free hand with specific coding guidelines. Students from Mme. Givertz's class converted their comic zine stories into ozobot story maps. Mme.Irimescu's class started their social justice STEM project by coding story maps connected to a social justice picture book "Malala's Magic Pencil" or connected to a social justice theme that they are passionate about.
QR CODE FUN
Students from Ms.Givertz's class did a gallery walk to follow up on their Comic Zines project by scanning QR codes and listening to their classmates' responses. They then did a sharing circle and shared positve feedback about eachother's presentations.
Students from Ms.Vasic's class extended their classroom Ozobot house project to build and code an entire community in the LLC. Watch this space to see how things evolve!
A new month means a new display! This month focuses on Islamic Heritage, Somali, and Hispanic Heritage month, as well as World Food Day, the International Day of the Eradication of Poverty, the International Day of the Girl, and Women's History month! Diwali which takes place on October 24th is also reflected in our LLC display. Happy reading!
This week students created Makedo carboard creations and tested them to see if they passed the hairdryer test! This activity stemmed from reading "La véritable histoire du Grand Méchant Loup" (The True Story of the Three Little Pigs). The hairdryer acted as the "wolf" trying to blow the houses down!
Our GSA team also started making green screen Wevideos to spead their message on inclusive language and what a GSA entails. They did a great job, bravo!
Our GSA team (Gender Sexuality Alliance) is creating posters promoting inclusive language for our school's community, as well as recruiting more members. Next step: GSA videos with mini presentations surrounding the GSA and what it entails. Watch this space! :)
Our LLC is still in full transition! We recieved our new collaboration tables, half of which are dry erase tops! They seperate and wheel in, out, and about! Students are already loving their interactive and flexible library learning commons!
We had a special guest/parent visit during partnerships this week who is a cartoonist. Students learned how to make a comic zine using paper, pencils, and pens. They have started their rough copies and will continue next week. Watch this space for student created comic zine pictures coming soon!
It was so lovely to welcome so many parents/caregivers and students into the Library Learning Commons on the 12th! My library helpers did a great job of facilitating all the STEM stations that they created for the evening to provide a glimpse of what goes on in their LLC! Thanks for coming and if you missed it, here are a few pictures and a video!
Mary had a little lamb played on a carrot piano!
Dashbot obstacle run
Lego and pool noodle marble run
Mini Lego mazes with 3 levels of difficulty.
Our Lego wall with a marbel run maze!
A parent and student enjoying the Makey Makey station facilitated by Rayah, one of my lovely library helpers!
Makey Makey music station with a carrot piano, cardboard guitar, and tangerine bongos :)
OZOBOT STATION
Ozobot fortune teller and ozobot maze!
Students made their own Makey`Makey guitar using Makedo tools, makerspace materials, and a Makey Makey.. next stop, coding their own guitar hero game using Scratch!
One of my lovely library helpers made a mini Lego maze. Excited to see the end result of their intricate Lego wall maze which they are still in the process of making :)
Have a look at the Lego wall marble run my amazing library helpers are making for the STEM stations we are setting up for curriculum night! :)
More fun STEM station prep!!
Dashbot obstacle course
Strawbees
Lego mazes
Solo red cup challenge
Maze Making
Strawbees Creations
It's a Strawbees umbrella!
Solo red cup challenge
