Salam, parents and students. Was just enjoying a couple days in the sun. Getting ready to put together my final blog of the year including the year end video. Stay tuned! :)
0 Comments
An image of the newly hatched caterpillars captured at 60X magnification. It is hard to believe that our grade three journey is nearing an end. With that, however, comes the season of freedom. The students will be free to enjoy their summer as of Thursday afternoon. Teachers will be free doing whatever they have got planned in the coming months. Fortunately for them,the butterflies that we have been raising for the past few weeks, are already enjoying theirs. That is because last Friday, we took them outside into the neighboring forest and released them into their habitat. The kiddos received a pretty memorable lesson on camouflage as they observed the underside of the wings, when folded up, blends in with the tree bark. That raised some interesting predator and prey type questions from the little munchkins. They also learned a valuable lesson as to why a butterfly's wings should not be touched under any circumstance. Unfortunately, by then, the damage was done and the nose dive contest had begun. Enjoy the footage in the video below. Year End Field Trip To Camp Warwa!Here are some tips to maximize our fun! -Apply Sunscreen, especialy to areas prone to sunburn such as the nose, ears and neck area. -Sunglasses (this will also provide protection against any stray branches when they compete in the forest) -Hat -Extra pair of clothes in case you fall into the lake. -Mosquitoe Spray -Extra Water, bus snacks, hearty lunch -Face Paint (For War Games...optional) -Comfortable footwear and outer garments. A frame by frame shot of Mahmoud airborne. I now own the Galaxy S4 which is great news for all of you awesome parents. Why? Because now you will have access to higher quality photographs and videos. All pictures have been upgraded from 8MP to 12MP. Not only that, but cool effects like the one you see on the left of your screen are now a button push away. And just in case you are wondering....yes, he really did jump that high.....and yes those 3 students are indeed all the same person. The photograph itself sums up the week better than I can with words. Why do I say this? It is because this was a week full of highs. Let me explain a little bit. A butterfly crawled out of its cocoon, the kiddos scored a 74% average on their reading comprehension provincial exam, they scored a 77% average on the Math provincial exam, we had representatives on stage in a volunteer appreciation presentation, we got stuck in the rain while at the 7-11 and then we spent a morning enjoying the company of the grade 6'ers during their math fair. Wow!...What a week! There was lots of learning, a very memorable "aha" moment that will last a lifetime and test scores that were out the roof! The journey to get to this point of the year is a testament to the amount of character and will power these young scholars have developed over the course of the year. We reflected on this topic in class and the kiddos expressed a lot of pride and jubilation in their personal growth. And just like the caterpillar that had crawled out of it's cocoon this week, the students experienced a similar bout of self realization that their own character had also transformed since the beginning of the year. Similar to the caterpillar's transformation, the effort of these little scholars is something that was sought and earned. It is no wonder why Mahmoud probably felt the need to take flight across our playground. After inviting my students in for an optional review session in preparation for our Provincial Math Exams, I was expecting to see perhaps only a handful of sleepy zombies shuffling in . After all, it was scheduled for 9am on a Saturday after a hard working week. What I got instead was 16 students dressed quite fashionably and with more energy than a firecracker. These kiddos were anxious to learn and traded in their Saturday mornings to do 3 straight hours of math review with me.(no breaks...because breaks are for amateurs, yeah?) Leading into the weekend, we had a busy week with many highlights worth reflecting on. Maisun and Mya represented our class in the 1st annual school wide poetry contest and put on an impressive performance...check out Masiun and Mya's killer performances in the video below. Mrs. Mahfouz was also kind enough to order enough caterpillars for all of the grade 3 students and then volunteer her time speak to uso teach us how to take care of the cocoons and emerging butterflies. The students were fascinated with the knowledge that Mrs. Mahfouz shared with us as can be seen in the video below. Click here for this week's newsletter. As you can see in the photo, bats do indeed have eyes and can see quite well. In fact, many of them can see extremely well. So where does the statement, "Blind as a bat", come from. It has to do with the fact that bats come out at night. They rely on echolocation. When a bat echolocates, it releases high pitch sound waves that in turn strike objects in its pathway and bounce back to the bat (sort of like a rubber ball bouncing back to you after you throw it against the wall). By reading these echoes with their ultra-sensitive ears, a bat is able to determine where the object is, the size of the object and whether it is living or non-living. Some bats can even use the echolocation to decide whether a living thing is edible or inedible. To try and simulate the experience as best we can, the grade threes played the echolocation game. The object of the game is to have one person act as the bat and close their eyes (blindfold recommended) in order create the effect of a bat trying to navigate itself through the pitch black skies of the night. The student has to tag as many of the other students as they can in 1 minute. Any time the student makes a high pitch "eek" sound, the other students were required to make one in response in order to simulate an echo effect. Check out the video below for all the action. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Important Information: Please click here to access the notes for the sound unit and click here to access the "parts of the ear" diagram. Originally I had asked that the students review it over the weekend, however, I changed my mind on that. Please take your time as you go through it with your child throughout the week as we complete it in class. You may also click here to access this week's newsletter. Art/Math News! Ameen working hard on reflecting his Oilers logo. In other news, the grade threes have been investigating reflections and patterns in art class as part of our math/art fusion. We started with water reflections and from there I allowed the students to choose a topic of their choice. After that, I had the students study elaborate shape patterns and allowed them the freedom to get creative with their own elaborate ideas. The pictures below speak for themselves. Can you figure out the patterns? Water Reflections (Click on images for full size capture) Patterns (Art/Math)
One of the greatest reasons to have your child attending the Edmonton Islamic Academy is that they are constantly engaged in celebrating their personal identity as well as learning about the vast richness and diversity of the cultures around them. "One Ummah" is the most recent of such experiences. This day allows our students the opportunity to embrace the heterogeneity of cultures that exist in the Muslim world today, while celebrating the unity of our faith. One student summed it up best to me that day when she said, "I like how we all have different cultures and eat different foods but our religion is all the same." Faris attempts to max out his brain freeze with 6 straws! The week was marked by jubilation as the grade 3's were very proud to have completed their very first week of final exams. To commemorate this day, I decided to take my class out and buy them slurpees. That is all the news for this week. Stay tuned for more exciting stuff to come very soon. *Update* The marks are in and after completing the written portion of the PAT exam, the class average was an outstanding 73%! .......and they are just getting warmed up baby. There is more to come. My students are tough as nails. By nails, I am not referring to the plain old iron nails. That is because iron nails rust and break. My students do not rust and break. So, for the sake of this cliche, let me restate my point by saying that they are "tough as galvanized nails"......coated with multiple layers of zinc and whatever else is capable of galvanizing them. Why am I saying this now? It is because of the weather. Now that May has arrived, we are seeing some amazing weather. Unfortunately, with our school's air conditioning unit not operating properly, my classroom thermometer has officially maxed out and may actually pop at any moment. Nobody has melted yet, so that is good news. However, despite this internal heat wave, my students remain very focused on all of our daily tasks and continue working extremely hard. They are a tough group who should not be messed with. :) So, to help cool things down a little, the grade 3's have decided to include more gallery walks than usual. If you have never heard of gallery walks then you are really missing out! Gallery walks are a fantastic way of getting kids out of the classroom for the sake of moving around and collaborating with others on specific skill sets and concepts. They rotate from station to station at their own pace and in no particular order. Students are encouraged to engage in meaningful conversation regarding the strategies that they have used to solve the questions and then follow it up by documenting it all on their recording sheets. Check out all of the action in the video below! As I walk down the hallway towards my class each morning a handful of early comers can be seen from a distance lunging down the corridor at me. "MR. MELHEM CAN I SHARE TODAY?????!!!!!" is the typical greeting I receive. These kids are excited about life and are eager to share it with the class. It is all part of our daily morning meeting. Each morning, we assemble in either the school's atrium or in our classroom and commence by having all of the students greeting each other. The salutations range in style from formal handshakes to crafty variations that either myself or the students will formulate. From there, we shift into our sharing portion of the meeting where a few students voluntarily contribute exciting news and events that are currently happening in their lives. Effective listening and questioning techniques are taught and implemented here. Depending on how much time remains after that, we will transition into a short team building activity before I conclude the meeting with a summary of the learning objectives for the day. The morning meeting is a time of day when social skills are taught, experiences are shared, games are played and the foundations of confidence and self esteem are established. We have also utilized the idea of the meeting to address any urgent concerns that may have arose during the school day. I recommend it to any teacher seeking to enhance the culture of their classroom as well as to enhance student character. Meanwhile, in other news, the grade 3's continue exploring mental addition strategies. We have currently completed doubles, doubles+1, doubles +2, making doubles, making ten, making multiples of ten as well as front end addition. The focus has been on speed, accuracy as well as both written and verbal expression of the strategies that have been used. "You are what you eat!" It is one of the oldest cliches ever known to man, but what does it really mean? Until recently, this statement was thought to implicate that your appearance is a reflection of what you eat. Little did we realize how intimate the man vs food relationship really is. Let me explain what i mean. I am sure that you are all aware by now that food is comprised of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. We have been taught that we need to consume these nutrients as part of a well balanced diet. What we haven't been told, perhaps because it hasn't been known until just recently, is that we are also consuming genetic material. No, I am not talking about your everyday dietary proteins that are responsible for building and maintaining lean muscle mass. I am referring to fragments of RNA molecules called microRNA that, for whatever reason, do not metabolize and degrade in our gut. Rather, these microRNA molecules are absorbed directly through our gut walls and invade our bloodstream. I will refrain from boring you with all of the biochemical details, so here is the general idea. When consumed, microRNA has the ability to turn off certain genes and cause all sorts of serious health implications. Let me put try to put it to you in perspective. Every thing that you eat or feed to your children has the ability to influence the expression of their genes. Yes, this is a news flash and it brings forth an entirely new meaning to, "you are what you eat". In other words, if you feed your kids the right foods their genes will more likely function the way they are intended to, but feed them the wrong foods and you start a game of gene demolition derby with potentially critical long term health implications. What Do We Do About It? Basically, we need to be more aware what we put into our bodies. The food that we eat should be food that our bodies have evolved to consume. With nearly everything these days being chemically altered with chemicals, hormones, it can be a daunting task to figure out what is good for us and what is not. However, we can all take fundamental steps to minimize the consumption of processed food. You know the stuff I am talking about? These items normally sit in boxes and vacuum packs on your grocery store shelves and freezers. It is not uncommon to find upwards of 20 to 30 ingredients listed on their packages. Grocery Store Tips -Buy the majority of your food from the perimeter of the grocery store. That is where you will find most of the fresh and wholesome items. -Stay away from the aisles as much as possible. That is where most of the processed goods can be found. -Consume foods that have as few ingredients as possible. For instance, if you eat an avocado, you are eating only an Avocado. If you eat broccoli then you are eating just broccoli. However, drizzle your favorite salad dressing from a bottle you bought from the salad dressing isle and your consuming about 15 different chemical ingredients, many of which I can not even pronounce. But.....Won't Buying Delicious Wholesome Food Break My Bank Account? A wholesome food budget will indeed cost you more than a budget allocated towards processed food. However, I would like you to consider the following: Many of us are interested in investing in houses, cars, as well as various forms of entertainment. However, think about this for a moment.... Wouldn't it be wiser to reallocate some of those funds so that we are able to invest in the future health of our children. Don't we want to watch them become the best that they can be? How This Relates To Grade 3 For the past week, the grade 3's have been exploring various topics in nutrition. As of this week, all students are required to bring wholesome foods to school. Barring any allergies, fruits, vegetables, grains(minimal), meat and dairy products will need to be in your child's lunch on a daily basis. Although a grade will be taken for the quality of their lunch, I am hoping with the support of all of your great parents, that an ideological shift will take place among all of our families. In Conclusion The ability our food has to control our genes should cause us all to rethink what we put into our bodies and what we feed our children. By making smart food choices, we accomplish two things. The first is we enhance our personal well being and secondly, we model these smart food choices in front of our kids with the hope that they will continue the legacy. Ultimately, you are what you eat and I don't know about you, but I am really feeling like some sushi right about now. Grade 3 Newsletter
Please click here to access this week's newsletter. Sources: http://www.academypublish.org/paper/microrna-and-diet-in-disease-prevention-and-treatment |