Hip Hop- Toryn

This week we have had daily lessons on how to dance hip hop and break dance. We have learned TLC, the freeze (which as of right now not many of us can do), the bizmark, the bart simpson, the smurf, knee drop.
This week has been so fun because we have put all the moves together as a dance. It is fun because we got to practice the moves that we just saw and have never done.
My favorite move is the freeze- I can hold mine for as long as long as I want to.
The hardest part for me was learning how to do the pose because I had to kick out my leg and bring it back behind me and then drop to the floor, spin and then put your foot up on your knee and then hold the pose (that is the hardest part)
This fits well into gym because dance is a physical activity. It fits into MI because we have found some people that I did not know were good at dancing- we are all good at something.

I want to practice so I can be as fact as our instructor doing the kick out.

Looking forward to the perfance at 2:00.

Namaste

Krista from Blue Butterfly Yoga and Pilates Centre taught the Grade 3 and 4 students various yoga poses this afternoon.  Thanks, Krista, for helping us unwind after a busy day of classes.

What did the Teacher's day on the students' day off

Part of teaching is being reflective. At our staff meeting teachers reflected on all the different teaching strategies that they have used so far this year. We divided up the strategies into Kagan, Instructional Intellegence, Multiple Intellegence and TRIBES. Look at all the different strategies that seven teachers have used to engage the students. This also allowed the teachers time to talk about how to impliment strategeies that someone else had done but they have not used yet. Great conversations and lots of learning took place. Great work Riverside Staff.

What I learned from Acting by Zach

What I learned through our Christmas Concert by Zach:

Every year we put on a concert and this year I had a solo acting part. I learned that this is kind of hard because I needed to memorize my lines, then I had to talk in front of so many people. I am a nervous kid so I had to work at this part. I practiced at home in front of my family and here at school. I would recommend that everyone try for a solo part. It was hard at first but it was a lot of fun. I had to not just talk but make everyone beleive that I was the character. Performances are more fun than I thought.

Builder"s Workshop- By Unique

We are using recyclable things to make objects. This one is a vase. We needed to make a plan. What materials we were going to use, how we were going to build it. We needed to think about how high and how we were going to make it stand up once we put flowers in it. So I used a tomato container, paper towel roll, rocks and tape.

I liked this project because I like to build stuff and this lets me get out of my desk. I like art and this projcet is kind of like art, but it is science.

Relaxing and Reading

Grade 4 and Grade 1 spend part of their afternoon relaxing in the comphy chairs and reading a book. What a great way to spend the afternoon. What a great way to work on our listening skills. Danille, Kynnlei and Izacc commented that the chairs are comfy and great to read on.

Battleship

Who would have thought that age old game of battleship could teach math skills. Coordinates objectives and this game put the fun back  into plotting. Now the Grade 5/6 class is about to challenge their parents.

We can learn anywhere

Grade one students and Ms. Nicoll playing a letter game. Play is important to reinforce daily skills and the grade ones are really good at play.

Were you Jingled

Before the Christmas Break the grade 5/6 class tried to get the Christmas Spirit that we were feeling into the Riverside Community. During a math class the students made cookies (now that is a perfect math lesson). They then packaged the cookies and jingled the neighbors. We wanted to see how far the jingling would get as everyone that received a jingle was to pay it forward X2. We sure had fun and next year we hope to have more community involvement and fun.

Ultimate Cooperative Learning

Riverside School is so lucky to have the opportunity to use the outside rink that is on our property. It is such a great expereince but it is also a chance for the students to show the leadership skills that they have been working on. Here Broyce is trying to teach a grade one student how to skate. Ms. Kowalchuk is modeling the behavior and the strategies. Riverside School has such an amazing family feel. Students do work in multi-graded groups often and that lends itself to the atmosphere and the climate.
Great work Broyce!

Recess Science

Nothing like a Chinook to get the mind moving. These students we so busy helping to get the water moving during recess that they did not even know that they were doing science. Why does it run that way, what do we need to do to get it to run faster? What happens if we block the trench? And the best one was- can we have boat races?
It was so much fun and they were so wrapped up in figuring out all the answers that they did not even know the recess bell went.
Learning comes from all kinds of expereinces>

Genius Hour

We are just getting ready for our very first session of Genius Hour. At this part of the week the grade 5/6 students are the experts and they are teaching the grade one.
We are rebuilding the Calgary Zoo- Riverside style. The students will be researching their animal (they were asked to come up with an animal that they have a passion about). As a pair (grade 5/6 and grade 1) students will be doing research, then making a mini model of the enclosure that their animal needs, then a prezi but the best part is that the grade 5/6 start as the expert but by the end of the project the grade 1 students will be the expert.
When I asked student why we would give up an hour every week for something fun they gave me "the look". They could not figure out why anyone would not have this- Tessa said that all of the subjects were involved. We have to know how to work the technology, we have to know how to research and cite where the information came from. Then we have to take all the information and plot out our enclosure- that is math you know". The class was able to pinpoint very specific learning outcomes that this "project" would teach. Zach wondered, "why learning cannot be fun and why subjects have to be seperate?" Great thinking and problem solving will be needed to complete the task but the students will also need to work on their intrapersonal skills (use all the TRIBES agreement). We will keep you posted as the Zoo become more of a reality.