TWAS May 3

Hi Everyone,

I hope you've all had a great week!

Wow — we had some fantastic Arctic Animal and Passion Project presentations this week!  Way to go students.  We're really looking forward to some more next week!

We've been having fun with our learning here in Cranston School but really really want the weather to start cooperating so that we can be having even more fun with our learning outside of the school!! Our math and science units (measurement and critters) really lend themselves to outdoor exploration so here's hoping for some spring sun and warmth next week : )

This week in measurement we worked with different units of measurement, and discussed standard units of measurement.  With our little buddies, we used beanbags to mark our long jumps in the hub and link, and then figured out how to use 1 block, 1 ruler or 1 math book to measure our jump distances.  Likewise we learned to compare the length of an item when it is straight or bent (pipe-cleaners, aka "snakes").
We also continued to work on our mental math and problem solving skills

A math problem some of us worked on this week:

Callum and Kamryn loved dancing!  Callum danced for 43 minutes had a break and then danced for another 18 minutes.  Kamryn danced for 19 minutes had a break and then danced for 42 minutes.  Who danced longer?

This week in inquiry:

Science:  

• Venn diagrams comparing insects and arachnids. 
• next week: butterflies and camouflage. 

Socials 

• lighthouses in Nova Scotia. A question for reflection: Why are there so many boats in Nova Scotia (we will be talking about industry next week).

Language Arts

• Story writing and puppet theaters; daily 5 (compound sentences; reading skills; passion projects).
• We finally finished the story of Dell!!! It's great.  Thanks so much to Ms. Patton for being an amazing editor and helping us.  We think it is good enough to turn into a picture book and publish . . . more on that!  First though . . . we could use a little more editing help.  We know that there are lots of typos (Mrs. McArthur was typing very fast and was very distracted by our great ideas so she made LOTS of mistakes) and we know that GREAT stories have GREAT titles so we'd love some editing support and title suggestions!! We'll look forward to reading comments together as a class.  

ENJOY  the Story of Dell  and have a wonderful weekend!!

Mrs. McArthur

Once Upon a Time, in a Galaxy Far Far Away . . .  

. . . there was a happy and really brave creature named Dell! Dell was also incredibly beautiful. For starters, she was all purple and pink, except for her black hair. She always wore a super special pink dress even though her favourite colour was red.  Her loving kind eyes are teal blue and her dark brown eyebrows always smiled.

Dell lives on Planet Zorb. You’ve never heard of this ginormous planet because it is magically hidden in a black hole so that no one in any galaxy will ever find it! Planet Zorb is an awesome place to live, most especially because all creatures are nocturnal! Planet Zorb has the craziest swimming pools you ever did see! The water is purple and so super clean that it even cleans itself. Some pools even have incredibly wacky blue waterslides that are up to 5000 meters high. They whirl and twirl and take you to cool random places!! So, you would think Dell would love swimming.  

One Tuesday Morning Dell woke up and put on her favourite dress. She walked to school just like any other day.  She enjoyed watching the cool fairy lights that guided her morning walk. On the way to school the lights were red.  When she walked home the night before the lights were purple. Each month the walking lights changed colour. This was the first day that they were red so she knew it was a brand-new month.

She walked into class excited to share her new-month knowledge when suddenly her teacher called out to the class

“Wonderful news grade 2!!! We are going swimming!!!!”

Dell was excited until she started to shiver with fear. She started to visualize a huge massive diving board that she had seen on the nocturnal Planet Zorb internet. She started to think terrible thoughts like “I’m scared; I’m going to sink; I’m going to get hurt; I’m going to fall in and will never ever get out!!!”

Suddenly, the teacher, in a very serious owl voice said “our fun swimming adventure starts tomorrow. So please pack up your swimming gear, your favourite rubber duck and be ready for tomorrow!”

Dell felt extremely frustrated because not only did she have to go swimming, but she had to go tomorrow!!

As Dell began her walk home, the coloured lights started flickering wildly, like they always do when someone is nervous or afraid.  This made her think about how she could be brave.

As she was thinking about how to be brave, the lights transformed into secret code messaging that read:

TELL THE TEACHER   TELL THE TEACHER TELL THE TEACHER  TELL THE TEACHER AND YOU WILL BE OKAY!

Dell thought to herself. . . I CAN TELL THE TEACHER!

When she got home she had a nice warm bath, which always makes her feel good, and she thought to herself, if having a bath makes me so happy then swimming, which is in nice warm water too, will also make me happy! But I’m still going to tell the teacher.

The next morning Dell was feeling excited about swimming because she was thinking that the water would be nice and warm. At the same time though Dell was still really anxious and terrified about the diving board. She knew she needed to talk to the teacher but she was afraid the other kids would find out and make fun of her so she came up with a better plan.

She decided to hide her swimming suit in the bathroom. She remembered that there was a silver storage box tucked under the bathroom sink.  This was perfect because her swimsuit wouldn't get damaged and it also wouldn't damage anything in the bathroom.

As soon as teacher Owl had finished the class attendance, and everyone was busy working on their morning math problem (3 zillion bouncy balls duplicate so how many bouncy balls all together), Dell stealthily tucked her swimsuit into her inside hoodie pocked and signed herself out to go to the washroom.

When Dell arrived at her perfect swimsuit hiding destination she found the wonderful hardworking caretaker bat cleverly cleaning away.  

“OHhhhh no” thought Dell. She couldn't hide her swimsuit with Caretaker Bat in the washroom! What do I do now, she thought to herself with panic!!!

But as luck would have it, that busy body boy called Bulabalooo, popped his head in the door to say

“Excuse me Caretaker Bat but the boys' bathroom needs paper towels.”

So off Caretaker Bat and Bulabalooo went to fix the boy-bathroom issue.

As soon as they were gone, Dell tucked her swimsuit away into the perfect secret destination and made her way back to class feeling very proud of her slightly naughty, but clever, self!

Walking back to class, Dell felt much better until she started to think about all the fun swimming things she might miss. She tried to delete all those images out of her mind, but she just could not.  Even though the bus ride to the swimming pool would be super cool, she just couldn't stop picturing fun things happening in the self-cleaning purple swimming pool water. She really felt kind of bad about missing all that water fun.

She even pictured all kinds of Planet Zorb creatures having all kinds of swimming pool fun. Cariduck’s (which look kind of like a cross between a caribou and a duck) were splashing and kicking up a storm and she visualised Goomoose (very similar to a moose and a goose) planning a swim-time favourite game: Frankenstein.

By the time she got to the pool she almost wished that she had her swimsuit. Then she thought of that big scary diving board and was grateful for her bathing suit hiding spot cleverness. All of her classmates entered the pool and began to head into the change rooms with their volunteer parents.  

The time has time has finally come; Dell must tell her teacher that she does not have a swimsuit.

“Excuse me Teacher Owl. I forgot my swimming suit so I guess I’ll just have to watch from the waiting room” Dell said with a little bit too much happiness in her voice.

“Ohhhhh don’t you worry not one bit, Dell.” Replied her teacher. “The swimming office has lots of spare suits that come in all shapes, sizes and colours,” teacher owl said with even more happiness in her voice.  

Dell felt incredibly frustrated, scared, anxious and terrified.  Dell felt like she was going to puke! Finally she thought to herself, well I think I better tell the teacher what’s going on.

“I’m sorry teacher owl. I have a confession to make.  I hid my bathing suit in the bathroom at school.”

Teacher owl, in a disappointed but gentle voice, replied “Dell, are you frightened to go swimming?”

In a teeny tiny voice Dell said    “Yes.”

“What part of swimming is scary for you Dell?” asked teacher owl.

“I’m scared of lots of things. I’m scared I'm going to sink; I’m going to get hurt; I’m going to fall in and will never ever get out!!!” cried Dell miserably.  “and and and, when I looked on the nocturnal internet I saw a giant massive diving board. All of it is so so so scary” sobbed Dell.

“Ohhhh Dell, didn’t you know,  all of Planet Zorb’s pools are so full of salt that it is impossible to sink. Remember when we studied that whacky planet earth and learned about the Dead Sea, where everything floats?  That’s exactly the same as this pool. You couldn’t sink even if you tried!!!” And as for the diving board well there are as many different heights as there are children! The one you saw is for professional divers. But no one ever has to go on a diving board.  Only if they want to and my guess is that by the end of the week you will really really want to!" soothed Teacher Owl.

This was enough to convince Dell that she could do it.  And guess what . . . she did!!

It felt just like her warm bath at home and it was so fun that she totally forgot about the diving board. By the end of the week she was even doing 360's off of the diving board.  

But all good things come to an end, and so did swimming, at least swimming with her class. Dell had such a good time that her parents agreed to let her join swim club.

Dell stayed in this swim club all through her life.  She even broke records for being the fastest 5000 foot super slider! Dell became famous. Whenever she was interviewed about her super star swimming skills she had one message for all young beginners: “It is okay to be afraid of new things but being afraid should never stop you from trying new things. Just ask for help and then go for it!! Also . . . never ever hide your bathing suit in the bathroom . . . but that's another story.