spuds in tubs: planting

This year the students in Blair are participating in a provincial agriculture/gardening program called Spuds in Tubs. The students of divisions 3, 5 and 10 are part of our "potato crew" and will be doing most of the maintenance of the potato tubs but all of the students in the school are going to be learning about and observing how potatoes grow. More information about the program can be found HERE (click to be linked to the Spuds in Tubs website).

On Thursday, March 8th, students from divisions 3, 5 and 10 pulled the seed potatoes out of the bag and had a look.

We filled the tubs with soil.

We added special food to the soil.

We carefully measured and planted 5 potatoes in a circle in each tub, 

about 10cm in from the sides of the tub.

We watered each tub with a jug of water.

The potatoes were left alone for over two weeks in a corner of the library. When we came back from spring break, the students were all so excited to see how much the potatoes had grown!

We're also developing a collection of books about potatoes, both information and story books.

On Wednesday, March 28, a group of students from divisions 5 and 10 helped "hill" the potato plants. At this stage, more soil is added and built up around each plant. We will keep doing this until the soil reaches the top of the tubs.

We gave each tub another good dose of water.

Once the soil is up to the tops of the tubs and the plants are growing tall and strong above the tops of the tubs, it will be time to move the tubs outside.

~Ms Novakowski

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Dr. Seuss' birthday is on March 2 and people all over the world celebrate a love for reading. Students in divisions 8, 9 and 10 enjoyed exploring some of the interactive ebooks by Dr. Seuss that we have on the iPads. The students can have the stories read to them or they can read along. There are interactive components to each book so that students can make things happen or vocabulary words appear with a touch to the screen.

~Ms Novakowski

Red Cedar Book Award Book Reviews

Over the last few weeks, the intermediate students a Blair have been using different forms of technology (digital and video cameras and iPads) to create advertisements/commercials for some of the Red Cedar book award nominees. The students wrote drafts of their "commercials" and focused on developing voice in their writing. This is a persuasive form of writing, trying to convince someone else that they should read this book.

The students were given the choice of how to represent their commercial. Students could choose from different apps on the iPads. Some of them were visual and others also included audio of the students' voices.

The following are some examples:

Division 5 created some video book reviews as well:

And from David...a commercial encouraging reading, particularly Red Cedar books!

~Ms Novakowski

Chocolate Lily Book Awards: The Little Hummingbird

Our last Chocolate Lily Picture Book Award nominee is The Little Hummingbird. Although illustrated by a Haida artist, the story and artwork draws upon aboriginal cultures from around the world. The style of illustrations really interested the students. As we read the conclusion to the story, the message of "do the best you can" was very clear to the students. They were able to connect to this and explain that the story also showed us that little things can make a difference and we should all help out and do what we can.

After reading the story, we went back and looked at the illustrations of the hummingbird throughout the book. The students were then given a piece of black construction paper and were asked to create their own hummingbird. We attached these to bamboo skewers and used them to act out the story as we read it a second time. Each hummingbird was so unique and the student really enjoyed the dramatization of the story.

Comments from the students included:

We learned "do the best you can" by Sean (div 10)

I liked the shapes. by Kayla (div 10)

I liked that the hummingbird tried the best she could. by Alicia (div 10)

I like how the illustrations had secret messages. by Rosie (div 8)

I like the hummingbird because he tries to help the forest. by Vinchy (div 11)

The pictures were interesting. by Annika (div 6)

I like that the hummingbird tried. by Tamar (div 6)

I like the shapes in the illustrations. by Creighton (div 7)

I like the message in the story. by Marlena (div 7)

~Ms Novakowski