***Visit MrToft.ca for this year’s 2010/2011 class blog.***

The time has come to archive this blog.  You can still visit the 2009/10 class blog but you will no longer be able sign in and write posts.

Former students are more than welcome to visit the new blog. It would be great to hear from you, just leave us a comment!

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Congratulations! You made all the way to the end of Grade 5! It was quite a ride wasn’t it?

Here are my top five memories of 2009/2010:

5. The ski trips at Mont Cascades. It’s was a privilege to have the opportunity to see you all develop from nervous bunny hill skiers into experience skiers.

4. Reading Skeleton Creek and Trackers.  Wow, when you guys like a book, you REALLY like a book.  You made me want to keep reading it to you just so I could watch your excitement when it was finally time to play another video.

3. Our Christmas “road show”.  We played at least six songs from memory and spent a large part of the day playing concerts in classroom after classroom.  Even with some technical difficulties for one performance we still put on a great show.

2. Our “Portable Radio’s .CA Rocks” video!  Not only did we put together a cool video, we managed to convince over 5000 people to watch. And that all led to our appearance on A Channel’s “Ottawa Morning”.

1. Our Blog. It was incredible how quickly and easily many of you took ownership of this blog. Some of you even wrote to us when you were on vacation or when you were home sick. There were many genuinely engaging conversations that took place when you decided to leave comments.  By far, this class was the best blogging class I’ve ever had! I don’t know if you realize how many teachers you have inspired to make their own blogs because of your writing.  Your writing, your ideas, your opinions and your stories are being heard.

What were your best memories of Grade 5? Feel free to leave a comment!

I wish you all the best next year in Grade 6!

It’s true: students in Mr. Toft’s class still do work on the second last day of school.  In the morning following French we had a linking cube tower challenge:

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This was followed by the much anticipated final episode of the 2nd Voyage of the Mimi.  I  always enjoy seeing the bad guy, Harvey Westerman, get what he serves.

After that we had another challenge.  This time it was to build a structure using spaghetti and mini marshmallows.  It had to be strong enough to hold up a single large marshmallow.  I’m not sure which more difficult, building the structure or resisting the urge to eat all of the building materials!

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A couple of us, including Mr. Toft have either read or are reading this book.  It’s about a girl who, as the title says, can fly.  The people who live in her community have a hard time accepting her so she is taken to a special facility where she meets other kids with special talents. 

I wonder if Katie or Elisabeth have any comments about this book?

Thanks for dropping by our blog and figuring out what we are up to.  It would be cool if you could get yourself a copy of the book Trackers by Patrick Carman – maybe a library near you has it? That was, you’ll know a little bit of what we are up to.  Were you able to make sense of the algebra puzzles?

I hope your move went well.  Things are continuing on as usual here in Stittsville.  Please keep leaving us comments. I’ll encourage my students to write to you by leaving comments on this post.

1.  Go to this  Algebra Puzzle.  Solve the beginner level puzzle at least twice.  Try to solve an advanced level puzzle!

2. Visit the Trackers website.  The code for today is BABBAGE424.

Lauren wrote the following to us:

In class we have to do speeches and [I] don’t know what to do my speech on.  [I] need help for a topic.

Any suggestions?

It turns out Lauren did come up with a topic.  I’m hoping all the brainstorming for speech topics we did last week has sparked ideas for everyone.

Still, if there are students still looking for topics, maybe some of these ideas will help:

• Why do parents keep telling me not to eat too much chocolate and candy?
• Who would be a better teacher (athlete, window washer, bus driver, mechanic, etc.): Spiderman or Superman?
• What if Harry Potter (or any favourite book of yours) was never written?
• Why must I clean up my room everyday? (or other chores)
• How come I’m not allowed to do the things I like to do?
• How will I look when I am all grown up, with a mustache and beard?
• Why aren’t kids allowed to drink coffee? (drive cars, vote, etc.)
• The advantages and disadvantages of wearing long pants (skirts, shorts, ties, crocs, sandals, workboots, etc.)
• What do teachers do when they are not teaching? (parents do when they’re not parenting, etc.)
• If I were the Prime Minister of Canada (teacher, principal, mayor, etc.)
• Why I am destined for a career in Hollywood. (singing career, video game designer, etc.)
• Why kids should only wear orange. (pick a colour and run with it!)

Have more ideas? Leave a comment!

Remember, the speeches are to be 2 -4 minutes in length.  I advise you to aim for 3 minutes.  We’ll work a little each day this week.  Speeches need to written by Friday so we can practice them next week!

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http://www.quadepic2010.org.uk/

Greg has a cousin (he’s the one in the middle) who is taking part in this epic journey!

Here’s what the people involved with QuadEPIC have to say about it:

QuadEPIC is a multi-continental challenge, crossing the largest landmass on Earth using a pedal powered quad bike.

The primary objective of QuadEPIC is to raise £10,000 for the WWF. This will be used for the support, development and ongoing conservation of our natural assets, wildlife and resources. We wish to attract attention and awareness as to the importance of protecting our incredibly varied and beautiful surroundings, both in nature and humanity.

The entire journey is estimated to take 353 days in total, over a period of 2 years, however unforeseen circumstances, such as poor weather, bike repair and similar may slightly alter the overall duration. The final destination will be the world renowned Singapore Zoo, with its 28 hectare, ‘open concept’ rainforest habitat.