2004 Student Projects

Elizabeth Elementary School, Kindersley

The grade three students in Room 107 at Elizabeth Elementary School in Kindersley participated in a Shining Willow Award project. Elizabeth Elementary School has a student enrolment of 299. There are 19 students enrolled in our grade three classroom.

Each student was given a Shining Willow Award booklet containing the poster of the nominees (from the website), reading log, and a jot-note sheet for each book. Every second day a different book was read to the students by our librarian, Mrs. Wagner, and students made jot-notes about that book in their Shining Willow booklets. Each book was a springboard for discussion and an activity. A number of related library resources were signed out to the classroom. Here are some photos and description of just some of our interesting and exciting activities:

1. Suki's Kimono

   Our librarian read the book while wearing an actual kimono from Japan. She also brought a temple bell, Japanese candies, tea set, and other souvenirs of Japan. She lent the kimono to the class so we could each have a chance to wear it. We then made origami butterflies. Origami is a Japanese craft where you follow instructions to fold paper into various objects (see instructions). It is tricky, but lots of fun! You can see our origami butterflies in the photo above. Look closely and you will see our origami butterflies between and around our Monarch Butterfly pictures.

2. Marigold's Wings

   After hearing the story we went onto our school website where Mrs. Wagner had put a number of sites on Monarch butterflies. We learned many interesting facts about the Monarch Butterfly and its migration. We were amazed that they travel so far. We participated in the various activities on our website and completed a Monarch Butterfly picture. You can see our pictures in the photo above. We each took home the instructions to make a Monarch Butterfly kite and we are looking forward to spring and kite season. That is our class standing in front of our pictures on the bulletin board next to our classroom door.

   Our school website is http://www.sunwestsd.ca/elizabeth. Click on "Links" and scroll down to the links in Mrs. Wagner's section. Have fun. We did!

   

3. Solomon's Tree

   We made our own masks, almost like Solomon did. You can see these masks in the photo above. We then put the masks in the class display cases in the library for everyone to enjoy. Even the Minister of Learning enjoyed seeing them when he toured our school!

   

4. Stanley's Party

   In the photo above you can see Mrs. Jan Kay reading the book to our classroom. That is our teacher, Mrs. Kim Edgerton, listening.

   

   Mrs. Kay operates a kennel and pet grooming business in Kindersley. She taught us about the proper care of dogs. Don't be scared by photo as that is a very friendly dog (if you look closely you can see what we mean). We also watched a video about dogs and how to train them properly.

5. That's Hockey

   One of the hockey players from the Kindersley Klippers Team read this book to us. Then he told us all about his career, how to play hockey and answered our many questions. In our booklets Mrs. Wagner had a sheet of hockey terms. We then created our own "hockey team" names and jerseys. These were hung in the hallway in front of the library for everyone to see. The next day the Klipper player returned and brought another player with him. We played a game of floor hockey with one Klipper on each team. We called it a tie game!

6. Sink or Swim

   Mrs. Wagner read this book while she was wearing scuba diving goggles. She loves cows and told us all about her many "cow things" in her house. In our booklets we had sheets of information about cows, diagram of their parts, digestive system and skeleton. We also had a vocabulary sheet of how to say 'moo', 'cow' and 'cowpie' in different languages. Mrs. Wagner gave Mrs. Edgerton fact sheets to post in our classroom. We had a Cow Quiz sheet and the answers were in the posted sheets. When we finished our Cow Quiz search, we got to open a cow cookie jar that mooed and get a prize. We got little boxes of Smarties because we are smart kids!

When we are in Grade 5 we get to participate in the Diamond Willow Awards and we can hardly wait!!

Pilot Butte School, Pilot Butte

Pilot Butte school has created a Willow Tree and a bookmark for each of the Willow Awards categories on the bulletin board outside the library office. As classrooms or individual students read their books they fill in a maple leaf and the leaf is put on the tree. The goal is to have the tree completely covered in leaves by the end of the reading period.