We chatted with Sheila Copps!

Sheila Copps is a former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister. She now is a
columnist for the Sun Newspapers and hosts web chats on canoe.ca at http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/SheilaCopps/ .

Today she hosted a chat about why Canada is a GREAT COUNTRY.

Our class sent her this message:

Dear Mrs. Copps:
My grade 4 students would like to know if you
would consider running for Prime Minister again. As Prime Minister, what
would you do to keep Canada great?
Sincerely,
Mr. McGaughey’s
Grade 4 Class, Midland, Ontario.

Here was her reply:

Sheila:
I thank the teacher for the question. I myself was just in
a school yesterday in Ottawa and I suspect that if the students have
such a question it must be the result of a teacher who may dabble in
politics. The reason that I am not running for the Liberal leadership is
partly tied to my own family. I now have 4 grandchildren and the 1st was
born on Canada Day so I would like to enjoy more time with them and when
you are in politics it is literally a 24 hour a day job. If I were Prime
Minister, I think the biggest challenge that we face is to be inspired
and to continue to inspire about our country. I see many Canadians who
have a strong attachment to their province or their regions but I fear
the Canadian identity is becoming diminished in the constant bickering
between regions and provinces. Going back to an earlier e-mail, we have
an incredible country and perhaps because we have so few problems we
tend to pick fights with each other. In the long term, the Prime
Minister needs to build and promote a common identity. That does not
mean disavowing regional differences but it does mean that we need to
focus on some common goals and I think one of those goals should be
creating a society where every person, regardless of economic
beginnings, is empowered to succeed. That’s a pretty big task for a
grade 4 class but it basically means having a country where we get rid
of all the bullies. I hope your class has a wonderful summer and I hope
your teacher has a well-deserved rest!

Sheila When I was in Grade 4 I had a very tough year because I
skipped Grade 3. I was extremely stressed because I didn’t know how to
multiply or divide and my teacher made me stay in almost every recess to
practice my multiplication tables. She said that if I did not complete
the work I would have to skip the class picnic. So I thought Grade 4 was
a very tough year but then I had a great summer and ended up with some
wonderful teachers who didn’t worry so much about my poor mathematical
skills. I think in Grade 4, if I remember correctly, I was playing
baseball in a neighbourhood team for the summer and we absolutely loved
it. It started my love of sport which has continued to this day. I hope
you are all getting a chance to watch the World Cup and cheer for your
favourite team and also to play some soccer yourself: it’s good for you!

You can read the whole transcript of her web chat here. 

Posted in blog | Comments Off on We chatted with Sheila Copps!

Teddy Bear’s Picnic

On June 27, the school had a Teddy Bear’s Picnic. Here is a picture of
our class enjoying our picnic with our stufffed friends.

Posted in blog | Comments Off on Teddy Bear’s Picnic

Busy Days at HCES

We have fallen behind on our blog postings. Lots of interesting things have been happening at our school. Last week was the 100th day of school. This week, we had Valentines Day, Jump Rope for Heart and a Spirit Assembly for our Color Teams. Mr. McG. printed pictures of these events and each group wrote a blog entry about them.


The Storytelling Competition
By the whole class
Typed by Mr. McG.

On February 16, all the grade 2 and 3 classes went to the library to hear storytelling. We listened to 10 stories written by students from our classes. Two or three students from each grade two or three class shared their stories. Kaden wore a red cape with books on it. It was fun listening to the stories. Sua and Leandra get to present their stories at the Legion Contest on Sunday.

Grade 2 and 3 Storytellers

Jump Rope for Heart

By Mikayla, Brennan and Alexander

On our Jump Rope for Heart Day, we jumped very well. We thought that it was great. We raised money for the people that have problems with their hearts. There were five people in the picture. After that, everybody was tired. It was super fun doing Jump Rope for Heart.

Jump Rope For Heart

We Measured Mr. McG.
By Sam, Alex, Chelsey and Andrei

It was the 100th day of school last Friday. We measured Mr. McG. with pennies. He was 82 pennies tall. We measured him on the floor in the class. We had fun. Everybody helped to measure Mr. McG. It was cool!

Mr. McG. is 82 pennies tall!

Jump Rope for Heart
By Abby, Nickolas, Jamie and Madison

On February 15th, we had Jump Rope for Heart. Our whole class did it. We skipped and we played. There were 10 groups. We had lots and lots of fun!

Jump Rope For Heart

The Penny Line
By Breanna, Jessa, Will, and Ben

Mr. McG. took this picture with his camera.
We did it in the school. We did a big line all the way to Mrs. Enns Office with pennies. Our class and Mrs. McGinnis’ class did it.

We lined up pennies all the way to the office!

Color Teams
By Bailey, Trevor, Alijah, Kurt and Liam

It was fun cheering. The cheers were good! The Downtown Brown Clowns were funny. The grey and purple groups tied in second. There are thirty-eight people in the grey group.
Spirit Day Assembly

Camp Kitchi Parent Meeting

Just a reminder that the parent meeting for Camp Kitchi is tomorrow
April 12 at Regent School at 6:00pm.

The math quiz scheduled for Wednesday April 12 will be on Thursday April
13.

The test will cover multiplication of one digit numbers by 2 and 3 digit
numbers, estimation, area and perimeter.

Posted in news, upcoming | Comments Off on Camp Kitchi Parent Meeting

And the winner is …

Hooray!

Today, Ketura from our class, won the grand prize in the Honda Books Fundraiser. She got a DVD player.
The school is going to get money to buy books for our library.
Congratulations Ketura!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on And the winner is …

Cartoon Artwork

By: Regan

For the Optimism play we made pictures for our slide show. The cartoon
artwork explained how the character was being optimistic.

(Mr. McGaughey will try to put the pictures up by next week).

Posted in blog | Comments Off on Cartoon Artwork

Cross Country Skiing

By: Bronte

We went skiing at Mountain View ski resort every Tuesday and Thursday
after school. We also went to meetings in Mrs. Keefe’s room every other
Tuesday at lunch recess. She gives us forms for races.

Check… and mate

By: Drew

The chess tournament on March 8th at Parkview Public School was a very
tiring and long day. Congratulations to the students who made it to
Midhurst. Unfortunately, with 41 wins Parkview came in second, and with
44 wins Huron Park won their victory and took home the trophy.

Also another thing happened, a student from Parkview was absent so he
couldn’t make it to the Midhurst tournament. Thanks to all the kids who
volunteered at Parkview, because of some missing children that never
came.

A special thanks to Mrs. Fox for coaching our chess team.

By: Tommy

“Check.” “Not any more.” “Check.” “Not for long.”

The Midhurst chess tournament was on March 29th, 2006. The top two boys
and top two girls would go for each grade. The tournament was at the
Simcoe County District School Board. It was from about 9:30 to 2:15. The
amount of players in each group were ranged from about 10 to almost 20.
The grades were split in to boys and girls. Parkview sent 11 people. I
was one of them. Parkview did O.K. but didn’t win any medals. For each
grade and gender they were doing a draw for this glass chess, checkers,
and backgammon set. I won the set for the grade 4 boys! The points for
the Parkview team were from 9 to about 14. Some of the Parkview team was
interviewed by a camera man for Roger’s Television. Thank you to Mrs.
Fox, the Parkview chess team coach.

“Check. … Mate.”

Folding Paper 12 times

By: Kate

The first person who folded the paper in half 12 times was Britney
Gallivan. She folded toilet paper in half 12 times so our class decided
to try it. We did a practice run in our classroom. Then we did it in the
hallway on January 13. We only got 9 folds but Britney has broken the
record you can fold paper in half 12 times.

More information from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In January of 2002, while a junior in high school, Britney Gallivan
demonstrated that a single piece of paper can be folded in half twelve
(12) times. The previous limit was believed to be only eight (8) times.
Not only did she provide the empirical proof, but she also derived an
equation that yielded the width of paper, W, needed in order to fold a
piece of paper of thickness t any number (n) of times.

In 2005, Britney’s story was mentioned on an episode of Numb3rs on
CBS. She currently attends the University of California, Berkeley.