Wednesday, November 28, 2012

British McFlurry cups are designed to save hedgehogs!

When people would throw out the previous cup design, hedgehogs got their heads stuck in them searching for leftover ice cream. Hedgehogs were starving to death because they couldn't get their heads out.
The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (yes, it exists) had repeatedly campaigned for years against the cups, asking McDonald's to change the design.
Finally, in 2006, McDonald's announced that after 'significant research and testing,' they had come up with a more hedgehog-friendly design that had a smaller opening and didn't let poor Sonic die if he was a little hungry. Sadly, though, hedgehogs can't taste the deliciousness of McFlurrys anymore.

Read more at http://www.omg-facts.com/Business/British-McFlurry-cups-are-designed-to-sa/48192#aEIhYmUJBBhPW7sY.99

Agenda - Wednesday

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Hot lunch tomorrow
  • Math #1-4 due tomorrow
  • Spelling points (50) due Friday
  • Spelling test Friday
  • Health 5 Day journal due Friday

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Tea

Tea helps strengthen your immune system by attacking bacteria, free radicals, viruses, and fungi.  - OMG Facts

Agenda - Tuesday

Students, please note the following in your agendas: 
  • Hamper donations - Bring in asap!
  • Bring magazines if you haven't already

Monday, November 26, 2012

A crash reversed a paralympian's paralysis!

A crash reversed a paralympian’s paralysis!

Monique van der Vorst, a 27-year-old from the Netherlands, was formerly a paralympian athlete as a hand cyclist. After a collision, when a bike hit van der Vorst, she ended up in the hospital and began to feel a tingling sensation in her legs. Slowly, she began regaining movement in her legs, and after many months of rehabilitation, she gained the ability to stand and walk for the first time in more than a decade!
Van der Vorst had been paralyzed since the age of 13. Before the accident that restored her ability to walk, van der Vorst was training to be a part of the 2012 Paralympics in London. Because she can now walk, she can no longer compete in the Paralympics as she had been training for, a career she misses.
Able-bodied, van der Vorst has worked hard to relearn how to ride a traditional bike. She has joined the Rabobank cycling team and is working hard to catch up to the other athletes on the team. It’s her goal to compete in the 2016 Olympics.

Agenda - Monday

Students, please note the following in your agendas: 
  • Conference schedule goes home today
  • Spelling sentences due tomorrow
  • New spelling lists go home today

Friday, November 23, 2012

Happy PJ day!

Students, please note the following in your agendas: 
  • HOT LUNCH FORMS DUE MONDAY (No later!)
  • Book orders go home today - Due November 29th
  • X-mas hamper notes go home today

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Agenda - Wednesday

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Millionaires visit tomorrow
  • Exemplars tomorrow

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Danish Pastry did not originate in Denmark

The Danish pastry did not originate in Denmark


Because of the name of the popular pastry, the Danish is frequently assumed to originate in Denmark. In fact, the Danish actually originated from Austria. So why isn't the "Danish" called the "Austrian" instead?
In 1850, bakers in Denmark went on strike over wages, so the bakery owners were forced to hire foreign workers who specialize in baking, particularly Austrian Bakers. The Austrian Bakers were unfamiliar with Danish baking methods, so instead they baked their classic pastries from Austria to the public.
The Pastries the Austrians baked quickly became popular among the Danish people. Even when the Bakers' strike ended there was a massive demand for Austrian Pastries. It was because of the pastry's massive popularity in Denmark that it was called the "Danish."
Today, the Danish remains one of the most popular goods sold at Bakeries. In Denmark, the word for pastry is "wienerbrød," or "Viennese Bread."
(Source)

Read more at http://www.omg-facts.com/History/The-Danish-pastry-did-not-originate-in-D/54129#0YLV4KYemW49Iue0.99

Agenda - Tuesday

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Health Meal Tracking Sheets go home today
  • Bring magazines to school

Monday, November 19, 2012

Agenda - Monday

Spelling - Misspelled Words (5 times each) in Spelling notebook due TOMORROW
Ask me about: A cool fact about my province/territory

Friday, November 16, 2012

Agenda- Friday

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Mini Volleyball Monday
  • Interview forms?
  • Practice Spelling words over the weekend

Thursday, November 15, 2012

In London there was a 9.5 foot tal billboard made of chocolate

In London there was a 9.5 foot tall billboard made of chocolate.
After taking 300 hours to construct it, the 14.5ft by 9.5ft pure chocolate structure was completely devoured by the public in 3 hours. The billboard was created for Easter festivities in 2007 in Covent Garden, and passersby, including a troop of Girl Scouts, were encouraged to eat it. It had a lot of variety too, everything from chocolate bunnies to hazelnut eggs.

Chocolatier Barry Colenso and a team of 10 constructed the billboard for publicity for Thorntons, a chocolate company. It was made from 128 chocolate panels, each weighing 2kg (4.4 lbs). It also included 72 giant chocolate eggs, and 10 chocolate bunnies.

Agenda - Thursday (P.L.A.C.E.)

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Bring back OWL subscriptions asap
  • Ask me about PLACE today
  • P.L.A.C.E. presentation 1:00 tomorrow in the gym - Parents are welcome!
  • Character Ed/Health?
  • P/T conferences forms due back ASAP

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

P.L.A.C.E. agenda - Day one

Students, please note the following in your agenda:

1 - Ask me about my P.L.A.C.E. group
2 - Materials I need to bring tomorrow:
  •  
  •  
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3 - Interview forms!
4 - Fish Dilemma is OVER DUE - Lizzie, Dale, True

Random Fact - Wednesday

If you touch your tongue while yawning, it can stop the yawn.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Agenda - Welcome back Tuesday

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Be prepared to walk tomorrow!
  • P.L.A.C.E. starts tomorrow
  • Math problem solver - Fish - Due tomorrow
  • Bring lunch tomorrow
  • Operation X-mas child

Friday, November 9, 2012

Cracking your knuckles does not actually hurt your bones or cause arthritis. The sound you hear is just gas bubbles bursting.

Cracking your knuckles (or any of your joints) can have therapeutic benefits. When you crack one of your joints you are pulling the bones that are connected at the joint apart from each other. This process stimulates your tendons, relaxes your muscles, and loosens your joints. Chiropractors do this for spinal joints when your back is sore and stiff, but you can do this on your own for your knuckles, toes, knees, neck, etc.

Unfortunately, there can be too much of a good thing. Cracking your knuckles will never lead to arthritis (despite what your mom keeps telling you), but scientists have discovered that it can cause tissue damage in the affected joints. Knuckle-cracking pulls your finger bones apart which stretches your ligaments. Too much stretching of your ligaments will cause damage to your fingers akin to the arm injuries sustained by a baseball pitcher who throws too many pitches. In addition to making your hand really sore, this ligament damage can also result in reduced grip strength.

How does this work? Your joints, the places in your body where you can bend, are where your bones intersect and are held together by ligaments. These joints are surrounded by a liquid called synovial fluid. When you stretch your ligaments by pulling the bones apart to crack your knuckles a gas in the synovial fluid escapes and turns into a bubble. This process is called cavitation. Cavitation ends when the bubble eventually bursts, producing that popping sound we know and love. After that, your joints won't be able to crack for another 25-30 minutes while the gas gets reabsorbed into the synovial fluid.
(Source)

Read more at http://www.omg-facts.com/top#IW7tbUsxhb1Kazdp.99

Agenda - Friday

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Bany, Taylen, Delaney, Austin, True - Reading Logs
  • ITN - Tuesday - Bany
  • No School Monday (Remembrance Day)
  • PLACE starts next week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday)
  • Social Maps are now overdue
  • PLACE notes go home today (Everyone but Cassie)

Thursday, November 8, 2012

American Airlines saved $40 000 a year by taking out ONE olive from each salad they served

When it comes to cutting costs, taking out a single olive might not seem like the most effective way to go. But for American Airlines in 2001, it worked out quite well. Following 9/11, airlines were having some difficulty. There were numerous other factors involved, but the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had left people a little uneasy about airplane travel, in the same way that movie ticket sales have been down following the recent shooting in Colorado.
To show an example, American Airlines’ then rival, United Airlines, was doing so poorly that they would have needed to fill 103% of their seats just to break even. So Bob Crandall, the former chief of AA, made many cost cutting decisions- including removing one olive from each salad.
While one olive might not seem like much cost saving, all the olives taken out made up a $40,000 drop in in-flight meal costs per year.

Agenda - Thursday (Early D)

Students, please note the following in your agendas: 
  • Wear black and red for Remembrance Day tomorrow
  • Poppy Money (Donations)
  • Library tomorrow - Bring your books back
  • Remembrance Day service tomorrow at 11:00

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Agenda - Wednesday

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Early D tomorrow
  • True and Taylen - ITN
  • Red and Black day Friday

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Agenda - Tuesday

Students, please note the following in your agendas: 
  • Reading logs - Cassie, Makayla, Austin, True, Bany, Colby, Taylen, Delaney
  • Operation X-mas Child - Now collecting
  • Social Maps - DUE FRIDAY (If you're not finished)
  • Garrett ITN Tomorrow
  • Mini Volleyball tomorrow - Bring your lunch

Monday, November 5, 2012

Halloween in 500!

OOoooooooooooooooooOoooooooooo00000000000000000oooooooo0!!! Spooky!

Agenda - Monday

Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Overdue reading logs
  • Miss S. gone tomorrow afternoon - Mr. Albers is in
  • 20 Spelling points due tomorrow

Friday, November 2, 2012

Piggy back rides

Have you ever wondered why piggy back rides are called piggy back rides?



Early forms of the phrase "piggyback" date back to the 16th century with "pick pack," "pick back" and "pick-a-pack," which make no reference to pigs at all!

"Pick" back then used to mean the same as "pitch" does now: to throw or place (e.g. "pitch a tent"). "Pack" was probably a reference to something being carried so "pick pack" or "pick-a-pack" meant to place something. The alternative, "back", implies that you're carrying something on your back.

By the 18th century people were saying "pickaback". As the origin of the phrase started to get lost, "pickaback" evolved into "piggyback", which we use today.

Agenda - Friday!

Students, please note the following in your agendas.  Have them checked before putting them away.

  • Last call for Mom's pantry
  • Book orders go home today
  • Lizzie - ITN Monday

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Michael Phelps' daily diet consists of 12 000 calories

For Michael Phelps, one of the most successful Olympic athletes ever, daily training diet consists of 12,000 calories. Maybe for his next medal he should challenge Kobayashi! For Phelps, breakfast alone consists of 3 fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise, 1 five-egg omelet, 1 bowl of grits, 3 slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and 3 chocolate-chip pancakes. Here is a normal eating schedule for Phelps:
  • Breakfast is his highest caloric meal: 3 fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. 1 five-egg omelet. 1 bowl of grits. 3 slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. 3 chocolate-chip pancakes.
  • Lunch: 1 pound of enriched pasta. 2 large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread.
  • Dinner: 1 pound of pasta with a whole pizza.

For an athlete like Phelps this kind of diet is necessary. A rule of thumb is—if you eat less calories than you burn, you lose weight. Phelps is a calorie-burning machine. If he doesn't supply his body with sufficient calories, then he won’t recover for his next workout and will begin to lose weight. Beware to those who are looking too closely at Phelps’s food choices. At his caloric demand level, it doesn’t matter too much what he eats, as long as he is able to keep up.

Read more at http://www.omg-facts.com/Sports/Michael-Phelps-daily-diet-consists-of-12/50966?id=50966&fromTN&c_val=4#Cl5XXeRkczkjpcCT.99

Agenda - Thursday

We have a new student in 500! Welcome Eric - we are very pleased to have you join us!
Students, please note the following in your agendas:
  • Mom's pantry MUST be in TOMORROW
  • Spelling test tomorrow
  • Reading logs are due tomorrow
  • New reading logs go home tonight
  • Operation Christmas Child starts tomorrow