Georgia O-Keeffe Flowers

Today we had a guest from Room 11.  She came to teach us how to draw flowers like Georgia O-Keeffe.

First we watched a video that showed some of Georgia O-Keeffe's paintings and it had beautiful music. You can watch it here.

She showed us how to make big flowers with petals going right off the page!

First we sketched our flowers lightly with pencils. Then we used chalk to go over the lines and a tissue to smear the colour around.

Here's a little peak of how they turned out.

Have you ever used coloured chalk on paper?

Kid Blogs

It's Mrs. Lowe writing today:

This week, several students in my class expressed interest in creating their own blogs. Luckily, I have seen several examples of safe and simple blogging for students on Ms. Cassidy and Ms. Malkoske's class blogs.

Their students have accounts on Kidblogs.org. This platform allows students to write their own blog posts and then submit them to me for approval. All of the blog posts and comments are routed for the teacher before they are published. I will check to make sure blog posts and comments are safe.

I feel like my students are ready for this independence because of the blogging we have been doing together since September. The students have learned about being safe by never including their names with their photos, never using their last names or details about where they live or where they will be at a  specific time.

The students are beginning to understand that their words will be read by many other people and they should only post work they are proud of.

I am so proud of my students and how their writing has progressed this year. I am also proud of the responsible digital citizens they are becoming.

You can see their blogs here.

Please feel free to read and comment on their blogs (using first names only please).

Experts on Bees and Trees!

Today our class met 2 experts! In the morning Chris from The Bee Project came to talk to us about bees and making honey.

He brought a dead bee so that we could get a very close look at it. He told us we have to be careful because even dead bees can sting.

He also showed us a smoker and explained how it makes the bees sleepy and calm so that the bee-keeper can do their work.

He showed us the honeycomb and explained all about the queen bee and how the drones take care of her. We all got to try on the special hat that protects the bee-keeper from getting stung.

Chris brought us some honey and we all got to try some. We really loved his visit, and the honey! If you would like to order some delicious honey, check their website! Chris said he can even deliver it right to the school!

In the afternoon, Mary from the Green Action Centre came to teach us all about trees and paper. She reminded us that most of the paper we use is made from trees. But did you know that paper can also be made from other things? She showed us paper made from wheat, flower petals, banana leaves and even old jeans!

She encouraged us to reduce the amount of paper we use by using both sides. When we are finished with paper we should recycle it to make new paper!

How can you help our environment and be a friend to the earth?

Earth Day!

Today we celebrated Earth Day. Our whole school shut the lights off. We couldn't work in our classroom because it was too dark.

So...we went outside.

We picked up a lot of garbage.

At music listening time we had the lights off.

When we did our weekend news we worked in the hallway because there were windows to make it bright.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the school. We looked for signs of spring.

We made a list of ways we can be friends to the earth.

Are you celebrating Earth Day?

Skype-o-rama!

Skype is one of our favourite tools for learning! We use it to talk and learn with people (and animals) from all over the world. This is a map in our classroom of all of the connections we have made through Skype and blogging.

Today we got to use Skype twice!

In the morning we talked to Mrs. Harrison and her class in Ontario. Earlier this week we watched their We Can See Spring video here. They watched our winter book. They asked us lots of questions about what Spring is looking like here in Winnipeg. Then we got a chance to ask them questions about their signs of Spring. You can see the whole We Can See Project by visiting the blog here.

In the afternoon Mrs. Lowe and one of our student's moms surprised us with another Skype call! Her job is writing stories for a newspaper. She told us about what she believes that good writers do. She said that great writers have to be good observers of what is around them and also read lots of books to get ideas!

After our visit we worked on our own list of things that great writers do. We have made this list several times this year but we keep changing and adding to it. Right now, this is what we believe great writers do:

The teachers at Stevenson have been working on developing
 their own beliefs about what great writers do.

Do you like to write?
What do you believe great writers do?

Bullying

Today we read a story about a school bully. In the story, Mean Jean was using fear to control all of the children in her class.  In the end it turned out, she just needed a friend.

We learned that bullying is when one person hurts another person's body or feelings over and over again. We learned that it is different from having an argument with a friend or hurting someone by accident.

April 10th is Pink Shirt Day. We can wear pink to show that we don't support bullying.

This shirt was designed by students at George Waters Middle School

For more information about pink shirt day, click here.

We Can See: Winter Edition

Even though it is officially spring, here in Winnipeg, it still looks and feels a lot like winter. Last week when we were busy saying goodbye to winter we realized that we had never written an official We Can See book for winter.

We decided to use the photos that we took in the winter and write the words using interactive writing. That means that the students got to take turns printing the letters and words on the Smart Board.  Then we recorded our voices reading the pages.

Enjoy!



We are wondering if it looks like spring where you live?

Yoga

Today we had a guest from The Integrated Arts program. Her name is Laura Kolisnyk and she is going to teach us YOGA!

She taught us some relaxing poses and some balancing poses. Today we learned that many of the yoga poses have animal names including: eagle, polar bear, pelican, and stork.

We were all excited to use our very own mats.

Filling up our bellies with air. 

Tree pose.

Branches reaching to the sky.

Balancing poses.

We are looking forward to Laura's next visit.

Have you ever tried yoga?
What's your favourite pose?

Bonkers for Board Games

This week our class has been going crazy over board games!

We have been making our own games on the Smart Board. We can make our own paths and there is even a dice that spins. We challenged the Grade 1 students to make games too. On Friday we exchanged games. We had SO much fun playing the game they made for us!

The Game Room 8 made for Room 14

The game Room 14 made for Room 8

We can also make games using paper and bingo dabbers. We have been working on writing our numbers, adding instructions and even creating challenges for the game players.

When we play games we are practicing taking turns, following the rules and being good winners and losers.

What is your favourite board game?

Would your class like to exchange Smart Board games?

Twitter in Kindergarten

Hello Readers, it's Mrs. Lowe writing tonight. I want to talk about TWITTER!

When I first started using Twitter, I thought it was basically Facebook, but with only the status updates. I joined up and began using it to follow friends, celebrities and athletes. I mostly tweeted about where I was hanging out, working out and what I was eating. 

Last year I started noticing more and more teachers joining Twitter. At first I was hesitant to begin mixing my personal and professional life. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough to contribute and I didn't want to have to hide my personal life.

This summer I did some major re-design in my classroom which inspired some serious reflection on my teaching beliefs and practice as well. I wanted to share some of my thinking and found Twitter to be an excellent place to share and learn from other teachers. I also learned that all of those teachers are real people too.

Before I knew it I was forming a PLN (professional learning network) of teachers from all over the world.  Teachers post links to articles and resources. We share projects we are working on in our classrooms.  We are able to ask questions and get almost immediate feedback. We are able to meet online at designated times to discuss current topics in education. It is an outstanding source of professional development and community that has changed my world as a teacher.

Throughout this school year I have noticed more and more teachers opening Twitter accounts for their classes. I have seen Early Years students using Twitter to reflect on their learning, share their experiences, follow what other students are doing in other classrooms, collaborate on projects with other students, ask questions and get feedback and more!

My Plan

In the next few weeks I hope to begin using Twitter with my kindergarten students. We will begin with an introduction to Twitter as a form of “micro-blogging.” Each tweet must be 140 characters or less. Like on our blog, we will compose our tweets together and talk about what is safe to share and what is not safe to share. We will follow some of the classrooms that we have met through blogging and Skype. Our Twitter feed will be displayed on our blog so that all of our readers can see what we’re up to, whether they are on Twitter or not.

Over time, I would like to see my students composing and posting their own tweets (with teacher supervision). I hope that my students will continue to have opportunities to write for an audience and a purpose. I hope they will begin to learn about what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. And I hope that through Twitter we can continue to expand the walls of our classroom.

If you would like to see an example of Kindergarten students using Twitter, please check out this blog post by respected Kindergarten teacher, Devon Caldwell. 

Tips and Tricks for Tweeting in Kindergarten