Stevenson Open House

Thanks to all of the families who came to our Open House! 

The Room 8 kids were the STARS of the show! I was so proud as I watched them sharing their learning with their families.

Creating a Collaborative Alphabet

A couple of weeks ago, we worked with a wonderful artist named Lynne Mulvihill. She taught us how to make words and letters, using materials from trees.

First we explored all of the different materials. There was bark, moss, cork, paper, seeds, pinecones, and even wooden beads.

Then we tried gluing the materials onto letters. We have to make sure our glue stayed in the lines and that our natural materials covered all of the glue.

After gluing, we did a "tap test" to make sure everything stuck on.

Finally, we created this beautiful alphabet for our classroom word wall.

Thank you Lynne!!! 

WITS Problem Solving

Today in Kindergarten, we learned about using our WITS. Sometimes friends have trouble getting along. If someone is bothering you, there are many good and bad choices you can make. WITS is an acronym to remind students of various strategies to use when they get in a conflict. Check out the book we made about using our WITS.

 (It is important to choose the best strategy for the conflict you are having. If someone is getting hurt, always Seek Help)

Room 8 "Visits" Churchill

Last week we used a special green screen to record our learning about polar bears and the Arctic. Then Mrs. Lowe added some backgrounds to make it look like we were really in Churchill!

Enjoy!

Polar Bear Project

Today we had a special visitor named Mr. Mckiel. He is a coordinator in our school division and he knows a lot about Polar Bears.

Last year he was able to spend a whole week in Churchill observing and learning about Polar Bears. He wrote about his adventure on a blog called "Chilling with Nanuq."

After showing us his photos and answering a lot of questions, he helped us with a very special project.  It's not ready yet but we can give you a hint.

It involves a green screen.....


Stay posted for updates!

Blubber!

We have been learning all about Polar Bears. We have been reading books, looking at photos and watching a live polar bear cam.

Today we learned that polar bears, and many other arctic animals, have blubber to keep them warm and help them float easily in the water.

We got to try out the blubber by sticking our hand inside a special glove made from two Ziplock bags with Crisco in between. We called it the "Blubber Glove."

We put both of our hands, one with the glove and one without, into a tub of icy water.  It was surprising how warm our hand with the glove was.

Lost Fall Post

Hello Everyone, it's Mrs. Lowe writing tonight.

I was working on a project on our class iPad when I came across a beautiful fall book that the room 8 students made, when I realized that it had not been published.

This book it just way too cute not to share. We used an app called Haiku Deck to make it.

Enjoy!

Learning to Print in Kindergarten

Learning to recognize and write our letters is an important part of Kindergarten. For the majority of time, we do this through play.

However, every afternoon, we do our printing routine.  It goes like this...

Step 1) Mrs. Lowe announces the letter for the day (e.g. Z)

Step 2) Watch a Story-Bots video



Step 3) Brainstorm all the words we can think of that start with the letter of the day. When we first started we could only list a few, now we can list lots of words!

Step 4) Watch our letter rap video.



The students LOVE rapping along with these videos and practicing writing their letters in the air.

Step 5) Practice writing our letters in the air.  We use all sorts of imaginary paint including rainbow, swirl and even chocolate pudding!

Step 6) Practice printing our letters with pencils and paper. Mrs. Lowe watches every student to make sure they are forming their letters correctly. Students should start at the top and work down to the bottom (see the guide below).

Source 

Mrs. Lowe also helps students to hold their pencils with a tripod grip (using three fingers). This grip will help students to be more efficient at writing and drawing.

The video below is from the "Handwriting Without Tears" website and can be quite helpful if children are having difficulty holding writing tools correctly (Please don't worry about pushing children too hard, this is a skill that will develop with time and experience).

We have also been creating an alphabet scrapbook, using our iPad. The book starts with Aa and goes all the way to Zz.

 Each page has the letter in the middle (upper and lower-case) and pictures of things that start with that letter. We can't share the whole book on the blog because it has the students names and faces on it.

The point of the book is to help us form personal connections and associations with each other the letters and it's sound.

Our whole routine takes about 30 minutes. The students really enjoy this time and are learning more letters and letter sounds all the time!

We Can See - 2013

Last year my class participated in the "We Can See" project. Along with classrooms and families from all over the world, we shared what we could see from our school yard. It was an awesome experience and my students loved creating their own books to share with the world and getting to see the world through the eyes of other children.

You can view the special blog that was created for this project here.

Today our class decided to create our own "We Can See" book. We walked all around our school yard and talked about all of the things that we might want to share with other students. The students decided what we should take pictures of. Then, once we were inside, the students wrote all of the text to go along with the photos.

We are really proud of how our book turned out.

Quiet as mice....

This week our class has been talking about what makes a great classroom. One of the things that came up with was that a great classroom should not be too loud. Here's what the students had to say about it:

When it is so loud, it hurts my ears. - Bryce 

When I scream it hurts my ears. You should be quiet. - Gabriel 

If we get smashes (too loud) we won't get a popcorn party. - Ethan 

I just want to go in my room if it's too loud. - Ellie 

If it's too loud, you can go in another room (when you're at home). - Essence 

When it's loud, it makes me cover my ears. -Cassie 

When it's too noisy you get really sad. - Chase 

When it gets too loud it looks like the screen is smashing. - Tanya 

When it's quiet we feel proud. - Denise 

It feels nice when it's quiet. - Cassie 

You feel proud and you will get super duper happy when it's quiet. - Dante 

When it's quiet you will get super duper duper happy. - Ethan 

When we have zero smashes we will get a popcorn party with a movie. - Leah

We have done many activities this week to learn the difference between quiet and loud sounds.

First, we sorted some sounds into loud and quiet groups. There were a couple sounds that we decided could be loud or quiet sounds so we made a special group in the middle.

We read a funny book called "The Loud Book," by Deborah Underwood.

We are testing out a special app called "Too Noisy Pro"
It uses our iPad and our SmartBoard to monitor our volume. When we get too loud, the smile turns to a frown, the screen smashes and a siren goes off.  We are working towards a day with no smashes. We have to work together as a team and remind each other to use quiet voices.

Mrs. Macdonnell came and taught us some signs. She taught us the sign for quiet and the sign for loud.

You can check out the videos by clicking on the links.

Sign for quiet

http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/q/quiet.htm

Sign for loud

http://www.handspeak.com/word/index.php?dict=lo&signID=3253

UPDATE: Today we earned our popcorn party! We had zero crashes on our Too Noisy app. 

Remembrance Day

Dear Parents,

You are invited to our school for Remembrance Day.

(Thursday November 7, 11:00 AM, in the gym)

You can wear a poppy if you want.

(They will be available for a small donation)

We will be singing a song.

From Room 8 

Here are some photos of us practicing our song with all of the Kindergarten and Grade 1 students.

This week the students in room 8 have been learning about Remembrance Day.

Today Mr. Miller came and showed us a book called "Why?"

It was an interesting story about a frog and a mouse who were fighting over a rock. The fight got bigger and bigger until the land was ruined, animals were hurt and the rock wasn't even in the picture anymore.  We thought things would have been better if they had just decided to share. It was a very serious story.

We also watched a video that Mr. Miller made with some students.

It was sad when one of the soldiers was dead in the war and he was in the O'Canada box. - Bryce

His friend was crying. - Chase 

It was so bad because the soldiers died. - Elryck 

It was really sad. -Ellie

They were heroes. I hope the other soldiers don't die.-Tayna 

On Remembrance Day you can wear poppies so you can remember the soldiers. - Cassie

We made our very own poppies so that we can always remember the soldiers who fought and still fight for our freedom.

Some of the children were looking really sad because they were thinking about the soldiers.

Pie Throwing

Today was the big day!

To end off our school fundraiser, each kid who brought $5 today, got to throw a pie at one of the teachers.  All the students were watching and cheering from the bleachers.

It was crazy! Here's what the kids had to say:

The teachers wore black bags on their bodies and shower caps on their heads - Dante
They were dirty - Denise
The teachers wore goggles - Leah
I threw a pie at Mrs. Lowe and the plate stuck on her face on got into her mouth. - Bryce
People were yelling really loud.- Ellie
We think Mrs. Lowe had 10 pies thrown at her.
I threw a pie at Mrs. Lowe and it went splat on her face. -Ethan
There was whip cream on the plate and no pie. -Cassie
There was whip cream all over their face. -Chase
It was really sticky and smelled yucky. I'm very proud of our students and families for raising so much money for our school. - Mrs. Lowe

Go Away, Big Green Monster!

This week we read a wonderful book called "Go Away, Big Green Monster."

We had fun making our own green monsters and helping Mrs. Lowe to read the story.