Kids Who Code: Part 3

Yesterday our reading buddies came to our room and WE got to be the teachers.

We showed them how to use the arrows in Kodable to move our fuzz ball from the beginning to the end of the path.

We also learned that when we are working with a partner, one person should be the driver and the other person should be the navigator. The driver holds the iPad and the navigator gives the directions. Every couple of minutes the team members switch jobs. This really helped us to be successful.

Lock Down

Today we had a practice lockdown. Mrs. Lowe explained that we need to practice just like a fire drill in case someone ever came in the school and wanted to hurt us.

We locked the door, turned off the lights and moved to a safe spot. The students did a great job of being very quiet.

The lights were off. - Jolena and Justine
The door is closed and Mrs. Couch told us there's a lockdown. - Yuan
We are quiet - Matthew
We moved to a safe spot. - Alfonso
We hear knocking on the door and more noise - Renee
The classroom was dark and the guy didn't know we were in here. - Brayden
Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Lowe were knocking on the door because it was just a practice. - Keane

Upcoming Events

We're coming up to a very busy time of the year at Stevenson School. You can always check the Calendar tab on our blog or the Stevenson Blog and Calendar for information about upcoming events. 

November 25 - Parent Council Meeting: We are still looking for a Treasurer for Parent Council. Meet at 6:30pm in the school Library. All parents are welcome.

November 26 - Report Cards go home.

December 2 - Early Dismissal at 3:10 pm.

December 4 - Open House Conferences. Students and parents are invited to the school from 4:30 - 7:00 pm to visit the classroom, talk with the teachers, and celebrate your child's success and learning. 

December 5 - Open House Conferences from 9:00-11:30 am. No school for students, all day. 

December 16 - Early Dismissal at 3:10 pm.

December 17 - K-5 Winter Concert from 1:30-3:30 pm. K-3 Winter Concert from 7:00-7:45 pm.

December 18 - Grade 4/5 Winter Concert from 7:00-8:00 pm.

December 19 - Last day of school before winter break / Room 8 Christmas Party.

Please feel free to call the office or email Mrs. Lowe at clowe@sjsd.net for information about any of these events.

Kids Who Code: Part 2

Last week I introduced my students to "coding" for the first time. If you're not sure what coding is, check out this link.

First, I asked the students if anyone knew any languages in addition to English. It was interesting to learn that most students knew Spanish, thank you Dora!

I then explained that we were all going to learn the language that computers use and that it is called "code." Everyone cheered!

We started our lesson by laying down a path of foam tiles on the carpet. The students then used arrows to instruct me where to go so that I could get from one end of the path to the other. Sometimes their instructions didn't work and they had to figure out how to fix it. Each time I completed the maze, the students cheered and gave each other high fives.

Next I used the mirroring function on our Smart Board to introduce the Kodable app. Kodable is a great app available for free on iTunes. Students use code to instruct a cute little fuzz ball through a maze, while trying to collect as many coins as possible.

Kodable App

I played the first level to demonstrate and then the students took over selecting arrows and giving our little fuzz ball directions. I could not believe how quickly they caught on.

Finally, the students were paired up and given their own iPads to try it out. It was awesome to see students working together, encouraging each other, problem solving, and trying over and over again without getting frustrated or giving up.

It sounds like a long process but the whole lesson took under 45 minutes, although many students begged to play for longer.

This week we will be teaching our grade 2 buddies about coding and introducing them to Kodable.

Kindess Matters

Today Mrs. Lowe surprised us with an empty wreath. We talked about the wreaths we saw around Remembrance Day and how they were symbols of peace. Mrs. Lowe explained that our wreath would be a symbol of our kindness to each other.

When students are caught doing kind things, they get to choose a ribbon to tie on the wreath. We are so excited to see how beautiful we can make it, with our kindness.

Some of the kind things we've been doing include:

• helping each other get ready for recess
• giving compliments
• straightening boots that have fallen over on the mat outside our room
• comforting a friend who has been hurt
• teaching each other new skills
• sharing toys 
• working as a team to complete a task or solve a problem

Working together to add ribbons.

This idea was inspired by the work of Debbie Clement. You can see more here.

Kids Who Code Project: Part 1

This is a post from Mrs. Lowe

I am so lucky to work in a profession where professional learning is encouraged and supported. Each year the Manitoba Teacher's Society provides grants for teachers to reflect and build on their professional practice.  Last year I was approach by Leah Obach and Devon Caldwell to submit a proposal to research and test the value of coding with kindergarten students. Coding is basically the language that computer programmers use to create programs, web pages, games, etc. We wanted to see if coding could be used as a tool for developing critical and logical thinking skills. We were ecstatic when we found out that our proposal was accepted.

A couple of weeks ago we spent an entire day working together on this project. Devon and Leah met at their local high school and I joined them via Skype. We made a plan for the day using One Drive. We started out by viewing a number of webinars, reading articles and blog posts. Then we uploaded apps, tested them and reviewed each of them.

Excited to be working with awesome teachers and friends!

Our exploring led us to an event called the Hour of Code on Friday, December 12. It looked very exciting but it would not be nearly enough time to cover everything we had planned. In addition, we have decided to do an entire week of coding activities to be concluded with a Code-A-Thon!


As with most projects, it's more fun to work with friends, so we have decided to connect with other classes through Skype and even teach our grade 2 buddies about coding. It will be fun to see the kindergarten students in the role of teacher to their big buddies.

Please stay posted for updates on this exciting project!

You can read Devon's post here
You can read Leah's post here

Jon Klassen Visit

Today was the big day we've been preparing for. JON KLASSEN came to visit our classroom and school.

If you don't know him, you should check out his books!

Photo Credit Autumn Le Brennan

Source

Source

He is an amazing author and illustrator. He's even received a Caldecott medal and a Caldecott honour, which recognize each year's most distinguished American picture book for children.

Before he came we brainstormed a list of things to do to make him feel welcome in our classroom.  One student mentioned that we should give him tea.  That gave us the idea to have a tea party for him.

We decorated and tidied our classroom. Mrs. Lowe made tea and cupcakes. We were SO excited.

Jon Klassen came and had tea and cupcakes with us. Then he read his book called "I Want My Hat Back" and showed us how he makes his illustrations. 

After recess we met with all of the kindergarten and grade one students. He read a some stories that he had written and illustrated and some that he had just done the illustrations for.

Then he taught us how to draw one of the illustrations from Sam and David Dig a Hole. It was SO fun!

If you'd like to meet him yourself, he will be at McNally Robinson tomorrow, November 15 at 2:00 pm.

Being Prepared

Today we talked all about being prepared for school and all of the things we need to have a great day of learning. Two things that came up were food and good clothes for outside.

We used a bunch of lunches to make one awesome, healthy lunch. Then we worked together to label the items. The kids in our class are getting really great at sounding out words.

I asked the students, "Why do we need a healthy lunch?" 

Here's what they said:
If you eat candy you'll be fat. - Yuan
We need a healthy snack to get big and strong. - Brayden
So we can grow up like the big kids. - Alfonso
So your brain can wake up. - Landyn
If you are hungry and you don't have any food you'll be really hungry. - Isabella

They also had some other great ideas for healthy snacks and lunches:

• bananas
• apple
• oranges
• corn
• salad
• fruit salad
• apple sauce
• pear
• grapes
• carrots
• sandwich
• cheese
• watermelon
• milk
• meat
• spagetti
• chicken noodle soup
• potato salad
• macaroni and cheese
• crackers
• soup
• 1 treat 

Then we talked about all of the things we need to be warm and comfortable at recess. Students go outside for two 15 minute recesses and one 30 minute break at lunch. They will go out unless it is colder than -28 with the windchill. It is really important that they are dressed for the weather, including the windchill.

We used our Smart Board to make this drawing together and the students labelled all of the things this little student needs to be ready for outside.

This student is ready for winter recess!

We have also posted this picture by our door so students can check that they have all of their belongings, before they go outside.

Beautiful Stuff: Part 1

This week we have decided to start collecting "Beautiful Stuff."  The plan is to explore our idea of what is beautiful. We will look closely at, touch, sort, categorize and label our collection.

To start I asked the students, "What is beautiful?" Here is what they said:
A fancy mermaid queen - Charlotte
Mom - Justine
Butterfly - Parker
Flower - Jaiden
Stars - Jaylene
My skirt - Isabella
Rabbits - Matthew
Flashing lights at night - Justin
Tree house - Brodie
Thomas the Train - Brayden, Kayden, Alfonson
Shirts with hearts, flowers and stars - Jolena
Everyone's hearts - Yuan
A fancy dress - Kaylee-Ann
Tomatos - Rachel
Pinky Pinky Dog - Renee
A heart and a flower - Frankie

Then we talked about the beautiful stuff we could find in our houses. We decided to write our parents a note about the plan. We also discussed that we will be sharing these items so we should not bring our most special objects.

The very next day, almost all of the students returned their boxes, filled with beautiful stuff!

We waited for one more day for the rest of the boxes to come in and then we started to explore what was inside. 

I decided to have the students open their boxes in small groups so that I could observe and record some of the conversations that took place.  Some of the students already started sorting and categorizing their collections. - Mrs. Lowe

We can't wait to continue to open and explore our boxes of Beautiful Stuff!

Thank you so much to all of the parents for supporting this exciting project. We couldn't do it without you!