Map Inquiry

You might remember that last week Mr. Wesselius read our class a book called "Henry's Map." This really got the kids inspired to make their own maps.

Today we used Discovery Education to watch a video about what maps are for, how to use them and the many different kinds of maps.

Then Mrs. Lowe brought out a big map of the whole world! The students were very excited to find Winnipeg, Canada, Cuba and the Phillipines.

Then we read another book about maps that showed how to make a map of your bedroom or house. The students got really excited about this.

During "Thinking and Learning Time" some students began creating and labelling their own maps at our map makers table.

Here are some of the students talking about their awesome maps!

Kindness Challenge

All month our school has been focusing on kindness. Next week will be our official kindness challenge and there are themes set up for each day. We will be starting our week with an assembly in the gym to kick things off.

In our class we have been talking a lot about how we treat our friends. At recess and lunch time this has been a bit of a challenge. I am saddened when students come in saying they were hurt by other students in our class.  We are continuing to work on treating others the way we would like to be treated.

Each ribbon represents one act of kindness by a room 8 student.

This afternoon we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather. We played outside for 2 whole periods with the grade one students and their teachers. We went sledding, built snow people, and made forts together.  The snow was perfect for building! Which also meant that we got VERY wet but not a single student complained. We were all having way too much fun. 

Look at that teamwork!

Giving Mrs. Lowe a workout!

Stars of the Big Screen

The students of room 8 continue to be interested in police officers. Over the last few days we have been making list of all of the important things that police officers do.  Yesterday we borrowed a costume (thanks Justin) and many accessories (thanks Mrs. Macdonell) and filmed our very own movie trailer!

Mr. McKinnon let us use his Flip Cam to shoot some action scenes. We also posed for many photos. Then Mrs. Lowe used iMovie to create the trailer. iMovie has some amazing functions and one of them is a built in trailer template. All you have to do is drop your clips in and voila!



Today we made some popcorn and watched our movie in the movie theatre, also known as the life skills room.

Carrying comfy pillows to the movie theatre. 

Watching ourselves on the big screen while eating popcorn.

Here's what some of the kids had to say about the experience:
I was going to jail in the movie - Malashia
We watched it and I was happy -Matthew
I was calling if someone was in trouble - Yuan
I was giving a speeding ticket - Alfonso
I was holding a number - Brayden
Making the movie was my favourite - Renee
I was so happy I almost cried - Charlotte

If you haven't seen our other posts about our Police Officer inquiry, you can find them here: 

A Spark Has Ignited

Police Inquiry 

A Visit from Constable Sue

Twitter in Kindergarten

Hi there, it's Mrs. Lowe blogging today.

If you've been following this blog for a while you've probably noticed that we talk about Twitter a lot. Many people are surprised to find out that my kindergarten students have their own Twitter account. The Twitter account @MrsLowesClass was started 3 years ago and is on it's third set of student users.

When the year starts, it's mostly me tweeting about exciting things happening in our classroom and school. From there we tweet together as a class and finally students begin to write their own tweets (which are moderated by me before being published).

At the beginning of this week, I taught a few students in our class how to use the PicCollage app. Those students are now experts and are teaching other students. Using PicCollage, students are able to take photos and add text. They can modify their font, background colour and layout. They absolutely LOVE taking photos of their friends and things they have created in our classroom. They are also getting really good at stretching out sounds to record their thoughts as well.

Today we extended our learning by checking out our class Twitter account where I have been posting all of their PicCollage photos. I was amazed at how engaged the students were with reading their own tweets. Our class also follows a very small group of other people including Mrs. Hamm's class and Stevenson School.  Today we read a tweet about some Lego cats that another class had made. My students loved the photo and asked if we could send a message back. We all worked together to spell out our message! We even learned that we should add an /s/ to the end of the word if we are talking about more than one object (cat vs. many cats).

We have also begun to talk about safety. We noticed that we have 124 followers who read our tweets and we don't know all of them. For that reason, we never match a friend's picture with their name. We are learning to use "he" or "she" when we include a picture of a friend, so our readers won't know their name.

As we continue to use Twitter and other forms of social media we will learn many more authentic lessons about how to be safe and responsible digital citizens.

If you don't already "follow" us, please consider following @MrsLowesClass on Twitter! Then you can read all of our tweets live! In order to be safe, we only follow the accounts of other classrooms.

A Visit from Constable Sue

Our letter worked! Today Constable Sue from the Winnipeg Police Service came to visit our classroom.

She got our letter!

She showed us all the parts of her uniform and the different tools she needs to do her job. Some of the tools included a flashlight, cell phone, radio, baton, notebook, and of course a gun. She explained that she would not take her gun out for us because it would not be safe. She also explained that there are many other tools police use to stop criminals and that they only shoot if their lives are threatened.

The students were SO engaged!

The room 8 kids asked so many great questions. They were also great listeners and very respectful to our guest.

Some of the questions they asked included:

-Do you have a police car?

-Do you have a computer in your car?

-Do you have handcuffs?

-Do you catch people?

-Do you have a police dog?

-Do you shoot people?

The students learned that the most important job that police do is helping people. They also learned that if you want to be a police officer you need to be good at communicating with people, writing down information,  and asking great questions.

Cheering (in sign language) when she said we could come outside and see her police car.

We were so excited to see how the lights worked!

Checking out the computer that the police use to find information while they patrol.

 Constable Sue even put on the siren before she left. Thumbs up for a great visit!

Some other teachers in our school have heard about our interest in the police and Mrs. Macdonell even brought us some props to add to our police station.  She brought helmets, radios and badges.  

Using the emergency number (911) has come up several times in our inquiry.  We have talked about how we only call 911 if there is an emergency and our parents aren't able to call for us. Constable Sue explained that if we call when there is not an emergency, we could be taking help away from someone who really needs it.

If there ever was an emergency, it is important for children to know their first and last name, their parents names, address and phone number. 

Practicing calling 911 and explaining our emergency.

Helping a fellow officer put on his badge.

Wearing mittens so that he doesn't leave any fingerprints at the crime scene.

If you haven't read our other blog posts about this inquiry please check them out.

Police Inquiry

A Spark Has Ignited

Police Inquiry

The police inquiry continued this afternoon. If you missed the first post you can view it here.

Making fingerprints and looking at them with a magnifying glass.

Creating traffic signs.

Wearing essential parts of a police officer's uniform including the walkie talkie, notepad,  pencil, and sun glasses.

We also watched some more videos from Discovery Education. The first one was about the importance of rules at home, school and in the community. After the video we made a list of different examples of rules for each place.

Before we went to play we also made a list of all the different roles that police officers have. This really helped everyone to find an important job to do during our Thinking and Learning time.

At the end of the day we finally got to write in our own "Reflection Journals." We have been group-writing in our class journal for a long time but students have really been looking forward to writing independently.  Before we went to our desks the students gave each other some advice.  I just had to write it down because it was actually great advice for anyone who wants to become a writer.

Many students chose to write about our police inquiry today. Here are some examples: