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.