Healthy Snacks

Kieran's challenge for us this month had to do with trying some different healthy snacks.  Well, who doesn't love to eat?  Challenge accepted!

We started the month taking an inventory of what we had for snacks in our lunch kits.  I put the answers in a t-chart with no titles.  What the students soon noticed, was that I was categorizing the snacks into healthy and unhealthy.  This led to a really great discussion of food groups and how we could get more of certain food groups in our diets.

Over Easter break, students had the task of trying and compiling some new healthy snack ideas.  I encouraged them, where possible, to have snack choices with more than one food group.  We put the ideas on a shared Google Doc so we could all share in our ideas right away.

With our list of recipes, we are going to create a recipe book to share with classes around our school and will finalize our work with a healthy snack potluck.

Interesting note.....I did the what snack do you have in your lunch kit survey again after the break, and there were no unhealthy examples on the t-chart.  Success!  I hope they keep it up.

Leadership - You can learn to be a leader!

Watching Arianne’s video helped students bridge their learning about Classroom Champions topics.  Arianne summarized how Goal Setting, Fair Play, Community, Perseverance and Friendship contributed to making students leaders.  Here is our summary of her video:

Arianne believes anyone can become a good leader. She thinks leadership takes practice. She thinks the following traits encourage good leadership.
1.	Respect others	Build others up. Showing others respect will give you respect in return.
2.	Good Moral compass	Know the difference between right and wrong. Have the courage to stand up for what is right even when it is really hard. Courage can inspire others and have a positive effect on a community.
3.	Lead by Example	Don’t just “talk the talk” also “walk the walk”. When you follow your own advice people know you mean what you say.
4.	Goal setting	Plan ahead and set goals
5.	Communicate	Make sure you listen to others and make yourself understood.
6.	Perseverance	Show passion for your long term and short term goals
7.	Be Authentic	Be true to yourself
Challenges: Write down a list of traits that make you a good leader.  How can you use these traits to be a good buddy reader?

"The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly." - Jim Rohn

We charted our thoughts about “What Good Leaders DO” verses “What Good Leaders DO NOT do.”

We had been studying leadership in Social Studies so Arianne’s challenge worked perfectly with our topic of study.  We talked about elected leaders at the federal level, the provincial level and the municipal level in Canada, Alberta and the county of Grande Prairie.  We talked about leadership at the school level and we talked about how volunteers can be leaders.

Our school will be split next year.

Volunteers are working to provide playground equipment for the new school.  The parents of the students in our room set a good example to explain how volunteers can improve the quality of life for a community.  

We also talked about +Arianne Jones and how she sets a good example, as a volunteer, to make our Classroom Champions community better. She showed us how giving back to the community builds leadership. (We also loved learning about her sled and how important the sled shop is).

Next we talked about how grade three students could be good leaders for their Kindergarten reading buddies. Most students agreed that being good role models was the most important way they could influence their buddies learning.  

Learning about leadership has helped students understand they can learn skills that will help them throughout their lifetime.  They know that they can empower themselves towards success and contribute positively to their communities and cultures. That's why I love Classroom Champions.  It brings hope and a skill set to make dreams a reality.

Curriculum Objectives:

Social Studies

3.2.1 - appreciate elements of global citizenship:  

• recognize how their actions might affect people elsewhere in the world and how the actions of others might affect them 

3.2.2 - explore the concept of global citizenship by reflecting upon the following questions for inquiry:

• In what ways can individuals and groups contribute to positive change in the world?

Health

Volunteerism

Students will:
L-3.7 assess how individual contributions can have a positive influence upon the family, school and community
L-3.8 select and perform volunteer tasks as a class or as a group

The Leader in Me

Talking about leadership is such an empowering topic.  Every person has leadership qualities in them.  It's just knowing how to use your strengths to be one.  Kieran Block challenged us this month in his video, Inclusive Leadership,  to try different leadership roles in group settings.

We started out using Poll Everywhere to see what students thought leadership was.  They also had a chance to share who they thought of when they thought of the word leader.  The answers were varied, but I wasn't surprised to see our class mentor to pop up.  Check out the video.

I decided to use a program that inspired many in Canada back in 2004 to spark some debate in my classes.  The Greatest Canadian was a show that showcased some amazing leaders in our country.  After their stories were told, Canadian had a chance to vote on who they felt was the Greatest Canadian of all time.  I allowed my students to do some research about the top ten finalists from the show.  From their research, they had to decide who they felt was the most influential Canadian of all time.

Once they had their person, we got into small groups.  They had 5 minutes in each group to share their reasons and debate.  At the end of the five minutes, students wrote down on a sticky note what student in their group emerged as the best leader.  We repeated this two more times with the students in different groupings.  At the end of the class, all students had a sticky note with three names on it.  They had to choose one name of someone who stood out as the best leader of the three.  After I collected the sticky notes, we had a discussion about what characteristics stood out to make their classmates good leaders.  It was neat what a variety of leadership skills were valued.  From that, we talked about leadership styles and how some styles work better for others.

With by secret ballots stowed away for next class, I tallied up the votes to see who the leaders in my classes were.  Some were not surprises, but I had a few that were.  I chose the top four from the votes for each class and each leader had to lead a team into preparing for playing the Heads Up game.  I created a game pack on the app with the names of the 10 Greatest canadians.  The "leader" student had to get his group to give him or her the clues.  How effective they were as a team when they got the iPad would be determined on how well the team prepared together.  They all had a lot of fun and learned how to best work as teams.

Healthy Living

We had a great time talking about underage drinking and the effects of alcohol and the brain. They had many great responses and were challenged to create a 300-500 word essay about the consequences of underage drinking.

They were also challenged to create a healthy meal with their family. Many students had amazing chicken recipes and smoothies.  They had many great choices as meals and were excited to share their mentor's message of his favorite fruits!

The main meal that was shared amongst most students was a type of black bean, chicken, and avacado (some students left out the avacado) enchilada. This sounded delicious and many students tend to make it with their families. So, not only was it a great way to eat and stay healthy, but it created a space to have some shared family time.

Kindergarten Leaders

I am again, amazed, at the understanding and effort the class put into this month's topic.  I found some great resources, an art project from a book, and an object lesson to reinforce the learning.

The first thing we did was brainstorm some ideas that leaders do.  What does a leader look like, act like and sound like ideas.  We made a poster with their ideas.  We also made a poster of people who could be a leader.  Of course, Kerry Simmonds, was mentioned as a leader to us.  We specifically talked about what a leader like Kerry can do for us, someone we don't actually see every day, compared to someone like a teacher or a priest at church, for example.  Both are very important and can help in various ways.  Through our brainstorming lists, we realized that often the leaders in our lives help with different things we need.  A coach is a leader with sports, a teacher is a leader with our education, a parent is a leader at home and a brother or sister can be a leader of a positive example, role model or someone to look up to.

We did a cutting and pasting activity matching situations to solutions a leader would do.  Situations such as a friend has a hard time cutting and gluing a project, what can you do.  We talked about a leader doesn't do the work for their friend, rather just helps or shows them how.  What does a leader do when they see a bully?  What does a leader do when tempted to do something naughty? and being a good example to stay focused on their work during school.  The class did a great job identifying and coming up with solutions to be a leader.

The students did an activity to write and draw about someone they look up to.  Many students took ideas from our brainstorming list and added details as to what makes that specific person in their live a leader.  I asked them to add details about the characteristics of the leader and how it makes them feel to have this person in their live to depend on and rely on for help when needed.  This paper says "Kerry is our leader.  She fixes our problems."

Students drew a basic picture of what a leader looks like, what they sound like and how they could be helpful.  They then drew the opposite of examples of what a leader is not.  I was impressed at the ideas and stretching themselves to come up with situations we had not yet discussed and write how they were being a leader.

I gave them a color book called, I am a leader.  The concepts in this book are that a leader makes a plan, has the attitude of we can all win, work together, have fun, leaders listen, setting priorities, and being proactive.  We had a class discussion about what all these things meant before coloring.  It was a lovely relaxing time for them to chat with their friends and color.  I heard many discussions
 about times when they were leaders in these areas while coloring.  I love when they just spontaneously have conversations on the topic you would have wanted without having to ask.  What good leaders they are.

We watched several videos of blind Paraolympians running with a guide.  The students absolutely loved this.  We watched the same clips several times, as they kept asking for them again.  It was amazing to see how perfectly together they had to run, completely in sync.  The guide lead them through getting set up for the race, where to put their feet and hands, and then ran with perfect synchronized strides through the race. The class was amazed how they could run with their hands or wrists strapped together.  We thought that the guide and the blind person were probably good friends and had good communication with each other.  These became very obvious leadership skills that are so important for a outstanding leader.



We read the book Swimmy, by Leo Lionni.  In the book, the black fish doesn't want to hide in fear or hang out in the dark shadows hiding in fear of being eaten.  He asks the group of fish to all swim together like the biggest fish in the sea.  They organize themselves in the shape of a fish and the black fish says he will be the eye.  Together, they swam in the water and chased the big fish away.  The students really could see the black fish being a leader.  I had the students use one color of paint and use fish shaped sponges to paint the fish.  Then we used black paint to put on the eye.  They turned out really cute.

The last thing we did was an object lesson.  I had some stretchy fabric I cut into strips to be blindfolds.  Students paired up with a friend and we went to the gym.  I put some small cones around the gym to walk between.  Students took turns guiding their blindfolded friend around the gym.  It was really neat to see them be kind and caring leaders, walking slowly and having compassion for the blind person.  Many were holding at the elbow so they were very secure together.  I thought they did a great job with this activity.  We watched the videos of the Parolympic runners first.  After we were done in the gym, we talked about how it felt to not see and depend on their leader to guide them around.  What would happen if the leader was not doing their job?  The blind person really depended on them to be honest, focused and dependable.

Many students wanted to try again at recess and would hold their friend's hand and just close their eyes, leading them around the playground.  The other class wondered what they were doing and wanted a turn.  I heard some kids explaining that you have to be a good leader and know what that means before you can just do this.  It was really funny and true as well.  It was great to see the kindergarten students teaching other students how to be leaders.

Friendship With +Arianne Jones

Friendship - It Means So Much

February was fabulously fun!.  We watched Arianne’s message about friendship and unpacked the monthly challenge. We also celebrated Valentine’s Day wearing our pajamas, playing board games and exchanging Valentines. Pink shirt day gave us the opportunity to talk about bullying and it’s impact on relationships between classmates.

Arianne encouraged students to be friendly and make the effort to include new people in activities. She challenged us to spend time learning two new things about students in our class.  The students were given a large grid with their classmates names on it.  They used the grid to record the new facts they learned about each classmates.  We modelled how to ask questions that dig deeper once a surface question has been asked.  For example: What is your favorite sport? (hockey)  Do you play hockey or watch?  What position do you play? How often do you practice?

 

 

Students were given several twenty minute sessions to spend time in conversation with their friends.  It was fun.  There was a lot of chatter but it was productive chatter and it forged links that will last forever.  

We celebrated Valentine’s by reading, “Somebody Loves You, Mr Hatch”.  This is one of my favorite Valentine’s Stories.  The student loved to see Mr. Hatch transformed from his crusty, bachelor, hermit lifestyle into a kind, caring, generous friend.   We had a wonderful discussion regarding the importance of “belonging” and how simple acts of kindness can transform and enrich lives.

On Pink shirt day we read one of my most favorite Valentine stories, “Hooway for Wodney Wat!” by Helen Lester.  We discussed the bullying behavior of Camilla Capybara and marveled at the way Wodney saved the day, just by being himself.

During February, Ms. Mayer, started her nine week student teacher practicum.  The class loved her so much.  It was so much fun getting to know her and watching her get to know the students.

Curriculum Links

Language Arts

• ask questions to clarify information and ensure understanding

• discuss, represent or write about ideas in oral, print and other media texts, and relate them to own ideas and experiences and to other texts

• experiment with ways of generating and organizing ideas  

Health

W-3.7 identify strategies to avoid being bullied in different case scenarios; e.g., communicate whereabouts, get away, say no firmly, avoid dares

R-3.5 develop strategies to build and enhance friendships

R-3.6 demonstrate inclusive behaviours regardless of individual differences or circumstances; e.g., physical, emotional, cultural, economic

Leadership

    Leadership is something that my group struggles with.   We have some great students, who have great qualities - but they are shy and quiet and not willing to take on leadership roles.  Taking time this month to learn about leadership was interesting for my class.   

    We read several articles about student leadership.  Then we brainstormed a list of character traits that leaders have.  I asked students to think about which of those qualities they have already and which they would like to work on.  The kids were able to identify which traits they saw in others and which traits that they wanted to work on themselves.

     Then we made “wanted posters”   The students choose the leadership traits that they have already to add to their character description on the poster.  The students thought this was great!  They loved having the wanted posters hung around the school.  

      As it was a short month with parent conferences and spring break, we will continue to learn about leadership and what makes a great leader.