Olympic Hallway Display

The Olympics may not be an annual event, but what an exciting opportunity it gives us to see how what we are working on in school is part of our real life experiences.

We set up a hallway display for the whole school to enjoy, which included a number of books from our library related to the various sports that are participated in.

The icons for the events were so bright and colourful with the Sochi colours added to them.

Great math skills being practiced as we watched our Canadian athletes add to our medal standings.

Will there be more to add after this weekend? (Hope so!)

Both Grade Three classes partnered up to add to the display.  They created paper people that looked like themselves, and then wrote about how they could be "Gold Medal Students."  What does it take to be the best at their job, the job of learning, each and every day?

Thanks to Kelly Dolling for sharing this idea with me.

On Friday evening, I saw a parent from another school standing and reading these. (Her child was in the gym for a night practice)  She was so very impressed with the ideas that the students had come up with and their writing skills over all.

 

It's nice to hear from someone who doesn't know the students, because I can be a bit biased when I say that I thought it might have been their best writing to date!

Gold Medal Thursday!

We start class at 8:45 and the women's gold medal game in curling was not yet finished.  Since I had it up on the SMARTBoard through the CBC live stream, the students wanted to see what would happen.  We talked through different strategies, shared what we thought we would do if we were curling, and then tied it into angles in math.  What would happen to the rock if it was hit on this side?

We sat in anticipation of every rock thrown!

..and were so happy when our women's team won gold!

It was a great opportunity to talk about how winning silver was not something to be ashamed to have done.  Pride in your accomplishments should be about your effort not theirs!

TADA! 

Here's my gold medal!  Finally, with lots and lots of assistance from Mrs. Littlemore in setting up this cart, my class had the opportunity to see what it is like to be a 1:1 iPad classroom.

Whole tables of students working on iPads, not only my 4 being shared between 20 students.

The collaboration between students made my heart sing!

An important skill for all of our twenty first century learners, which can be learned and practiced at home, is to keyboard.  It is a skill that they will need forever, and it is something that our curriculum does not give us time to work on at school, so if you are looking for something to assist your child with, being able to quickly and efficiently, keyboard would be a skill that I would suggest is worth your time and energy.

This group is working on reading fluency, reading about the Olympic Games to each other and then answering questions based on what they read.  Great learning and reading practice too!

100th Day of School

When the students bring in their bottles filled with 100 things on the 100th day of school (original idea found on the internet at read write think), the best part is the three clues that they have written and then share.  The other students get to guess what is in the bottle and that leads to great discussion to why they made that particular guess.

Out of the 18 students that participated, there were only two who chose the same items!

The bottles, hanging up just outside our classroom, generate a lot of interest from other classes.

The students are then challenged to take their three clues and write a question using that information.  It is an opportunity to see how commas are used when a list is included in a sentence.  They write at least another seven sentences about their items and then finish with a sentence that reveals what is inside of the bottle.

This one started with What are square and edible?

If you guessed Cinnamon Toast Crunch then your right!

(Shows we need to work on contractions a little more!)

The students wrote about what they would do if given $100.00,

tallied how many times they needed to roll a die to get to 100,

used their name and colours to create a pattern,

and used a pizza to create a graph.

There were a few little centres for those who finished early, such as creating a structure using 100 mini solo cups, creating a pattern with 100 pattern blocks and building something with 100 Lego blocks. 

After estimating an answer, the students worked in pairs to see how many times they could hop, clap, blink and say the alphabet in 100 seconds.  My picture is blurry, but this gal is clapping.

One student had to count "one thousand one, one thousand two..." up to 100, while the other student did the activity and then they switched.

To compliment the Olympics, the students are writing a book report on a chapter book this week, using this book as their home reading for the week.  They know that this means that they will be reading Friday, Saturday and Sunday in order to complete the work for Monday's due date.  They are awarding the book a gold, silver or bronze medal and then on the second page, they are explaining their reasons (judging) on the book's merit.  These will be displayed in our library to entice other students to try out these medal winning stories. Thanks to Lori Flaglor for sharing this lovely idea.

Post Olympic Photos

Last Friday, our lovely music teacher acted as school photographer for our Olympic Day.  She shared these very professional photos (and a whole bunch more) with me and I wanted you to see how she captured the absolute delight that the children had for the day.  The shots are so artistic and yes, you can hire her!

Love this action shot...that yellow orb is the tennis ball being thrown at the rings!

 

I sent home information on how to get your child started on Raz-Kids, which is a computer based reading program.  Please note that it does not take the place of our home reading program.  I don't know that much about the program and have never used it before.  Hopefully your child will enjoy it!

Our Amazing Red and White Olympic Day Success!

There's no way around it!  To capture this day of pure joy and spirit could only be done with a million pictures!  I hope you have a few minutes, because this is my longest post ever!

Just before setting out for our first Olympic event, we took a photo of Team Matheson...

ready for all the fun we could imagine having on this first ever Red and White Olympic day at our new Kindergarten to Grade Four school!

The first event was the slalom, where they had to move through the pylons on a scooter and pole their way using plungers.  Notice that they are brand new, still have the price tags attached!

It wasn't as easy as they thought it would be as those plungers had a tendency to suction right onto the floor!  Whose idea was it to give them to the kids?? (Ha! Ha!)

Love the intensity!  She's shouting "Stick and pull" as the technique she wants her team mate to try!

Sticking wasn't the problem, it was the releasing that was!

Love this guy!  He's playing camera man and giving a running commentary "..and he's rounding the third bend but oh! no! he's off his ski..."

Second event was the luge, where the kids tried to stay on the scooters on their backs, pulling themselves along on the rope line.

When they got to the end, they got onto their tummies on the scooters to do a skeleton run to the beginning again.

Here's my grade partner, who was the one who had this crazy idea to begin with!  Love that girl!

Four man bobsled races were next, down the twisty turn course.

Staying together was the challenge...

never mind trying to win against the other team!

Goodness sakes, did we ever laugh...

as each team had their own way...

of trying to get to the end of the course,

like holding on for dear life!

Third inside station was perfect after all that activity.

Every student got to make their own medal, using metallic markers and glitter.

Sorry to the custodian who had to clean the glitter all up...

...but the smiles were worth it!

Last morning event was speed skating, using carpet squares as the skates.

Skating was the easy part.

Keeping them on your feet wasn't!

After a lunch break and rest, the groups switched and it was our turn at the outside events.

Two by two, the students competed in the biathlon, running the winding course

then taking aim to get the tennis balls through the hoops suspended on the soccer goal posts.

(You do what you can do!)

I know this isn't really an olympic event, but in Canada, wouldn't you expect a dogsled race?

The students get to change places at the other end, so that each person got to be a the puller and the rider.  Both positions were equally as much fun.

We borrowed these snowshoes from another school, and just getting them on over the kids' boots could have been an event in itself!

Who knew you could hop the course in snowshoes?  Look closely, he's in the air!

My little one who had never experienced snow before, couldn't stop grinning!

What stories she will have to tell about her winter in Canada!

Sometimes, you just need to take a rest!

Can you see that ice chunk near the blue circle?  The pails of ice that were to act as the rocks in curling

couldn't keep up with the banging and abuse of being tossed towards the rings.  By the time we got to this event, all that was left was the ice,

but that didn't stop the fun!

What would a Canadian winter Olympics be without our beloved sport of hockey?

The students stick handled the ball through the pylons, then tried to score on the net.

At the end of the day, all of our littles came together in our Multipurpose room.  We thanked God for the lovely weather and opportunity to be together in friendship and sport.  We watched a news reel of some of the Canadians participating in the Sochi Olympics this week,

and then we watched a video/slideshow of our day put together by our own music teacher.  It was so much fun!

We ended with 'O Canada' which was sung with such passion and fervour that I got choked up and couldn't sing!  I know my job is to teach these littles the Alberta curriculum and though I think I do a bang-up job, let's face it.  They aren't going to remember the lesson on adding large numbers that I spent hours putting together with Smartboard and iPads and hands on games.  But there's no doubt in my mind.  They are going to remember our Olympics Day and be proud Canadians!

Enjoy Family Day.  I have asked the children to take a 'techy time out' and not use electronics on Monday.  I challenged them to find ways to enjoy the day with their family instead.  Remember that Tuesday is the 100th Day of School.  Please have the students bring their bottles filled with 100 like items and their clues for letting the others guess what's inside.