April - Monthly Summary - Healthy Living

Mrs. Baxter's Kindergarten Class - Healthy Living

April found us continuing to work on leadership. Our principal, John Horstead, came by the class and chatted about their thoughts on leadership and what his role is in the school. The students LOVED having Mr. Horstead stop by and take time to talk with them.

We also began discussing Healthy Living. I was looking forward to this topic as it is one that I feel our families can benefit from. Our journey in healthy living actually began in September when we educated our new kindergarten parents by sharing examples of a healthy lunch. Packing fresh, healthy lunches is something our community struggles with, for several reasons, some due to lack of resources or money. I strive each year to impart how important it is for children to eat healthy and get outside to play on a daily basis.
To teach our students, each and every recess and lunch break we celebrate when they make healthy choices with their eating. As a class, we have counted each fruit and vegetable in our lunches and when we reached our goal of 200, we made a class fruit salad to share. Students who are reluctant to eat fruits and veggies quickly begin to ask their parents to send them something healthy in their lunches. Every day we exercise, we play outside for recess and lunch, we also ensure we have daily physical activity. It takes different forms, such as, dance in the classroom or time in the gym. The students absolutely love dancing with
GoNoodle! They request it several times a day, the Koo Koo Kangra Roo and Kids Bop songs are their favourites. It makes a great brainbreak, while energizing the students.

A few classes in our school had the opportunity to register and participate in six yoga classes at the school. They were spread over two months and the students loved learning the new poses and went home to teach their families after school. Lululemon also surprised us by sending an instructor to allow us another yoga session! To continue with these amazing teachings we have found a website, Cosmickids.com. The instructor tells stories while she teaches the yoga lesson and we can follow along in our own classroom or at home.

As a school, we are enrolled in the School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program. The program sends a fruit or veggie each month, for every student in the school. This month was grape tomatoes and next month will be mini bell peppers, we have also had kiwi's, apples and carrots. It allows students the chance to experience healthy foods that they may not have tasted before. It is interesting to see how many students have never tried or refuse to eat fruit and vegetables until they see their friends enjoy eating them. Many are willing to try eating healthy if their buddy is enjoying it!

While we have been talking about this concept, particularly healthy eating, since the beginning of the school year, this month looked closer at why all of these choices are important. We watched Akeem's video and I read two stories recommended by our librarian and then brainstormed actions that were healthy and unhealthy. I was impressed at the responses of my kindergarteners. They were truly paying attention and aware of the benefits of healthy choices. I send home the parent letter and hope that these students and their families are continuing the conversations at home and putting into action what they have learned.

I also made some personal goals. I began using the Carrot app to track my steps and My Fitnesspal for journalling my food. I need to work toward making better choices for my family, my students and my quality of life.

I am in disbelief that May is only a day away! I am looking forward to our Classroom Champions BBQ. The students cannot wait to meet Akeem in person and eat some ice cream with him!

March - Leadership Summary

Sorry I am posting so late! March seemed to fly by so quickly with the two weeks off and assessing for our term two reporting period. It was a busy and quick month, that had us continuing the conversations around leadership into April. So here we are!

We began our leadership lessons by discussing what we think makes someone a good leader. The students chatted in pairs, sharing their ideas of what being a leader means to them. They then switched partners and shared their ideas with another classmate. We then regrouped and jotted our ideas down on our chart paper. The main ideas that the children really stuck on were that leaders are kind, caring, follow the rules, help others and try their best. We tied the ideas back to what we learned about being a good friend and found many similarities. We reread "How Full is Your Bucket?" and the students made many connections between the book and how to be a good leader and how not to be a good leader. Afterwards we read "The Giving Tree". The students loved the idea of the book and how caring and giving the tree was. 

The next lesson started with reviewing what we had discussed what a good leader was. Then we watched Akeem's video and noted that the points he highlights in the video are the characteristics that the students had already mentioned! The students were impressed that they had the same thoughts about leadership as Akeem!

The students talked about adults and helpers in our community, in their families and in the school that they consider to be leaders. We asked why we consider them to be leaders and came back to the same list, because they keep people

safe, take care of people, they follow the rules and are kind and caring. It was definitely an interesting discussion when a few students began discussing the current and former leadership in the US and Canada. It is truly amazing how much these children know about the world around them and a great reminder that they hear and understand much more than we give them credit for. This topic really punctuated the epitome of true leadership.

One of the best surprises we had this month was when our liaison officer dropped by to say high to the kids. She stops by the school on a regular basis to check in with the kids and joins right in with whatever activity the classes are participating in. On this day happened to stop by when it was pouring with rain while the kids were outside during recess break. The Constable stayed outside, in the rain and did not come into the school until the bell rang and she entered with the students. When she came into the school, I asked if she would mind stopping by the class and talking to the students about what leadership means to her. The students quickly made the connection that the Constable exemplified exactly what a good leader is! Several students now want to be a police officer when they group up!

The class made a video and sent a request to the principal, asking him to come and talk with the class about his role as the leader of the school and he will be popping by next week to share his experiences and thoughts with us.

As the months unfold, I am seeing the overlap and how the students are connecting to the topics and making them their own. It is powerful and they are definitely growing into more confident and empowered students.

February Monthly Summary - Friendship

Division 20's Friendship Journey

We began our discussion about friendship by discussing what makes a good friend. We brainstormed how we act as friends and then how we like our friends to treat us.  The class talked about sharing their toys, playing with others, talking kindly and helping peers when they are hurt. 

We then met up with our big buddies to share our ideas of what friendship looks like. They taught us how to use the Chatterpix app and each student recorded a statement, "I am a good friend when I...". The kindergarteners loved playing on the ipads, taking photos, recording themselves and hearing their voices playing back. Afterwards we used the projector to share all of the recordings and ideas of what friendship is to us. I also posted each of the students individual Chatterpix recordings on their online portfolios for their parents to see. Check out our videos here: https://animoto.com/play/BKaXWSW3LZOiHWj1XbrLDw


To continue the conversations about friendship and encourage my students to look deeper, we read several books, some we read and some we watched on youtube. A few of the books we read were: Howard B Wigglebottom Learns about Bullies, How Full Is Your Bucket? and 
The books encouraged us to discuss what to do if someone is bothering or bullying us, how to include others, and how being kind to others helps us and them feel better about ourselves. The students practiced the steps they need to take if someone is bothering them. Each child role played asking someone to stop what they are doing, walking away and then telling a trusted adult. It empowers the students and gives them the control to not play with someone that is not treating them kindly and hopefully deescalates negative situations. 

On Pink Shirt Day my students were so thrilled to receive their pink shirts from Shaw and Classroom Champions! They proudly wore their shirts all day and we looked so smart as a class, making a statement against bullying. I loved the message on the shirt this year, so positive, "Be a buddy!". I think it is so important to focus on social skills and empower our students in how to be a kind and supportive friend and how to speak up and walk away when they are in a negative interaction. 

We reviewed how to fill other's buckets and watched Akeem's video. With his challenge to get know our classmates, we would randomly pair up and then ask our friends questions. Throughout the week we stopped a several times and paired up to chat with our peers. We asked about favourite colours, foods, ice cream flavour, tv show, hobby, and more. It was lovely to see the different connections, the excited chatter and the new friendships made!

We are always working on our friendship skills and are going to go further with these lessons as always, continuing to use our new vocabulary and language to reinforce and build our new skills. 

Mrs. Baxter's January Summary - Perseverance

Mrs. Baxter's Class Shows Perseverance

To introduce the topic of perseverance we began by discussing the what we have learned through our Classroom Champion lessons so far. We talked about what it means to play fair, be a considerate classmate, family member and student, and how we are doing in meeting our goals. Through that conversation the students came up with key words that led us to the definition of perseverance. The students see perseverance as trying their best and to keep trying even if it is hard. We also discussed how to do our 'belly breathing' that we learned in yoga to calm ourselves if we get frustrated. 


We watched Akeem's perseverance video and then read two books while we looked for ways that the characters were showing perseverance.  While both were great books, we loved "The Most Magnificent Thing" and really connected to the illustrations and main character.

Then, to meet Akeem's challenge, we brainstormed our experiences that we have demonstrated perseverance through. The students came up with many examples of times that they had to keep trying when it was hard for them to learn something and how much they learned or improved through that experience. 

Perseverance is now a key motivational word in our classroom. The students use it regularly to encourage each other to keep persisting and master a tough skill! Our next lesson will be practicing using our words to encourage others and role playing to model for others.

Mrs. Baxter's Classroom Champions - Video 2

Community - Monthly Summary

Community - Monthly Summary

Community in our Kindergarten class

We are continually working on our Classroom Champion lessons, and growing more self-aware each month. Since the beginning of November we have been looking at our community and how we can be positive members of the communities that we are involved in. To start the discussion around the idea of community, we discussed the important people in our lives and the groups we are involved in, soccer teams, school, home, bhangra dance, etc. The students, with the help of their buddies, wrote notes of appreciation to people in our lives. Many students wrote to Akeem, some wrote to their buddies, some wrote to family members and some to their friends. 

To extend our idea of community to others we may not connect with on a regular basis, we have written Christmas cards, with lovely drawings in them, for Grandma's and Grandpa's in a local nursing home who may not get to see family this holiday season. It challenged the students to think beyond their immediate surroundings, to others that live in the same community as us, even though we do not know them, and to extend kindness to them, with something as simple as a drawing and a note. 

As an annual tradition our school has chosen to support several families for the Christmas season. The families in the school donate food, gifts and essentials to our Christmas families that may be having a difficult time this season. As a class, we have discussed how we are helping our christmas hamper families in our school by providing them with food and toys for children who may not have as much as we do. 

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas also helped us learn how Christmas is not about presents, but about quality family time and the love we have in our hearts. We read the book, wrote him letters telling him how we would make him grin by being his friend, sharing with him, playing with him, inviting him to dinner, and many other ideas! Then the Grinch 'visited' our classroom one night and left us a note thanking us for our friendship and many thoughts of kindness. He even left us a treat (Grinch Milkshakes) and some Grinch fur which was all over the class! We then related these ideas back to how we can be positive members of our community by extending our ideas of kindness to everyone. 

Again, we loved watching our video with Akeem and meeting his challenges of writing notes of thanks to people in our lives. We were THRILLED to interact with Akeem during our live chat! 

We are looking forward to our break and starting back up with our Classroom Champions lessons in January.