Code Red Continues…

Well…last Thursday our provincial government announced that our current code red level in schools would be extended to the end of the school year.  While I completely understand the call that had to be made, I’m also sad that my last day with my Super Kids was my last.  I’m hoping for an opportunity later in the month to meet with my class for some closure and virtual celebration of our year together.  The 6 remaining CWS students and I would love the opportunity to see everyone again.  Our school is currently taking this into consideration and trying to come up with a plan for everyone.  🙂 Stay tuned!

I’ve heard such lovely things from the remote teachers about my kiddos!  How they are attending groups, practicing their math skills, and are completing activities that have been posted on Padlet. I’ve been checking them out too!  Thank you families for helping with this process.  I understand it’s a challenge and everyone is doing what they can.  Your efforts are appreciated and will help your child as they move into the next grade.

“The New Crew” has been continuing to learn in person at school.  Our current class is made up of 6 original Super Kids and other students from 4 other classrooms!  We’ve been busy getting to know each other and making new friends.  One advantage of of the current situation is that the kids are meeting other kids that they didn’t know before due to restrictions and playground zones.

The plan for the end of May was to study extreme weather and that’s what the New Crew did.  We looked closely at thunderstorms and clouds by doing science experiments that demonstrated how they are formed.

cloud video 1

cloud video 2

My original 6 students explained what onomatopoeia is to their new friends. We had learned about this when we created our states of matter superheroes earlier in the school year.  We then brainstormed what words would be used for different weather.

Each student picked an extreme weather event and researched it.  How does extreme weather form?  What season does it happen in?  How can people stay safe?

We then created our own Weather Newscasts using a green screen.

Students brought in props to help their scripts come to life!  Below are links to the videos of my original 6.  I will only be sharing pictures and videos of those kids because I have permission to do that from the beginning of the year and not for the rest of my new class.

Connor’s Newscast

Anderson’s Newscast

Mandy’s Newscast

Sarah’s Newscast

Vonn’s Newscast

Stella’s Newscast

We were so excited to share our videos with Mrs. Rempel’s CWS class who also made them.  We had a premiere viewing party spaced out in the hall with her glass wall open.

Continuing with our weather theme we watched clips of Gene Kelly from “Singing In The Rain”.  Just playing the clip had the kids up and trying to dance.  We even had a few tap dancers!

We then created our own “Singing In The Rain” art projects on what ended up being a rainy day. We look closely at the book inspired by the movie for our art style inspiration.

 

Patterns, growing patterns, and number patterns have been  math concepts that we were focusing on before code red and continued to after.  Making science and art connections to patterns is a natural step.  We learned about kaleidoscopes, created 3D mirrored prisms, and create our own kaleidoscopes to show the pattern discs the kids made.  This was a huge hit! We even created our on kaleidoscope inspired circle art.

After the recent news regarding residential school, we took some time to talk about the situation in age appropriate terms.  To say this is a difficult discussion would be an understatement, but necessary so that we can learn from past mistakes.  We went for a community walk after painting rocks to remind our community that talking about these things creates change. We placed them along paths, in trees, and in the outdoor meeting place not far from our school.

Kids can make a difference!  That was our larger them this year in the Super Kids classroom as we learned about kids that changed the world.  I felt that it was the perfect time to create our own “Speak Out” art.  Kid’s ideas are important to listen too.  Sometimes it just reminds us what is important.  Our messages are now hung in the hall with Mrs. Rempel’s class. I didn’t take a lot of pictures of this process, but some thoughts were:

Smarten up people and be kind!

Every child should be allowed to go to school!

Everyone should have access to clean water!

Everyone should be treated equally!

Keep our planet healthy!

Plant a tree when you cut one down!

Learn from your mistakes so you don’t repeat them!

I hope that all of my students before code red and after remember that… “A person’s a person no matter how small.” They all matter.

Take care and stay safe. 🙂

 

 

 

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