We are Champions!

Kids surprise me all the time!!  It always amazes me how hard it is for kids to acknowledge how awesome they are.  Don't get me wrong, they show off all the time,  but when it comes to talking about how much they have accomplished this year and the hard work that it required, they instantly become shy and humble!  Classroom Champions was perfect for my kids because it helped them realize that results are always earned through hard work and never just given.  Given their young age, I think that is great.  They can use that message to carry over to next year and hopefully is just a part of who they are!

So, I made time for us to acknowledge our successes this year!  We had a bragging party and each accomplishment was sure to be followed by the steps (hard work) that lead to that success.  Seems like a lot of 2nd and 3rd graders, but they did it.  The energy in the room was really great and the smiles (although humble) we priceless.  Students made awards for each other and I was sure to make note that it took (us as a team) for our successes to occur.

We bring it all together, we made presentations to reflect on Classroom Champions this year. They turned out very cute.  Plus, some photos of the kids getting their certificates from Nate and Classroom Champions.  It was the best to hear kids excited for each other!

How We Became Champions

This year went by like a blur.  We opened up the year by cheering on CC mentors in the Summer Olympics.  We unveiled our own mentor +Alex Rigsby , got a surprise visit from +Steve Mesler  and +Rhiannon MacDonnell .  We set goals, persevered, made friends (and benches), we were visited by +Heatherle Chambers , and we found time to smash our learning goals and personal goals like nobody's business.

I know we shouldn't say we have favorites, but this year has been one of my top 3 of my 15 years.  So much so, that I am looping up to 6th grade with these Champs!

So as we closed out the year, I asked them to create Google Slide shows to talk about their own personal journeys.  I have shared this folder -----> Our Journey that links to each of their slide shows.  I think their words say far more than I ever could! so enjoy!

Thank you, Alex.  For everything! You made this year so memorable for me and our Rockstars! 

WE ARE CHAMPIONS

Hello,

I think this was one of the busiest months I ever had trying to complete this months topic.  I did something completely different for the k-3s in our school.  The students never had a chance to talk to Brad Bowden over bluejeans so I was in contact with our technology coach and she help me set up a chat with an Paralympian guide named Andrea Bundon.  I started by showing the monthly video from Brad and talked about what a classroom champion athlete was and how we were going to talk to someone else during the class instead of Brad. 

I had the technology coach come in and talk to the class about the Paralympics and what a guide was for down hill skiing.  We then as a group created questions that we wanted to ask her while we chatted over bluejeans.  The students spent 45 minutes talking to her over bluejeans and had the same type of chat as the older students. 
  

"Who is Andrea Bundon? Andrea is an athlete and a researcher who is from Regina, Saskatchewan. She went to St. Pius School and to Leboldus High School. She has lived in many places across Canada and has even lived in England! Now she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. She loves it there because she can do her research, ski and even row. Which happens to be another sport that she excels at!"
https://spark.adobe.com/page/SSWCSuz2M07TD/

With the older students, I had a couple of them write  a summary for what they did for the month of May. 

At the beginning of the year we made goals that we were supposed to try and achieve. Then at the end of the year we looked at those goals again and made new ones. Some examples of peoples goals are : 
• get home work in before its due date
• make  a sports team in high school
• become a grade 8 leader next year
 To go along with our goals we took pictures of ourselves cut them out and put them on the bulletin board to make it look like we're talking. Another thing we did was we talked to Brad Bowden. Some of the things we asked him were, stuff about his sports life like how he got medals. We also asked him about some of his injuries. He said the worst injury was almost getting his thumb cut off by someone's blade. Then we asked him a little about his personal life. At the very end we asked him how we can be better at sports and how to succeed. He also told us about sportsman ship.

Consul K/1/2 Healthy Living

I've had this theme ready to be posted for a while.  Sorry this is so late!  We started out the month talking about healthy living habits.  We watched Michelle Salt's video and completed her challenge to choose a goal for the month.  We also did some Go Noodle activities to get us up and moving in the classroom as well. +Michelle Salt

First Grade's Guide to Healthy Living

Healthy living was a fun topic!

We actually previewed the topic before watching the video.  My students brainstormed eating fruits and vegetables, exercising, not eating a bunch of junk food, and drinking water.  Those are what they always hear.  Even when this health group came and talked with our kids, eating right and exercising were all they talked about.

Then we watched the video for Healthy Living.  Our mentor Nate Hinze brought out several ways to stay healthy that we don't usually connect to being healthy.  Those new ways led to numerous discussions.  The one argued the most was wearing a seat belt.  Some of my boys had been told by older kids that seat belts kill you if you're in a wreck.  It took several discussions about seat belt safety to convince them the belts help instead of hurt.

After watching the video a few times, my students were ready to begin.  I had them look for examples of healthy living in the school.  They found the obvious P.E, classes and recess.  But they also noticed teachers eating salads or fruit at lunch, adults and children drinking water instead of soda, and they also began to connect the healthy eating with some of the selections at lunch.  Some of my students started choosing the vegetables that were offered.  Most were willing to at least try the different veggies.

Several of my students began bringing water for recess.  With the heat in Georgia this time of year that is one thing I had tried to get my students to do.  While most didn't listen to me, they did listen to our mentor.  Now most of my class brings a bottled water for recess.

Since we were nearing the end of our Classroom Champions experience (something my students are upset about), the children and I decided to make a video for our challenge.  They came up with the healthy living ideas and I did the filming.  The kids really enjoyed this one!

Healthy Living Video

Let's Be Healthy

Our 2nd and 3rd graders took a whole big encompassing take on healthy living!  We did so much to learn about why it is important to be healthy!
We took time to learn about our heart, lungs, brain, and muscles.  We used the site kidshealth.org.  I highly recommend that site!  There are great articles and videos on a large amount of health topics.  The kids learned a lot and used the format of the videos to help create their own (more on that later)! The kids were so interested on learning about our organs and I don't think they have given it much thought before that each of them has a certain job.  We had a great discussion on what could happen to those organs if they are not taken care of and how its harder for them to do their job if it is not healthy.  We created a list of healthy activities and unhealthy activities and we tried to think about what are body is doing during those exercises.  As always, I love hearing their side conversations through out the month.  There were a lot of kids talking about how they were helping their hearts and how they were getting a lot of sleep to help their brains!  So great!!

We also joined Unicef with their Kid Power Program.  If you haven't heard about it, please check it out!  It has had a tremendous affect on the students.  It has improved their sense of community, empathy, and that they can have an impact that can be felt across the planet. Not to mention is has also helped them feel motivated to "get moving"!  Each day we have been getting as much steps as possible.  We have gotten over half a million steps since starting earlier in the month!  And they have worked on persuasive language by asking for extra recess to increase their steps!

We also used technology to help add a few fun pieces to healthy living.  One app was a bit on the less academic, but super engaging, called Sketch Nation.  It is an app where the kids can create/draw their very own video game.  They can create their own character, villain, power-ups, and backdrop.  Kids created their own games with a healthy living spin.  Their power-ups were healthy items like fruit/vegetables/bicycles and the villains were ice cream/chips/soda.  They could use their own photos of themselves as the main characters ( we used healthy living poises!)  They (obviously) had a blast!

The other creation was their own cartoons focused on a healthy living topic.  We used the app Toontastic.  Kids had to create a three to five scene cartoon to show what happens if we are not healthy.  We worked on storyboarding and script writing.  The kids were way more creative then the sample that I created!

Like most of our monthly themes, this is one that I know will have a lasting impact on them and gives them the motivation to try and convince/teach others to be healthy.  Students love "tattling" on their family members and can list the many ways they are not healthy.  We talked about ways that they can be healthy together at home and how things like exercise and sleeping enough are "catching".

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2.A
Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2.B
Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2.C
Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2.D
Provide a concluding statement or section.

Here are students showing off their UNICEF Bands:

Here are some of the Toontastics created:

Being Healthy

This month my students worked a variety of components of healthy living: safety, lifestyle, healthy eating, and not making unhealthy choices (drinking alcohol).

We started out by watching Nate’s video on Healthy Living at the beginning of the month. He touched upon eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and exercise, but really focused on safety items that each first grader could do to. He explained by making safe choices, they could avoid being hurt and therefore stay healthy. He spoke of ways my first graders could easily make safe choices such as always buckling their seat belt, wearing a helmet when they ride their bike, and tying their shoelace so they don't trip on them (I was really happy to hear him telling them this this as learning to tie their shoes is continuing project with many of my first grade students). After his video we brainstormed different ways to be safe and the students made a google slide identifying one way to be safe and imported a picture and colored their background. Next we learned about healthy eating, the food groups, and the food pyramid. The students independently made a slide talking about the food groups, importance of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, and limiting unhealthy foods, and imported a background image onto their slide. We then learned about the importance of exercise and not only does it makes you fit and stronger, but well oxygenated blood getting to your brain helps you to think and learn better. The students again independently made a slide with what they learned about how exercise helps you be healthy, and selected and imported a background for their slide to go with what they wrote about.

We then studied the FAAR lessons on alcohol and their effects on a young person's brain. This was an area that did require quite a bit of scaffolding and modification for the first graders. I began by talking about how our whole body is connected by thin threads called nerves. When they bend their finger, their brain is sending the message along the nerves to the muscles in their finger, telling the finger to bend. Their brain also has neurotransmitters (like nerves)​ that pass information between the different parts of the brain. When they eat healthy and exercise the neurotransmitters work well, but if a young person drinks alcohol, the neurotransmitters slow down and don't pass messages to their body or brain as well. We then watched the FAAR videos and had lessons on alcohol's affects on the cerebellum, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex. At the end of each video and lesson I had the students write on their whiteboard how they thought that specific area of the brain we had learned about would be affected by alcohol. For cerebellum they summarized alcohol's affect could cause them to fall; the hippocampus would be affected by them not remembering of forgetting things; and the alcohol could affect the cerebral cortex resulting in changing their feelings and making them being sad or angry. We did an interactive writing lesson to plan out the information about how alcohol can affect the parts of their brain (in first grade language), and why young people should not drink. Each student keyed in their slide and then selected a 'no drinking alcohol' background to insert.

They healthy lessons this month helped my students learn about healthy eating, lifestyles, and safety, as well as why they should not drink. The children were very clear, even when we began that "alcohol is bad for kids", "only grownups are allowed to drink alcohol because it can make kids sick".  They lesson helped them to develop some understanding that their brain has different parts and how alcohol can affect them. It also helped them to develop an understanding about neurotransmitters and how they pass information to different parts of the brain, and how alcohol can make them slow down.    Overall healthy living not only helped my kids to focus on ways to eats, exercise, be safe, and avoid alcohol, it helped them to develop an understanding of how their whole body works together and how healthy choices not only make them stronger, it makes them have more energy, better able to focus and learn, and feel better

Below is a link to a slideshow that has all of my students slideshows on healthy living and how alcohol affects a young person's brain.  

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1G5s_ZTi4fDwZOR5_Dti1Lm2yYsphEl5l2ZxNl-J_fn8/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=3000

The state common core standards that were addressed in the lesson are:

RI.1.2 Retell information, including key details..
RF.1.1 Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
a. Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first word, capitalization, ending punctuation).
W.1.8 With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
L1.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Additionally, we met many of the technology goals the district as as each student made a small google slideshow with pages on safety, healthy lifestyle and eating choices, and how drinking alcohol is an unhealthy lifestyle choice due to its affects on parts of their brain, and a summary page of why they think it is important to be healthy.  The students were able to independently write, import images and background and I was really please with the finished projects that they made.

Healthy Living

Hello,

    For the month of April, the focus was on healthy living.  For this lesson I concentrated only on the grades 5/6 and 7/8s.  I was able to relate proper nutrition to some prior experiences we had in the class last year before phys ed.  I had some students who would get ill during phys ed, and were not exerting that much energy.  What I discovered was that they were eating skittles before phys ed. class and were getting upset stomachs over this.  I introduced my lesson by reminding them what was happening last year.  We also discussed how important it is to fuel our bodies properly and the negative side affects if we don’t.  A couple of students also shared answers on how to keep our bodies healthy by exercising, and staying away from substances.  

      In our grade 7/8 class we had a competitive swimmer who was on a strict diet for his competitions.  We reviewed what he was eating, and why he would eat some specific foods.  We discussed how some individuals would carb load before a competition the night before and how the body would use that energy.  We also looked at a couple other eating habits and discussed a coupe of known diets.  The class also discussed the negative side affects of energy drinks and pop.  For the monthly challenge I got the students research a healthy food and give 5-8 reasons why students should be eating it.  We are beginning track season this month so we created a bulletin board of healthy foods we should be eating during the month of May.  Some of the foods the students picked were eggs, spinach, broccoli, lemons, smoothies and brown rice.     

Healthy Living

Lesson 1

The learning target in this lesson was for the students to understand that components of healthy living.  We began by making a KWL chart. I was pleased to see that they students knew that healthy eating and exercise were important. One students mentioned drinking water instead of sodas.  We made a list of all the healthy living components that we would be talking about this month: staying fit, healthy eating, staying well, getting enough sleep, and avoiding tobacco and alcohol. Students ended the lesson by naming the three healthiest parts of their lifestyle and picking two areas that would like to improve. We will be revisiting these goals later. 

Lesson 2

The goal of this lesson was for students to be able to explain the benefits of physical activity and personal fitness. We began by discussing the heart. Students learned that the heart’s job was to pump blood throughout their bodies. That as a muscle, physical fitness makes our heart stronger. We also discussed the other benefits of exercise including having more energy. Next, we discussed example of physical activity. We listed all the physical activities that they students so to stay fit. Students then discussed with their shoulder partners what they do from the time they leave school until they go to bed. As the students shared out, I created a T-chart to categorize which actives were physical and which were not. I asked they students to think about ways they could make changes in their daily lives to be more active. Most of my students are involved in sports which is great. To conclude this lesson, students made posters that advocated physical fitness by encouraging other students to be physically active and to suggest ways to be more active. 

Lesson 3

The goal for this lesson was for the students to learn how eat healthy. To segue into the lesson, I read the book Good Enough to Eat.  Next, we reviewed the food pyramid. Students did a sorting game to make sure their understood foods that would fall into the pyramid categories. Finally, the lesson wrapped up with the students creating a health meal using a template of table setting.

Lesson 4

The focus today was for the students to learn how to stay well.  We began this lesson by reflecting back to when someone in our houses were sick. Students shared their experiences. I informed the students that even people who have healthy behaviors sometimes get sick.  Next, we discussed how diseases are spread.  Students learned that diseases are caused by germ like viruses and bacteria. Also that sneezing and coughing without covering your nose and mouth will spread germs.  I was quite proud of my Oscar winning performance as I demonstrated how coughing and sneezing spread germs .They were lots of moans and groans from the audience so I think I got my point across. I ended by reinforcing that healthy habits can help you stay well. The students loved their closing activity for this lesson. They had to create a comic telling others how to stay well and avoid spreading germs.

Lesson 5

Sleep was our focus today. The target was to make the student understand that their bodies have to have the proper of amount of sleep in order for them to be at their best. I began by polling the students about how much sleep they thought they should get each night. There was wide range of answers. Next, we did a shared reading of article from KidsHealth.org about sleep. Students were surprised to learn that the recommended amount of sleep for them was 10-11 hours per night. We watched a slide show where students have to guess which animal got the most sleep. There were several surprises for the students.

Lesson 6

This next lesson is near and dear to my heart. My goal was to convince my students never ever to smoke. We began by identifying tobacco and tobacco products.  I made it clear to students that there was a legal age for buying tobacco products. Next, we read the book Smoking Stinks. We discussed the book and how the character Maddie was affected by her grandpa’s smoking.  This led into a discussion of how tobacco hurts body organs and systems. We talked about the Respiratory System and the Circulatory System.  I shared some old cigarette ads with students. They noticed how the people in the ads didn’t how the effects of smoking including yellow teeth. Next, students had to explain how tobacco hurts the body by completing a student page naming the body systems and how tobacco affects the systems. 

Lesson 7

The target for this lesson was understanding the dangers of alcohol. I used a lesson from our health curriculum for this lesson. We began by linking back to a previous lesson and reviewing the dangers of smoking. As part of that lesson we talked about the body systems that were affected by smoking. Students were asked what body systems do you think would be affected by alcohol and why? The students’ responses were mostly on target.

As we began to learn to the dangers of alcohol, we first identified alcohol as a drug. We discussed the differences between a drug and medicine.  Next, we talked about the effects of alcohol and other drugs on the body. This lesson specifically discussed how alcohol affects the digestive, circulatory, muscular, and nervous systems.

It was interesting to hear students share their knowledge of alcohol. Most of them have seen their parents drink.  Some have seen their parents drink a lot! Many had older brothers or sisters (not of legal drinking age) that drink. It was a very good discussion! It is so important that students know how to be responsible with alcohol. The lesson concluded by the students writing a lesson to themselves pledging never to use alcohol. 

As usual with Classroom Champion lesson, I feel I made a difference in students’ lives this month! Thank you Classroom Champions! We still have to watch Alex's video next week and respond to her challenge! This was a busy month!

Healthy Living

I was very excited to teach healthy living this month because it aligns very closely with our health curriculum.  Our county offers many resources to teach healthy living so I utilized some of those in our lessons.

We started the month by introducing the topic of healthy living and talking about some of its components.  We made an anchor chart with the five parts of healthy living that we would be learning about - eating well, being fit, sleeping well, staying well, and avoiding alcohol and tobacco.  The kids were already able to tell me a little bit about what they knew, which I added to the chart.  Healthy living is emphasized in my county in all grade levels, so they had a lot of prior knowledge!

Looking at the chart, we shared some areas of healthy living that were strengths.  Many kids said being fit was a strength because they exercised at recess, gym, and after-school sports.  Staying well and avoiding getting sick was another strength for many kids.  Next, we talked about areas for growth.  Sleeping well was a big one.  My kids tend to go to sleep late.  After this discussion, each student wrote a SMART goal for themselves on the topic of healthy living.  It was great to go back and review goal-setting, too!  Here are some of their goals.

In the next lesson, we focused on eating healthy.  I projected the food pyramid and we had a class discussion about what we noticed.  The kids were surprised to see that soda and sweets were not even on the pyramid but were off to the side because they weren't supposed to be eaten everyday.  Many of them did say that they ate the recommended number of fruits and vegetables a day, so that was good to hear.  We talked about examples of food that would be found at each level of the pyramid.  Then, students drew their own healthy eating plates.  I showed them a model of how a healthy plate has certain amounts of fruits, vegetables, healthy grains, and proteins.  The students then drew pictures of plates with what they would like to eat.

Next, we learned about being fit.  I explained to the kids that the heart is a muscle, and we have to exercise to keep the blood flowing to the heart and to the work the muscle.  Then, we talked about activities that we do everyday, and the kids had to decide if it was a physical activity that would work their heart, or not a physical activity.  They were surprised to find that many of the activities that they do everyday, such as walking to school, are physical activities!

Then, the kids got into pairs and made posters encouraging other kids in the school to be fit.  

The next lesson was all about avoiding alcohol and tobacco.  We had already discussed alcohol briefly in the first lesson because the kids wanted to know why adults could drink it but they could not.  I explained that kids' brains are still growing, so alcohol can affect how their brain continues to grow.  In this lesson, I decided to focus on smoking, because smoking is bad for everyone, regardless of age.  We read a book called "Smoking Stinks!" by Kim Gosselin.  In the book, the main character Maddie, worries about her Grandpa Norman who is a smoker.  She ends up doing a health report in class on smoking and learns all about the harmful side effects of smoking for both Grandpa Norman and people around him.  After reading, we brainstormed some different ways the kids could say no if someone offered them a cigarette.  Then, they illustrated a cartoon strip showing two different strategies they would use in that situation.  

In our last lesson on healthy living, we talked about sleeping well.  At the beginning of the week, I gave them a sleep log that asked them to think about what they ate the day before, how much exercise they had done, and how many hours they slept.  This activity let us preview some math skills - we are actually going to be learning about elapsed time this upcoming week.  Unfortunately, we were only able to keep the logs for three days instead of seven, but we still got some valuable information from them.  I had the kids discuss what they noticed at their tables.  The first thing they noticed was that kids who exercised during the day tended to fall asleep at a better time.  They also noticed that when they slept 8-10 hours, they had more energy the next day.

Finally, we watched Alex's video.  It was great for my kids to see how healthy living is crucial for an athlete.  Her challenge was to write down 3-5 healthy choices they had made this month.  My kids were all able to write down at least five and many chose to write more!  They also added a picture showing themselves making healthy choices.