Miss Hutchinson's Class – Room 3.14

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My class is sort of crazy.  Well really crazy – but they are great.  There are a few that like are, but it takes a bit of coaxing to get students to love art. 

I wanted to do something for Christmas and would meet the needs of all the students in the class.  I saw a thumbprint art kit in Scholastic a few years back and bought a couple of the kits.  I remembered this and thought this would be good for everyone….using their thumb to make art – Everyone can do this!!!

Here are some of the results from our art class.  Way to go Room 3.14!!!

Thumbprint Art on PhotoPeach

Tags: art, photo editors, slideshow, student

Another reason I was so lax in blogging is that my room became grand central for Operation Christmas Child, a non-profit group that sends shoeboxes full of items to under-priveledged kids around the world. 

It all started when one of my students – Susie, came up to me and asked if I would approach the staff about taking on this project throughout the school.  Of course the teachers were more than happy to participate and each room was given a shoebox to fill, our goal was to fill 13 shoeboxes – one for each room. 

Well we had great support with this charitable event and ended up filling 50 boxes!  Wow!!!!  The boxes were picked up by a mom and taken to the local high school.

Susie and I could not believe the support that we received from the community.  Not only did we fill 50 boxes, but we also raised over $180.00 to help pay for the postage of sending the boxes overseas.

Was there something that your school did to help with charity?

Miss H.

Today was the first day that Room 3.14 has been exposed to QR Codes. You may be asking what a QR Code is. Well it is a generated image that works like a barcode. You can link a website, text, phone number, or even a voice to it. It allows a whole bunch of knowledge to be condensed into a picture.

So, you may be asking…How can I use it? Well you will need a reader on a smartphone, ipad/tablet or ipod with a camera. You also have to download the app to be able to ‘read’ the code. I am using the app – Scan from Apple. It is supported on the iphone/ipad/ipod touch 4G. Once you have done that, start searching for the codes. They are EVERYWHERE!!!

Test out your QR Code Reader by scanning the QR Code below.

There are two QR Code generators that I am using in class. They are Kaywa.com and QRvoice.net ~ click on the links to generate your own! They are FREE QR Code generators, you don’t have to sign up, just put in the info and away you go.

Students in my class are making effective display ads for their writing unit on newspapers. We are trying to use 21st Century tools and ideas to mix with traditional ways to distributing information. They were so engaged! I sent up a wifi with my iphone and students used their ipods touches to scan QR Codes to see how this works. Our learning goal this week is to make an effective display ad with a QR Code embedded in it. This could be interesting.

The Daring Librarian has some great ideas for using QR Codes in the classroom. Check out her blog here to get further ideas!

So have some fun and tell me how you have used QR Codes in classroom!

Miss H.

The last time that I really blogged and submitted something was in October. Oh my goodness, that is just crazy. Well, kind of pathetic really. So we have some catching up to do. Lots of cool things have been going on and I need to make sure you know what is going down in Room 3.14. I hope to have a new post everyday this week.

Today’s post has to do with Remembrance Day, November 11, 2011. Another teacher and myself help to organize the school’s Remembrance Day Assembly. Therefore the students in my class have to great opportunity to help out – lucky them.

We did some cool things. Our theme was PEACE and we tried to thing of ways to show it. We read the story of Sadako and her paper cranes (if your not familiar with the story here is a link to Sadako’s Story). We made trees that held paper cranes which symbolised peace. Here is a picture.

Paper Cranes

As a whole school project, each student was given a poppy to colour and a soldier’s name that died in one of the many conflicts of the last century were put on each individual poppy. Once they were coloured and named, the poppy was laminated and glued on to a tongue depressor to be placed in the ground at our local Cenotaph. The whole school walked down to our Cenotaph and students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 each placed one poppy and one Canadian Flag on the hill. It was a great community project and was appreciated by so many people. Here is a picture of our poppies.

Our Remembrance Day Assembly is different from most schools. The students are the ones that moderate and conduct our assembly. I think that it is a very important role for them to take on, as it is a special day to honour and celebrate all that our past, current and future soldiers have done for us to live in such a great country. This year 3 awesome students took on the responsibility, along with a group of their peers that did a reading. A group of 6 or 7 students even stayed after school to help set up the gym the night before for the next day’s assembly. Here is a picture that shows how the whole school came together to make wreaths and helped to honour the sacrifices and hope for peace.

Is there something that your school does to honour the past?

Miss H.

http://bit.ly/xM3jDl

How do I use this thing?

Today we started an new unit for math.  The grade 7 and 8′s will be studying measurement.  In this first unit of measure we will be looking at metric conversions, area of a rectangle (review), area of a triangle (3 ways), area of paralellogram and area of a circle. 

To start off our unit we spent some time working on our measuring skills.  We measured things in class and outside ~ enjoying a beautiful fall day.  Even jumping in some leaves for good measure – Ha!

Does your class do fun things at the beginning of new units?  Let me know what they are, just reply with a comment!

Miss H.

Let's measure the math board!

Tags: classroom fun, learning, Math

The title of this post is a quote from James Beard – a chef and a food writer. If you ever watch Top Chef, you will hear about the ‘James Beard Award’ for excellence in cooking and anything to do with cooking – sometimes called the ‘Oscars of the Food World’.

I like the title because, well food is something, we as humans, all have in common. But this commonality is not equal ~ we all need food, but there are some that don’t have it or don’t have access to food. In class we have been looking at different reading strategies. The first one that we are working on is connections (text to self, text and the world). I have been trying to illustrate those deeper connections and how world issues are a deeper connection for many stories – not always ‘well I saw in a movie…’ ~ let’s get to the root of some of these connections, not just the surface. I think this is a good way of reaching some of those deeper issues and making connections.

So I challenged my class on Friday to write a post in support for Blogging Action Day – which is supporting World Food Day.  I felt I should do a blog post too, not just get my students to do it ~ I think the term is put my money where my mouth is!

So, I didn’t know too much about World Food Day. I assumed World Food Day had something to do with people not having food (I was sort of correct). I had to do some research to find out that it was more than just not having food. I was pleased to find out that my boyfriend – George Stromboulopoulos was the United Nations (U.N.) World Food Program Ambassador Against Hunger for Canada. I read a quote in which he said “access to food isn’t a privilege, it’s a right. It’s not about politics or partisanship. It’s about people in need and our responsibility as humans to be there for one another,” - you know, he has got something there. How can we just let these things happen?

He also highlighted that it isn’t just the lack of access to food for so many people,” it is also the fact that food prices are increasing and making it difficult for even more people to get the food that they need”. The main theme for World Food Day this year is “Food Prices – From Crisis to Stability”.

So how can you help? Sometimes it isn’t easy for younger adults to help. They don’t have access to people, places or support. I get that, especially when I, as a teacher, see students that are in the situation where food is something that is unreliable in their lives.

Here are a few ways for you to help.

I love this website. I have shown it to a few of my classes and it is a visual representation of what you are actually doing ~ Freerice
  Just play the game and you will help feed people. The more you play, the more you give.

Another way is to donate on the website – Wefeedback. With just $0.25, you can feed a child for a day!   I’ll let my boyfriend explain in this video below.

Finally – have you heard of the Kielburger Brothers – Marc and Craig? Well they started a foundation called Free the Children. They also have started a movement of social change for young adults called Me to We and have organized We Days around Canada. Research them and find out what you can do to help your fellow youth around the world.

Oh yeah, for all you facebookers out there, you can like all 3 organizations on facebook, by just liking these organizations you can help raise awareness and even raise money - go ahead I DARE you to do it!

And if you have found an organization that promotes a POSITIVE social movement, let me know!

Miss H.

Just a raggle gaggle tribe of Gypsies

Can you believe how my class acts? This is our class picture for the year…no one ever listens.

This is going to be a crazy year!!!

Miss H.

I saw this on Ellen this week and just had to show my class. These two girls are now a supersensation around the world. I wanted my class to see that do whatever you love and do it with great positive enthusiasm ~ if you do this then people will listen. If we all had half of this little girls joy – this world would be a great place!

Enjoy the clips.

Miss H.