Adding pictures to our blogs

I'm really impressed with how the students have started adding pictures to their blogs (remember, if you haven't checked them out, the blogs can be found at http://kidblog.org/MrHoeppnersClass/). I haven't given them any instruction on how to do this, but they seem to be figuring it out on their own (it is amazing at how quickly kids seem to pick up on technology these days!). I'm also impressed at how they are only choosing pictures that are related to what they are writing about in their posts. Whether uploading a family photo from their computer at home, or adding an image they found on the internet, they really help to add to their blog posts...

This afternoon, the students also started typing up the good copies of their Mysteries of Harris Burdick stories (see previous posts for more on the stories). Here's a shot of them hard at work (although why some of them stand to type kind of boggles me!):

Cup Crazy!

Today, we started working on formally learning division in Math. A lot of the students had been including some minor division facts in the Number of the Day number sentences, but today was the first time we really 'tackled' this math skill head-on. We did a lot of hands-on learning together on the SMART Board, and had fun doing it. Most of the students, after just a day, have a really good grasp on the concept of division (or "sharing into", as we often call it) - I'm really looking forward to see them show their learning to me, themselves, and the rest of the class over the next while. Here are a few shots of some of the learning the students did this morning: 

After we finished learning about division for the day, the students were very excited when I announced that we were going to be having an NHL playoff bracket draft. All of the students were provided with a bracket sheet of the teams matched up in the first round, and then proceeded to pick the teams they think will win. We are going to have a fun time in Math keeping track of how all the students do, with students getting 1 point for a first-round series win, 2 points for a second-round win, 3 points for a third-round win, and 5 points for picking the Stanley Cup winner. The playoffs start tomorrow... and so will the fun!

A busy Monday

It was another busy day today, as we 'got back at it' after the long weekend (which some of you are still enjoying - lucky!). We had spring picture day...

...we watched If The World Were A Village for Social Studies, as we have been, and will continue to, talk about what it's like for people who live elsewhere in the world...

  

...and we had time to work on our blogs!

Speaking of working on our blogs, today we talked about criteria for commenting on other blog posts.

I’m excited to see how many of the students are commenting on each other’s blogs – it shows that they’re not only interested in what they’re writing about, but what their classmates are writing about, too! However, we talked about how just simply making a comment like “Cool!” or “You’re awesome!” doesn’t make for interesting blogging, and won’t help the students to become better writers. When students write a comment, they need to:

1. Give a compliment about the post
2. Make a connection between the post and something that you like, or something that has happened to you
3. Ask the blogger a question about their post

It was so exciting this weekend to see all the blogging that was going on - I already started to see an improvement in the quality of comments being made after our discussion, and just like the blog posts themselves, I'm really looking forward to seeing how they continue to improve, as the students of Room 18 become better writers!

A great end to the week!

Wow! I'm so proud of my bloggers - after I ate dinner last night, this is what was waiting for me when I logged into our Kidblog account:

Seeing my students writing posts and commenting on each other's blogs as soon as they got home was great! It was also exciting to see friends and family commenting on the students' posts as well. I logged on one more time after this, before I went to bed, and there were even more posts and comments to approve - I have a feeling I'll have to check the Kidblog site frequently this weekend!

Right before lunch, we had a visit from Taylor, who was in our class until she moved away in the fall. It was so great to see her and to catch up - thanks for stopping by, Taylor!

The students worked really hard today, so seeing as how it was absolutely gorgeous outside, and there's a long weekend coming up, I decided that we should end the work day about 20 minutes early, and go and enjoy the beautiful weather (I've attached some photos of this below)! You earned it this week, Room 18 - way to go!

(playing 4-square)

(enjoying the new play structure)

(gymnastics)

The big day!

Excitement ran rampant through our room today, is it was the day when the students finally began to write on their own blogs! The first thing we did this morning was to review the blogging criteria that the class came up with yesterday (see yesterday's post for a refresher!). After that, we talked about the importance of creating a good password, and how it was ours to keep private and not share with any of our friends (but it's OK to share with our parents!). Next, we had just enough time to get into the lab to test out our usernames and passwords, to make sure they worked properly (they did!). Later on in the afternoon, the students finally got their chance to log on to their blog, and write their very first posts! We didn't have a lot of time to write today (it was a busy day - in addition to all of our blogging work, we had Mrs. Cross come to our class to review lunchtime/playground expectations, a firefighter stopped by our class to give us a presentation on fire safety, Health, Phys. Ed., and a lockdown drill - phew!), so we didn't worry too much about meeting all of our blogging criteria. However, even though we only had about 20 minutes to write, EVERYBODY that was in class today wrote and published their very first post on their blog! I am so very proud of my class, and I can't wait to see how they grow as writers, through their blogging! Way to go, Room 18!

Please come and visit the student blogs (and leave comments!) at http://kidblog.org/MrHoeppnersClass/

(I saw this as I was signing agendas at the end of the day - made my day!)

Blogging excitement!

Today, we talked as a class about our classroom blog - the students all said they really liked having the blog, and gave a lot of good reasons why they thought it was important for our class to have a blog. Some of these reasons were: keeping our families up-to-date on what we're doing in the classroom, letting people in other parts of Canada and other countries know what going to school in Winnipeg looks like; letting former classmates (Hello, Taylor!) know what we're up to, and hearing from them through the comments they leave; etc.

Much excitement followed this discussion, as I informed the class that they were going to be getting their own blogs (we'll be posting more about this in the coming days, and parents of Room 18 students will be getting a letter explaining how this will work as well). There was a lot of cheering - they're pumped! In fact, they wanted to start right then and there! However, we talked about creating criteria that the students need, in order to write good quality posts, and to be safe on the Internet, before they begin writing on their own - here is what they came up with:

1) Use 'juicy' words (aka interesting language)
2) Write about 1 idea/post, and give it a title that matches what you're writing about.
3) Use an uppercase letter at the beginning of a sentence, and at the beginning of the names of people and places.
4) Use punctuation.
5) Use Go/Stop sentences to start and finish each post.
6) Make sure it makes sense.
7) Write about interesting things, and use details and description to tell about it.
8) Write at least 5 sentences.
9) Try your best to spell correctly.
10) Put one space between words and after each sentence.
11) Don't include personal information like your last name, your home address, phone number, or an e-mail address.

I was very impressed with the list they came up with. What was even more impressive was that this list (with almost no prompting) was almost exactly like the list that my friend Mrs. Malksoske and her Grade 1/2 classroom came up with when they started blogging! The students and I are really excited for them to begin their own blogs - stay tuned!

Welcome back!

When we first came back, I was very, very, very excited! - Alexandra
When we came back, I was so excited to see my teacher again. - Joey
I thought it was Tuesday already! - Jenna
When I came back, I was about to hug my teacher because I was so glad to come back to school. - Gal
We got to play dodgeball in Gym. - Tyler
Today I was happy to come back because I wanted to do work! - Robyn
I was really excited to come back to school. - Hailey M.
I was really excited to come back to school because I really missed recess and gym - it was so fun! - Dylan
I am happy to see my friends. - Lexi
I am so happy to come back and see my friends and see all the teachers. It is so fun playing in the gym and at recess, and I missed it during spring break. - Cam H.
Today, I felt happy because I got to come back to school from spring break because I love school and I was happy to see all of my friends. - Braylin
I'm glad to be back because I missed my friends and the teachers. - Dasia
In the morning, I was really, really, really tired! - Kaynen
I was very excited because I would see Mr. Hoeppner, and I was so excited that I forgot to change out of pajama pants before I came to school! - Mikayla

While it's always a little hard to come back to work after some time off, I'm lucky that I have such great students to come back to - it was fantastic to see them all today! We had a great day!