Titanic Week!

I’ve blogged about this before, so excuse the repetition...but I love the Titanic. My mom took me to see the movie when I was 7 (I don’t think she anticipated the graphic scenes) and I fell in love with the movie, the history of the ship, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

I’ve always found the whole story to be so interesting. It was a time when there was a major shift in the industrial world and people truly thought that the advancements in their modern technology basically made them invincible to the natural world. The steel and iron built “unsinkable” Titanic would prove to the world that this is in fact, very untrue.

To activate prior knowledge, I asked the students if they have ever heard of or knew anything about Titanic. I was shocked that a few of them could speak about the movie, but hey-I guess I was only in Grade Two when I saw it for the first time. Who am I to judge?

To get them all pumped up, I made them all boarding passes with a fun, made up biography of their character. To protect their names, I’ll show you my boarding pass.

I was adventurous with the biographies. Some of them were elderly women married to rich men, some of them were third class men who helped build the Titanic, and some were children travelling the world with their families. The funniest among the Grade One audience was the girl who was engaged to be married! Oooooooo!

Our boarding passes served as our shared reading for the week as we worked on comprehension skills. 

"Do you understand the information on your ticket?"  

"If I ask you a question about your character, will you be able to find the information and answer accurately?" 

It was tons of fun.

But don’t worry, there were other curriculum connections as well. As you know, we are learning about structures and materials in science, so we talked about the pros and cons of different materials, specifically iron and steel.

I asked them if they thought Titanic was a good structure. Thank goodness there was a unanimous “NO!”

I asked them how the Titanic could have been built better, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I have a few future shipbuilders/architects in my class. One kid suggested that he would have used the same materials, but have multiple wall layers so that even if it did crash into an iceberg, only the outer wall would be damaged. That’s a genius idea! {At least I think so. Professionals may know a little more about that…}

In our literacy program, we have been learning about heroes, so we learned all about Margaret Brown. She’s most commonly known as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”. We learned how this first class woman helped to provide food, water, clean clothes, blankets, and hot beverages to the Titanic survivors.

Descriptive Feedback

I used this piece of writing as my mid-point, formal descriptive feedback. When the kids were finished, I put a sticky note on each of their pages with my feedback. In Grade One, I keep it simple. I may just write, “Capitals”; or I may write, “word mat”. Whatever it is they need to improve on, I let them know on a sticky note. They. Love. It.

Then I sent a more formal form of feedback to parents so they know exactly how their children are doing.

Let’s not forget, Easter is in just a few days, so we had some Easter fun at the end of the week. We made adorable magnetic picture frames to put on the fridge at home. I took their pictures, had them developed, and stuck them in the frames before I sent them home.

And of course I had to spoil them rotten before I said goodbye for four days.

As I asked them about their Easter weekend plans, one girl shared her agenda:

Girl: I’m going to Disney World and then we’re going to Miami.

Me: WHAT?! Can I come? Can you squeeze me in your suitcase?

Girl: Sorry. I think I just need some alone time with my mom and dad.

Fair enough…

Happy Easter!

Being a Hero and Making a Difference

April is all about being a hero here in Grade One. When I was a student teacher, the primary team I worked with created a wonderful unit all about being a hero and making a difference. It was such an engaging unit and it fit in so nicely with other curriculum areas that I wanted to give it another try.

Our big idea is: Everyone can be somebody’s hero

Here's what we know:

This is what we’re learning to do:

We began by learning all about Alexander Graham Bell. We learned how his invention of the telephone changed the lives of so many people. We learned a new word (determined) and proved that Bell was a determined person for so many reasons. How was he determined, you ask? Well take a look at what one of my kiddos was able to write:

I’m just so happy with how far they have come with their writing abilities! {Don't mind that it's not finished. We ran out of time!}

The heroes unit will tie in nicely with our new science unit on Structures and Materials. We will look at a variety of structures that have been built that have made a difference in people’s lives. Thanks to Alexander Graham Bell, communicating with each other is that much easier!

In math, we have started subtracting. There are many different ways to subtract, and I hope that they will explore the many ways on their own and use what works best for them; but to start them off, we really focused on the “taking away” and “counting back” strategies. By the end of the week, they were pros.

Now, back to being a hero.

On Wednesday it was Autism Awareness Day, and our autism community class put on a wonderful assembly to teach our school all about autism. I didn’t want my young ones going in and being confused, so I took some time to teach them myself about autism. Through some Googling, I came across this Arthur video called, “When Carl Met George”. It’s all about how George meets and befriends a boy with Aspergers Syndrome. Very kid-friendly and…come on…Arthur rocks!

{Click the picture to go to the YouTube video)

The puzzle piece is used to symbolize the complexity and mysterious nature of autism, so I had each student cut out a puzzle piece and write down how they can be a good friend to someone with autism. These little heroes can make a big difference in someone else’s life simply by being understanding and caring people.

Every year, I run Relay for Life and in the past few years, I’ve put a lot of effort into raising a lot of money for my team. Cancer is one of those horrible diseases that seems to have affected just about everyone to some degree. It’s touched my family a few times now and I want to do all that I can to raise awareness to those who need the support.

I was in the office of the Canadian Cancer Society the other day and I realized that the month of April is the month of their daffodil campaign! My students already know quite a bit about cancer since we discussed it in September before the Terry Fox run. We had another chat about it and talked about how the daffodil symbolizes hope and new beginnings. We made an art lesson out of it and using coffee filters, cupcake paper cups, and yellow paint, we made our very own daffodils. Once they’ve had time to dry over the weekend, I’ll mould them into the shape of a flower and tape them up all over the classroom. We may not have raised any money for the Canadian Cancer Society, but we’ve certainly raised more awareness among a very young group of children.

That’s all for now. I’m going to leave you with this picture that I received on Friday. It’s a little reminder about why I love what I do so much!

 See? Everyone can be somebody's hero!

All Aboard the Titanic!

    Some of the most effective lessons are those that incorporate your own interests. Kids love knowing all about you (every little detail) so when you let them into your world, your world beyond school, they are all over it. When I was seven, I went to see Titanic at the movie theatre. My life has never been the same since. I became so obsessed with not only the movie, but the history of Titanic that I was so excited when I had the opportunity to teach my students about it. I watch the movie at least six times a year. That's not abnormal, right? Anyways, it happened to be the 100th anniversary of Titanic's sinking, so I made sure I gave my kids the most exciting Titanic Day ever! It gets better…my Titanic Day worked so well with the other units we were studying that the cross-curricular aspect worked beautifully with our science and literacy units. 

    Our Big Idea for this unit was "Everyone can be someone else's hero". We looked at how fictional and historical figures are regarded as heroes due to making a difference in someone's life. In science we were beginning the Grade One Structures unit and the Grade Two Movement unit. It was the perfect opportunity to authentically tie these expectations into an engaging lesson. I had been building the kids up for my "all time favourite day" so when it finally came, they couldn't contain their excitement. I'm really not too sure who was more excited. I'm a tough act to beat. 

    Young students love when you give them things, whether it's a sticker, a picture, a toy to hold, anything. So I decided to make each student their own boarding pass and we shared our biographies for Shared Reading. I found a picture of a ticket online and made my own on PowerPoint. Then I used my school's risograph to make copies on cardstock, hung them on my clothesline and sprayed them with hairspray to prevent the ink from running. Click the picture for a FREE template I used to make the tickets

    The students loved sharing their biographies with each other. They thought it was hilarious when I had written that they were old men and women, or engaged to be married. It also gave them a good idea as to how many passengers were in each class on board the Titanic. 

    Titanic Day worked nicely with our heroes unit because we learned about which historical figures made a difference on that fateful night. Molly Brown, the mailroom workers, the engine room workers, the male passengers, the captain…there was so much to talk about! They made the hero of their choice a certificate for all his/her hard work.

    In math we were learning how to subtract by finding the "missing middle". I designed Titanic math questions involving the passengers and lifeboats to connect to our math learning. It also helped the students understand why so many passengers could not get on the lifeboats. Surely, it goes without saying that the numbers are not realistic. I had to make them doable for six and seven year olds.

    In science we considered the following higher order thinking question: "Do you think Titanic was a good structure? Why or why not?" Some students said that it wasn't because it sank on it's first voyage; others said that it was a good structure because it was built with strong materials and that any ship would have sank if it hit an iceberg. We got into a great discussion about this, and it was interesting to hear their recommendations as to how the ship really could have been built to be unsinkable. 

    For the Grade Twos, we looked at how the Titanic moved. The students were able to identify that it used propellors, which are wheels and axels; it relied on an incline plane to be moved from land to water; it burned coal into fuel to move as well, which touched upon our upcoming environment unit. 

    Overall, it was a great day. I came back the following Monday to hear that a student who had been a first class passenger on his boarding pass had dressed up in his suit and tie on the weekend and acted out his character at home. He brought in a picture for me to keep. I was re-invited to the student-run Titanic club this year by some of my girls from that year. This year I travelled to Ireland and told my class a little bit about the country, and one boy reminded me that the Titanic was built in Ireland, and his character had been from Belfast as well. When I see how a lesson has remained so positively with my students, I know I've done my very best as a teacher. I can only hope they'll continue to share their new knowledge with others, and perhaps spread the love of Titanic.