Students Click here to to access the Ancillary Google Classroom. Mrs. Clare will give you the code during library/computer time. 3rd through 5th graders were having a blast in the Fab Lab. A great reward for reaching your AR goal! In honor of Black History month our kids are learning about Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go to space. I can't think of a better role model for all of our kids. Mae's parents often told her; If you can dream it, and believe it, and work hard for it, anything is possible! Check out the video below for the newly inducted NASA Kinder-nauts! Click below for more information about Mae Jemison. Graphics by Shaili The 5th grade WHIZ Givers want your old, used, broken unwanted crayons. Why you might ask? Well, one of the caring kids, Mason, approached me at the beginning of the year and wanted to participate in The Crayon Initiative. He thought it would be perfect for our school since we do have a lot of old, used, broken unwanted crayons which we could send to the people at The Crayon Initiative. Their mission is to recycle these unwanted crayons into new ones and send the new crayons to children’s hospitals.
The 5th graders helped to plan and prepare the project. First they had to figure out how to ship and pay for shipping when the crayons were ready. We will start collecting now and stop in May. Then some volunteer kids helped decorate shoe boxes for each classroom at WHAM. We decided to keep it green and reuse older shipping boxes as well as shoe boxes for the containers. Now almost every classroom at WHAM has their shoe box and we’ve already collected gobs of old crayons. I’m excited and a little scared to see how many crayons WHAM kids collect. I better start working out cause I think there are going to be a lot of boxes full of crayons by May. If you've never had the experience of teaching a class of kindergarten and first graders how to turn on, log in, and use a computer imagine herding 20 kittens and trying to teach them to dance. Mrs. Lakvold and I are practicing our Growth Mindset as we begin to teach kindergarten, first and second graders some Chromebook basics. The little kids are really getting the hang of using the trackpad and keyboard on the Chromebook. They are getting very good at trying hard things, making mistakes, and trying again. We could just stick to keyboarding practice but it's such a great opportunity to discuss perseverance and the "Magic of Mistakes." Have you tried something new and challenging lately? The littles are doing it every day! Below you can find some resources to help littles learn how to use trackpads and keyboards. Kids who are just learning where the letters are on the keyboard might enjoy; First graders begin to use Chromebooks and sometimes need extra help with their trackpad practice. Here are a few fun games to help them learn how to move, click & drag and more using a trackpad.
WHAM kids really displayed an attitude of gratitude during the week of Veterans Day. After learning about Veterans Day using some digital resources the kids used Google Forms to ask a Veteran interview questions. We were so lucky to get Lieutenant Colonel Scott Clare and members of his staff to join us for a live video interview! The 5th graders from Mrs. Jarreau’s class asked the interview questions and created gratitude postcards. Some of our favorite questions were about the military dog who joined the interview. Did you know that a military dog is always one rank above their handler to ensure the dog is taken care of properly? **Full Disclosure-Lieutenant Colonel Clare is my brother-in-law and we are very proud of him! An attitude of gratitude will take you far! According to The Harvard Medical School, “gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” This seems to be a list of the most important hopes parents have for their children.
So when Mrs. Lakvold and I were deciding on lessons for November we saw a lot of opportunities on the calendar such as the fundraiser for Penny Wars, Thanksgiving, and Veterans Day. We decided there could not be a better time to discuss the Habitude of Gratitude. The kids were so excited to start Penny Wars which is a fundraiser to raise money for The Baton Rouge Area Food Bank. We discussed how after the hurricane season and Covid that many members of our Baton Rouge community just don’t have enough food right now for whatever reason. We talked about being grateful for the little things we may take for granted each day but are so important like food, running water, and education. When I find something to be grateful for I also try to make a little mental note wishing for all people to have that. For example, hurricanes have taught me to be grateful for electric lights. I also remember that there are many places in our world where people don’t have electric lights and I wish for all people to have access to this. Another great example is running water. The kids were shocked to think about how easily we can get freshwater compared to families in other parts of the world. So not only can we be grateful for our running water but we can also wish for all people to have running water. Stay tuned for updates about how Penny Wars are going and who wins the pizza party. |
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