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Connecting Classrooms

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Since our classroom has been involved in the amazing "What Can You See?" project, we continue to look for new ways to interact with the participating classrooms and their educators! In particular, I think we have created a 21st Century version of the "pen pals" tradition! After our class read the "We Can See" book from our friends at Bond Lake Public School, we decided to share compliments through the form of a letter on their blog! If you haven't had a chance to check out their blog, you can click on the following link: http://myclassroomtransformation.blogspot.ca/2012/11/i-think-we-can-send-letter.html.

We continue to feel inspired by their classroom happenings, inquiries and daily discoveries and their educators certainly embrace every opportunity to make for meaningful and purposeful learning! We would like to dedicate this post to them and thank them for exploring and communicating with our class through the blogsphere! It has led to some wonderful connections, questions, and new learning!


After reading the response letter from our friends at Bond Lake Public School, our students have enjoyed expanding on their connections, answering their posed questions, and writing a reply!


Dear Bond Lake Public School,

Thank you for the letter. We liked reading about your connections to our book. We liked how you think clouds are fascinating. Thank you for sharing the "fancy" word. We want to answer your questions.

J.S. (SK): We have three teachers. Ms. Schmidt, Ms. Theis and Ms. N. They are all really nice and like to have fun.

S.M.: We have lots of signs because they protect us from danger. We see STOP signs, "bump" signs for bumps on the ground and school crossing signs so cars know when we are walking.



I.D.: We had frogs last year but we do not have any pets this year. We had two frogs and one was big and one was small. We got to feed them.



J.S. (JK): We want to send you our class picture. What do you look like?

R.L.: We know about Ninjagos. They fight into battles because the master tells them when the bad guys make traps.



A.M.: I only know that Ninjagos have swords. They are yellow.

Here are some new questions we have for you:

I.D.: Do you get snow in winter like us?

C.M.: I wonder if your teachers is nice or mean?

A.C.: You have a rabbit. What is its name? What does it eat?

L.D.: Where does your rabbit live?

We want to share what we are learning about with you:

S.M.: We have been making a big cloud. We made raindrops too.

E.S.: We are learning about clouds. We know how they make rain and read a book called "The Falling Raindrop." It taught us about the water cycle. It's cool.



G.B.: We liked being raindrops.

I.D.: We learned that a pumpkin floated in a lot of water. 



R.L.: We did a "Shape Rap." Sphere, Cylinders, Cubes and Cones were in it and we got to wear sunglasses in front of our school at the assembly. We would like to share our video with you.

J.S. (SK): We like magnets because they stick to things. Magnets also don't stick to things. We have fun experimenting. Magnets stick to Ms. Schmidt's boots because they have metal on it.

E.S.: Clouds do all sorts of things. We wonder how they make snow. I think its called a "snow cycle."

Thank you for your letter. We want you to write back more. We drew some pictures for you too. We hope you like them. Thank you for your pictures. They were pretty colours.






This is a bridge. W.F. and R.L. and me made it in the
building and constructing centre. It has a thing that
lifts up and down so boats can go by. - J.S. (SK)
Love,

Ms. Schmidt and Ms. Theis' Class from Lorna Jackson Public School. 


Ms. Schmidt and Ms. Theis were also wondering:

What inquiries are you exploring in your classroom? Can you write back and share some of your learning with us?

We hope that you enjoyed this post! We look forward to continuing to connect our classrooms and our learning through this social media and look forward to extending our learning through the use of our "What Can You See?" blogspace! If you haven't had a chance to check it out, please visit by clicking on the following link: http://wecanseeprojectsharingspace.blogspot.ca

What Can You See? A New Sharing Space

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The Big Question: How can we be connected to other students and learn about their school communities from around the city, province, country and world? 


It is clear that this "What Can You See?" project has reached new heights and what better way to bring students, educators, and classes together then through a common learning space? The Twitterverse and Blogsphere have allowed us to extend this project beyond the walls of our classrooms and our new hope is that more will join in from around the world!

A big thank you goes out to our good friend Joanne Babalis (Kindergarten Teacher at Bond Lake P.S.) for helping to make this big question more attainable! Thank you for creating a NEW sharing space for the What Can You See? project! Please take the time to visit this wonderful new blog created and designed especially for this project! You will also find links to other educator/class blogs at the bottom to which you can view their digital "What Can You See?" book!






To our parents and community,

Please consider joining in on our learning adventure by sharing your photos, observations, and writing on this new online blog or on our classroom blog! We encourage you to draw from your child's experiences with this project and share insights from home, apartments, townhouses, grandpa's farm, the cottage, driving on the way to school, etc...."What do you see out of your kitchen window?" for example! This will not only help build an authentic home/school connection, but it will help expand the walls of this project!

Please feel free to engage with us online by making comments, compliments, questions, or connections directly onto our blogs! This can be done anonymously or by recording your child's initials (e.g. for Jocelyn Schmidt write - J.S's family).

We thank you in advance and appreciate your participation in our learning journey!

Stay tuned!

Sincerely,
Ms. Schmidt and Ms. Theis

"I made my own What Can You See book!"

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Given that the "What Can You See?" project has been quite a topic of conversation daily for our students, we couldn't be happier to see them continuing to make those meaningful connections beyond the walls of our classroom! From Google Earth, Skype sessions and beyond, Ms. Theis and I started this week with an incredible surprise! We were delighted to see one of our SK students create her very own "What Can You See?" book over the weekend with her family! Not only did the expression on her face show pure excitement, but you could tell that she was so proud of what she had created! We didn't waste any time having her share such a wonderful artefact with the class and to top it off, our students were not only inspired, but eager to add her name and book title to our comparison charts and make connections between her book and the others that we read! Wow - talk about a meaningful extension and authentic home/school connection!

Please take a look at what this student can see when she looks out of the window of her house. 
We hope you feel inspired!

The What Can You See Book (1) For Winter

I can see many houses.

I can see the fences.

I can see plants.

I can see paving.

I can see the grass.

I can see the BBQ stove.

We welcome parents to get involved in this amazing project by sharing what you see in different environments (e.g. "what can you see out of your office window?") with your child! Please comment on our blog with your insights and we look forward to sharing them with our class!
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