Kicking Off Daily 5 with Read to Self

A big part of our reading work is done through Daily 5.  From the very first day, our class has been doing "Read to Self".  Reading to ourselves is very important because it helps us to become better readers.  We always talk about what Read to Self should sound, look and feel like.  We made an "I-chart" to help us remember our important job.

During Read to Self we...
~ get started right away
~ choose a good place to sit (away from distractions)
~ take our book boxes that have "good fit books"
~ stay in one spot
~ read quietly
~ read the whole time

On the first day of school, we did Read to Self for 3 minutes.  Was that ever a short time!  Since then, we have been working on increasing our stamina.  Every day this week, we tried to see how long we could go before someone broke our stamina.  This chart shows how we have done over the past 2 weeks--isn't our growth impressive?

 

When we do Read to Self, we can choose where to sit.  Some people choose some pretty interesting places and positions.  Here you can see some of our classmates while they are doing Read to Self.



We were wondering...

Have you heard about Daily 5 and Read to Self before?
How long is your reading stamina?

Building our Classroom Community

It's been a busy couple of weeks as our class works toward building our learning community.  We've done lots of "getting to know you" activities and working with partners.

In one of our activities, the students were put into groups of 4 or 5, given two pieces of tin foil and 20 pipe cleaners and told to "work together to create something".  Everyone had fun sharing ideas (and frustrations!) and working together to create a masterpiece.  In these pictures you can see what each group's final creation looked like.  Aren't they impressive?!?

We also learned a little bit about voting, elections and candidates when we got to choose our class mascot.  First, our teacher read us "Vote for Duck" by Doreen Cronin.

Then the candidates for our class mascot were introduced.  There was a walrus, polar bear, wolf, raven and caribou to choose from.  After listening to their speeches, it was time to go to the polling station.  We even had official Elections Canada materials to use.  Here you can see one of our classmates finishing his voting duty.

 

 

 

And we were so excited when our teacher counted up the votes...Sam the wolf won!  We also chose a class name and we will now be known as the "Party Wolves".  We now end every day with three cheers for the Party Wolves and a big howl!  

We were wondering...

What do you think of our tin foil and pipecleaner creations?
What animal would you have chosen as a mascot?  Why?

The New "Braybrook Bunch"

It was wonderful to meet the newest "Braybrook Bunch" today!  As you can tell, they can be serious and cute...

 

...or a bunch of monkeys!



We had a wonderful day of getting to know each other, sharing stories and starting to learn the routines of grade 3.  One of the activities we did, had each child contribute to a poster that had a question or fill-in-the-blank sentence.  There were definitely some interesting responses!

I also shared the "What Inspires You?" Wonderopolis post with the students.  I encouraged them to be curious and ask questions.  We've started a Wonder Wall in our classroom where students can post things that they are wondering about.

After a busy first day, I asked each student what their favorite part of the day.  Click here to see what they had to say.

And now onto day 2!

We were wondering...

What was the best thing you remember about grade three?
What inspires you?
What do you "wonder" about?

Connecting Canada and Kenya

Hey everyone, it's Mrs. Braybrook!  I got to spend the first two weeks of July in Kenya travelling with the organization A Better World Canada as part of the "Two Countries/One Voice" teaching tour.  During my time there, I was able to visit different schools, work with the teachers and teach the students.  I wanted to connect my students in Canada with the kids in Kenya so we worked on a few projects in June to do just that.

For the first project, our class made a book to teach the Kenyan students about some of the important things about Canada.  We started by reading "The Important Book" by Margaret Wise Brown and then brainstormed important things about Canada that we wanted to tell the Kenyan kids about.  Each one of our students then picked one of the topics and did some research on it to find out more information.  From there, each student used the same organization as "The Important Book" to write a paragraph on their topic.  Each student also drew and colored a picture to illustrate their topic.  Every student used the computer to type a short paragraph about themselves that was also included as part of their entry.  I then put all of the pages together and bound them into a book, complete with cover that included a class picture taken on our playground.

Before I presented the finished book to the Kenyan kids, I read them "The Important Book".  It was such a lovely afternoon, so I read it to them outside, under a tree.

 

Then it was time to share our "All About Canada" book--they loved it!  They couldn't wait for me to turn the page to find out what they were going to learn about next and who wrote it.

 



The other project involved having all of the students make bookmarks for the Kenyan kids.  I knew I would be spending a few days at Segera and that they had about 200 kids.  My goal was to have a bookmark to give every student at this Kindergarten to grade 4 school.  Our class made 2 different kinds of bookmarks and there were a number of other classes from our school that made bookmarks as well.  In this picture, you can see me handing out the bookmarks to each student.  They also received a pencil, toothbrush and other goodies from our team.

 

I had the chance to spend a lot of time in Susan's grade three classroom.  I did a lesson on "Wangari's Trees of Peace" by Jeanette Winter with the grade three students.  (I have also done the same activities with my grade three students in Canada for the last couple of years.)  This is a true story about a Kenyan woman who started planting trees and created the Green Belt Movement.  After reading the book, they had to work with a partner (which was pretty new for them) to put the story in order.

 

Then I did an art project with them.  (It's also one I do with my Canadian students.)  First, they had to draw shapes in different spaces on their paper with wax crayon.

Then, they had to paint each space with watercolor paints. 

When I do this with my Canadian students, we talk about the dove being a symbol of peace and so we place a dove on the page.  In Africa, the tree is a symbol of peace, so each student then drew a tree to finish off their masterpiece.

They were so pleased to see their completed art work up on the wall of their classroom!

A friend of mine from Music Together in Edmonton donated some instruments for me to give the students.  Although the Kenyan people are very musical, these students had not seen or tried many of these instruments before but loved experimenting with them.  They sang a couple of songs while trying them out.  (In the picture below, you can see their teacher, Susan, putting out the instruments.)

 

My time at Segera was incredible.  The kids were fantastic--I had so much fun with them and the teachers were so eager to learn about other ways to teach.  I've left a part of my heart with the people of Segera as it was truly an unforgettable experience.

Experiencing Life in a Refugee Camp

On Thursday, June 20th, we were excited to go on a field trip to Red Deer to experience what life in a refugee camp is like.  The Central Alberta Refugee Effort (C.A.R.E.) hosted this event in conjunction with World Refugee Day.  Throughout the year we have learned about the rights of people, why people sometimes leave their countries and organizations that help.  To experience life in a refugee camp was definitely something new to us.  To help prepare us for this trip, our teacher read us the book "Brothers in Hope".
 

After arriving at the camp, we started at the registration booth.  We were told that often, the line ups were very long to register and that you wouldn't want to leave your spot in line.  Everyone was given a registration card, along with food and water ration cards.  We were told to never lose these cards because then we wouldn't be able to stay in the camp.  We had to be able to show our registration card whenever we were asked.  The registration card told us who we were, our age, where we lived and why we were leaving our country.  For the rest of the experience, we pretended to be that person.

Next, we moved onto the water station.  Between 5 and 7 litres of water was given to each person, per day and that is all they had to drink, wash and cook with for the whole day.  Your card would be marked that you had received your water for the day and you couldn't go back for more.  We were told that refugees could go gather their own water from the river outside of the camp, but that it was very dangerous to leave the camp and the water might not be good to drink and make us sick.  In refugee camps, it is usually the women and children that are responsible for getting water.

 After that, we learned about health care in the camp.  If you weren't feeling well, you could go to the nurses and they might be able to help you.  We learned about the importance of washing your hands and using a mosquito net when you sleep.  Mosquitos can make you sick and give you a disease called malaria.  At this station, they had a pretend person who was sick from malaria, wrapped in a thermal blanket, inside a tent (see the picture below).

Our next station was finding out more about the Red Cross.  We had learned about this organization in class and so it was great to hear from people who actually work for them.  In a refugee camp, the Red Cross helps people to find their family members.  On our registration cards, it told us who our other family members were.  They often put up a message board where you can post messages to your family to let them know you are at the camp.  We got to look for messages from our family and many of us found messages from our family!



 Next, we moved onto the education station.  Here we learned that kids (but usually just the boys) were invited to start going to school.  There weren't usually any desks, paper or pencils and only a few books.  The students would do any writing in the dirt using sticks.  They would also use small rocks to help them with math.  At the school, students would also learn about landmines and how it was very important to stay away from them and tell someone if you found one.  To keep the kids active, soccer was often played--but with a ball made from whatever they could find.  The ball we played with was made out of plastic bags.

 We learned that the adults could try to find work in the camp and be paid a little bit of money.  If an adult had a skill, like sewing or building, it was easier for them to get work.

At a refugee camp, people are given materials to make their own shelter.  They would be given whatever was available.  In our case, we saw a shelter built out of big branches, tarps and blankets.  Each family was also given a small bundle of firewood and one pot for cooking.  We were surprised at how small the shelters were and many people had to live together in one.  We were also told that you had to protect your belongings because people would steal from each other.

 

Then we got to hear from William.  He was from South Sudan and fled to a refugee camp in Kenya.  He lived there for a couple of years before getting the opportunity to come to Canada on a scholarship.  He told us that the shelter he built here (in the picture above) was much nicer and bigger than the one he had to live in during his time at the refugee camp in Kenya.  It was so interesting to hear his story.

Our last stop was the food station.  Here we learned that the refugees could only get their food ration once every two weeks and the line ups were very long on those days.  People would stand in line for hours just to get the small amount they were allowed to have.  Of course, you had to show your food ration card and you couldn't go back for more.  We were amazed at the tiny amount of food they received--a little bit of flour, sugar, salt and beans.  In fact, most of us had bigger lunches than what they showed us the refugees received for a whole day!

 



We ended at the resettlement station.  It was here that each of us learned our fate.  Most of our group remained in the refugee camp for years.  A few of us returned to our homes after spending some time in the camp.  A couple of us died.  Only one person was lucky enough to move to Canada.

We were wondering...

What do you know about refugees and refugee camps?
Have you ever heard a refugee's story?