Marvelous Muffins: Our Project

The grade 1s helped me create this video which explains their Marvelous Muffins project!

Marvelous Muffins: Busy Bakers

With orders rolling in, our class has been busy baking to fill orders for our Marvelous Muffins fundraiser.  Earlier this month, our class went through the March calendar and selected baking dates when the school kitchen would be available for our "bakery".  Next, the class wrote a note home to parents requesting baking volunteers.  I also added a message with the specific details and dates. 

Thankfully, I work with great families and we've had many volunteers come forth to help us with this special project!   We created a March calendar on our SMARTboard and, as we confirmed volunteers, we scheduled students to "work a shift" in the bakery.  This system has worked well because I could continue teaching lessons in the classroom while students went to the kitchen in pairs and small groups.  A few students got to bake each day and we made sure everyone got a turn over the course of the month. 

In addition to the contribution that students are making to helping others with their baking, there was also lots of learning involved.  Students were able to work with our volunteers to follow directions, read recipes, measure, count out orders and more.  It was a very big job to bake over one thousand muffins, but this group of students and volunteers tackled the task successfully. 

Our final baking day was this week and we had some guests join us to help with the project.  On one of our recent video calls to our partner classroom in Miniota, my grade 1s were excitedly sharing the details of their project.  During the call, one of the students in my class raised her hand to ask the Kindergartens a question.  She wondered if their class would like to be part of our project and invited them to come to our school to help with the baking.  I thought this was a great idea since our classes already work together virtually and it did work out that they were able to join us in person!  The Miniota Kindergartens took turns baking with us to help us fill the final orders for our fundraiser.  We are lucky to have great classroom partnerships so that we can work together and learn together!

 

Marvelous Muffins: Taking Orders

One of the steps in our Marvelous Muffins project was to create order forms.  Once we'd decided on kinds of muffins and prices, we did some shared writing to develop our order forms.  Students suggested information to include on the forms and I typed.  Since our shared work is always projected on our SMARTboard, students also proofread and suggested revisions as we developed the order forms.  When the order forms were ready, students counted out enough for each grade and sent forms home to each family in our school. 

We were very excited to see muffin orders coming in right away!  To keep track of the number of orders, we worked together as a class.  Students took turns reading aloud order forms and tallying the orders on our class chart.  After we tallied, we counted by 5s and 10s to find out how many orders we had for each kind. As more orders came in, we added to our chart and updated the totals.  It was great reading and math practice for us!   This week, we finished tallying and counting all orders.  Our school community has shown us tremendous support - check out the order tally!

Next, students wanted to calculate the total number of orders. The numbers are pretty large for grade 1 mathematicians, but before I knew it, students were putting their mental math skills to good use!  One student suggested starting with 60+40=100 and from there we continued adding up our orders using mental math.  You can see our thinking below (impressive mental math!).  Our grand total is 179 orders - that's 1074 muffins! 

Marvelous Muffins: Putting our Plan into Action

The grade 1 class has been busy putting our Marvelous Muffins plan into action so we can help our partner class in Ghana, Africa.  After determining which kinds of muffins we were going to sell based on survey results, our class started to read muffin recipes.  We read recipes and discussed the variations in recipe size and ingredients.  Since I've never made chocolate chip muffins, I decided to test out a recipe at home and surprise the class with a batch of muffins to taste test.  We determined that the recipe was tasty, so we decided to use it for our baking.

Once we had selected our recipes, our next job was to write a list of ingredients that we would need.  Using SMARTnotebook, I was able to display the recipe and a blank slide side-by-side on our SMARTboard.  We read through the recipe together and each time we read a new ingredient, a student added the item to our list.  Next, we went through the ingredients we already had and narrowed down the list to create a list of groceries we needed to buy. 

Our class took a walking field trip to the grocery store to purchase the groceries.  Students worked together to push the cart, keep track of items on the grocery list, load groceries, unload groceries and carry groceries. 

Marvelous Muffins: Lauching a New Project

We have interacted with a number of different classroom partners this year through Skype, Twitter and email.  These interactions allow us to learn from other classes and experts, while practicing communication and collaboration skills.  Early in the school year, an African educator contacted me through the British Council education website to establish a classroom partnership.  He was able to share videos of his class reciting poetry in their classroom in Ghana, Africa.  My class watched the videos and learned the same poems.  We also sent back some samples of our work to share.  This winter, we started sending Tweets to Mr. Eric.  One day, a student asked if the African classroom had computers like us.  I wasn't sure of the technology available in their room, so we sent a Tweet to ask Mr. Eric.  We learned that they don't have computers and that Mr. Eric could only email and Tweet us from his computer at home.

When I visited Mrs. Hembree's class while in Redmond, WA for Hack the Classroom, her class had just finished raising money to buy postage for their Books to Africa project.  Upon my return to school, I shared her students' project with my Grade 1s.  They thought they might be able to help kids in Africa too, so we decided to ask Mr. Eric if his class could use our help somehow.  We learned that books and school supplies would be much appreciated by their class and from there, an exciting project has launched.

Earlier in the school year, students had brought up the idea of having a bake sale.  This idea came up again when discussing how our class could raise money to purchase school supplies for Mr. Eric's class.  After some discussion, negotiation and class voting, students decided to have a muffin sale to raise money for the supplies they'd like to purchase for our partner classroom.  Further discussion, brainstorming and voting led to our project name - Marvelous Muffins!

Project Based Learning: Brainstorming

Each year, our class engages in project based learning.  In our classroom, this means that students choose a project which is important to them and we work together to learn, share and accomplish our project goals.  We work with our friends in Mrs. Caldwell's Kindergarten class, so that we have a big team to tackle our projects. 

We held a big brainstorming session with the Kindergartens a couple of weeks ago.  We thought of  projects we'd like to do, then we narrowed down our ideas by voting.  The two most popular ideas when we voted were helping farmers and helping cats.  Students thought that farmers deserved something special since they work so hard to grow food and look after animals, so I will be helping them develop their project idea.  Some previous projects focused on animals, so students also thought it would be a good idea to help cats.  We've decided that we need to find some more information about helping cats, so Mrs. Caldwell is working on a trip for her class to the vet clinic and we are in charge of doing some research.

I am really looking forward to helping the Grade 1s and Kindergartens with their projects this year.  Our previous projects have led to some amazing adventures and my students have learned SO MUCH while working on their projects!  As a teacher, it's a great way to bring together different subject areas and give students the chance to learn about something they are interested in.   I hope you (parents, community members, blog followers, fellow educators and fellow students) will support us on our learning journey this year!

Microsoft Partners in Learning: Hot Topics Blog

I'm very excited to have been asked to post as a guest blogger on the Microsoft Partners in Learning Hot Topics blog.  Educators can join the PiL network for free at www.pil-network.com to have access to blogs, lesson ideas and online professional development.  Microsoft is currently looking for more teachers to join their Expert Educator program as well.  Be sure to apply by September 30th!

You can read my full post about project based learning by clicking here.  The post summarizes the projects that classes have done in previous years and provides links to additional details for each project.  We're just getting started with ideas for this year's collaborative projects, so stay tuned for more updates as our projects develop!

Microsoft Virtual University: Understanding the Learning Strategies of the 21st Century Learner

Today's Microsoft Virtual University with Richard Olsen focused on what we know about good learning and teaching. 

Big Ideas:

• How has learning and teaching changed?  

• More student-directed, authentic, collaborative, interdisciplinary, differentiated learning.  Less teacher-directed.

• We now have fast access to high-quality materials and resources online, which can help teachers and students.  How does access to high quality content change what schools and teachers need to provide?

• Students need critical thinking skills to determine what information is relevant, factual, useful to their purpose

• There is less need to provide "textbooks" or other learning materials in the traditional form and more need to provide a device that allows students access to the huge amount of information online. 

• We have changed what we publish and publishing can be free.  

• We no longer share only the "finished product"

• We share our location, our thoughts, our intentions, short notes, works in progress using tools like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, blogs, websites etc. 

• This sharing provides opportunities for intervention at various stages.  Students and teachers can get suggestions and feedback all the time!

• Online publishing allows students to reach a wider audience, to collaboratively publish and to have a real impact in the world

• Online publishing helps us share student work with families. 

• Ease of collaboration provides opportunities for collective knowledge building 

Connections to our classroom:

•  We have undertaken a number of collaborative projects with students in our classroom working together and working with other classrooms near and far.  Social media, video conferencing and online publishing have allowed us to collaborate and to reach a wider audience.  Our projects have included:

• Environmental Awareness Campaign:Students encouraged people to care for the environment through their poster and video campaign.  Topics they addressed included tree planting and litter reduction. 

• Reusable Bag Reminder Campaign: After researching reusable bag use, students learned that many people were forgetting their reusable bags.  Students came up with the solution of reusable bag reminders and then designed, created and distributed their reminders.   

• Litterless Lunch Competition: students participated in an inter-classroom competition to have the most reusable containers in their lunch each day, thus reducing litter and helping the environment! 

• Animal Rescue:In partnership with Alyssa’s Ark Small Animal Rescue, students learned about rescue animals and found ways to help local animals in need.  Students collected used blankets, towels and clothing to be reused as animal bedding at the rescue.  Students in Kindergarten made homemade dog biscuits and delivered them to the Humane Society just before Christmas. Students in Grade 1 traveled to Alyssa's Ark to volunteer and to deliver some homemade animal treats! 

• Species Preservation: Polar Bear Adoption:Students decided they wanted to help animals this year.  They chose to adopt polar bears because of the threats they are facing, so they developed an action plan to fundraise and adopt bears through the World Wildlife Fund Symbolic Adoption Program.  Students successfully held a cookie sale fundraiser and adopted SEVEN polar bears!

• Recycle for Good Garage Sale: Students held a garage sale, selling unwanted toys, clothes, books and household items from many generous donors.  This student-run event raised $464 to help people and animals.

• Schools Around the World Blog - We took part in a collaborative project that sharing information about our school and school life with other schools through a collaboratively-authored wiki. 

Field Trip: Alyssa's Ark Small Animal Rescue

As a part of our goal to help animals this year, we took a field trip to visit and volunteer at a real rescue organization.  Alyssa at Alyssa's Ark Small Animal Rescue in Brandon, MB graciously hosted us on Friday, May 3rd.

 Before we went, we decided that we'd like to make some treats for the animals kind of like our Oak Lake Kindergarten friends made dog biscuits for homeless dogs at the humane society.  Since Alyssa had a lot of rabbits, we researched recipes for rabbit treats on the internet and then sent our ideas to Alyssa to see if the rabbits would like the ingredients.  Next, we planned a grocery list and then took a trip to the local co-op to buy groceries.  When it was time to make treats, we took turns reading, measuring, mixing and scooping the treats. 

Our field trip went very well.  We got to meet the animals, ask questions about them and learn a bit about their rescue stories.  Our class split into two groups and both groups got turns to make toys for the animals, feed the animals and even pet some of the animals!  We were really lucky to have a partnership with Alyssa and we learned a lot from our visit to her rescue!

Recycle for Good Garage Sale: Animal Adoption

As I explained in a previous post, the grade 1s held their Recycle for Good Garage Sale on April 18th & 19th.  Their goal was to raise funds to help people in Africa (through World Vision) and to help animals (through the World Wildlife Fund Symbolic Adoption Program).  The idea came from Lilly, a student who was watching television one night and saw a commercial that showed some people in Africa need help getting clean water and fresh food.  Our class had discussed the idea of a garage sale earlier this school year, when we were brainstorming ways of fundraising for symbolically adopting animals.  We decided that our garage sale could benefit both people and animals!  When the Grade 1s decide to do something, they do it right....they raised $464 to help others! 

 Earlier this week, students suggested animals we may want to help from the WWF's symbolic adoption website.  Then students voted for the animals they would most like to adopt. Today, we were on a Skype video call with our partner class, Mrs. Caldwell's Kindergarten at Oak Lake Community School.  Students were sharing how well the garage sale went and one of the Grade 1s asked the Kindergartens if they would like to vote to help us choose the animals to adopt.  Here's our voting:

After we finished our call with the Kindergartens, we officially adopted 1 meerkat and 1 orangutan.  We can't wait for our adoption kit to arrive!

Another successful student-led project!

The grade 1s held their Recycle for Good Garage Sale on April 18th & 19th.  Their goal was to raise funds to help people in Africa (through World Vision) and to help animals (through the World Wildlife Fund Symbolic Adoption Program).  The idea came from Lilly, a student who was watching television one night and saw a commercial that showed some people in Africa need help getting clean water and fresh food.  When she shared her idea to help people in Africa the next day at school, everyone in our class was excited to help  make it happen!  We had lots of supporters to help us too.  Community members and families donated many items to sell at the garage sale, parent volunteers helped grade 1 students work each shift of the garage sale and many shoppers came to buy items that they could use.  When our final volunteers totaled the profits, the grade 1s had raised $464!!

 This week, we visited the World Vision website to see what we could put our donation towards.  Since our goal was to provide food and water for people in Africa, we made a list of things that we might want to choose.  Then we added items to our "cart" until we were close to the amount we had to donate.  We were able to provide 1 pig, 1 sheep, 1 goat, 3 agricultural packs and clean water for 1 family! 


Throughout this project, it was very exciting for me to watch as my students identified a real problem that concerned them, then made a plan to make a difference and to see their tremendous success!  It never ceases to amaze me what young learners can do when we let them! Way to go Grade 1s, I am such a proud teacher!

Recycle for Good Garage Sale Video

This is the video we showed to our school to encourage them to help with our Recycle for Good Garage Sale! 

Recycle for Good Garage Sale

Things got pretty busy in March and my blogging was neglected.  However, my students and I were keeping very busy...

One of the exciting things that we have been working on is our "Recycle for Good Garage Sale".  One of my students brought me the letter below and acted as a passionate advocate for helping others.  She asked me if she could talk to her peers about her ideas and then worked with them to come up with a way to fundraise to help people in Africa.

Our class had talked about the idea of a garage sale earlier in the year when we were thinking of ways to fundraise to adopt polar bears, so it seemed like a good time to put our idea into action for a good cause!  We chose dates that coincide with our Celebration of Learning because families will already be visiting our school on those days.  We already new that we wanted to adopt another species from WWF, but since we had a new focus of helping people in Africa, we had to research organizations working in that area.  Next, we designed posters and chose locations to advertise our garage sale.  We shared our posters electronically and students also put them up in our community.  Currently, we are collecting items to sell and seeking volunteers to help run the garage sale.  It's another exciting learning adventure for our class!