One Final Shot

 

Image from here. 

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS ARE STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even begin to describe how happy I am!  My enthusiasm seems be to contagious!  For a second straight year in a row, I have converted all of my students (and their families,) into CAPS FANS!!!!  What a great year it has been!

 

Photo taken by Christina S.

I realize I haven't blogged as much this year as I did last year so let me give a brief recap:

2016-2017  school year:  My 1st graders and a 4th grade class collaborated on a hockey movie: HOCKEY STARS SHOWDOWN.  That movie was about a team that lost every game.  They never gave up and eventually won.

2017-2018 school year:  I brought my class together with the 4th graders again.  We reviewed what we did last year and asked the students if they wanted to make another hockey movie this year.  It was an overwhelming YES from all of them!

It has been a year full of team building, gingerbread zambonis and zambonis made out of recycled materials, ice skating, and lots of hard work!

The students worked in small groups to create potential story lines.  We selected the winning story by using ActiVotes in a March Madness elimination round.

Next, the students submitted their title ideas.  We used the same process to select our title - ONE FINAL SHOT. 

The students expanded on the script by adding dialogue, creating character names, and selecting numbers for the players.

Each student filled out an application on which role(s) they wanted and why.  Before that, I went over what all of the roles were and what they involved, whether it was a lot of hockey playing, how many lines they'd have to memorize, how much screen time, etc....

After the roles had been selected, the students went to work making the scenery, creating team logos, making parts of their costumes, practicing their lines, and rehearsing!

Finally it was time to film!  Here's the tour of the gym the day we filmed.
Here are some pictures from the locker room scenes:

The days leading up to our movie premiere, the Capitals won the Stanley Cup!  My students and I led a celebratory parade around the school with our Stanley Cup - a prop in our movie!

 

One of the 2nd grade classes joined us on our parade!  It was a blast!

This week, we premiered our movie.  Over 500 students came to the movie.  Everyone received a ticket, went through our ticket line, on to the snack counter where they received a small bag of popcorn, and into our theater which was covered in red paper. 

The students had jobs to do during the movie.  Students were stamping tickets, giving out popcorn, handing out programs, running the lights in theater, turning on the video, showing people to their seats, and sweeping up after everyone left. :-)

There are some similarities between our movie and what the Caps just went through winning the cup.

• Movie -  Stanley Cup themed
• Neither team in the movie had won the Stanley Cup before.  (Neither Vegas or the Caps had won before.)
• The final score in our movie was 4-3.  (The Caps won game seven 4-3.)
• The winning team that won in our movie, won that game "away."  (Caps won in Vegas.)
• Lots of singing We Are the Champions.  (Do I need to elaborate on that one?)

These are all coincidences.  There was no way of us knowing back in March when this was written, that the Caps would win it all!  It sure does make this movie, and all of the experiences along with it, that much more special.

So without further ado, here is our movie, One Final Shot.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible!  This was truly a team effort and I could not have done it without you!

I hope you all enjoy the movie!
LET'S GO CAPS!!!!!
~Stacey~

Gingerbread Zambonis

Image from here.

What happens when we're gearing up for winter break and learning about hockey at the same time?  You make Gingerbread Zambonis!

Someone had shared this link on Twitter.  I immediately told Mrs. Racosky (my co-teacher,) that I wanted to do this and we figured out a way to make it happen!  

By the way, Mrs. Racosky is the BEST!!!!!  She did a test run over a week ago and made me this:

After receiving that, I was even MORE excited about this project!

We did some shopping - okay, a LOT of shopping - and set everything up this morning!

Mrs. Racosky spent a large chunk of the morning filling pastry bags!  (You rock!!!!!!)  Each student had a foil pan, a cup full of candies, a bag of graham crackers, and a pastry bag.

 

We started off the morning by watching a short video clip of Zambonis from Discovery Education.  

Then we talked about what they had learned from the video.  They also discussed the shapes found on the Zambonis.  

Afterwards, each student received a piece of grid paper.  They drew their Zamboni and decided how they were going to decorate it.

Once everyone was done, Mrs. Racosky showed the students how to use the pastry bags.  Then they went to town!  

It was messy, challenging, and oh so much fun!

 

I want you to see all sides of their Zambonis so I took some video.  You can check it out here!

Of course, I made one too!

77 is Oshie's number!

 

The students had a blast!

Tomorrow we will look at how much candy each student used and do some math work with those numbers (addition, subtraction, greater than / less than!)

Have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! :-)

~Stacey~

Force, Motion, and Hockey

 

Image from here. 

Force and motion: That is what started it all last year.  I had used hockey as an example when explaining something and the students were HOOKED after that!

Since I actually had time to prepare this year, I brainstormed ideas with my co-teacher and came up with an awesome lesson!

We started off by learning about force and motion.  We made a list of important things to remember.  Some of those things were:

• Motion means moving or movement.
• Slope is higher at one end and lower at the other.
• A force is a push or pull.
• The type of motion produced depends on the size and shape of an object, the direction and strength of the force, and the surface it moves over.

We also started talking about how we use forces in hockey.  There is a ramp in the hallway outside of my classroom.  What a perfect place to have some fun! 

I created 5 questions which went in the students hockey journals.
1.  Predict what will happen when you hit the puck UP the ramp? How much force do you think you'll need and why?
2.  Was your prediction correct?  What actually happened when you hit the puck UP the ramp?  How much force did you need?
3.  Predict what will happen when you hit the puck DOWN the ramp? How much force do you think you'll need and why?
4.  Was your prediction correct?  What actually happened when you hit the puck DOWN the ramp?  How much force did you need?
5.  Was it easier to hit the puck UP the ramp or DOWN the ramp?  Why?

We used our sense of sight and sense of touch to observe and describe the ramp, a hockey puck, and a hockey stick.  The students told me their thoughts and I wrote them down:

 Yes, I like making smiley faces when I have two o's next to each other!

Then the students made predictions in their hockey journals about what would happen when they hit the puck up and down the ramp.  They also had to write about how much force they thought they would need and why.

"I predict that the puck will hit the wall.  I will hit it hard because I don't want it to hit the wall."

Finally, they were able to hit the puck up and down the ramp.  They took notes on a sticky note in their journals to help them remember later on when they did their follow up writing:

 

The video is blurry on purpose.  

*******************************************************

 

Image from here. 

Today, I combined my class with the fourth graders and started reading them this great book called Cool Scripts: How to Stage Your Very Own Show. I had my students bring up their hockey journals and everyone was taking notes while I was reading!  We didn't finish the book today, but that's okay! :-)

I just love how everything is coming along so far and I'm excited for what's ahead!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend!

~Stacey~