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~

Measurement Fun

Image from here.

'
Hello everyone!


I just wanted to give a quick update on a mini project we worked on!  This marking period, the students learn about measuring with nonstandard units of measurement.


This week the students traced each other on white butcher paper.  The students decorated themselves.  To throw in a bit of hockey fun, I pulled up some pictures of Washington Capitals jerseys from over the years.  I told the students they could make their shirt like one of the jerseys.  Most of them did! 


After decorating, the students spent time measuring various parts of their bodies using unifix cubes.  The students had to measure the following:

•  the width of their head
•  the length from their shoulder to their fingertips
•  the length from their knee to their foot
•  the length from their neck to their leg
•  the length from head to toe!

The students recorded their answers, glued their worksheet on their paper, and cut around their bodies.  We hung their bodies out in the hallway.

Two of my girls waiting to hang their picture up!

The kids did a great job and had a ton of fun!

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

Now for a hockey update:  We are still working on our movie.  Aside from curriculum, January was busy with assessments, snow days, and snow delays!  In fact, our field trip to the ice rink has been delayed TWICE due to weather.  We are **HOPEFULLY** going next Friday!

This afternoon, the 1st and 4th graders will get together to continue writing their scripts!  I'm looking forward to seeing what they write!

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

~Stacey~



I Love the Caps

Images from here and here.

I *unfortunately* know disappointment. I’m a lifelong Redskins fan. (No comments from the haters please.)

 

While I’ve supported the Caps my whole life, I didn’t really start watching games until I met my husband. We go to a few games each season. We watch games on TV (although not always together!)

 

I began watching more games and learning even more about hockey after my hubby pointed out TJ Oshie to me during a game we went to and you all know how I feel about him.  

Image from here

Just like with the Redskins, I feel tremendous sadness and disappointment whenever the Caps are eliminated from the playoffs. However, I feel extra sad about the Caps losing Wednesday night. Why is this year different from all other years? (I know, sounds like a Passover question!)

 

The Caps have brought a source of enjoyment and to my classroom. We have bonded so much over our love for them.  My students have not only learned so much about hockey, but learned so much about the Caps! 

• The majority of my students can tell you every player's name and number. 
• Some of them even know which position they play or where the players are from. 
• My students can interpret game stats quite well. (They ask about this several times a week!)
• They have begged me to take them to a Caps game. Since I can't do that, they beg me to show them hockey clips on YouTube. 
• Several of my students watch the games with their parents. 
• One of my students will be signing up to join a youth hockey league. (He is my student that LOVES TJ Oshie and all things hockey related.)
• My students chose hockey to be the topic of their movie.

 

Since my students are SO invested in this project, I wanted the Caps to win more than ever! I almost broke down when telling them the news. They were sad. One student asked, "When does hockey season start up again?" (Yay hockey fans!)

 

I can't even begin to describe the emotions I've been having. I know to some it's just a game. To others, hockey is life. To me, hockey is a learning experience for my students that they will NEVER forget. #CapsFanForLife

To see the process of our project, visit the links below.

Hockey Entry #1

Hockey Entry #2

Hockey Entry #3

Hockey Entry #4

Hockey Entry #5
Hockey Entry #6
Hockey Entry #7
Hockey Entry #8
Hockey Entry #9



Hockey Hijinks

 

Image from here.

It's a great day AND a great week for hockey movie fun!  (Although we didn't do as much as last week due to testing and other activities.)

Here's your weekly update! :-)

Jersey Mania: Last week, the students designed their own jerseys for our two teams.  On Monday, I took all of the jerseys for my class and mounted them on bulletin board paper.  The Stars are on one color paper and the Capitals are on another color paper. Each of the first grade classes received two different color stickers.  They are going to put one sticker on their favorite Stars jersey and one sticker on their favorite Capitals jersey.  The same thing will happen with Mr. Racosky's class, but the other fourth grade classes will choose from those.  Then we will take our 4 winners.  One of the two jerseys per team will be our actual jersey.  The other design for each team will be our spirit wear!

More Authentic Math: In addition to working on their jerseys last week, the students also started the process of solving a problem:  How many chairs can we fit in the room we'll be using for our movie theater?  We continued our journey in answering that question this week.

On Monday, I took my class to the room we will use.  Each student had a template that was made by the group that came up with it.  I reminded the students of our end goal.  I then said, "Last week, you all learned that you could measure three parts of the chair.  What were they?"  As I was drawing a chair in a flipchart, they told me the answers. (Height, length, and width)  I told them they were going to measure two of those in the room with the template.  One of my girls told me we were not going to measure the height.  I asked her why she thought that and she exclaimed, "We don't need to measure how high up the chairs will go!"

Next, the students had to collaborate and communicate how they were going to measure the width of the room.  I didn't give them any other directions or any parameters. Some students started putting them in a row across right away.  Some students put them in random spots around the room until they saw the ones up front and decided to move them.  After their templates were down, I told them to look at what they put down - some of their templates were right next to each other and some had a little bit of space in between.  They needed to talk and decide which way they were gong to have it.  They decided to push the templates right next to each other.  They counted how many templates fit across (17) and I recorded it on the board.  I told them, "Ok, do the same thing to figure out the length."  This happened so quickly, I didn't have time to take pictures!  They came up with ten chairs for the length.

They ended up skip counting by 10s 17 times to figure out the answer.  I then threw in area and how they could have multiplied - which I modeled for them, but told them they would learn that in 3rd grade too! :-)  *Their eyes always bug out when I teach them something they will learn in another grade.  It's so adorable!*

I used ActivInspire to create a model of the room for them - exactly how they made it.  I left a little aisle by the door.  I asked what they noticed about the model.  They quickly said, "At the movie theater, they have more than one aisle!" I asked them what they thought we should do. They quickly and eagerly responded with "Remove rows from the other side!"  After some discussion, they told me we should take two rows of ten away.  I asked how many that is and they responded with twenty.  We then did some subtraction. (170-20) I had them tell me how to solve the problem.  

After I took the two rows away, I had them tell me what else they noticed about the aisles.  "They aren't the same size on both sides!"  "What should we do class?"  They told me to take another row of ten away.  (More subtraction!  150-10)

Then they observed we should have a middle aisle!  They decided to take two rows of ten away from the middle.  (140-20!)

There is still a lot of math left to do to solve our problem.  We will continue this next week!

Script Writing:  Our two classes took our initial story and expanded on it.  We added lots of details - feelings, actions, and some dialogue.  Before we started doing that, I went through the story and wrote questions at various parts.  "What should they be doing to show they are ready?"  "How will we know they are sad?" "What are some of the things they can do during practice?"  All of the students had great ideas. 

We had help from other students in the school too!  A fifth grade boy is on a youth hockey team.  He came down and told us what goes on at hockey practices.  We also had help from 3 third grade girls.  Their class has worked on composing an original opera this year.  (Their teacher does this every year and the process and outcome is AMAZING!)  These girls are the script writers.  They read through the script and how it marked up with questions, comments, and suggestions!   It was truly amazing!  One of the girls said several times how much she loved our story line!  One of my girls said, "They're smart!  They should be in our movie!" :-)

I almost forgot: Our players now have their last names and their numbers!

We still have a lot to do before the project is complete,  but we are continuing to work hard!  Just like the kids in our movie, we aren't going to give up!  We're going to give it our best shot!

Thank you again for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed our update!

As always, you can find my previous entries about hockey here:

Hockey Entry #1

Hockey Entry #2

Hockey Entry #3

Hockey Entry #4

Hockey Entry #5
Hockey Entry #6
Hockey Entry #7
Hockey Entry #8
 

Enjoy your weekend! :-)

~Stacey~

Eat, Sleep, Teach Hockey

Image from here.

After my last blog entry, my co-worker exclaimed, "Your blog is so filled with your voice and enthusiasm!"  (Thanks Barb!!) I love what I do and I love sharing what I do!  I do my best to inspire students everyday and if I can also inspire other educators, that makes me even happier!  Teaching definitely isn't easy - otherwise EVERYONE would be doing it!

This week has been a BLAST!

First things first:  WE HAVE A TITLE FOR OUR MOVIE!!!!!

After several rounds of voting, the title of our movie is Hockey Stars Showdown!

The students and I are VERY excited!!!

Jersey Mania: On Thursday, I issued a challenge to my class and Mr. Racosky's 4th graders:  Create a jersey for each of our teams.  Our teams are the Stars and the Capitals. 

Each jersey must include the team name and team logo.  They weren't allowed to use logos from NHL teams.  They also had to take into consideration the names of the teams.  The students already knew the definition of stars, but capital was more difficult so we discussed three meanings of that word.  They also looked at jerseys from the NHL just to get an idea of what they looked like.  Then they got started! 

 

As of this update, most of the students are finished.  Once all of the students are done, it's voting time.  Props to Sue, Toia, and Barb for their suggestions / ideas on how the students should vote!  You ladies are awesome!

Image from here.

Authentic math - the focus of professional development at my school this year.  When I did my rainforest projects, I could only do so much with math.  It was mainly related to height, length, and weight of the animals and plants.  This year, authentic math comes easily when learning about hockey and creating a movie theater!

The other day, the students started to figure out how many chairs could fit in the room that we'll be using as our movie theater.  Since then, the students picked how they were going to measure and created their templates in small groups.

Today, I told the students to look at all of their templates their group made.  They had to choose the template that would help out the best.  They took to putting each chair on top of their template to test it out.  Each group gave me their best template.   They looked closely at each other's templates.   They discussed the pros and cons of using that one as their main template.  They put the chairs on top of the templates to see how they compared.

Afterwards, I told the students that all of their templates were AMAZING.  They did what they were supposed to do - figure out a way to see how many chairs could fit in the room.  Now, they had to choose the template that would help them the most in measuring.  I made sure to tell them that just because their template isn't chosen, it doesn't mean it's a bad template.  I reiterated again how good all of the templates were.

I created a flipchart where students could come up and drag a copy of a picture to the template they were voting for.  I had the templates on the floor near the flipchart.  They were SO cute when they were coming up to vote.  They looked very carefully at the each template and thought super hard about which one would be the best measuring tool.

We now have our template.  That group whose template was chosen created a bunch more of that exact template so that we can measure next week!

Image from here.

I have to brag - I am incredibly lucky!  I work with AMAZING, creative, helpful, and supportive people! They say it takes a village to raise a child and it is so true!  I've received suggestions and help from more than a dozen of my coworkers and endless support from another dozen.  We are all pieces of the same puzzle at work and their contributions have been vital to the success of this project!  I am very grateful for their helping hands!

With that, I bid you adieu!

Thank you again for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed our update!

As always, you can find my previous entries about hockey here:

Hockey Entry #1

Hockey Entry #2

Hockey Entry #3

Hockey Entry #4

Hockey Entry #5
Hockey Entry #6
Hockey Entry #7
 

Enjoy your weekend! :-)

~Stacey~