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~

New School Year, New Hockey Movie

 

Image from here.

The 2016 - 2017 school year found my class and Mr. Racosky's 4th grade class collaborating on a hockey movie. The process was long, difficult, and stressful at times, but the end result was phenomenal!  The students in both classes learned so much and became good friends. Many of the students, staff, and parents who saw the movie asked, "Is there going to be a sequel?"  At the time, I was so mentally exhausted from everything related to our movie, that I couldn't even think about doing another one.  

Over the summer, I had time to relax, reflect, and think about our hockey movie and the possibility of a sequel.  As the summer drew to a close, I talked with Mr. Racosky.  The conversation went like this:

Me: "I know everyone keeps asking for a sequel, but I don't want to do a sequel.  I think that would limit the students' creativity."  (Since voice and choice is a HUGE component of project based learning, I really didn't want to do limit anything for them.)  "However, it would still be fun to make another hockey movie and see where this year's classes take it." 

Mr. R:  "We can do a prequel!  All about Mrs. Lynch in the Olympics!"  (If you saw the movie - link up above - you'll understand why Mr. Racosky said that.)

Me: (while laughing,)  "No, not about Mrs. Lynch in the Olympics, but an Olympic themed hockey movie could be fun!  Especially since the winter Olympics are coming up this February."

We agreed to get our classes together the last Friday in September to see if they a) wanted to make a movie and b) if they wanted it to be a hockey movie.

As my students walked into Mr. Racosky's room, they were a little intimidated by the 4th graders.  (Same thing happened last year!)  That quickly eased up.

The first thing I did was ask the students who didn't see the movie to stand up.  There were a few.  I explained to them what we did last year.  I then turned to both classes and said, "Think about this for a minute.  Don't answer until I tell you to.  Do you want to make a movie this year?"  Everyone said yes!  I then asked if they wanted it to be a hockey movie.  ALMOST everyone said yes.  There were a couple who said no.  (A similar thing happened last year.  Within a month, they were all about it being a hockey movie.)

 

Image from here.

I told the students I had another thing I wanted them to think about, but they wouldn't be answering it that day.  It will definitely be awhile before this question is answered.  The winter Olympics are coming up.  One of the events is hockey.  Perhaps their movie could be an Olympic themed movie.  I talked  a little bit about what the Olympics are and then showed them this cool Olympic video.  That really got the students pumped!  

I proceeded to tell them about my favorite hockey player, TJ Oshie of the Washington Capitals.  I told them how he was part of the US Hockey team in 2014.  Mr. Racosky chimed in about Oshie's role on the team when the USA played Russia.  He brought up a shootout video to show the kids.   (I can't find the exact one he used, but it might have been this one.)  I can tell you that every time Oshie was up, the students started chanting, "OSHIE! OSHIE! OSHIE! OSHIE!"  Mr. Racosky and I were CRACKING up!  Needless to say, they were very excited.

 

Image from here.

One of the things I love about using hockey to teach different areas of the curriculum is all of the authentic math that comes with it!  Just as I did last year, I showed my students the game stats from one of the Caps' games.  We went over what all of the columns mean.  We looked at the numbers. They told me what stood out for them.  I had students model some of the things I talked about.  They would have done that all day if I had let them! Here are 2 pictures I took!

 

I promise you they are smiling! :-) 

We are going to continue looking at hockey stats throughout the year!  

 Image from here.

Last year was a year of firsts:

First time doing a movie as our project.

First time learning a whole lot about hockey. (I watch hockey, but my knowledge was limited at that point in time.)

First time trying to teach hockey.  (I am not athletic!)

First time working on a project with another grade level.

Mr. Racosky and I learned a lot!  Two things we learned:  1) start this project as early in the year as possible, and 2) spend more time trying to teach them how to play.

When our classes met on Friday the 13th, (oooooooooooh,) we worked on two different things.

1st and 4th graders worked in groups of 2 or 3 on a writing assignment.  Each student had to write their goal or goals for the year.  They also added a "puck" to their writing which serves as a reminder to work hard in order to accomplish your goal.  The students got to decorate their pucks.

Here are some pictures of them working together!

 

Mrs. Racosky (yes, she works at our school too and is my awesome co-teacher,) helping 3 students with their goals!

 

Afterwards, Mr. Racosky took them in the hallway and worked with them on hitting the puck.

 

Mr. Racosky is showing them what NOT to do!

 

Listening intently! 

 

Here's the lineup! 

  

Mr. Racosky showing them how to line up their bodies and where to put their hands on the hockey stick.

 

Someone got it in the goal.  They were excited!

 

It was a super fun day!  Can't wait until we meet again next Friday! 

Have a great weekend! :-)

~Stacey~

Hockey Movie Reflection

Image from here

WE DID IT! Our hockey movie is finished and we showed it last week to students, staff, parents, other family members, and special visitors!  There were so many times throughout this entire process where I said, "I have no idea HOW this is going to get done!"  It truly did seem impossible!  

Once the script writing, scenery building, uniforms, and EVERYTHING else was done, we started filming.

We started with the locker room scenes.  For a locker room tour, click here.

 

On the chairs of the locker room are their skates (made out of socks,) and helmets, (made out of krispy kreme hats.)  The player's names are on the lockers along with a hat.

I made the coach a special shirt and I'm told she LOVES it!

Next we filmed all of our hockey scenes.  For a tour of our "rink," click here.  Then we filmed our short bus scene.  One of our AWESOME bus drivers stayed late one morning so we could use her bus.  (THANK YOU!)  

After all of the filming was done, I had a lot of editing to do.  I used Movavi Video Software.  Seriously, if you are going to be editing any sort of video, it's worth the money to purchase Movavi! I loved their product so much, I sent them the following letter:

 

Once everything was said and done, it was time to put together our movie theater!  We turned the gathering room into our movie theater!  Here's a quick video tour of our movie theater. 

Our amazing art teacher made the following for us:

 

Each student made a hockey stick.  We had this at the entrance to our theater.

Then it was time to get started!!!

Here comes our first guest!

Our ticket takers are ready!

Of course we had popcorn!

Our awesome art teacher is so excited to come to the movie!

First showing

Now, I tweeted and emailed pretty much EVERYONE associated with the Washington Capitals hoping I could get someone to come to the movie.  I wasn't going to get my hopes up, but I figured at least I could say I tried.  I am happy to say my efforts produced some results!

Caps play-by-play announcer, Joe Beninati, came to one of our movies on our movie premiere day!!  Caps reporter, Smokin' Al Koken came to one of our movies on our third day!!

MY STUDENTS WERE SOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!  (Okay, so was I!!!)  It was incredibly wonderful of them to take time out of their day to come out to our movie!

The response to our movie has been amazing!  Both Tim and I are hearing that people want a sequel next year!  We will have to wait and see!

We have parent permission to share the video.  So here it is!

Finally, our movie by the numbers:

• 6+ months researching, planning, and putting together
• 2.5 days of filming
• Countless hours editing
• 3 movie days
• 12 movie showings
• 500+ students viewed the movie
• 39 happy students who will never forget this experience!
• 1 tired, but very happy, teacher!

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 Entry #10
Hockey Entry #11

Thank you to everyone for your help and support throughout this entire project!  I truly appreciate it all!

~Mrs. Lynch~