Lest We Forget- Remembrance Day in the Elementary Classroom

As a little girl, I can remember attending Remembrance Day ceremonies at school. While listening to the trumpets sad song I wondered what we were remembering and why it was so important.

As an adult I have a better understanding of the importance of remembering fallen soldiers from the wars of the past as well as honouring the veterans who proudly serve our country today. After my husband joined the reserves, and did a tour in Afghanistan, I felt an enormous responsibility in my classroom to connect students with Remembrance Day. Because so many of the veterans of WWI and WWII no longer with us, I wondered how to honour their memory so their sacrifice would never be forgotten.

 Here are some ideas, activities and resources to honour the fallen and teach your students about the importance of Remembrance Day.

ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM

Art: I love to do art projects for Remembrance day. I think my favourite image to create is the poppy and I have used different mediums, ideas and text to go with it. Here are a few different ones I have done over the years.

If you would like to find the step by step instructions for these art activities and many others please visit Gail, THAT ARTIST WOMAN. Scroll down the fall projects until you find Remembrance Day. You can also find more Remembrance Day art ideas on my Pinterest page.

Writing: A great writing activity for Remembrance Day is to write letters or postcards to Veterans or Soldiers currently serving. To find more information on where to send these messages please visit the Veterans Affairs website.

Reading: I love a good read aloud to introduce a topic to students; however, finding a story that is both appropriate for young children as well as relevant is a bit difficult for Remembrance Day. Here are a few that I use in my classroom.

'A Poppy Is to Remember' by Heather Patterson is probably one of my favourites. The pictures are beautiful, the text is simple and it helps students to understand more about why we wear a poppy and the importance of Remembrance Day. It also includes the ever important poem 'In Flanders Fields'.


'Lest We Forget' by Kerry Brown is a remarkable story in that it helps young children relate to the generation that went to war through images, in a way that is appropriate for young children. I think this book is a great tool that allows students to better understand what it must have been like for the soldiers and their families.




'What does Peace feel like?' by Vladimir Radunsky  is a story with wonderful imagery and would be a great starting place for a writing activity where students could write about what peace looks like, smells like or tastes like. I love the pictures and ideas from children. This gives students great examples of things that they experience in their own life and how they can bring Peace to those around them.

I love how 'Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion' by Jane Barclay uses animals to tell the story in this unique book. The little boy's grandpa uses animals to describe what he was feeling during his wartime experiences. It definitely gets me misty eyed at the end.  

                                           

                                                REMEMBRANCE DAY CEREMONY

If you are in charge of preparing the Remembrance Day ceremony at school, it can be a daunting task! Here is a great resource from the Veterans Affairs website with information about the CEREMONY.

One of the most important things at a Remembrance Day ceremony, besides the 2 minutes of silence, is inviting a Veteran to your school to lay a wreath and if possible speak to the students. My husband always attends the ceremonies at my school. When he was in Afghanistan a few of the junior high students wrote letters to him while he was there, and when he came back he talked to the boys and girls about his experience in Kabul. They formed a connection with him and I believe this made the Remembrance Day ceremony much more meaningful. If you would like a veteran to speak at your school you can find more information HERE.

Another great tool to engage students during the ceremony, or in the classroom,  is showing a video. This one always gets me emotional, and encourages students before the 2 minutes of silence to really take time to honour the fallen.

My husband made this video using pictures he took of a memorial wall in Afghanistan with messages dedicated to the fallen.

Click on the links below to visit other Canadian teacher-bloggers showcasing their ideas for Remembrance Day lessons.

      

 

Five For Friday

I don't think that I've every done a Five for Friday before, but I figure there is always a first time for everything right!!!

The hubby came home from Poland this week, so it is super nice to have him home and not be the only one looking after the pup and the toddler. He is so tired though all jet lagged and such that I've had lots of time to get work done! Which leads me to the next post, it has been ALLLL about that math this week...

MATHERCIZE!!

Yup, it's a thing. In my class. That I invented. That my kids think is AWESOME! We practice patterns with our bodies, skip counting while exercising and then we shake it off to Taylor Swift, picking the number and then practicing addition and subtraction. It is so much fun, the kids can't wait to do it and the BEST parts is it tires them out so I can teach my math lesson and they last longer than five minutes without getting the wiggles.

MORE MATH!!

Meet Marvin the Marvelous Math moose. He is a puppet in my class, but I don't have a picture, and this is him in clipart form. So basically he comes and brings our new word wall words and basically makes the kids think that math is really REALLY fun. They ask for Marvin all the time now. Today he read out the students names when handing out work. Apparently, this was very hilarious. One students told me, "Mrs. Dunn Marvin is sooooo funny." Yup.

And you guessed it... more math... I am working on this enormous project right now. Basically I'm making my own math program that I can use that involves centres- Computer, Alone, Manipulatives, Partner, Problem Solving. It's turning out well, but it's taking FOREVER.

And finally, an art project just to round things off.. we are researching winter animals in science and I figured we could do an art project that tied in to the curriculum. These turned out really well, I love how each one is unique!

That's all for me!

Link up here with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is right around when we are doing the Building Things Unit in Grade One Science, so it ties in PERFECTLY. I have the kids make traps at home and then we do activities with it at school, including this one.

 

The students put the directions in order for how to make their trap. The students set their traps the day before, so make sure that parents know which day to send them in, and then that rascally leprechaun comes overnight. He left little footprints and made a disaster in the classroom. He must have escaped out the window!!

We have so much fun! What do you do in your classroom? For the full resource with my St. Patrick's Day activities, look here.

Blog Link up and New Product

Hey Everyone, Happy New Year!

What a busy holiday it was with a new little one, oh my word, a whole new meaning to the word pack up the car for a holiday. 

I'm linking up with Simply Kinder, basically you can find some new blogs to follow for this lovely little link up. 

Also wanted to share a new product, for the "athletic competition that is coming up in February for many countries to go to and get really excited about". Wink, wink, apparently copyright infringement to even mention the name so there you have it. It's a bulletin board to use in your classroom during the games!!

Go For Gold

Mrs. Dunn

Let's Get Acquainted Linky

Flying Into First

I am linking up with Flying into First Grade for a favourites linky party.!

Favourite Place to Shop

Hmm, well I think clothing wise I would say probably dynamite, but I'm actually not a huge shopper so that's about all I can come up with.

Favourite TV Show

I really really love this show. Like A LOT and I watch it over and over again, including all the bloopers I can find on youtube. So amazing.

Favourite Sweet Treat

Peanut butter confetti square. Because it is peanut butter, and marshmallows and I could eat a whole pan if given the chance.

Favourite Food

Lasagna, and most things that are Italian like. MMM cheesy, meaty noodly goodness.

Favourite Restaurant

I'm not huge on eating out, but when we do one of our go to places is an Indian Restaurant called Tamarind. So yum.

Mrs. Dunn

12 in 12 Linky Party

I'm linking up with one of my FAV bloggers, Teeny Tiny Teacher, for this linky party. A little "these are a few of my favourite things." You know, kinda like Oprah, except I wasn't really planning on giving away a car.

12. Favourite movie: Well, there have not been many for 2012, but it is GOING to be The Hobbit, because I know I will love it when I see it.

11. Favourite TV series: How I met you mother. That is all I have to really say about that

10. Favourite restaraunt: Anything Italian really, 

9. Favourite new thing I've tried: Blogging. Well it's reasonably new, and it is a new favourite past time.

8. Favourite gift you got: Jewellery from the hubby.

7. Favourite thing you pinned: Well I pin things... A LOT... and the reason I pin them is because I really like them, so it is hard to pick just one. I would have to say it would be this video hands down, because it changed my entire way of teaching this year, and all for the better!

6. Favourite Blog post: http://firstgradefunmrsdunn.blogspot.ca/2012/07/meet-teacher.html

Not because it is good, or exciting, but because it was my first and a big deal to me to jump into the blogging world.

5. Best Accomplishment: I think my big accomplishment for this year has been starting to sell things on TPT. That has been a pretty big deal for me, as the hubster can attest there is a LOT of TPT talk around our household.

4. Favourite picture:

This is not my favourite picture ever, but this summer in Vegas I got to see her in concert and it was pretty awesome.

3. Favourite memory: My favourite memory from 2012 was for sure getting our sweet little dog. He is just so awesome, hard to believe he is almost 1 years old already.

Big boy Quinn

Puppy Quinn

2. Goal for 2013: Exercise

1. One little word: Growth 

Thanks for stopping by!

Mrs. Dunn

December Currently

Happy December everyone! So I did this Currently last night and then got so sleepy that I went to bed before posting.

Linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for this fantastic currently! Remember the rule of 3, comment on the 2 before your link and the one after!

I absolutely LOVE the (reasonably new) Mumford cd. They are so amazing, I can listen to their music over and over again and never get tired.

Snow and cookies mean december to me. The hubster and I made GINGER PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES the other day with white chocolate and almonds. OH...  MY.... WORD... It tastes like two cookies in one, gingersnap and peanut butter. So good.

Well now that I've had an excellent sleep, I can't say that I need to go to bed anymore, feeling rested and ready for the day.

I really dislike Christmas shopping. I actually sort of have a thing against presents entirely, not a huge fan. I'm much more of a "Let's just spend time together" than a give me a present kind of person. SO I would really love to just have it over with.

Today I would like to get Christmas decorations up, but that would involve some house cleaning as well, so we will see how that goes.

We have awesome neighbours and I would really like to do a secret santa kind of thing this year. I haven't decided what to get them yet, but it will be a project in the next couple of weeks. 

(PS I love this currently RAK idea)

I have made a Classroom Management Package (Ok so I know this isn't Christmas related, but the kids get a bit squirrel y this time of year, and often in January we have to start all over again with the rules because apparently 2 weeks puts a brain freeze on all of the children).
Anyways, it has a bunch of resources to do with whole brain teaching, behavior tracking and modification, time out, positive rewards and parent contacting. Check it out!

Mrs. Dunn

The Liebster Award

UPDATE: Looks like I have been nominated again!! Thanks to Officially a First Grader! See second answer to questions below.

So I was looking through my blog comments this morning, and realized that I have been nominated for a Liebster award from Jayme over at Trendy in Third!! This award is given to up and coming bloggers with 200 or less followers.  Thanks Jayme, how sweet are you. Be sure to check out her blog.

Here are the rules:

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.

3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

4. Choose 11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers to nominate and link them in your post.

5. You cannot “tag back” the other blog, but leave a comment on this post with the URL of your Liebster post so I can learn more about you & see who you nominate.

11 Things about me

1. I do AMAZING impressions of my students. Seriously. I can sound just like them. 
2. I love to dance. I dance around the house, I dance in my car, I dance in my classroom, I have even danced down grocery store aisles. When no one is looking of course.
3. I have the best hubby. That’s all there really is to say about that
4. I love spending time with friends and family, they are so special and important to me.
5. I went to Iceland and I think it was one of the coolest (figuratively and literally) places I’ve been.
6. I love Italian food. Lasagna, pasta, really of any kind, and I’m in.
7. I love my job. A lot. Well, most of the time anyways ;)
8. In secret I wish I was a ballerina
9. I play djembe (african) drum, although not very well, just for fun
10. I have a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and he is the most amazing snuggly dog ever.
11. I invent words. Frequently. I think I may even have made a dictionary once that had all the words I’ve made up. Strangely, it seems to be missing...

QUESTIONS FROM TRENDY IN THIRD

1. What grade do you currently teach? Have you taught any other grades? I teach grade one. I have also taught a 2/1 and Kindergarten.

2. What is your favorite thing about teaching? Least favorite?

My favourite thing about teaching is the sweet little faces who seem to look at you with adoration no matter what you do and those wow they actually learned something moments. Least favourite is report cards and assessment and paperwork, mountains of paperwork.

3. If your school was donated $25,000, what would you want your principal to purchase?

A projector that attached to my SMARTboard, a HUGE carpet that would actually fit all those squirmy little bodies, and some storage space for the classroom. Principal, are you reading this ;)

4. What is your favorite TV show?

Hmmmm, I like Being Erica, How I Met Your Mother and SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. (of course)

5. If you could go back in time, what era would you choose to visit?

1950s, hellooooo flapper costumes.

6. What is your school mascot?

Bear

7. How many kids are in your class?

23 beautiful little people, although that changes on a week by week basis.

8. What is your current obsession? 

It seems like blogging and creating things for TPT is what I do in my spare time. Oh and pinteresting. A lot.  

9. What is your idea of relaxing after a crazy day of teaching?

Having a bath, reading a book, blogging, cooking dinner with the hubby.

10. Do you have a favorite holiday treat or drink?

Well, I really like eggnog, and hot apple cider, and basically anything baking that my mom makes. Yum!

11. Heels or flats?

Flats for school, heels for fun times!!

QUESTIONS FROM OFFICIALLY A FIRST GRADER

1.  What do you think your main strength is as a teacher?

I am really energetic and innovative, I love to learn new things about how to do my job better

2.  What do you think your weakness is as a teacher?

Communication and dealing with parents.

3.  How do you balance work and family?

Always find time to go out on a date, do something fun with family. Trying to prioritize and not do everything.

4.  If you could have any talent (that you don't have), what would it be?

Singing, I wish I could sing really well

5.  How long have you been blogging?

I have been blogging since July 2012

6.  What made you decide to start blogging?

All of the other amazing blogs and being able to share with a wider community.

7.  How many hours, on average, do you spend each day devoted to your job?

Oh boy, that's tricky, depends on the time of year of course. Report card time way more. I put in a regular 9 hour day at school, and then often come home and work on something for at least an hour or two. Not always though.

8.  Do you have a hobby or what do you do to relax?

Dancing, reading a book, cooking

9.  What is your favorite word work activity?

Cookie sheet magnets

10.How do you use technology in the classroom?

I have a SMART board that I use everyday, all day. I also have a microphone and FM system that I use to talk during instruction time.

11.How often do you cook during the week?

My hubby and I cook together, and we usually make something different every second night, and then have the leftovers.

Questions for blogs I nominated from First Grade fun with Mrs. Dunn

1. What is your favourite grade to teach and why?
2. Are you a “wait in line for 6 hours for 50% off” or “pay full price and get in and out” kind of person?
3. What is your favourite book to read?
4. What is your favourite Holiday and what do you like most about it?
5. What is your favourite meal? 
6. What genre of TV or movie do you like the most?
7. If you could be an animal, what would it be and why?
8. What is your favourite subject to teach?
9. Who is your role model?
10. If you could have a superpower what would it be?
11. What is the best date you have ever been on?

Blogs I nominated!

First Grade Follies

1st Grade Hip Hip Hooray! 

The First Grade Derby

First Grade Funtastic 

Mrs. Morse (by day) 

The Wizard of Boz 

2nd Grade Frosting

You Might Be a First Grader...

Owl Inspire You

The Happy Teacher

The Whole Wheat Class

Please check out these blogs, they are awesome! And thanks again to Jayme for nominating me!
Mrs. Dunn

Teaching tip linky

I am linking up with Miss Kindergarten for a teaching tip linky party. I wanted to share some classroom organization ideas, that I may have blogged about way back but I forget, so I am going to post them again. I organize all of the students things in bins at the front of their table, with labels and tags so they know where everything is supposed to go. 

For organizing handouts and whatnot, here is my system; each child has a job that they are assigned to for a couple of weeks. Each job has a magnet on it and sticks to their table.

Hands out papers to their group.

 Can read in the reading corner during silent reading time. 

Helps their group to walk quietly in the hallway with reminders.

Hands out glue sticks and scissors if the group needs them, and they are all in bins at the front of the table.

Mrs. Dunn