Sunday 16 December 2012

We Can See in Winnipeg


Way back in October I saw a blog post by an amazing teacher in Ontario, Angie Harrison. She proposed a project called "What Can You See?" where students observed and then wrote about all of the things they could see from their classroom windows. You can check out her original post here and you can find a collection of posts here.

We looked at a number of submissions by different classrooms and the students begged to make their own book.  Because we do not have a window in our classroom we decided to go for a walk around our school and take pictures of all of the things we could see. Over the next few weeks we wrote the text for our book.

Finally, Mr. Miller, our Vice Principal came and helped us to record an original song to go with our story.


This project has helped to inspire some amazing discussions and even collaborations with other classrooms. We hope you like our book and we can't wait to see more books added to the project.


We would love to see what some of you can see. Please feel free to send us your own "What Can You See?" book. 

11 comments:

  1. Wow, what a wonderful way to share your pictures! I love that you sang your story. I will be sharing this with my students as soon as possible.

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  2. Hi,

    I will also be sharing it with my students tomorrow!

    Please check for a response soon!

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  3. Hello Mrs. Lowe's class,

    We are the kindergarten students from Bond Lake Public School in Ontario, Canada.

    Here is what we thought of your "We Can See" movie:

    Compliments:
    Z.A.: I like the school, because they have a beautiful song!
    L.N.: I like two things. I like the airplane and the trees.
    A.A.: I love everything! The whole thing!

    Connections:
    S.F.: They have a part and we have a park.
    H.W.: The back of the school looks like ours.
    T.M. They have numbers and we have numbers.
    An. Si.: They have a classroom and we have a classroom!
    Z.L.: Their school looks like our school! There are lots of things that look the same!
    Ai. St.: We have a Canada flag and they have a Canada flag.

    Questions:
    T.M.: I wonder why their school looks like ours even though it's far away.
    D.B.: Which toys do you have?

    Our students enjoyed watching your "We Can See" movie and even sang along to your song!

    Have a great day,

    Ms. Babalis and Mrs. Ham's class
    Bond Lake P.S., Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada

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  4. 1) Why we think our school's look the same:
    KN - I think our school's look the same because they are both in Canada.
    JK - I think they look the same because they both have airplanes.
    OH & AD - We noticed they both have airplanes and playgrounds.

    2) Toys we have:
    MS-We have a play structure.
    A - We have a sand box.
    KH - Right now we have a bakery in our classroom.
    KC - We have blocks.
    LZ - We both have Connect Blocks.


    Thanks so much for your response. We loved how many connections you noticed and we had fun answering your questions.

    Room 8, Winnipeg Manitoba

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  5. Please forgive the late response, I have been "holidaying" with the kids and family, and only today opened my work tote bag where I found the notes I'd written when I showed my class your "We Can See" project. I'll include their comments in the next reply.

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  6. Hello to Mrs. Lowe and Room 8 Friends,

    Thank you so much for making a movie to share with us! We are the PM Kindergarten class in room 109 at Thornwood P.S. in Mississauga, Ontario.

    We watched your movie today (December 20th) and we liked it so much we had to watch it again right away! We were especially impressed by your song. Many of us sang along while we watched.

    Here are some "noticings" from our class:

    A.R.: The outside wall is the same colour as ours.
    N.K.: The wall is made of bricks.
    A.K.: The basketball pole is just like ours.

    And here is what some friends thought about your project:

    D.K.: They made a movie of their class to show us? Cool!
    S.S.: I liked your movie!
    S.P.: I want to make a movie. It was great. The music was really nice.
    L.A.: Thank you for singing for us!
    A.K.: They sang a song. Maybe we could sing a song?
    Ms. Fynes: Maybe we could sing a song for our next book, like on our Voicethreads?
    (many voices): "Yeah!"

    We liked that you included your vice principal in the project when you made your song. We wonder if perhaps you will share your movie with your school, during an assembly.

    Happy New Year,

    Ms. Fynes's PM Kindergarten Class

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  7. The last week before the holidays was extremely busy. I just saw this wonderful post tonight. I am excited to show my class your special song tomorrow. Thanks for taking the idea and expanding it. The song is wonderful!
    Angie

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  8. We like your book.
    Thanks for the book.
    We really like your book. You took nice pictures.
    We love your book.
    Thanks for putting some nice pictures in it.
    We also have a bike rack, a Canada Flag, a park and big trees.
    We like your song.
    We like the music you put on the song.
    Do you live close to an airport?
    Do you live in an apartment or a house?
    Where did your vice principal get the microphone?
    Thank you,
    Mrs. Harrison's K class

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    Replies
    1. Dear Mrs. Harrison’s Class,

      We like your book too! DA

      It’s cool that we both have basketball nets. – MS

      We got the microphone because Mr. Miller (our vice principal) is a singer in a band. – JJ

      We noticed that we both have playgrounds – KH

      We do live beside an airport. We see airplanes a lot! – PT

      We have a school made of brick too. -AW

      We have a parking lot too – A

      We have a fence around our yard too. KE

      In our class 3 people live in apartments and 14 people live in houses. – Room 8

      Do you have flowers in your school yard? – KN

      Do you have snow in your school yard? LZ

      Love, Mrs. Lowe's K Class

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  9. Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Fynes, I just saw your lovely comments tonight. I can't wait to show my students tomorrow!

    We will reply as soon as possible.

    Mrs. Lowe

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  10. Hello,

    We are from Lorna Jackson Public School. We like your school. We like your parking lot. How are you doing?

    Here are some compliments for you:
    Thank you for your book. - R.F.
    Thank you for doing the parking. - P.B.
    I liked the playground because you get to play in it. - J.S. (SK)
    I liked your park because you can play games. - W.F.
    I would love to play in your playground. - T.B.
    I liked the playground. - J.S.

    Here are some connections we have with what we see here at our school:
    We can see a playground. - A.M.
    We can see the trees. - H.D.
    We can see a parking lot. - A.C.
    My cousin's name is Steven. - L.D.

    We have some questions for you:
    What do you play at the community centre? - J.S. (SK)
    What do you play with at recess time? - L.D.
    Do you put dirty toys in your compost box? - V.D.
    We want to know if you get snow in the winter time. We are getting lots of snow that we can play with at recess time! - our class
    What goes in your compost box? - Ms. Schmidt & Ms. Theis

    Ms. Schmidt and Ms. Theis would like to know more about how you wrote and recorded your beautiful song! Could you please share with us how you did it?

    Thank you for your book and we liked your book about your school! We would like you to write us back a letter.

    From,
    Ms. Schmidt and Ms. Theis' Kindergarten Class
    Lorna Jackson Public School
    Woodbridge, Ontario

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