Look What’s Happening in Room 102!

Mrs. Lynch’s Classroom Blog

Animation

May 15, 2013 by · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

Grade 1 is planning a Field Trip to the National Film Board in Montreal in a few weeks.  To prepare for our trip we are starting to learn about different techniques of Animation.  We have two apps on our 2 ipads.  One is the NFB’s Pix Stop and the other is Flip Boom.  Pix Stop uses the camera on the ipad to do stop motion and the Flip Boom uses a drawing pad and a light to draw animations.    We looked at a few tutorial videos on Pix Stop to get us started and then experimented with Flip Boom.  Watch our video to see our first animations.

FlipBoom animations from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

 

What do you think?

I have to warn you that it is so much fun and addictive. 

Add Flip Boom to your ipad and you will have hours of fun!

Check back to see more Stop Motion animations from grade 1

Art Appreciation of our Monet Paintings

May 15, 2013 by · 2 Comments · Uncategorized

Grade 1 painted like Claude Monet a few weeks ago. Did you see our paintings on a previous post?
Well, we had some fun with a green screen. We took each students’ photograph sitting on a stool with a piece of green fabric behind them. Then with Keynote (a Mac presentation software, like microsoft’s powerpoint) we inserted that photo onto our painting. With keynote’s “alpha” tool we were able to take off the green background. What was left was the student sitting on the bridge of their Monet Lilly Pond.

Then we talked about our paintings – What we could see, what we did, how we felt about our painting, did we do our best and one person wrote what he wished he could do from the bridge.

Watch our movie and see us on Monet’s bridge with our art appreciation writing.

Art Appreciaton with Monet from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

 

What do you think of our work? Our Paintings?
What would you do, see, or wish for if you were on Monet’s Bridge?

 

Actually, I sewed this green screen together about 3 or 4 years ago.  It wasn’t until I visited Tricia Fuglestad’s blog, an Art teacher and saw all her amazing work with her students that I got the idea to put my students on the bridge.

 Check out a vimeo of Tricia using a green screen:  

What ways could you use a green screen?  What about if your class is doing a dinosaur project?  You could put them next to a dinosaur or a picture that they drew of a dinosaur.  They could be a reporter or a scientist.  Once I did this project I could visualize other ways of using a green screen.  Try it!  It is fun and the kids loved it.


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Celebrating Earth Day

May 3, 2013 by · 5 Comments · Uncategorized

Grade One celebrated Earth Week this week. On Wednesday we make paper in the morning and used recycled materials to make robots and other creations in the afternoon.

Ms. Mohammed helped us make paper in her class. She had it all set up in the back of her classroom in an assembly line. Watch the video below to see us making paper.

Thanks to all the parents that helped us on Wednesday. We had some parents in the morning to help make the paper and some in the afternoon to help us make our creations from recycled materials.

I filmed the kids presenting their creations at the end of the day. They did not rehearse.

Creation 3 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Creation 1 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Creation 4 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Creation 5 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Creation 7 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Creation 8 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Creation 2 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Creation 6 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

We had lots of discussions about how to protect our planet. We talked about what we should recycle or put in the garbage. We talked about Reusing and Reducing, too. I read the The Lorax by Dr. Seus and we watched the 1972 movie of The Lorax on Youtube.

What do you do to help protect our planet?

Did you do anything for Earth Week in your classroom?

What did you do?

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Earth Week

May 1, 2013 by · 2 Comments · Uncategorized

Grade One is celebrating Earth Week this week. Today we made recycled paper and also made creations from recycled materials. I wasn’t very prepared and my camera’s battery died. I resorted to using my ipad but am disappointed in the quality of the photos and video. I guess I need more practice. Well, see below for the first installment of pictures.

One thing you can probably tell by the photos is that we had a lot of fun. Thanks to all the parents who helped us today.

Recycled Creations from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

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Telling Time

April 30, 2013 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

Here is a game to help practice telling time.

Painting Like Claude Monet

April 24, 2013 by · 12 Comments · Uncategorized

Grade One had a lot of fun this week painting like Claude Monet.  We used his Lilly Pond painting as inspiration.  I had visited Giverny, France and had taken some photographs of Monet’s garden.  First I showed the children my photos.  Then I showed them some of Monet’s paintings.  Using Google Art Project I was able to zoom in and show them how Monet used small brush strokes to get the “impressionism” style.  You can really see the texture in the paintings and the layers of different colors.  To make the bridge stand out I used green painters tape and taped a bridge to each paper before starting.  We used acrylic paint on card stock.  When the paintings were dry I peeled off the green tape.

 I think we may have some future artists in our class.

What do you think?

Who is your favourite painter?

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Learning About Birds

April 24, 2013 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

Grade One has been learning about birds.  We read a Read and Find Out Science Book called A Nest Full of Eggs.  We learned how to draw a robin.  We also wrote our own Bird poem.

Birds have 2 legs.

Birds have feathers.

Birds lay eggs.

Birds have beaks.

Some birds fly, some don’t.

Some birds migrate to warmer climates in winter.

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Digital Safety

April 5, 2013 by · 2 Comments · Uncategorized

Grade One loves working with technology and we are learning how to stay safe when we are online.  We are using a website called Common Sense Media.  This is a great site for parents to visit, as well as teachers.  It will help parents with many questions they might have about how to keep their child safe on the internet.  I encourage parents to check it out.

Mike Sitruk has been helping us with this very important theme.  We have had two sessions so far.  The first one was on “Going Places Safely”  Students learned that they can go to exciting places online but they need to  follow certain  rules to stay safe.

When going online follow these 3 rules to stay safe

1. Ask a parent (or teacher) first.

2. Only talk to people you know.

3. Stick to places that are just right for you.

 

Our second session with Mike focused on privacy issues.

What kind of information should I keep to myself when I use the internet?

Students learned that many websites ask for information that is private and we discussed how to responsibly handle such requests.

We viewed an online form that asked for private information and we talked about how they should never share this kind of information online.  Students then viewed sites that ask them to create usernames, and they learned rules for safeguarding  their private information when they create usernames.  We brainstormed words that might mean something to them – pet they like, pet name, sport, favorite number.  Username ideas were sportdude, dog100,  boomer10, soccerboy, dancegirl, etc.

In this lesson we learned to:

1. recognize the kind of information that is private. (full name, age, address, telephone number, email address, where they go to school or after school, where their parents work)

2. understand that they should never give out private information on the Internet

3. learn to create effective usernames that protect their private information

 

We can’t wait until Mike comes to our class for our next lesson on Digital Safety.

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Happy Easter

March 30, 2013 by · 3 Comments · Uncategorized

Grade One wants to wish all our families, friends and blogging buddies a Happy Easter.  We’ve been singing a bunny song in Music.  We had made a Bunny Card and on the spur of the moment I grabbed my camera to video the kids singing.

medium from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

What did you do for Easter?
What is your Easter tradition?
Do you look for your Easter basket on Easter morning?

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More Characters Talking

March 20, 2013 by · 5 Comments · Uncategorized

Here are the rest of our animations. We hope you enjoy watching our videos.

See our previous post for the first ten videos.
What do you think of our Art Work? our animations?

Do you have a favourite storybook character?
Please leave us a message and tell us what you think.

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Harry from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Lilly and Her Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

Lilly from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

Knuffle Bunny from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor

Fancy Nancy from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Verdi by Janell Cannon

Verdi from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Pigeon in stories by Mo Willems

Pigeon 2 from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Piggy  in stories by Mo Willmes

Piggy from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Shark in “Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton

Shark from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Elephant in stories by Mo Willems

Gerald from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

Pigeon in stories by Mo Willems

Pigeon from Mary Ellen Lynch on Vimeo.

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