It’s a Wrap!

OUR FINAL THOUGHTS

The Begbie Buzz Junior Journalists have learned so much about writing throughout the school year.  In the last ten months, I have watched the children gradually take ownership of their newspaper blog, and unknowingly develop many of the Core Competencies along the way.

The 6 Core Competencies include:

Positive Personal and Cultural Identity

  • I know who I am and some special things about me.
  • I can tell you about the people, places, and things that are important to me.

Personal Awareness and Responsibility

  • I can set goals for my learning behaviour.
  • I can manage my feelings and emotions.

Social Responsibility

  • I help the school and the environment.
  • I understand that other people can be different from me.

Critical Thinking

  • I can analyze evidence from different perspectives.
  • I can ask open-ended questions and gather information.

Creative Thinking

  • I get ideas when I play and explore.
  • I try a new idea when something doesn’t work.

Communication

  • I can share my ideas and questions.
  • I can listen to others.

This newspaper project has been equally exciting and gratifying for me as well as my students.   In fact, what thrilled me the most was watching these Junior Journalists find meaning and connections with the Core Competencies as they interviewed others, debated about certain topics, reviewed books and movies, or created their own comic strips.

On behalf of THE BEGBIE BUZZ team, thank you for supporting our newspaper blog.

Thank you for being an authentic audience.

Thank you for teaching the students that their voices matter.

Until next time.

🙂


 

James and the Giant Peach Circus Show

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH CIRCUS SHOW

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

On Friday, May 10th, Division 11 walked to the PNE Garden Auditorium to see a circus show!  Most of the students did not even know what a circus was, so there was a lot of anticipation!

The children could not wait to review the show by CircusWest.

Compared to previous show reviews, the kids were much more honest in their feelings about the circus show.  I love that they have really gained confidence in their OWN voices in the last few months!

Enjoy!

 

The Begbie Buzz – What are Comic Strips?

OUR “SUNDAY FUNNIES” – GOOD FOR EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK!

As a class, we revisited features that are often found in newspapers.

As soon as someone mentioned comic strips, the students all declared that learning to cartoon would be our next project for our newspaper blog.  Most of the kids love to draw, and given that a comic strip is just a sequence of drawings arranged in panels to showcase humour or a short narrative, this medium was right up their alley!

To help us along, we took time to study Mo Willems’s artistic style and stories.  The children noticed the following things about the way he illustrates characters such as Piggie, Elephant, Knufflebunny, Trixie, and Pigeon:

Mo Willems often uses:

  • speech or talking bubbles to reveal what the characters are saying to us or to each other
  • thinking bubbles to show what his characters are thinking or reflecting on
  • HUGE words to show someone is loud, excited, or upset
  • all CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation point to show strong emotions
  • tiny font to show someone is quiet, shy, or unsure
  • quotation marks to show a character is talking (“Hello Gerald!”)
  • lots of punctuation marks !!!!???? to emphasize what the character is feeling
  • different facial expressions on the animation to show the different characters’ emotions 
  • feeling words
  • movement or motion lines. 
  • direction to show which way characters are going
  • sound words (“POW!”)
  • humour

The children were very eager to try out many of Mo’s writing elements in their own comic strips!

Full credit goes to Kate of picklebum.com for the free comic strip templates.

Please click on the picture below to see her free comic book templates:

Free Printable Comic Book Templates!

We hope you enjoy our “Sunday Funnies.”  🙂

 

Coyote Spotted at Begbie

BREAKING NEWS!!!

On Tuesday, January 22nd, the students were all abuzz at school because a coyote was spotted not once, but twice, on our school grounds in the morning.

Our Roving Reporters were given a mission:  to work as an entire news team to get the latest information on the situation.  Children were split into 3 groups.  Each group was responsible for getting the “scoop” regarding this very unusual circumstance.

One group – the second graders – focused their attention on what is a coyote.  Like all good reporters, they investigated and researched heavily (using online sources on our iPads) to find out valuable information about the animal in question.

For Animal Research Templates, full credit goes to:  Teaching Resource Queen

Another group was responsible for reporting to the general public what exactly happened yesterday:

  • Who saw the coyote first?
  • What time did the coyote come to our school?
  • Who dealt with the coyote?
  • Where was the coyote?

Our final group worked on finding out what people ought to do if or when a coyote is nearby.  They had the essential task of providing information to readers for the purpose of public safety.

The BEGBIE BUZZ News Team was absolutely invested in wanting to write.

They wanted you to know about the coyote situation at Begbie because they wanted you to be informed.  They wanted you to know what to do should you ever meet a coyote.

Reporting for BEGBIE BUZZ NEWS, we are Division 11.  Good night.  🙂

What is Digital Citizenship?

Thanks to SET-BC, we currently have 6 iPads for our class to use for our special newspaper project.  With the iPads, the students will learn to use technology to enhance and showcase their learning with tools such as photos, video recording, Voice Memos, or apps such as Book Creator and Explain Everything.  My hope is that this tech project will indirectly help increase students’ interest in verbal or written communication, as well as motivate students to write with purpose. 

“Great communication begins with connection.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

Before we could even start to play with our 6 iPads and begin our newspaper blog, it was important and necessary for our class to talk about Digital Citizenship.

During our Tech Time lessons, we learned that all good digital citizens:

  • protect private information for themselves and others:  “I will log out, and not share my login or password with others.”
  • respect themselves and others:  “I will always ask for consent or permission before I take anyone’s photos or record a video of someone.”
  • balance the time they spend online and using media:  “I will keep the device safe and secure at all times.  I will use the device only for the assigned task.”
  • stay safe online:  “I will visit appropriate websites that promote learning and are for educational purposes.”
  • respect copyright and intellectual property.
  • carefully manage their digital footprint:  “I will use kind words and remember my digital footprint should never harm others.”
  • stand up to cyberbullying if/when they see it happening.

As Spiderman once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” 🙂

Hello, World.

Our Junior Journalists are pleased to share the latest news with you on our newspaper blog.  Throughout the school year, the students will learn about the different features that make up a newspaper:  interviews, weather forecasts, community news, entertainment news, comic strips, editorials, and more!

Visit often for the latest scoop.  Newest posts are usually found nearest to the top; scroll down for older posts.

Please enjoy THE BEGBIE BUZZ.

What is a Newspaper?

Using an inquiry approach to learning, the students worked together in small groups to make their own discoveries about what a newspaper is.  They looked at a simple newspaper called West Coast Reader.

There was good discussion between group members, with students noticing that newspapers often have the following features:

  • title
  • date
  • page numbers
  • photos
  • words (with titles being bigger, and stories being smaller)
  • thin newsprint paper
  • weather news
  • sports news
  • news about shows or movies
  • comics
  • news about the community or world
  • reminders about upcoming events
  • names of reporters
  • word search or crossword puzzles or sudoku puzzles

When asked what is the purpose of newspapers during a class discussion, the children’s responses included:

  • to tell us what is going on near us
  • to give us information

My hope with this special newspaper project is for students to learn the power of communication, and to be personally invested in sharing the written word with their readers.

“I became a journalist to come as close as possible to the heart of the world.” ~ Henry Luce