PDAF Successful Project Profiles - Elementary
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2015-2016
Firefly Yoga
15-16/02/E
School: Felix Marchand Education Centre
Grade: P-4
School Board: Strait Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Tanya Sampson
Team Members: Lisa Burt, Denise Chiasson, Scott Goyetche
Firefly Yoga encourages daily physical activity, to promote self-regulation and to equip students with strategies for calming routines while providing an opportunity to build on student awareness of mind and body. Firefly Yoga will assist students in promoting positive self-regulation and will equip all students with appropriate calming routines while promoting physical activity and motor development in a non-competitive environment. Firefly Yoga will also promote focus and attention, which are key factors in student success and a benefit to overall mental health.
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Multicultural Play Based Learning
15-16/14/E
School: Duc d’Anville Elementary
Grade: 1
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Leah Matheson
This project is intended for students to learn through the medium of purposeful play with a focus on multiculturalism. I believe that learning through play will be an essential teaching strategy in delivering the grade one curriculum and will be especially beneficial for our large population of students from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds. Of the 170 immigrant students that are part of our school community, 140 are refugees. Understandably, many of these students have limited English, and face a multitude of challenges including coping with a new home, culture, school and language. Learning through play is ideal for my global classroom as it is naturally diverse, is student centred, and can be utilized as a building block to support and develop oral language skills. By purchasing a range of multicultural play based materials, students will have the opportunity to discover, explore and work with their peers in a safe environment that is culturally relevant.
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Optimizing (Streamlining) Lessons
15-16/17/E
School: Cumberland North Academy
Grade: P-4
School Board: Chignecto-Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Holly MacDonald
The primary goal is to have mathematical language/concepts incorporated into the guided lessons focusing on the concepts (vocabulary, processes, comprehension and language) from the streamlined curriculum in the grades primary to 3 at Cumberland North Academy.
The Project Team consists of the Principal, 3 Classroom Teachers (primary, 3 and ¾) and an Early Literacy Support/Literacy based Program Support Teacher who are all educators at Cumberland North Academy C.N.A. In addition, a Regional Literacy Mentor, is providing support to this project. C.NA. is a rurally located school, with approximately 325 students ranging from Grade P-6 and French Immersion Grade 5-6.
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Harmony Heights Mountain Bike Club
15-16/22/E
School: Harmony Heights Elementary
Grade: 4-5
School Board: Chignecto-Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Craig Cameron
We are very excited to be starting the HHE Mountain Bike Club with help from the PDAF. This grant will allow all interested students to have an opportunity to take part in the sport of mountain biking, while developing physical strength and social skills with peers. While learning some of the skills of mountain biking students will also get the opportunity to work with community bike clubs and explore the trails around our school and throughout Victoria Park. The opportunity to take part in our club can open doors to the active biking community in Truro and the surrounding area.
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Snowshoe Integration
15-16/23/E
School: Beaver Bank Monarch Elementary
Grade: P-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Mark Clattenburg
Along with the students and staff at Beaver Bank Monarch Elementary, I would like thank the NSTU for the allocation of $5000 to purchase snowshoes to promote outdoor education and an appreciation of the beautiful surroundings we are so fortunate to live in here in Nova Scotia. This grant will allow us to implement another component of the Physical Education curriculum that is currently unattainable to our students. The idea behind the project is to promote outdoor physical activity during a time of year (winter) when most children live a more sedentary lifestyles due to the weather. Through the moderate exercise that snowshoeing provides, students will experience many physical health benefits such as increased heart rates and metabolism, as well as improved insulin sensitivity.
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Smart Games in the Classroom
15-16/26/E
School: Hammonds Plains Cons. School
Grade: 2
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Pam Zawidski
Project Team Members: Leona Bekkers, Rhonda Webb, Elaine Russell, Trish Pool
Grade Two teachers at Hammonds Plains Consolidated School are incorporating play based learning philosophies in their classrooms. Our team is consciously building critical thinking concepts and strategies in the learning environment, especially in our mathematics classes through the use of Smart Games. We understand the need for students to be exposed to resources that encourage and facilitate intentional play-based learning opportunities. Play based learning is guided learning that encourages children to investigate, ask questions, problem solve and think critically. Through the use of Smart Games students experience success; by building metacognition skills that ensure they develop essential critical thinking dispositions.
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Making A Difference
15-16/27/E
School: Truro Elementary
Grade: 4-5
School Board: Chignecto-Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Martha Shephard Duguay
Team Members: Krista Murray Hayden, Chantel Bishop, Sandra Thompson
Our project “Making a Difference” seeks to create a maker-classroom where students in a combined grade four/five French immersion class will be able to invent a product or application that would improve the quality of life for someone with a disability. The project will then allow the students to engage and share their ideas and inventions with various community groups that might benefit or enjoy the children’s inventions. This community contact could include visits to a local nursing home, the VON adult day treatment centre, the Stroke support group etc. This would allow the students to make a personal connection with their inventions and see real life application for their projects.
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Learning in Motion
15-16/42/E
School: Caldwell Road Elementary
Grade: 2-5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Lisa Dickens
Team Members: Annette Gaudet, Banjo Ward, Janice Murray
The Learning in Motion project will consist of outfitting two classrooms in upper and lower elementary with enough wiggle seats for every child and foot fidgets for many students, plus a stand up desk for each classroom. Some students who have been identified as needing even more intervention will also receive sensory fidget/stress balls to help relieve stress and help students gain self-control. This will help those children who are in dire need of physical release during class time without disrupting the flow of regular class time. It will also increase student engagement and therefore student achievement.
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“Kids Can Fly Too” Coding with minidrones project
15-16/44/E
School: Rockingham Elementary
Grade: 3-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Andrew Stickings
It is now time for the next technology chapter to be written as students begin to coding miniDRONES. My students have been coding for almost a year now with their Sphero Robots and now it is time for them to take into the air and up there game by opening a new chapter by incorporating miniDRONES in our STEM challenge projects. My new "Kids Can Fly Too" Drone project will begin this new chapter in our class and school. We are excited to introduce miniDRONES to which develop both critical thinking and problem solving skills as well as add to the excitement building around learning becoming fun again.
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Desk Cycling for Better Health and Education
15-16/45/E
School: Millwood Elementary School
Grade: P-5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Todd Van Ritchie
This project will see DeskCycles (under desk pedallers) introduced into every classroom of the school. Within the classroom there will be freedom for the teacher to use them as best fits their program. The strategy that will be suggested will be turn taking by all students every 10-15 minutes throughout the day. In the course of the 300 minute instructional day, each student in a class of 20-25 could receive at least an additional 10 minutes of exercise for each DeskCycle that is introduced to the classroom, without disrupting the class routines and lessons.
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Tamboa Music Exploration
15-16/47/E
School: Truro Elementary School
Grade: P-2
School Board: Chignecto Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Sara Munday-Hazelton
Team Members: Belinda Fraser
At Truro Elementary we are excited to be starting a “Tamboa Exploration Project” to serve students with unique abilities in our Special Education Program, as well as our grade primary to two classes. It is sometimes challenging for many students in these classes to play instruments that produce a pitch (such as xylophones) due to the muscle control required. The tamboa is an ideal instrument for developing activities for students, as it allows them to experience success with great ease. The instruments can be used to accompany songs and stories; for stop and go movement activities; to improvise rhythms; and for the exploration of songs and dances from other cultures. Students will learn specific mallet instrument skills such as beat keeping vs. rhythm; playing with hands together or with alternating hands; to play at different dynamic levels; to play at different tempos; to play legato and staccato styles.
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Dual Language Start Up Kits- First Language Learners
15-16/49/E
School: Duc d’Anville Elementary
Grade: P-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Holly Shaffner
Team Members: Laurie McOnie, Marisa Baldwin, Gwen Birt
Dual Language Start Up Kits- First Language Learners is a school/community literacy outreach project. Our Dual Language Start Up Kits is part of a school wide project entitled Bag of Books which seeks to support home and school literacy learning for English as Additional Language Learners and students at risk for literacy learning. Books and materials in our Dual Language Start Up Kits will be available to borrow for both home and school. Text and audio resources will be accessible in English alongside the student’s first language, ensuring that links of learning are obtainable for our English as Additional Language Learners.
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Sphero Robots in the Classroom
15-16/57/E
School: Ecole Chebucto Heights
Grades: 5-6
School Board: HRSB
Project Coordinator: Kelly Cyr
Team Members: Mary Beth McCarron, Jamie Lawlor-MacInnis, Keegan Vosman
Students can learn, play, and explore with Sphero 2.0 and Sphero SPRK. Play is a powerful tool and by fusing technology with robotics, it will be inspiring tomorrow’s inventors and innovators. With the use of Sphero, I want to provide my students with a foundation of programming. This program is a powerful teacher that will give my students a fun crash course in programming. It will also serve to sharpen their skills in math and computer science. It will also be incorporated in science, social studies, and language arts.
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Welcome to Canada: Advice for New Canadians
15-16/61/E
School: Bedford South School
Grades: P-6
School Board: HRSB
Project Coordinator: Shelly Bembridge
The influx of immigrants is evident at Bedford South School where classes range from 15%-50% of students who speak English as an additional language. Welcome to Canada: Advice for New Canadians will give student advice and resources to support students settling into life in Nova Scotia. The objective is to:
- Encourage cross-cultural understanding
- Develop collaboration and communication skills amongst students
- Foster a culturally responsive environment where cultural competence is a priority and respect for differences is cultivated
- Develop positive student attitudes about cultural differences teamwork and collaboration
- Develop greater understanding for and an appreciation of the challenges facing Canadians.
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Reinventing the Rube Goldberg Machine
15-16/66/E
School: Hillside Park Elementary School
Grades: 5
School Board: HRSB
Project Coordinator: Jeff Hennigar
Team Members: Ben Smith
This project will act as a summative assessment for students as they complete the grade 5 simple machines unit. Students will apply what they’ve learned about the simple machines and combine these elements to create Rube Goldberg chain-reaction contraptions—with a twist! Student created machines will include 3D printed elements, programmed robots, electronics with sensors, as well as Lego and everyday objects.
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Le technologie chez les maternelles
15-16/78/E
School: Chebucto Heights Elementary
Grades: E: P, 5-6
School Board: HRSB
Project Coordinator: Becky Himmelman
“Le technologie chez les maternelles” will be an introduction for Primary students to educational technology. Osmo systems, Ozobots, and iPads will give students the opportunity to explore Math and Language Arts as well as develop spatial skills. The Osmo is simple enough for four and five year old students to learn, and it connects the 2D world of the iPad to the 3D learning environment of the students. Ozobots allow young students to begin to explore coding through colour codes. Introducing students to these programs early will jump start their introduction to STEM education.
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2014-2015
Drumming Up Nova Scotian Culture
14-15/01/E
School: St. Andrews Consolidated School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Strait Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Jackie Dunn MacIsaac
Team Members: Suzanne Delaney, Bryan Smith
“Drumming Up Nova Scotian Culture” is a cultural initiative being implemented with grade P-6 students at St. Andrews Consolidated School. With the purchase of new Mi’kmaq, Celtic, Acadian and African drums and percussion, students’ cultural experiences will be heightened by learning about and through culture while performing music from their community’s, County’s and Province’s cultural branches. Students will be introduced to, experience, and actively learn through living culture which in turn will foster their cultural identity and spotlight the rich multicultural diversity within our school. These new instruments will enliven classroom performances, monthly assemblies, cultural events and public concerts.
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Daily 3 Math
14-15/05/E
School: Enfield School
Grade: 1
School Board: Chignecto Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Karen Smith
Team Members: Melanie Gilroy
Daily 3 Math is a framework for teaching Mathematics that includes focused instruction and independent practice. It presents the curriculum with bursts of instruction (as brain research suggests) followed by engaging tasks and activities. Students participate in: “Math by Myself”, “Math with Someone” and “Math with Writing” each day.
This design teaches students to build stamina for staying on task with meaningful activities resulting in strong engagement, independence and accountability. It offers opportunities for differentiated learning and produces an environment with less time spent on classroom management, allowing easier one-on-one and small group instruction.
“Math by Myself” and “Math with Someone”, are steeped in the kinaesthetic practice of concepts. They are activity based and offer time for hands on activities. “Math with Writing” gives an opportunity to express and articulate thinking and understanding of the concepts through pictures, numbers and words.
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“Desktop Documentaries for Elementary Social Studies”
14-15/08/E
School: Bridgewater Elementary School
Grade: 3-5
School Board: South Shore Regional School Board
Team Members: Sheila Wamboldt and Karen Covey
Desktop documentary making offers social studies teachers at the elementary level a unique way to empower students to create their own histories and stories in a fun and engaging way. Students at Bridgewater Elementary will be creating historical documentaries between 5 and 10 minutes in length. They will be developing their own questions and arguments using inquiry based learning practices and utilizing both primary and secondary sources in the creation of their documentaries. The project will engage student interests while positioning them to interpret meaning from the past and use their imaginations. Students will choose heritage/historical topics from family histories, community, provincial or national areas of interest that reflect our rich Canadian Heritage. They will develop scripts, research, conduct interviews, act, and film, digitally edit, and critique each other’s completed documentaries. The grant will be used in the purchase of equipment and software for the production of the documentaries.
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Creating SPACE-Teaching in the Trauma Informed Classroom
14-15/11/E
School: Northeast Kings/Glooscap Elementary
Grade: 2
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Beverley Roy
Team Members: Kathy Ann Johnson, Krista Duncan, Corena Burbidge
Trauma can impact on the brain, body, emotions, memory, relationships, learning and behavior. Making “SPACE” for Learning requires a philosophical shift at looking at students in a different way. Instead of focusing just on the punishment, the goal will be restoring the relationship between student, peers or staff. It is a collaborative approach with home, school and families. The key is to reshape trauma based behavior and help students reconnect in a positive way. I am a guidance counselor at two schools and have targeted Primary and Grade 6 students with the hope of reducing the behavioral issues in those two settings though coaching, support and using the Mind Up curriculum.
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Project Aurasma-Math
14-15/12/E
School: Sackville Heights Elementary
Grade: 2-3
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Pascal Routledge
Team Members: Mario Eleftheros, Pennelope Bell-Tovey, Jillian Fullarton
The nature of this cross-curriculum project Aurasma-Math is to create Math-Augmented “HOW-TO” Videos. This project will provide an enriched learning experience whereby students are to create, share, and curate math instructional videos through the use of iPads provided by this grant. This project will develop the math, language arts and digital literacy skills of all students by using iPads to create these videos, which are launched by a scanned Augmented Reality (AR) trigger image, all created by the students using various apps.
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"Guitar Creativity" An Elementary Approach
14-15/13/E
School: Greenfield Elementary/Donkin Gowrie Complex
Grade: 5-6
School Board: Cape Breton/Victoria Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Donalda Westcott
"Guitar Creativity" is a program designed to introduce elementary students in grades 5 and 6 to the basics of the guitar, through the use of folk music and the music inherent within their home community. Through the introduction of another folk instrument to their instrumentarium, it is intended that students can engage with the music of their area, and of Atlantic Canada, as well as forge links between music of their collective past, present and future.
As guitar instruction is not currently readily offered within the elementary school context, this project is designed to expand musical skill development for all students while supporting and encouraging students through access to enriched musical experiences outside of the realm of the regular classroom music experience.
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“iKnow iCan Fostering Student’s Literacy Growth in the Digital Age”
13-14/19/E
School: Sycamore Lane Elementary School
Grade: 2-3
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Lisa MacLeod
Team Member: Amanda Pashkoski
“iKnow iCan Fostering Student’s Literacy Growth in the Digital Age” involves the use of ipads in the classroom to support daily literacy learning of all students including students with Individual Program Plans and adaptations. The use of technology will not only be engaging but motivational for our students. Most of our students have limited exposure to the use of technology for educational purposes. The technology will not only help our student to become competent digital citizens, but they will be used for students to practice, engage with, develop and immerse themselves in literacy activities (through literacy based games/apps, written work, presentations etc.) The technology, ipads, will be used a means to deliver and enhance the Language Arts outcomes being taught in our classrooms.
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Spinning to Learn
14-15/25/E
School: Hebbville Academy
Grade: P-5
School Board: South Shore Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Krista McDow
Team Members: Scott Rawding, Janet Dornan, Erin Ramsay
Self-regulation is the ability to manage your own energy states, including emotions, behaviors, and attention in ways that are socially acceptable. Our goal is to improve the self-regulation of students in Grade P-5 by providing each class with a stationary spin bike. Regular brain breaks, especially ones that get kids physically active, enhance attentiveness, concentration, focus, and accelerate learning by allowing children to release their energy, anxiety, and stress. Stationary spin bikes provide students with a positive way to help their minds and bodies adapt to the social and academic demands they face at school each day.
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Succeeding in the Social World
14-15/26/E
School: Beechville Lakeside Timberlea Schools
Grade: 3-5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Debbie Supple
Team Members: Albertine Clements
The project will enable the development of social and emotional regulation skills using iPad technology. This will involve video modelling and interactive learning using Apps such as Conversation Builder or Social Skill builder that are age appropriate, relevant and engaging for elementary aged students. The use of IPADs and specific Apps will enable the guidance counsellor and SLP to enhance small group and individual lessons that can be conducted in various locations. The students will be able to generalize their skills with various communication partners. The use of technology such as IPADS is an excellent teaching tool to address the areas of concern.
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Stability and Focus in the Classroom
14-15/30/E
School: Tallahassee Community School
Grade: 3
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Yvonne LaPierre
Team Members: Tracey MacDonald
The purpose of using balls as seats in the classroom is to help the children focus better on instruction. Not only should it help them become more physically fit because core muscles are strengthened, it allows "active sitting" with little to no disturbance in the classroom as it provides a child's need for movement (provided by the need to balance on the ball). Brain research has shown that there is a link between movement and academic performance. Sitting on balls, because it makes one sit up straighter, increases blood flow to the brain and all parts of the body. Combining movement and increasing blood flow should result in increased classroom learning. The use of ball seating has also been a motivational factor for children, as well as being fun to use.
Public school education in Nova Scotia has two major goals: to help all students develop to their full potential cognitively, effectively, physically and socially and to help all students acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary for them to continue as thinking, learning, physically active, valued members of society. We feel this project meets these requirements.
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“Let’s Grow, Cook, Eat & Learn” – Young Chefs Discovery in the Primary Classroom.
14-15/35/E
School: Basinview Drive Community School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Cindy Ng-Ivanoff
The funds granted for this project will be used to purchase cooking equipment for a mobile cooking cart, supplies for indoor & outdoor gardening, a vermicomposting unit, and a class set of chef hats and aprons.
This project will allow students to see the food connection from garden to table as the students grow their own food in the classroom and school garden. Students will also develop basic cooking skills through hands on experiences in preparing healthy and nutritious snacks and meals. They will learn about the importance of making balanced and healthy food choices. We will also record “Young Chefs” cooking videos and host a Family Cooking Night, which will bring parents and children together to discover easy ways to prepare nutritious and affordable meals and snacks.
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Engaging Math Minds of Students At-Risk: Supporting Students with Math Achievement through Digital Inclusion
14-15/36/E
School: Prince Arthur Junior High
Grade: 7-9
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Kurt Chadwick
This project aims to remove barriers of digital equitability for Grade 9 students at Prince Arthur Junior High and increase achievement in mathematics. The Math 9 experience will be augmented by tablet and internet-based technology to improve student engagement and motivation while also developing 21st century skills. Devices will be synchronized during group instruction with the Nearpod app to mirror content, control devices, host interactive polls, and provide real-timeassessments. Course instructionwill also be screencasted using the ShowMe app and published online so that it may be accessed asynchronously - at any time or place and as frequently as needed.
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Vers Chrome… et Google Apps : Soyons actifs!
14-15/37/E
School: École Jean-Marie-Gay
Grade: P-6
School Board: Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial
Project Coordinator: Monette Boudreau
Team Members: Tina Blinn, Michel Gaudet
Les élèves auront la chance d’élargir leurs connaissances à travers la nouvelle technologie qui prend sa place dans nos écoles et notre avenir. Avec les Chromebook voici la chance pour les élèves de devenir apprenants actifs en utilisant Google Apps aussi. La pédagogie différenciée et l’apprentissage par les intelligences multiples permettent à tous les élèves de connaître du succès et d’augmenter leur estime de soi. L’élève devienne engagé et motivé dans ses propres apprentissages à son niveau ainsi qu’à travailler en groupe sur plusieurs projets afin de créer des groupes collaboratifs. De plus, en utilisant les stratégies de CAFÉ et les 5 au quotidien, les élèves seront capables d’approfondir leurs stratégies ainsi que des concepts appris en salle de classe.
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Outdoor Adventures
14-15/38/E
School: Cumberland North Academy
Grade: P-6
School Board: Chignecto Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Mike LeBlanc
Team Members: Entire Staff
“Outdoor Adventures” is a program which involves getting children in P-6 outside with a focus on the winter months. Activities which students will take part in range from Sledding, Swimming, Curling, Skating, Cross Country Skiing, Downhill Skiing, Snow Shoeing, Canoeing, Overnight camping, geo-caching and Orienteering. The program is unique as all activities are ‘learnto’ and are taught by the physical education specialist and local leaders in the community such as Can Skate and Scout leaders to name a few. The program breaks the traditional 30 minutes physical education class and gives students the opportunity to experience these activities from a half day to full day. All experiences are free of charge for our students and engage the students in lifelong family orientated activities.
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Purpose and Audience: Increasing Students' Motivation in Writer's Workshop
14-15/40/E
School: Tantallon Senior Elementary School
Grade: 5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Jeffery Hennigar
This project promotes the idea that we all put more care into our writing when we know that others are going to be reading it. Children and adults alike can be more willing and more likely to edit and revise their writing if they know it is going to be read by others.
By creating a class wiki, where students can easily access and edit their writing and course work (for example, photographs of physical work), students will have an audience for their work that goes beyond the classroom. Students will comment on the work of others offering both revision ideas and compliments on a job well done. This forum will motivate students to do their best, and will give them more reasons to be proud of their own work.
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"We Have Big Shoes to Fill”
14-15/41/E
School: Harry R. Hamilton
Grade: P-5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Colleen Briand-Kennedy
Team Members: Gail Langille, Alyson Walker
The sun is shining and the snow is sparkling, don't you wish you had a reason to take the students outside to enjoy the great outdoors? "We Have Big Shoes to Fill" is just the project needed to get everyone moving. Canadian studies show that people who are physically active live longer and healthier lives. Active people also report having a greater self-esteem. This project is designed to motivate and educate our school community of ways to remain advocates for lifelong healthy living while enjoying our Canadian winters. Snowshoeing promotes an inclusive environment for all participants.
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21st Century Listening Centre
14-15/46/E
School: Tallahassee Community School
Grade: 1 & 2
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Lindsay Campbell
Team Members: April Desmond, Melissa MacKenzie
With the funds from this grant, we will purchase iPad minis, headphones and splitters. We will record readings of leveled books and match them to students. Because we are recording the texts ourselves, we will be able to interrupt the reading to draw attention to text features, interesting vocabulary, or prompt discussion if they are using one of the splitters. Students will also be able to record their own readings. It is our hope that since students will be spending more time reading and interacting with texts at their instructional level, they will improve their fluency, accuracy and comprehension.
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Blue Marble lnitiative·Earth Day Workshop
14-15/47/E
School: West Colchester Consolidated
Grade: P-6
School Board: Chignecto Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Sybil Flemming
Team Members: Sherry Patriquin, Dr. Karen Ewing, MD, Leah Unicomb
This initiative engages students in activities highlighting the interconnectedness of all things on Earth, the Blue Marble. Curriculum related topics promote exploring rising sea levels, discovering local endangered species, creating a web of life using yarn, marking hope spots on local maps, considering carbon footprints created by humans and our responsibility to maintain our Earth. Creating t-shirts and face paintings of Earth, supporting the SPCA, writing postcards of concern to government, making seed pods and learning about bats' and bees' roles will increase students' awareness of responsibility to protect our Blue Marble.
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Sphero Kids Project
14-15/49/E
School: Rockingham School
Grade: 2-3
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Andrew Stickings
Team Members: Heather Hudson
The Sphero Robot is a fast and durable motorized ball that interfaces with a phone/tablet via Bluetooth. Sphero is an interactive and engaging tool that brings core class work off the paper into real life application. Using Sphero in the classroom upgrades your basic math and sciences outcomes to the mobile generation. This infusion of technology into the primary grades will help prepare students for further 21st century learning opportunities.
Students will learn through coding to navigate the Sphero ball through mazes, different terrains and structures. Students build and create with wooden blocks, lego, and household items but also learn to program or "code" using Sphero apps. Students are challenged to develop "missions" for Sphero to complete like a robotically controlled "rover" on another planet.
Sphero robotic balls can be used with the core apps Macrolab and OrbBasic. Once the basic lessons are covered the lesson ideas are limitless from creating robotic parades highlighting countries of the world to narrative writing using the Sharky the Beaver app. The lesson possibilities are endless.
Sphero will add to the excitement building around learning becoming fun again.
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What’s your Culture?
14-15/50/E
School: Bell Park Academic Center
Grade: 4-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Mamoona Brace
Team Members: Jason Starratt, Nicole Roy, Shelly Hysert
There are many cultures that exist within our school community. Grade 4-6 students will have a discussion around culture, it’s definition, and what types exist within our school community. Some groups will be focusing exclusively on the culture here at Bell Park, what our beliefs, behaviors and expectations are. Other groups will focus on the culture that is within their community or sports teams or their heritage and the cultural norms that exist. These groups will then interview, create scripts, and put a video together. In the end, these videos will showcase that there are many different cultures within our community.
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Tough Topics Lending Library
14-15/53/E
School: Elmsdale District Elementary
Grade: P-5
School Board: Chignecto Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Natalie Campbell-Bouvette
Team Members: Angele Saulnier-Nicholson, Dania Hayward, Tamara Minard & Sherry Boudreau
Elmsdale District Elementary has spear headed the project “Tough Topics Lending Library”, involving the use French picture books to enhance writing while simultaneously teaching students about The Virtues, Diversity and other special topics.
The recommended resources will be used as exemplars for writing, and starting points for good conversations amongst students. The texts will available for sign out, and teachers will have opportunities to work with our French mentor as how to use the materials to ensure best practices.
This project will support French Immersion teachers to meet their goals of challenging students to become writers, and fostering healthy relationships among students.
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Transforming our school library into a "Library learning commons"
14-15/55/E
School: St. Joseph’s A McKay School
Grade: 1-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Stephanie Kenny
Team Members: Laura King, Amy Hunt-Boudreau
This project will excite all readers! Students will be able to show their talents either by audio recording, presenting on video or by written review for a book they have adored. The reviews will be uploaded to the webspace and will accessible by scanning the QR code that links the review. They will then arouse the curiosity other readers to also read the book that has already been reviewed. Students will be provided with opportunities to read, discover, interpret and create meaning around a variety of texts, increase reading levels by increasing engagement and motivation as well as give their personal opinion. The use of 21st century technology as a teaching and learning tool will allow for a more student-centered library with the teacher/librarian acting as a learning facilitator.
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Play to Learn
14-15/59/E
School: Musquodoboit Valley Education Centre
Grade: P-1
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Shanda Keddy
Team Members: Melissa Reid
We will create a playroom within our school in which our early elementary students can explore curricular concepts through a play-based approach. Within the playroom, we will have a variety of learning zones ranging from art to dramatic play to math to reading and writing. Each of these zones will encourage and build upon children’s oral language experiences. As Anne Burke (Play to Learn: Building literacy experiences in young children, 2011) states, ‘oral language is central to the early literacy development of children. The stronger the oral language base, the better the reading foundation. If we encourage children to explore and make new discoveries using talking, as well as learning through play centres…., we will ultimately help them to understand how the functions, form, and content of the language they use to communicate are important.” (Burke, p.41).
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Coding for All
14-15/60/E
School: St. Andrews Consolidated School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Strait Regional School Board
Project Co-ordinator: Laurie Bloomfield
Team Members: Bonnie MacDonald, Suzanne Delaney
Coding for All is an instructional and creative initiative that will allow all Grade Primary to Grade Six students to learn about technology and computer coding. Instruction will take place after school, and will include the development of coding skills and the use of code for robotic programming. The ability to code is not only a powerful technology skill; it is a great form of procedural writing, self-expression, intellectual stimulation, communication, and acceptance of others. Computer coding has the power to unite mind, spirit and technology and leave participants with a healthy sense of self and society. As an accessible form of technology for all students, it will be an enjoyable and enriching experience for all Grade Primary to Grade Six students at St. Andrews Consolidated.
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Project Chrome
14-15/65/E
School: South Centennial Elementary
Grade: 3 and 4
School Board: Tri-County Regional School Board
Project Co-ordinator: Glenn Bourque
Team Members: Todd Wallace, Rollie Hannem
The world is a chrome colored oyster named Google and every student should have the chance to experience it. Now, students have an opportunity to expand their learning as they are guided to the 21st century by this virtual classroom. With the Chromebook, a world of limitless possibilities is opened via interactive web based apps from Google.
Long gone are the days of direct instruction. The Chromebook provides a more interactive model where the students are required to think independently and critically. Consequently, they become more engaged with their learning and it becomes more authentic. Learning can now even be extended after the final bell of the day has rung.
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2013-14
The Orffestra!
13-14/01/E
School: Kingswood Elementary School
Grade: 4-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: James Jackson
Team Members: Helen Martin, Katrina Pecknold, Deb MacIsaac
The "Orffestra" brings together 60 students from diverse schools across HRSB who will present a musical history of Nova Scotia at the Carl Orff Canada National Conference Opening Ceremonies in April, 2014. This amazing elementary aged performing ensemble explores culture and music through the integration of story, singing, dancing and movement, the recorder, many different mallet instruments, drums and other percussion instruments. Using a holistic approach the students will help create a musical journey from our First Nations, through the European settlers, the arrival of our African Nova Scotians and later immigration at Pier 21.
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Writers Across the Ages
13-14/11/E
School: Atlantic View School
Grade: 1 & 5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Laura MacIntosh
This multi-generational project will involve grade five students working as historians and videographers to learn about the past from seniors in our community. They will use the seniors as primary sources to create authentic documents about change in our society. Students will create interactive, digital books with photos, text and embedded video about the experience using a MacBook laptop. Using iPads these digital books will be shared with the seniors, bringing the curriculum to life in an authentic way. This experience will have students learning from seniors and seniors learning from students in an interactive way.
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"Children of the Earth" - Digital Chronicles of Inquiry and Discovery
13-14/12/E
School: Basinview Drive Community School
Grade: P
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Cindy Ng-Ivanoff
The funds granted for this project will be used to purchase an incubator, iPad Minis, and books from Schim Schimmel's Children of the Earth series.
This project is intended to help students develop a deeper level of compassion, caring and appreciation for all living things. It is hoped that this deeper understanding will transfer to their interactions with one another and help foster positive social relationships. This project will expand the worldview of the children and help them see they have the power to make a difference in their own lives as well as the lives of those around them.
Students will use the iPads to create digital media pieces, which will be shared with others with the intent of promoting change in their school and community. The digital stories and videos will be used to spread their message about the importance of cherishing Mother Earth's living things.
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Leveling the Playing Field
13-14/21/E
School: Windsor Elementary School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Sarah Sabean
Our school has an increasing population of students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and behavioural challenges. These students have additional requirements to keep them emotionally healthy, happy and ready to learn. This grant will be used to add specialty equipment and supplies to our sensory room so these needs are met. By meeting these sensory and emotional needs, it is our goal to have them be able to spend more time in the typical classroom. This grant will also provide active seating in the classroom to meet the physical needs of those students who need to move in order to learn. We will purchase 10 Hokki stools to be distributed to the students who would benefit the most from active seating.
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For the Health of It
13-14/41/E
School: Chebucto Heights Elementary School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Amanda MacDonald
Team Members: Heather Cumming, Oliver Jupp
This project is designed to increase physical and leisure skill abilities in students with a variety of disabilities. Not only will this grant increase opportunities for physical fitness, it will also provide them with the skills needed to create a healthy and active lifestyle within an inclusive environment that will support them in their future. Included in the development of health and lifestyle will be the opportunity for gaining valuable relaxation techniques and coping with stress and behaviour management strategies. These skills will be developed through the implementation of monthly yoga sessions, skating and bowling. Through the use of adaptive physical education materials, the students could have daily physical activity time in the learning centre as well as engage in group activities during gym class. The students who are currently a part of the learning centre require gross motor movement multiple times a day for physical breaks and as a behaviour management strategy.
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Intervention en lecture via iPad
13-14/45/E
School: École Beaubassin
Grade: 1
School Board: Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial
Project Coordinator: Ramona Boudreau
Team Members: Louise Hazelhurst, Shelley LeBlanc, Kelly Fraser, Phil O’Hara
L'École Beaubassin est une école francophone qui compte plus de 600 élèves de la 1ere à la 5ième année. Plusieurs recherches confirment que dès l'entrée scolaire, ce sont les habilités de conscience phonologique (le décodage) qui sont les plus étroitement reliées au succès que vit l'élève en lecture. Toutefois, nous vivons dans une communauté minoritaire, et plusieurs parents ne peuvent pas lire à leur enfant le soir soit à cause de la langue ou parce que le parent français est absent de la maison pour une raison quelconque. Le temps individuel que l'enseignant peut donner à l'élève en lecture est parfois limité. Cette initiative donnera l'occasion aux élèves des quatre classes de la 1ere année de lire plus souvent en français pendant une journée scolaire. Du foyer ou de leur lieu de travail, un parent (ou autre adulte tel qu'un grand-parent, un bénévole de la communauté) pourra lire et pratiquer des activités de conscience phonologique soit à leur propre enfant ou à un autre élève pour offrir un soutien en lecture, et cela grâce à la combinaison de la plate-forme Blackboard Collaborate et les ipads fournis par les fonds du FADP. L'adulte (de n'importe quel endroit - maison, bureau de travail, autre pays...) communiquera avec l'élève via son ordinateur. Il pourra télécharger ou partager des fichiers (livres nivelés Reading A to Z et fiches variées) fournis par l'enseignante dans le but d'améliorer les compétences en lecture chez ces élèves. Lors de la journée, les élèves pourront également profiter du iPad pour accéder a plusieurs livres numériques et Apps éducatifs qui visent à appuyer la lecture.
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“Welcome to Halifax, The Beautiful Place We Call Home”
13-14/52/E
School: Atlantic Memorial – Terrance Bay School
Grade: 4
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Laura Slaunwhite
As a community located only 20 minutes from our downtown attractions, my students had many questions about the city because many have never visited the area. In Social Studies we focus on communities outside of our own, and that is wonderful, but what about our own? Through our project “Welcome to Halifax, the Beautiful Place We Call Home”, we will enjoy guest speakers from Statistics Canada and the Halifax Regional Municipality. Using their knowledge and Apps4Halifax using Ipad technology, we will create a travel itinerary for travellers who wish to venture to our city. In groups of 4 my 4th graders will create travel itineraries which will include: travel to, throughout and from our city, hotel accommodations, restaurants, attractions, gas information and more. Their itineraries will be created as if they would be made available to travel agencies for tourists who wish to visit our city for fun filled adventures, but may not necessarily know what our city has to offer. The itineraries will include projected costs as a “package deal” so travelers can book according to their financial interest. The finished products will be displayed in our classroom “travel fair” and guests will place their ballot in the box for the trip they would love to enjoy. The students will stand by their display to answer any questions our guests may have. The students will learn through the entire experience, use helpful technology, work with each other and specialist from our city, all the while increasing their knowledge of Halifax, the place we are proud to call home!
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Apprenons les sons
13-14/53/E
School: École Gertrude Parker School
Grade: 3-5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Courtney Chiasson
Team Members: Penny Auld, Suzanne Deguast
The goal of our project is to motivate students in upper elementary who are still struggling to develop their French phonological awareness. These students often have difficulty reading and writing because they do not yet have a strong foundation and working knowledge of French sounds. The iPads will be used as an intervention tool for these students. They will be able to use a variety of French apps to play games, read digital/interactive stories, and even do research, all while building phonological awareness and vocabulary.
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Berwick Talent Board
13-14/56/E
School: Berwick and District School
Grade: P-8
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Gloria Armstrong
Our school project, Berwick Talent Board allows us to purchase a 60” Smart TV to be used as an electronic bulletin board in our school lobby. Our school will showcase some of its student talents and leaders in the form of live broadcast announcements, pictures, achievements and artwork. Traditional bulletin boards are limited now in the schools so we often have more artwork to display than we have areas where this is permitted. The Smart TV will allow us to display samples of student work digitally to our school community. Showcasing students in a positive light will also fulfill our PEBS (Positive Effective Behaviour Strategies) initiative.
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2012-2013
Creating the Ultimate Classroom for Boys and Girls
12-13/06/E
School: Annapolis East Elementary
Grade: P-1
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Jill MacDonald
The Ultimate Classroom will attempt to incorporate practical suggestions found in research about how boys and girls learn, and use this information to better address the needs of all children. Students will explore and learn through technology, art, science, mathematics, music and literacy, all being linked through meaningful play and oral language.
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StoryWall (with math literature)
12-13/19/E
School: Meadowfields Community School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Tri County Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Elsa Maan
The Primary to Six students at Meadowfields Community School will soon experience math in a unique and shared way through Math StoryWalks. Multiple copies of math literature books are bought. Each page is separated and mounted on card stock and laminated. The book is then displayed in the school or playground (by Velcro to walls or stakes) so that students must ‘travel’ between pages to get the whole story. The ‘travel’ between pages includes instructions to solve a math problem before they get to the next or to ‘travel’ a certain way (tiptoe, zigzag, hop). A copy of the entire book will be available in the school library after that particular StoryWalk is done.
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Math Journal Presentation
12-13/20/E
School: AG Baillie Memorial Elementary
Grade: 4-5
School Board: Chignecto-Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Nicole MacInnis
Team Members: Nancy Boudreau
“Math Journal Presentation” is an exciting new way to make mathematics even more interesting using the latest available technologies. Students will be presenting their knowledge of an outcome to the class using the latest technologies from SMART. They will be incorporating the brand new SMART LightRaise 40wi interactive projector which turns any wall or whiteboard into an interactive workspace, the SMART Document Camera with Mixed Reality Tools for viewing of 3D objects and SMART Response PE interactive response system. These three innovative new technologies will be linked together with SMART Notebook 11 allowing students to create seamless, interactive and exciting presentations.
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Succeeding in Reading: Using the iPad to Support Early Literacy Intervention - A Program Development Assistance Fund Project
12-13/25/E
School: Tantallon Elementary School
Grade: P-2
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Melanie Connors
The main goal of this project is to motivate struggling readers in the early literacy intervention program by engaging them in learning activities using iPads. The iPads will travel with the French immersion ELT teacher to meet with groups of up to three students in various classes in grades one and two immersion. The iPads will be used during the less structured portions of the lessons such as the word study and writing components. There are many excellent French learning applications that are perfect for use during the less structured fifth session of each week when games and various other fun activities are encouraged.
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Our Voices Our Stories
12-13/35/E
School: Cobequid Education Centre
Grade: P-2
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Angela Wisen
Team Members: Helen McPhee, Sherry Archibald, Jen Brayton
The goal of the storytelling project is to mesh together traditional oral story telling and modern technology. The project will begin with the oral story telling tradition as students explore stories from diverse cultures. For example, we will explore the stories of Canada’s Aboriginal population through the purchase of the Turtle Island levelled reading books. We will also incorporate the personal stories and experiences of our students as student voices become an integral part of the curriculum. We will use theiPads made available through the PDAF to explore digital story telling as the modern expression of this ancient art. A story is a powerful vehicle and it can change the classroom form having one expert opinion to many voices of experience and knowledge!
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Succeeding in Reading: Using the iPad to support Early Literacy Intervention
12-13/36/E
School: Tantallon Elementary School
Grade 1
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Melissa Walsh
With this grant, I will purchase six iPads for use in my classroom for literacy centers as well as for small group instruction. This technology use will create more successful programming for my students. The iPads will be used to support the learning of all students, especially those who are experiencing difficulty meeting the Language Arts outcomes. Students will have the opportunity to practice technological skills while practicing their reading and writing skills.
I use centers to teach and reinforce reading and writing literacy lessons in my classroom. The iPads will be an ideal device to use in my lessons since they are a form of technology sure to reach my struggling readers. Using the iPads in my lessons, struggling learners will hopefully require less support from outside of the classroom, or if necessary, for shorter periods of time. I will work with our school’s resource and Early Literacy Support Teacher to choose Apps and games to help support my students receiving support.
The iPads will also be used for students who may need extra challenge or enrichment. During writing, students can use the App Pages. My students will play learning games, math games and do other activities that promote literacy skills. I will use the iPads during mini lessons on a particular sound or letter.
I truly appreciate the opportunity to extend my teaching and student learning. I have always enjoyed working with lower elementary students and I am very excited to be able to provide additional support through technology to improve skills in both reading and writing.
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Math Balances
12-13/42/E
School: Hammonds Plains Cons. School
Grade: 2
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Penny Auld
Team Members: Margaret Judge, Pamela Zawidzki, Leona Bekkers
We would like to purchase 40 Math Balances for use in math centers to be shared between our Grade 2 classes. These math balances were introduced to us by our Math Coaches this fall. The balances are a wonderful tool to have the children explore different ways to represent a number (10 is the same as 8 and 2). We feel that these balances would be a wonderful differentiated learning experience in math. It would also give the students a hands-on visual tool to recognize that numbers can be composed in many different ways. As a center, the math balances would be a great way to engage students in meaningful, educational exploration in a way that lessens their anxiety towards math and math vocabulary and instills a love of learning.
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Theatre Du Lecteur
12-13/43/E
School: Hammonds Plains Cons. School
Grades: 4-5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Lydie Gascuel
Team Members: Becky Himmelman
This resource "THEATRE DES LECTEURS – ENSEMBLE 1 (CONTES ET LEGENDES) by CHENELIERE will be used in both a grade 4 and 5 classroom to supplement French Language Arts curriculum. The aim is to improve fluency in reading as well as introducing students to different French Literature. Students will be using this resource in small groups based on their reading level. Each character will be assigned according to the students' reading-level. Students can then be assessed on their ability to read an appropriate leveled text.
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Increasing Student Collaboration & Problem Solving Skills with Robotics Education
12-13/58/E
School: Bedford South School
Grade: 6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Shelly Tulloch
Team Members: Clare Bonin, Debbie Metherall
This project aims to create anchor technology integration classrooms using innovative classroom practice to foster collaboration amongst students and model a collaborative approach to student learning to support student success is a large and diverse classroom using LEGO NXT Mindstorm Robots to deliver the grade six curriculum at Bedford South.
This project aims to
- Encourage a constructivist approach to learning,
- Develop collaboration, communication skills amongst students, and confidence in the STEM fields
- Develop positive attitudes about teamwork and collaboration
- Develop a best practice resource guide for the integration of robotics as a means to deliver the existing grade six curriculum in a collaborative setting.
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Making Science Soar, Parrot A.R. Drone Integration in Gr. 6 Science Unit Flight
12-13/72/E
School: New Ross Consolidated School
Grade: 6
School Board: South Shore Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Peter Millett
Humans have long entertained a fascination with flight. This fascination can be readily observed as Grade 6 students explore the concepts of flight as part of the Nova Scotia Grade 6 Science Curriculum. New Ross Consolidated Grade 6 students will now be able to participate in the unique experience of piloting their own small aircraft, and have the incredible perspective of actually being on board the craft itself. The Parrot AR Drone is a four rotor, quadcopter that is controlled from a variety of mobile devices. The Parrot drone has the capability to send real time HD images to a mobile device from two onboard cameras. Students will be able to learn about aircraft design and flight control as if they were actually onboard an aircraft. This project offers students an experiential learning opportunity for Grade 6 science curriculum with the prospect to explore the 21st Century career fields of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
For more information: Parrot AR Drone http://ardrone2.parrot.com/usa/
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We Are (A Community Exploration)
12-13/79/E
School: Gertrude Parker School
Grade: P-1, 5-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Stephanie Hawkins
Project Team Members: Crystal Isert
A strong sense of community within the classroom, the school and the surrounding neighbourhood is an integral part of developing positive, productive citizens. “We Are; A Community Exploration” is a year long project exploring what it means to be a part of the École Gertrude Parker School community. Students in Grades Primary and One English and Grades Five and Six French Immersion will work collaboratively to define their school community and develop an understanding of what contributes to making this community what it is. These understandings will then be expressed and shared with other members of the community through a series of stop motion animation clips the students will create using the iPads.
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Developing Music Literacy
12-13/73/E
School: Holland Road Elementary School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Kerstin Boyce
Team Members: Rick Hooke, Lynne Robertson, Jacqueline Doucette
Holland Road School is a very rural school, and historically has strongly supported the arts. This project will provide much-needed technology in the music room, which will be accessible to all. Students in the school will have access to technology tools to create and record their own music, supporting the legacy of the arts at HRES.
This project is innovative since, for the first time at Holland Road School, students will have the opportunity to create music with technology. We have many students who have excelled in music and now we can give them the experience of learning to compose and record their own ideas by providing them with I-pads with music recording opportunities.
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''APPS''SOLUTELY Wonderful Technology for Leadership, School Accreditation and Intergenerational Activities
12-13/91/E
School: École Stella-Maris
Grade: M-6
School Board: Conseil scolaire acadien provincial
Project Coordinator: Suzanne Belliveau
Team Members: Nathalie LeBlanc, Réjeanne Gaudet
École Stella-Maris is implementing portfolios at all grade levels as the evaluation process and school communication objective with IPADS through PDAF. Another objective is improving writing skills with APPS in French. Also, teachers integrating new APPS, related to curriculum outcomes, have been identified as a priority, which supports IPADS.
The school strives to work with the community and see the contribution that the IPADS can provide. Monthly classroom visits to senior homes will bring this technology to enrich the visits, share work done through IPADS, share student’s leadership qualities, as well as share their activities and good deeds through portfolios.
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2011-12
The Jumping Flea (Ukulele) in the Classroom
11-12/05/E
School: North River & Debert Elementary
Grade: 2-6
School Board: Chignecto-Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Philip Black
Team Members: Darrell Fitzgerald, Erma Cox
The ukulele is a small, inexpensive stringed instrument, suitable for students from lower elementary on up. It is ideal tool for teaching music literacy, and a springboard for further instrument study. This project is spearheaded by a music teacher and guitar player, who had the great fortune of studying with James Hill this past summer. I am currently in year one of his three year Ukulele Teacher Certification Program.
Our PDAF grant will allow both North River and Debert Elementary Schools to purchase classroom sets of Makala concert ukuleles, along with method books, music stands, and teacher resources. All students from grade 2 to grade 6 in my two schools will learn to play these instruments, using James Hill and J. Chalmers Doane's newly published series, entitled Ukulele in the Classroom, as a primary resource. We are indeed fortunate to have these two giants of ukulele in music education living just down the road! I will organize extracurricular ukulele groups for those students who wish to go to the next level, and purchase their own instruments.
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WW Math! Integrating the Workshop Approach with Math Work Stations
11-12/08/E
School: Dwight Ross Elementary
Grade: 1-2
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Gillian MacIntosh
WW Math! aims to integrate the workshop approach, outlined in Investigations, with Debbie Diller’s work station approach to learning centres. Combining these two approaches will create a stronger and more effective math workshop that teaches math concepts in an optimal way while benefiting from a structure that provides time for small group instruction, differentiation, and reflection. The project will engage students in grades one and two in highly motivating tasks. Students will be active participants in their own learning, as they explore math tools, problem solve, and use reasoning skills while performing tasks at their optimal learning level.
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Crééons, écrivons, lisons, présentons
11-12/15/E
School: École Jean-Marie-Gay
Grade: 2
School Board: Conseil scolaire acadien provincial
Project Coordinator: Monette Boudreau
Team Members: Lori Ann Comeau, Maria Hanna
Étant l'enseignante de la deuxième année, j'aimerais rendre mes élèves actifs dans leurs apprentissages. Les élèves aiment lire et écrire mais parfois, c'est un défi d'ajouter un élément innovateur ainsi que motiver les élèves.
Avec ce projet, les élèves auront la chance d'élargir leur connaissance au sujet des stratégies vedettes en salle de classe à l'aide des iPad. Les élèves auront la chance d'écrire de petites histoires à travers l'application «Pages». Ils auront aussi la chance de faire la lecture de livres électroniques à travers «iBooks» dans le but d'améliorer leur compréhension en lecture et leur aisance.
De plus, les élèves auront l'occasion de mieux explorer leurs intérêts. Ils seront plus motivés de s'engager dans le processus d'écriture ainsi que celle d'évaluation en donnant des rétroactions car la technologie leur est familier.
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ROCK STARS Program
11-12/12/E
School: Rockingstone Heights School
Grade: 1
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Eileen Lunney
Team Members: Ali Sangster, Jill Ginn, Craig Myra
The Rockingstone Spectacularly Talented and Respectful Students “ ROCK STARS “ program provides students in grades primary to six the opportunity to take part in co-operative learning activities designed to help develop social skills and demonstrate respect and kindness to others all in an environment of fun. Each day our ROCK STARS meet, select games, puzzles, or art activities, and practice friendship and caring in a fun-filled atmosphere. The program goals are to develop a positive learning environment, enhance students respect for others, and build a strong community among students, teachers, staff and families. Become a Rockingstone ROCK STAR today.
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North River Elementary School Bike Club
11-12/29/E
School: North River Elementary
Grade: 3-6
School Board: Chignecto-Central Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Steve Caudle
Team Members: Jimmy Morrison, Darrell Fitzgerald
North River Elementary School has taken on the task of establishing a grass-roots bike club for our students in grades three through six. At present we will use existing school ground property for teaching biking fundamentals and have biking clinics that would bring in members of the community to share their knowledge. At a later date, we will incorporate use of local trails into the program and network with other clubs (junior and senior high) within our area and have them act as mentors for the elementary-aged students.
The club will introduce students to a lifetime recreational activity, provide an out-of-school recreational opportunity for students who live mainly in rural settings and give access to an activity that many students who, due to socio-economics, could not otherwise participate in.
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Egg Hatching Project
11-12/23/E
School: Ian Forsyth Elem. School
Grade: 2
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinators: Laura Goodland & Diane MacDonald
According to the unit, Animal Growth and Change, students should investigate the life cycle of an organism first-hand. We chose the life cycle of a chicken. With an incubator having an automatic turner, students observe the required temperature, humidity, and turning of the eggs necessary for the chicks’ development. This is comparable to a mother hen in real life. Because of the incubator in the classroom, students observe the chick entering the world and the various changes in behaviour and appearance for approximately two weeks.
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iWorkshops
11-12/32/E
School: New Minas Elementary
Grade: P/1
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Tabatha Durling
Team Members: Marie Boudreau
Technology is an integral part of today’s society ad will continue to be so in the future. The use of iPads will help foster lifelong learning and technological competency which will support students’ confidence and future experiences with technology.
The implementation of iPads in our P/1 classrooms will provide motivational experiences that will in turn enhance our workshop approach in both literacy and math. Through the use of various apps, students will be active participants in their own learning experiences, which will support all strands of the LA and Math curriculums. The iPad will also provide opportunity for differentiated instruction in small group and workshops, as well as improve students’ literacy and math skills.
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Strong Girls
11-12/65/E
School: Central Spryfield School
Grade: 5-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Lisa MacDonald
Team Members: Heather Topshee, Tracey Warner
Strong Girls is a philosophical approach to having girls experience key universal values that will enhance their self-image, self-esteem, social relationships, and personal growth. Strong Girls explores: What do healthy relationships look and feel like? How does respect feel? What does beauty look and feel like? How do I have value? The girls meet every Monday during lunch hour. Each session focuses on one of the five values or ‘stars’: Peace, Respect, Wellness, Friendship, Beauty. The girls are challenged to consider the depth of their own qualities. They are learning to value themselves, to see their own thoughts, ideas, choices and opinions as meaningful.
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The Development of Activity Kits to Enhance Fine Motor Skills in Elementary Students
and Students with Significant Motor Disabilities
11-12/68/E
School: SSRSB Elementary Schools
Grade: P-6
School Board: South Shore Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Barbara Cochrane
Team Members: Barbara Welsford
- The Development of Activity Kits to Enhance Fine Motor Skills in Elementary Students and Students with Significant Motor Disabilities Fine motor is the ability to coordinate the small muscles of the hand.
- Tasks requiring fine motor skills include grasping, picking up small or large items, release, imitating and copying patterns, handwriting, using scissors and many more activities performed in early elementary classrooms.
- All children will benefit from opportunities to enhance the development of fine motor skills.
- Occupational Therapists in our school board note that 90% of their referrals are for fine motor skill support.
- What they are seeing are children who cannot grasp a pencil and paper appropriately, manipulate and pick up small objects to complete a task, use scissors, engage in hand eye coordination activities, utilize manipulatives etc.
- Children who have difficulties with fine motor readiness skills have difficulties later on with pencil grasp, printing and writing, string beads, dressing oneself (use of buttons, zippers etc).
- Students with significant disabilities often display difficulties with fine motor skills.
- Fine motor skills also come into play when stacking blocks, playing with toys, developing control in their environment and also during eating and drinking. Effective fine motor skills are critical to success in school.
- We are seeing many students enter school and in early elementary who lack efficient fine motor skills to engage in and complete classroom tasks.
- This project will address those needs.
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Enhancing Collaborative Learning in the 21st Century Classroom
11-12/71/E
School: Hebbville Academy
Grade: 6
School Board: South Shore Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Amy Sullivan
Team Members: Andrea Conrad, Corrine Eisnor, Martine Wade
The grade six team at Hebbville Academy (SSRSB), will be experimenting with Apple TV and AirPlay technology. In combination with iPod Touch and/or iPad mobile devices, teachers and students will engage in classroom activities from their seats. The iPad can be projected with a couple of simple steps ... and it works wirelessly! All students and teachers in the classroom will be connected, some with their personal devices and some with the school’s devices. Students can complete activities, from their desks, projecting their responses/ comments/ input on the large TV screen at the front of the class. All activities can be initiated and controlled by the teacher with the appropriate apps. Student responses, videos, images, websites, etextbooks, novels, reading, writing, and project-based activities can be shared. Students will be more engaged as a large group, be able to effectively "privatize" their learning at the same time and engage directly with the teacher using their mobile device. Teachers are able to control the digital activities and monitor engagement, task completion and learning from anywhere in the classroom.
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Video Counselling Between Two Elementary Schools
11-12/72/E
Schools: Mill Village Cons. & Dr. J.C. Wickwire Academy
Grade: P-6
School Board: South Shore Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Michael Worthylake
Team Member: Denise Burgess
This project will provide video-counselling to students in a small, rural school (Mill Village Consolidated). The grant will provide two iPads for connecting students to the school guidance person so that they can connect with Guidance through video and access app, videos and counselor-generated PowerPoints. This project will enhance, not replace, existing guidance services. In addition, the iPads will also be used to connect with outside agencies that support students, by means of providing video conferencing during team meetings.
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Students in Motion
11-12/74/E
School: Rockingstone Heights
Grade: 6-8
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Esther Bishop
The goal of this Students in Motion PDAF Grant is to address the motor challenges of Learning Centre students who currently lack comfort and experience with most types of sports equipment. Adapted bicycles will provide them with the experience of learning a life-long skill, increase their self-esteem and improve their motor skills.
There is no similar program being offered in the school or the community for these students. Currently,there is no other occasion for them to learn and enjoy an activity that other students have access to on a regular basis.
The students will be developing trust and learning co-operation amongst themselves and with the facilitators. Some will take on leadership roles and all will be instructed in appropriate social skills such as taking turns, waiting their turn, and requesting items and support, as needed. Learning patience and dealing with frustrations will also be taught and implemented. Team spirit will be encouraged and rewarded.
Students in Motion meets all of the 8 strands in the The NS Public Schools Programs in the Physical Education Q-2 Section of the curriculum. They are : Personal fitness, Leadership, Personal fitness and group safety, Outdoor Pursuits, Sports Science Sport and Society, Sports Experience and Recreation and Leisure.
This project will be a valuable learning experience for both students and facilitators.
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Move you body, fuel your brain
11-12/78/E
School: École Beaubassin
Grade: 5
School Board: Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial
Project Coordinator: Colette Doucet
Having been closely working with children for the past ten years, I feel obligated to educate them in the field of mind-body connection. Since our physical health is so closely related to all aspects of our lives, I believe children need a daily physical activity routine. This is why I started a daily 20 minute run around the school. In order to compliment this physical activity routine which will be implemented with my students in the beginning of the 2012 school year, I will have the students wear heart rate monitors. These monitors will track each students heart rate and have them reach their target heart rate. This will inspire them to work harder and better their physical abilities which will have a ripple effect in all areas of their lives.
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Magnificent Mindfulness: Calm the Mind and Body
11-12/82/E
School: Yarmouth Central Elementary School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Tri County Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Bonnie LeBlanc
Team Members: Jared Purdy, Elaina Armstrong, Marsha Posey
The Magnificent Mindfulness: Calm the Mind and Body equipment grant will allow for maximum participation and inclusion of all students. This equipment will allow all students a comfortable space to experience participation in guided mindfulness activities during Physical Education class, Resource or at recess/lunch. In today’s busy and sometimes stressful world we feel it is important to allow students to have this experience and be able to have time to calm their mind and body. It also gives them a calming tool they can continue to use for a lifetime.
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Hands Reaching Across the Curriculum
11-12/85/E
School: Harry R. Hamilton School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Allyson Walker
Team Members: Julie Fifield, Gail Langille, Shelley Gudger
Our project called "Hands Reaching Across the Curriculum" has been developed to support student learning by involving students in hands-on activities through life science projects. "Hands Reaching Across the Curriculum" will use life science projects to create hands-on experiences that help students make connections across the curriculum. It will focus on developing the "eighth intelligence" which is now being described as the natural intelligence or people who are nature smart. This project was developed to enhance the learning of our students by helping them to understand that they are ALL part of a larger system, and that everything that they do has an impact on something else and that everything is connected.
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Ensemble, nous apprenons
11-12/87/E
School: École Jean-Marie-Gay
Grade: 2
School Board: Conseil scolarie acadien provincial
Project Coordinator: Monette Boudreau
Team Members: Lori Ann Comeau, Marie Hanna, Michel Gaudet
Les élèves auront la chance d'élargir leur connaissances à travers la nouvelle techonologie qui prend sa place dans nos école et notre avenir. Avec Apple TV, un projecteur, un MAC et des iPads, voici la chance pour les élèves de devenir apprenants actifs ainsi que jouer le rôle de l'enseignant. Je souhaite qu'à travers ce projet, tous les élèves seront capables de connaître du succès et d'augmenter leur estime de soi en étant engagé et motivé dans ses propres apprentissages à leur niveau. Je serai capable de toucher les intelligences multiples de mes élèves ainsi que faire l'enseignement différencié dans mon quotidien à travers divers sujets scolaires.
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2010-2011
Enhanced Learning with Elmo
10-11/07/E
School: Falmouth District
Grade: P-6
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Theresa Atwell
Using technology based tools to promote student learning is crucial if we want our children to be successful and productive members of society in the decades to come. The use of Elmo TT-02RX is a tool that encourages a new and innovative approach to teaching literacy.
This project involves students in the use of the Elmo Digital Presenter to improve their understanding in literacy and technology and to enhance their speaking and listening skills. It involves students sharing and viewing various forms of text in order to discuss and critique the six traits of writing. The digital presenter will also be used to model and reinforce the ?reading to learn? strategies.
In addition to this, students will use laptops to create text to be viewed using the Elmo in order to share, reflect and revise.
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Hollywood North
10-11/05/E
School: Greenfield Elementary
Grade: 4,5,6
School Board: Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Diane Lewis
Team Members: Joyce Morrison, Lowell Cormier, Jim Beaton
Cape Breton is very luck that an internationally renowned Danish Writer/Director/Producer - Annett Wolf has retired here. She has made movies with the icons of mid 20th Century Hollywood and she knew Elvis! These days she is dedicating her life to protecting the environment of the north. Her concern for the direction we are taking has influenced my students.
We plan to study the Arctic through the eyes of the artists, environmental activists and people of the north and make art about the effects of global warming.
Their work will be posted online and in a gallery at our local Credit Union. The students are very passionate about making a positive contribution to the future.
Stay tuned!
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Rubbing Shoulders with our Forebears
10-11/08/E
School: Arcadia Consolidated School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Tri-County Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Jim Rideout
This project is a contribution to the 250th anniversary of settlement of Yarmouth. Town Point, where the first settlers landed, is in Arcadia Consolidated School?s catchment area, and has a cemetery dating from 1761. For Rubbing Shoulders With Our Forebears, students will do gravestone rubbings at the Cemetery. At the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives, students will research and write about the person whose gravestone they rub. Their work will be displayed at Arcadia School. Display areas will be rendered fire-safe by covering hallway bulletin boards with hinged plexiglass purchased with PDAF funds. These display areas will be reusable for future student artwork.
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Magnetic Barrier Game Boards for Core French Fluency
School: Portland Estates Elementary
Grade: 4, 5, 6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Barbara MacKenzie-Murray
I want to promote better spontaneous fluency in my students to provide them with the skills and motivation to speak only in French while sitting with their peers in groups and outside the classroom. I will purchase "MagneTalk® Match-up Adventures Kit." Students communicate to each other across this magnetic whiteboard easel type barrier to give and receive information toward a common result. This kit targets many language and listening skills such as following directions, giving directions, storytelling, improving vocabulary, etc. It includes various scenes like camping, the ocean, and outer space. The kit includes a reproducible workbook with a French translation on the CD-ROM.
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ommunication Technology for WES
School: Weymouth Consolidated
Grade: 1,3,4
School Board: Tri-County Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Tammy McCauley
Team Members: Jennifer Theriault, Russell Deveau, Tammy Farrell-Walker Summary:
As we look to the future, we see technology is going to continue to play an important role in our daily living.As we look at our students with challenges we see how this can become a useful tool. We have chosen to use the IPOD touch which can effectively be used as an augmentative communication device; it is compact and portable. This device will also be used by peers; so more socially acceptable,it can be used anywhere, in turn, create a more independent individual who will be able to communicate his/her needs and wants in the society. We have also chosen to introduce the program intellikeys which will allow easier access to the computer. This enables us to customize the keyboard and usage of the computer to each individual's needs.
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iPOWER
School: Brookhouse Elementary
Grades: 4-5
Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Rebecca Dunstan
Team Members: Gina Wilson, Heather Thompson, Holly Laventure
Successful integration of students with intellectual disabilities often becomes more difficult as they move to the upper elementary grades. The iPower! plan is to purchase iPads and take advantage of the many learning applications available in language arts, math, comprehension and even life skills development. The purpose of this project is to provide some of these students with the opportunity to work on the early learning skills they need while maintaining a positive sense of self. The goals include increased enthusiasm for learning, improved academic performance, technological competence, and positive peer relationships.
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Promoting P.L.A.Y. (Positive Leadership Activities for Youth)
School: Hebbville Academy
Grades: P to 5
School Board: South Shore Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Teri Cochrane
Team Members: Claire Eddy, Adam Dedrick
The Positive Leadership Activities for Youth (P.L.A.Y.) program aims to achieve five major goals:
- To develop and nurture the leadership, organizational and teaching skills of upper elementary students.
- To develop the skills and knowledge of lower elementary students in the areas of effective communication, cooperation, positive socialization, fair play and respect for rules and safety.
- To promote the benefits of physical activity.
- To reduce situations of negative conflict, behaviour and bullying
- To have fun playing social and active games.
P.L.A.Y. leadership training includes four one hour training sessions that combine classroom instruction and hands-on practice to develop leadership skills, to learn a variety of games and to acquire strategies to successfully teach the games to younger students. After completion of the training program, the leaders will teach active games to lower elementary students during a designated P.L.A.Y. time. The program will be implemented with both indoor and outdoor activities.
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Phonological Awareness Training Program (PAT-P)
School: Harbourside Elementary
Grade: P-6
School Board: Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Kelly Roberts
Team Members: Paula MacNeil, Donna Dinault, Sheila Halloran
The Phonological Awareness Training Program will identify and support students at Harbourside Elementary who require further work in the area of phonological awareness to improve outcomes in reading. Specific phonological awareness skill development such as sound identification, rhyming, blending sounds, sound manipulation and segmenting will be delivered through general classroom teaching, resource or learning disability program support. Students will be screened using the Phonological Awareness Test upon referral from the school?s program planning team. Materials available through the PAT-P encompass a wide variety of materials and activities, from letter and sound manipulatives, games, songs, sorting work, folder tasks, software and group activities. Some materials will be available to loan for families to work on specific skills at home as well as for staff professional development.
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Vermicomposting for the School Garden
10-11/52/E
School: Oxford School
Grade: 2
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Michelle Humber
Team Members: Tye Murray
The grade two class at Oxford school is starting a vermicomposting program to promote the use of more sustainable natural fertilizers in the school food garden. Students will have a five tray Red Wiggler worm composter in the classroom to care for and observe the life cycle of the worms and to compost students' school food waste into a natural fertilizer for the school food garden. This will connect students further with the school garden and increase understanding of soil nutrients and how they impact on plant growth This project will allow students to see the interconnectedness and interdependence of living organisms within the a garden atmosphere. It will teach the importance of composting and increase understanding of what green bin waste is used for. This project will provide students with hands-on, interactive and engaging activities as an alternative to traditional seat work and research.
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Hover Cam Technology Enhances Education
10-11/59/E
School: Hebbville Academy
Grade: P-5
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Angela Gladwin
Team Members: Scott Rawdins; 8 P-5 Classroom teachers
This project involves purchasing nine document cameras to support and complement the presentation of curriculum in the Grades Primary to Grade Five classrooms as well as in the Learning Centre. It will promote the guided gradual release of responsibility model as well as be a tool for assessment for learning.
The document camera is a real time tool. Its specifications include a high-resolution HD compatible, native 3-megapixel camera accompanied by proprietary software that adds useful features. It is both Mac and PC compatible. The document camera is able to show live, large screen images. This would allow for student observation and recording of science processes, opportunities for students for shared reading and writing along with many other cross curricular activities.
The cameras will be used regularly if not daily in the classrooms in most subject areas. The cameras are simply plugged into existing computers and used with existing classroom projectors and smart boards.
This project supports all of the Essential Education Graduation Learning areas. Areas it especially supports are :
Communication - The need for students to be able to use the listening, viewing, speaking, reading and writing modes of Language and Mathematical and Scientific concepts and symbols to think, learn and communicate effectively.
Problem Solving - The need for students to be able to use the strategies and processes needed to solve a wide variety of problems, including those requiring language and mathematical and scientific reasoning.
Technological Competence - The need for students to be able to use a variety of technologies, demonstrate and understanding of technological applications, and apply appropriate technologies for solving problems.
This project focuses upon all of the organizing strands for many subject areas, particularly English Language Arts and Information and Communication Technology. The General Outcomes include the expectation that
- the students will be able to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and critically
- the students will be expected to select, read and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media and visual texts
- the students will be expected to interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources and technologies
- the students will be expected to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes
- the students will be able to identify and describe ways in which information available for use at various levels can be created, stored, used, represented, and transmitted with teacher assistance.
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2009-2010
Fish Friends
09-10/20/E
School: Newport Station & Windsor Elem. Schools
Grade: P-6
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Sarah Sabean
The Fish Friends Program, coordinated by the Atlantic Salmon Federation, is a hands-on science program in which students raise trout from fertilized eggs to the fry stage, where they release them into a local stream. The Fish Friends program addresses direct concerns such as the possible extinction of a particular species, here the Inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic salmon. The children exposed to the program learn the life cycle of salmon and the harmful effects humans can have on wildlife. Students who exhibit behavioural challenges will be responsible for managing this project while teachers of all grades will integrate aspects of it into their science lessons.
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Les Arts du Cirque
09-10/21/EJS
School: Beaubassin
Grade: P-5
School Board: Conseil scolaire acadien provincial
Project Coordinator: Régis Belanger
Le projet des « arts du cirque » se veut une incursion dans ce monde fascinant et magique qu'est le cirque. Par ce projet, les élèves seront amenés à découvrir la jonglerie, l'équilibre, les échasses, l'uni-cycle, les diabolos, les bâtons fleurs, etc. En utilisant les différents appareils et leur créativité, les jeunes devront monter un mini-spectacle et démontrer à une, ou des classes, leurs diverses habiletés. Grâce à ce projet, j'espère aller chercher une clientèle qui n'est pas nécessairement porter sur le sport, au sens propre. Ces jeunes ont plein de capacités à développer et à nous faire découvrir même si celles-ci ne sont pas traditionnellement utilisées en classe d'éducation physique.
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Teaching - Robot C. for Lego Mindstorms
09-10/27/E
School: Brooklyn District
Grade: 5
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Theresa Atwell
Team Members: Paul Wozney, Stephanie Bird
My project will use interactive Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 along with laptop computers to support both science and IT outcomes for grade 5. The Mindstorms kits allow students to work together to plan, design and build a machine to solve a Labyrinth challenge. By doing this they will learn what firmware is and how to download it to their robots. They will also come to understand the fundamentals of the role of the programmer, how the robot sees the world, and what syntax is. Students will discover how to program their robots to carry out a task and will see how robots use feedback from sensors to interpret the robots to complete an obstacle course on its own. Reflecting on the effectiveness of each design will be an integral part of each lesson with the robotics. As well, giving students a chance to showcase their creations at a science fair within our school gym will allow the grade 5 scientists to discuss their work with an audience.
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Technology/Listening Station with Audiobook Library
09-10/38/E
School: Coldbrook & District School
Grade: 3-4
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Jill Conrad-Tracey
Team Members: Lisa Jones
I wanted to grasp the technology that the kids are already embracing (computers and ipods) and combine them with literature and small group work. I will be downloading an audiobook library as well as personally creating podcasts of specific lessons and using them daily. It allows the children to hear phrased and fluent reading of novels as well as view a live recording of me teaching a lesson while I am teaching something different or working with other students. I am thrilled to be able to use this technology with my Grade 3/4 class. Thank you NSTU!
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Kiln/Pottery Project
09-10/40/E
School: Ian Forsyth Elementary
Grade: P-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Karen VanBuskirk
Team Members: Jan Garrison, Andrew MacNeil
The “Kiln/Pottery Project” at Ian Forsyth Elementary School is intended to offer an “in house” experience with the medium of clay to all students. The cost of providing clay building opportunities to a school population off site is expensive and therefore an unrealistic venture for teachers to pursue. The project will bring the experience of clay making to the students, reducing the cost and increasing the opportunity that many students would not normally benefit from.
The goals of the project are multifaceted:
- generating an awareness of the historical uses and traditions of clay making in different cultures
- hands on experience with the natural medium of clay
- development of aesthetic expression and critical awareness
- development of the clay making process using a variety of techniques and tools
- connection of art and literacy experiences through engagement of actively constructing knowledge
- supporting professional development of staff interested in learning clay making skills
- providing opportunities for senior students to mentor in the clay making process
The project will begin with the senior grades creating tools for the cart. The pottery cart will be a mobile unit containing tools, clay and a resource binder of lesson plans. A selection of Power Point resources will be provided to support teachers in the introduction of the lessons, historical information and visual samples. Teachers will select an activity appropriate for their grade level and outcome objectives. Teachers will be supported in the delivery of the lesson by the pottery specialists on site until they are comfortable delivering lessons independently. After students create with the clay, the pieces will then be delivered to the kiln where they will be fired. Students will then have the opportunity to embellish their fired works in a subsequent lesson.
The objective is to reach each classroom at least once by the end of 2010. The goal for the following year is to meet with each grade on two occasions, developing and elaborating on the skills they have learned.
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Learning Science Through Games
09-10/31/E
School: Southdale-North Woodside
Grade: 2-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Brian Ellenberger
Team Members: Mary Ann Wallin, Robyn Bent
The “Learning Science Through Games” project at Southdale-North Woodside Elementary School is designed to foster hands on learning experience for students at the grades two to six level. Students will be encouraged to engage in creating a game that displays their understanding of the outcomes taught in a specific unit providing them the opportunity to be critical thinkers, as well as promoting problem solving and positive social interaction skills. Students will have the opportunity to teach the science outcomes they have learned to other students through their game and the instructions they develop for playing it.
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A Fit Body = A Healthy Mind
09-10/43/E
School: Southdale-North Woodside School
Grade: P-6
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Alastair MacDonald
Team Members: Randy Bullerwell
This project is designed to promote physical fitness opportunities for our grades primary to six students through playground games and activities. The idea for the project came from a recent presentation by Dr. Stewart Brown titled; "Can't Problem Solve if You Haven't Played". As a school, we see as a priority an opportunity to provide students with quality physical activities beyond the normal gym classes. Through these physical activities, students will be able to focus more on their academics. It is also hoped that this program will provide positive social interaction amongst students and alleviate physical aggression.
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2008-2009
Abbey's Memorial Butterfly Garden
08-09/11/E
School: Mountainview Elementary
School Board: Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Michelle Planetta
Team Members: Eleanor Nolan, Lynne O'Neill, Jeannie Stone
In July 2007, Abbey MacKillop (a Mountainview student who had just completed grade primary) and her father died in a car accident. Abbey's older sister Emily survived and continues to be a treasure in our school. Abbey enjoyed reading during her primary year, and this planted the seed for the concept of creating a butterfly memorial garden, which would serve as a quiet place for a child to read. Our plan then expanded into a setting for an entire class in a natural outdoor environment. By bringing people together and allowing for discussions and reflections on Abbey's life, we will be building a rich community within our school.
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Elementary Guitar Project
08-09/20/E
School: Joseph Giles Elementary
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Robert Piccott
Team Members: Heather Mitchell, Adele Megann
Learning to play a musical instrument can be a fulfilling and enriching life pursuit. In particular, the guitar has a universal appeal that children embrace with enthusiasm and dedication. Offering a guitar program for students within a public school ensures that all students are given the opportunity to learn. For many students, it can make all the difference and will have positive spinoffs in other areas of the curriculum. This PDAF grant has made it possible to purchase quality guitars and materials that will enable us provide guitar instruction for 25 of our students each year. This investment in our students will have benefits that will last a lifetime.
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Les Poi ou Le Défi Fy!
08-09/13/E
School: Beaubassin School
School Board: Acadien Provincial
Project Coordinator: Régis Belanger
Les POI sont des petites chaînettes au bout desquelles on ajoute différents objets et avec lesquels ont crée des séquences de mouvements circulaires de toutes sortes. Autrefois utilisés par les tribus Maoris pour la chasse et améliorer la dextérité des femmes qui tissaient beaucoup, ils sont maintenant plus utilisés dans les arts du cirque ou de spectacles alliant le feu, les couleurs diverses et les halos de lumières provoqués par la vitesse de rotation. Ils combinent la danse, la gymnastique et demande de très bonnes habiletés de coordination et de synchronisation. Enfin, les POI peuvent contribuer à réduire les troubles d'apprentissage, les problèmes de comportement et améliore le rendement scolaire des élèves en difficulté.
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Trikking into the Future
08-09/38/E
School: Seton Elementary
School Board: Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Paula MacRae
Elementary students will be introduced to a new and innovative full-body fitness machine called the Trikke. The Trikke enables the student to experience a new way to propel themselves on wheels, getting a full-body workout in the process. It provides fun and challenges for students of all skill levels, while enhancing overall health and well-being by utilizing all the major muscle groups and developing cardiovascular fitness in a low-impact and mentally engaging manner. This project will provide students with an opportunity to develop the habit of being active on a daily basis and to recognize activity as a rewarding pursuit that enhances a healthy lifestyle.
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Math Toolkits
08-09/03/E
School: Musquodoboit Valley Education Ctr.
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Wanda Dillman
Team Members: Janice Murray, Jeannette Higgins, Lewis Ingram
Our project involves the development of mathematics toolboxes for each student from grades Primary to six. Each September, toolboxes will be distributed to students containing grade appropriate manipluatives. Throughout the year, new manipulatives will be added to support learning outcomes. As students learn to self-select manipulatives to illustrate their ideas and understanding, these concrete materials become "thinking tools". By accepting responsibility for communicating their understanding in unique ways, students will demonstrate an increased perception that mathematics needs to make sense to them personally. They will learn to be flexible in their understanding of concepts and to represent that understanding in a variety of contexts. Students will be able to assess their own understanding to advance their own learning.
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Sensory Integration Makes Sense!
08-09/32/E
School: Sycamore Lane Elementary
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Heather Coates Jones
Team Members: Geoff Hill
The program, "Sensory Integration Makes Sense!" is designed to create a sensory diet that enables students to meet their educational outcomes within the school environment. In addition it will provide the tactile experiences that enhance the students' fine motor skill building. The goal of this project is to create an area within the Learning Centre that will cater to the specific sensory needs of our students, allowing us to implement strategies that provide the sensory diet required. This includes activities that allow the children to experience general tactile stimulus, vestibular stimulus, and proprioceptive stimulus. These activities will be supplemented with both fine motor and gross motor activities. Students supported by this program would access it several times daily in order to meet their individual sensory needs.
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Implementation of the KLLIC Program
08-09/36/E
School: Gorham Education Centre
School Board: South Shore Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Sheri McGill
Team Members: Richelle Parlee
Two Primary classrooms in the South Shore Regional School Board have been selected to participate in the Kindergarten Language & Literacy in the Classroom (KLLIC) Program. It is a 30-week language & literacy based program designed by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board in Ontario, to be delivered by speech-language pathologists within the Primary classroom, in coordination with the classroom teacher. It is a research-based program designed to augment the Primary Language Arts curriculum by targeting articulation, phonological awareness, print awareness, grammar & syntax, basic concept development and other literacy outcomes.
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A Literacy Based School Community Website
08-09/45/E
School: Barton Consolidated School
School Board: Tri County Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Krista Oswald
Team Members: Theresa Nickerson, Lynda Marshall, Shelley Mahen, Heidi Tudor, Kathy Stockman
Our project will establish a literacy-based web site aimed at Grades Primary to three that will be a resource for all members of the community of schools that it will service. This literacy-based web site will provide easy and flexible access to resources that will address all learning styles. A main aim of the project is to inform parents/guardians about and assist them with the vitally important role they play in the literacy development of their children. It is expected that this web site will foster partnerships with all members of the school community, and have a far-reaching, direct and positive impact on student success, empowering them to be lifelong learners.
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The Rainbow Connection ...Linking Gross and Fine Motor Skills with Academics
08-09/55/E
School: Harry R. Hamilton School
School Board: Halifax Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Allyson Walker
Team Members: Gail Langille, Shelly Gudger, Kim Webb
"The Rainbow Connection...Linking Gross and Fine Motor Skills with Academic Achievement" will provide students, who experience challenges relating to fine and gross motor skills, daily opportunities to further develop their skills through motivating experiences. It will teach students strategies on how to build up their hand strength through various gross motor activities. This will empower students by giving them the knowledge and the tools to help themselves improve. It is hoped that through our project, students will see themselves as capable, successful, and confident in everyday tasks that require fine motor control such as dressing, eating, and technology.
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Back to the Future with SMARTboard Technology
08-09/46/E
School: Aldershot Elementary
Grade: P-5
School Board: Annapolis Valley Regional School Board
Project Coordinator: Pamela Langille
Team Members: Shelley Morse, Cathy Reimer
Our project will use interactive response systems (SMART Response - formerly called Senteos) to further differentiate our instruction in the classroom while creating opportunities for our students to become familiar with, and explore computer technology they would not otherwise experience. We will also be purchasing a SMART document camera, two Airliner wireless slates and related software.
With the interactive nature of the SMART Response systems and the other related whiteboard accessories the students at Aldershot School will be introduced to a 21st century learning environment. In this environment our students will be more motivated, more engaged and more enthusiastic towards learning. Our lessons will be more interesting and captivating, and activities will seem like they've been brought "to life"! In turn, the students will be very excited and more involved in their learning.
The SMART document camera is an amazing, yet simple, teaching tool that can help turn a classroom into a spontaneous and dynamic learning environment. The Airliner wireless slates will enable us to teach from anywhere and allow students to interact with information from their seats. Since the interactive whiteboard and other SMART technologies speak to the multiple senses of sight, sound and touch, they will assist us in reinforcing topics and creating a compelling focal point in the classroom. We will use our new tools to bring up images or diagrams during a lesson that provide additional reference material, thereby benefiting all students, and in particular those with learning and behavioral challenges.
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