From the CTKG Cabinet: Houda's Bitmoji Classroom

Hi! My name is Houda Jaouad and I am a fifth grader at Casimir Pulaski Elementary School in Meriden, CT. I am a member of the Connecticut Kid Governor's Cabinet and am working on my platform to stop body shaming. Explore this bitmoji classroom to learn about the effects of body shaming and what you can do to help.

 

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- Houda Jaouad
Kid Governor's Cabinet
Casimir Pulaski Elementary School
Meriden, CT

Positive Posters

Hello 5th graders! This week something exciting is happening! Let me tell you all about it.

This week I am launching my statewide poster contest! I'm so excited! To make this poster contest happen, I am partnering with Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) and CT Family Day. This contest supports the second point of my platform, “Create a virtual community crate and coordinate a statewide poster contest for positive messages by and for students.”

I was so excited for this contest, I even made my own poster for the participants to see! The theme of the poster contest is about showing your family’s “Silver Lining” to the pandemic. A silver lining is how people describe something good that comes out of a bad situation. So, for example, my sample poster featured my silver lining which is being able to help others! I hope you like it!

I was so excited to make this poster!

The rules for the poster contest are:

• Open to all Connecticut 5th graders.
• Art must be on 8.5×11 white paper.
• Color pencils, crayons, paint, and markers permitted
• Bold colors look best!
• Must include at least one handprint (drawn or traced).
• Must be entrant’s original, hand-drawn creation.

Completed Permission Form, art description, and a scan or photograph of artwork must be emailed or shared via Google Drive with Brian.Cofrancesco@ctdemocracycenter.org by Friday, June 11th.

Original hard copies of artwork must be mailed to The Connecticut Democracy Center, 21 Oak Street, Suite 309, Hartford, CT 06106 and postmarked by the deadline.

My Cabinet and I will be the judges of the contest, and we will be choosing twelve finalists and one winner. Did I mention the cool reward that comes with being a finalist or winner of the contest? Your poster will be on display in my office at Connecticut’s Old State House in Hartford and you will be recognized at a special CT Family Day event in September!

I hope you will submit a poster design and share your silver lining and positive message for students!

Now, it is time for the fun fact of the week! Are you ready? Here it is!

I love to cook and bake with my mom! Sometimes I make my family dinner!

Stay Positive! :)

Kid Governors Old and New

Hello 5th graders! This weekend I got to meet somebody special that I can’t wait to tell you about!

This weekend, I made a trip up to Connecticut’s Old State House to have another Cabinet meeting. This time the meeting was earlier in the morning, so I had to be there at 9:45. When I got there, Mr. C. let me in, and I went up to the filming studio and got ready for my meeting. This was the first Cabinet meeting where I didn’t have to record a speech before it started. 

2016 CTKG Elena joins us for a Cabinet meeting!

After a few technical issues, I started my cabinet meeting! The first thing we did was start with an ice breaker. Every meeting, I come up with a question that my Cabinet can answer. This month’s question was, 

What are you looking forward to at the end of the school year that is not summer vacation? 

I answered that my class has a class day at the end of the year, where the classes do something fun or make it a field trip day to celebrate the end of the year. Cora, one of my Cabinet members, said that at the end of the year her school in Milford has a 5th grade farewell, where her school throws a huge outdoor party for the 5th graders.

Next, we had a special guest, 2016 Kid Governor Elena Tipton! She joined the meeting and led our second ice breaker by playing hangman with us! A few of the words we had to guess were Old State House, CTKG, and Nutmeg. Before she left, she spoke to me and my Cabinet, and we took a group picture with her! 

Afterwards, we all gave updates on our platforms and what we have been working on. Then we discussed our upcoming poster contest! We have decided that it will launch this week, so look out for it so you can participate!

Then we finished our meeting! It was a super fun day!

Stay Positive! :)

From the CTKG Cabinet: Creating Green Teams in Schools

Be the Change

Hi! My name is Cora Aitkenhead. I am a fifth grader and a member of CTKG Reese’s Cabinet. The first point of my three point platform is called “Be the Change.” This point encourages students to form “Green Teams” in their schools to learn about the environment and do projects around their school. Each Green Team will inform others about good choices for our Earth and make their school a better place. Our Cabinet recently spoke with school superintendents at the State Department of Education's Alliance District Symposium, and they wanted to know how they could support my platform. I told them the best way is to support Green Teams in their schools. I wanted to give you all information about how to create Green Teams and why doing this might be a good fit for your school. 

What is a Green Team? 

A Green Team is a group of students that take part in environmental projects for their school or community. They make the rest of the school aware of environmental issues. 

How do you form a Green Team? 

• Step 1: Find students that are interested in taking part in environmental projects. One approach might be to ask any students interested in the environment to be part of your school’s Green Team.  Another approach might be to have a student from each class or each grade level be a representative on the Green Team.  That way, those students can tell and teach their class or grade level what environmental projects they can work on.  There is no one right way to start a Green Team in your school.  Whatever works for you, you should do!  But getting this started often needs a motivated student to get things started so maybe that motivated student is YOU!

• Step 2:  Find a teacher or a parent to supervise your Green Team. Ask around and try to find a teacher or parent who cares a lot about the environment.  Tell them why these issues are so important to you and ask them to help you organize your Green Team.

• Step 3:  Figure out which school leaders and staff can do the most to help your Green Team. Once you have a team of students and an adult leader, think about asking a custodian, a cafeteria worker, a principal or vice principal, or others to be part of your team.  A lot of times it is people like these that can help make your projects work, so talking to them and working with them is an important step.  

How should the Green Team Run?

Every school is different so you need to figure out what will work for your school.  But a Green Team should probably meet about once a week or every 2 weeks to talk about what to do and how to do it. What exactly should your Green Team do? Well I’m glad you asked! In addition to creating Green Teams, the second part of my platform is called “22 for the Earth and You.”  Rather than celebrate our planet just one day a year on April 22nd (Earth Day), I think we should celebrate the Earth on the 22nd of every month. I will write more blog posts with different ideas about how you can celebrate the Earth, but for now, here is a sneak peak at some of the things your team can do.   

Projects a Green Team Can Work On 

• Monthly “22 for the Earth and You” Themed Projects

• School Gardens and Planting

• Composting

• Writing letters to local politicians 

• Making Recycling Posters or Policies for the School 

• Earth Day Activities in April 

See you for my next blog post! Until then, Go Green Connecticut!

- Cora Aitkenhead

Kid Governor’s Cabinet 

Meadowside Elementary School

Milford, CT

From the CTKG Cabinet: Meet Claire

Hi! My name is Claire and I'm a member of CTKG Reese's Cabinet for the year! I'm making this post to let you know a few things about what I've done so far regarding my platform of Racism. 

First, I've started working with a few teachers to find book recommendations for students to read! I've also being working on creating a display in my school library of anti-racist and diverse books. I'll even be meeting with a bookseller at our local bookstore, Savoy Bookshop, to film a video about anti-racist and diverse books that they have available!

Speaking of libraries, I'm also working with the Westerly Public Library in Rhode Island to see if we can deliver a presentation on awareness and books in May for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. For April I created a video to highlight Arab American Heritage Month.  

Then, I made a few mini lesson videos to share with all students from grades K-5 in my school district! I recently created another video! It includes important definitions of words to know for the videos I made. The reason I did this was because almost 70% of students in grades 3-5 didn't know what racial diversity was!

I'm excited to be kicking off my year as a cabinet member as well as working on my own platform. Thank you for reading! 

-Claire Li
Kid Governor's Cabinet
West Vine Street School
Stonington, CT

From the CTKG Cabinet: Meet Houda!

Hi! My name is Houda Jaouad and I am from Casimir Pulaski School in Meriden, CT. I was a final candidate for Connecticut's Kid Governor and now I am a member of CTKG Reese's Cabinet. My platform is focused on trying to stop body shaming. 

My plan involves creating posters to be hung in school bathrooms to promote positive body image; creating a Bitmoji classroom that can help bring awareness of the effects of body shaming to classrooms around Connecticut; and creating blog posts to help students share their stories and know that they are not alone. I chose this issue because kids are being treated unfairly because of how they look. Students can help support my platform by creating posters in their school and hanging them in the bathroom to help give them a positive body image. 

A poster being made in my classroom! 

My classmates and I researched positive statements that we could add to posters to be displayed in our school. Each student helped to created at least one poster. I am also working with our technology teacher to create a Bitmoji classroom to share resources about body shaming to classrooms across Connecticut. I would like to include books, articles, and games that help kids be positive about who they are and what they look like.

If you would like to learn more about how body shaming affects children, please contact me at info@KidGovernor.org. You can also find out more about the Connecticut's Kid Governor Cabinet and their platforms by visiting CT.KidGovernor.org/cabinet2021.

- Houda Jaouad
Kid Governor's Cabinet
Casimir Pulaski Elementary School
Meriden, CT