Wednesday 22 January 2020

Come Spend the Day with Us!

Ever wondered that a day in Grade 1 looks like? Come spend the day with us!

We begin each day in a similar way. After announcements and agendas, we head to the rug for Connection Time! We always begin with prayer. Then we greet each other in different ways each day ... today was the shoe greeting! We each toss a shoe in the centre, pick up a buddy's shoe, find the shoe's owner, and greet them!


Then we all share our news! Today we heard about Minecraft, a McDonald's hot lunch, a bracelet filled with chapstick, and a few even shared baptismal items connected to this week's Religion focus. 


We work with the same poem all week long. This allows the children to build their reading fluency. Then we count the days, review spelling words, and subitize. Whew! 

Then we close Connection Time with a story. Today's reinforces one of the Indigenous' 7 Sacred Teachings! 


Can you believe we have only been in class for 40 minutes?!? 

Off to buddy read! We re-read the home reading book we took home last night to a friend, then quietly exchange for a new book. 


We sharpen our language and math skills using our daily Building Skills activity!


We are starving! Snack time, and then out for recess! 


Today in Math we were laying the foundation for addition and subtraction. We used coloured blocks to make number trains with a friend. We are learning how numbers are composed and related.

Off to the gym for a rousing game of "Garbage Ball"! We can only take 3 steps before we have to pass the ball to a friend. Sink the ball in the "garbage bin" for a point! Wahoooo!


Back outside for recess, and then in for lunch. Yum!


Today we are tackling our Daily 5 Literacy Centers. Students choose their stations and move through Word Work, Work on Writing, and Listen to Reading tasks. These stations reinforce so many language skills and the students LOVE the choice they are given within each centre. 

At Word Work, we practice our 5 weekly spelling words using several interactive activity bins. 

At Work On Writing, students are challenged to complete the sentence! 


At Listen to Reading, students hop onto a laptop and hear stories on the websites Epic or RazKids! 


Another quick recess break! Look at that blue sky!


So excited to head to Library to see Mrs. Nixon! She is a very animated reader and we love the stories she chooses for us!


Today in Science we began a unit on colour! We made viewfinders using three transparent circles in red, yellow and blue, and are experimenting with these colours to see how the colour wheel is made up. 

We began our day in prayer and we close in prayer. Hugs, high fives and handshakes and we are out the door! What an amazing day!

Learning in Grade 1 is hands on, collaborative, messy, creative, and so engaging! Is it any wonder we all come home exhausted? Thanks for joining us today! 

Today's learning brought to you by
Mrs. Beliveau's coffee machine!








Friday 17 January 2020

These Snowmen Will Melt Your Heart!

We had such fun this week creating our bird's eye view snowmen!

However, the project started in a boring manner. 

Very.

Very. 

Boring. 

Mrs. Beliveau asked everyone to draw white snowflakes on white paper. Ummm ... not exactly exciting, now is it?



However, soon the boys and girls were "ooooohhhh-ing" and "aaaahhhhh-ing"! Using watercolours, we were able to make our snowflakes appear, as if by magic! 



As our watercolours dried, we set to work on our snowmen. Using pastels, we traced the three balls of the snowman's body and used our fingers to smudge the pastels inward. 

After Mrs. Beliveau hot-glued the three snowballs together, including a little stack of cardboard in between to make each ball "pop" out, we were ready for the next step ... details!

Noses, arms, buttons, scarves, eyes, eyelashes, and even a few pairs of mittens were added to give our snowmen personality!


Look how charming!


Well, our snowmen aren't exactly famous ... yet! But we're pretty certain they will be soon! For the month of February, our bird's eye view snowmen will be featured on a special bulletin board at the Strathcona County Library They'll be there all February! 



Tuesday 7 January 2020

Our Little Leaders

Today our students led our assembly! Our theme was the Feast of the Epiphany, and our focus centered around the Wise Men following the star to our King. The Wise Men brought Jesus the precious gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What gifts can we give to Jesus?




The boys and girls in our class, many of whom are emerging readers, worked very hard to read their parts confidently. It's not easy being in front of the whole school, but we put on our brave faces and did our best!

Out toes were tapping as we sang together! Have a listen, it's catchy!



We gathered, we sang, we danced, we prayed. 

We were all so proud of the beautiful prayer assembly we led today. Leaders come in many sizes, and today our leaders were little!