Teach the Teacher

Each of us is wonderfully made with our own unique talents, passions, and gifts. This week, we celebrated our strengths and interests. We began by reading about the amazing variety of gifts God has given us. 

Then, Mrs. Beliveau stepped into the role of student while the children took turns being the teacher! Check out the fun we had!

We discovered how easy it is to make an Italian sandwich ...

mixed up some trail mix, ...

and chopped a fresh Greek salad! Seems TEACH the teacher became FEED the teacher!

We had two special lessons teaching us how to create bright rainbow loom jewelry!

We learned the fishtail pattern and it took lots of patience. We all helped one another!

We flexed our artistic muscles and learned to draw a puppy ... 

... and form a panda out of dough!

We practiced our jumping jacks ...

... learned to safely do a forward roll, 

... and got sweaty trying a running cartwheel!

We were taught about Indigenous culture and were invited to enjoy a special family recipe for bannock. 

We even learned words in Tagalog from an experienced "guro"!

These bright, brave humans are our future teachers, doctors, engineers, artists, athletes, trades people, innovators and world changers. This week has been a beautiful opportunity for everyone to lead the learning and to celebrate their God-given gifts and talents. 

N, O, P, Q and R

Our ABC Countdown is a highlight each day!

N - Nature Hunt

We did some exploring in nature! Using "nature trappers" we gathered our treasures as we explored. 

Oo - One Hundreds Chart Tic Tac Toe

Students were partnered up and received a blank 100's chart. Using two different colours, they tried to fill in the numbers on the chart ... three in a row! 

Pp - Paper Planes

We watched a super YouTube on how to make a simple airplane! Then we got busy folding and throwing! The planes were an absolute blast! Lots of excited squealing and pride in our creations!

Puzzles helped bring our energy back down again!

Q - Quiet Time in the Chapel
Today our classroom family relaxed and settled into quiet prayer and colouring in our chapel. 

R - Rock Paper Scissors 

After reading The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors, we played this silly chance game against one another!

We are loving our last few days together!

Chasing the Joy!

We're going to keep chasing the joy as we approach the end of the school year!

This week we began our book tournament. Each day we are reading two books and we vote on our favourite. The winning book advances to the playoffs! 

Our ABC Countdown continues!

I - Ink Pen

We were excited to set our pencils aside and use real ink! A word search with each of our names made for an awesome "inky" start! 

(Note to self - do not purchase CLICKY pens in the future)

J - Jokes and Jumping

The kids told some side splitters!

Q: What do you call funny mountain?
A: HILLarious!

We got moving in the gym with a variety of jumping challenges!

K - Kindness

The boys and girls got busy spreading kindness! They wrote uplifting, colourful notes and I put them on the windshields of the cars in our lot!

We shared our time and helped Mrs. Dubuc with some planting in the garden boxes, too!

L - LEGO Challenges

We were challenged to build a variety of structures!

M - Magazines

The students enjoyed relaxing with Chirp, Highlights, Chickadee and more! 

We sure are savouring these last few weeks together! Slow down, June! 

From A to Z: A Joyful Year-End Journey!

Our ABC Countdown is off and running, and we’re adding a splash of fun and a sprinkle of sparkle to each day with exciting activities for every letter! Let the alphabet adventures begin! 

A - Awesome Authors and Animals

With a stuffed animal under one arm, we enjoyed several stories for the letter A!

B - BINGO!

We played our favourite BINGO game, Rhyming Word JINGO!

C - Chalk and Cup Stacking

We enjoyed sharpening our hand-eye coordination as we stacked cups. Our patterning, sequencing, and perseverance were all strengthened!

Chalk in the sunshine with friends? Yes, please!

D - Dice and Dinosaur Hill

We tackled a partner adding game using dice IN dice! We each rolled a double die, added our total, and whoever had more took a counter. Gather 10 counters to win!

The sun was shining and a walk to Dinosaur Hill was in order. Can't hustle up a hill and not roll down!

E - Explore the Tipi

Together with Mrs. Spooner's Grade 3's, we deepened our knowledge and respect for indigenous tipi teachings. 

F - Frisbees and Freeze Dance with Friends

Freeze Dance challenged us and we had a blast tossing frisbees to our friends!

G - Games (and Giggles!)

What a great opportunity to play fairly, take turns, and be gracious winners and losers!

As we step into the last weeks of Grade 1, one thing is certain ... we're squeezing in all of the joy we possibly can! 

 

Rooted in Gratitude & Love

As the end of a joyful school year approaches, we wish to express our deepest gratitude to the incredible support our families all have offered to our Grade 1 classroom. Your generous gifts of time, presence, and love have truly been a reflection of Christ’s service and compassion. Whether you were helping prep materials or joining us on field trips or special events, your dedication has made a lasting impact. Thank you for being instruments of God’s love and for helping us create a classroom community rooted in faith, kindness, and learning. 

This past week, our St. Nicholas Community opened our gym to our volunteers. To show our gratitude, we prepared some spring art to decorate our gym. We drew, coloured with pastels, and painted, creating stunning flower art. 

We put our art together to create beautiful blooms, and proudly displayed these flowers as decorations in our gym!

Thank you for all you've done to help our child bloom. May God continue to bless you for all that you’ve shared with us this year!

We LOVE Trees!

Today we spent the afternoon at Strathcona County's Arbor Day Celebration!

Trees have birthdays too! We learned to count the rings on a tree "cookie" and learned how drought and the seasons affect the rings. We even got to practice on our own little "tree cookie":

Our hearts were pumping at the "Nature-cize" obstacle course:

We planted our very own seedling in biodegradable cups, so that the cup can be planted along with the tree. Trees will come home next week.

We headed towards a treed area to hear a story and build "fairy houses" with dead material (e.g. sticks on the ground, fallen pine cones). What a collaborative, creative activity!

We learned about the importance of fire safety. We were strongly cautioned that fires are dangerous and never to be played with. We were, however, surprised to learn that forest fires are a natural part of the forest ecosystem and can play a role in maintaining a healthy forest. 

We were in awe of the arborists! We learned that they are "tree doctors". We saw several of their special tools, including the chain saws! We met two amazing arborists who gave us an amazing demonstration!

All of this fun had us hungry, so a quick tree cookie hit the spot!

We each received reusable lunch bags filled with snacks and we settled in for an interactive performance by environmental activist and Juno-award winning Canadian artist Peter Puffin!

Strathcona County put on another fabulous Arbor Day for us and we had so much fun learning about trees! We are called to care for all God created and learned more about being stewards for our big, beautiful earth!