C, D, E, F, G & Stories!

It's the end of May, but we are still packing our days with both learning and fun!

All week long we have been continuing our story writing focus. After being inspired by the book Mita's Lost Ball, we wrote our own "lost" stories. What is something we wouldn't want to lose? 

After lots of brainstorming, we spent time completing our story organizer. We use an organizer to help us put our ideas in order. A little editing and illustrating, and we created our own books! This took us all week long, and we are so proud to share our work!

We can't wait to read our work to the Pre-K class next week!

Our ABC Countdown began last week and was in full swing this week!

C - Chalk and Cup Stacking

Coffee? Chaos? Crazy? No, we celebrated letter C with cup stacking challenges and chalk!

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 Games

We tackled an adding game called Dice Wars, and were so excited to use dice IN dice! We each rolled a double die, added our total, and whoever had more took a counter. Gather all 10 counters to win!

Roll to 100, as always, was a hit! 12-sided dice made it even more challenging!

E - Exercise & Environmental Exploration

A Nature Scavenger Hunt  had us outside with our 3R buddy class, exploring God's beautiful Earth! Add "exhaustion" to our letter E day, too!

F - Freeze Dance 

We had a blast showing off our creative dance moves to tunes like Baby Shark and Everything is Awesome! Check out this FREEZE!

G - Green Snacks & Games

We munched some healthy green snacks!

Look at all of the amazing games we brought from home to enjoy! What a great opportunity to play fairly!

It was a wonderful week together! How is it almost June? 

A, B, Seeds!

How many letters in the alphabet? 26! Our ABC Countdown started yesterday, and we'll be adding a little sparkle and zip to each day with activities for each letter!

A - Awesome Authors and Animals

With a stuffed animal under one arm and a favourite book in the other, we relaxed with the letter A! It was a blast reading with our Grade 3 buddies!

B - BINGO

We enjoyed playing our favourite BINGO game, Rhyming Word JINGO!

Seeds!
This week we had a visit from a strange, but highly intelligent individual. You see, Mrs. Beliveau didn't return to class after recess. Hmmm. Rather, Dr. Beliveau arrived in her place, challenging the students to join her in "seed surgery"!

The students have recently begun exploring plants, and today's "surgery" helped us understand that not all seeds look the same! We were surprised that different fruits and vegetables have different amounts of seeds, too! What fun we had performing "surgery" to locate the seeds inside!

We sure enjoyed assisting Dr. Beliveau in "seed surgery"!

Urban & Rural Communities

In Social Studies we are examining many aspects of communities, including mapping and landmarks. This past few weeks we've been comparing urban and rural areas!

After lots of discussion, brainstorming and research, the children were tasked with creating either an urban or a rural community ... all out of plasticene!

We first planned our designs on paper. The criteria for this project was to include at least 3 features of their chosen community, either rural or urban. 

In this rural design, we see lots of trees, a barn, and farm animals!

In this urban design, we see buildings, paved road, and a vehicle.

Then the students got busy creating their plasticene communities! This project provided many opportunities to problem solve and help one another out. This was challenging at first, but also creative and fun! 

We presented our final scenes at Connection Time to a buddy! 

Please watch for the plasticene project, planner, and yellow assessment in your child's kanga!

We {HEART} Moms!

We have many wonderful people caring for us, but we are especially blessed to have our moms in our lives! The children have spent the past two weeks preparing a few very special surprises for Mother's Day!

We each took a beautiful photo and then painted a fancy frame!

Aren't these spectacular?!?

We put together very special cards for our lovely ladies, too. We worked for DAYS to get our ideas just right. Several pages of sweet and funny thoughts and pictures fill these little treasure books. Here are a few creative gems from the pages of the students' cards, as well as our fancy photos! (Spoiler alert: If you haven't opened your child's gift yet, be sure to do that first!)

Moms, you are kind. You are patient. You are selfless. You are imperfectly perfect. Thank you for everything you do to support your family. Being a mom is constantly challenging, yet profoundly rewarding. It is a calling from God and He has a plan for you and your kiddos. May God bless you and your families this Mother's Day weekend!

Spring Has SPRUNG!

Spring has sprung!

Our Science mini-unit on Seasonal Changes in Spring has kept us hopping, and we have been keeping our eyes "peeled" for signs of spring! We've been looking for what people do, how animals change, and what plants and trees are up to come this warmer season! Let's share the signs of Spring we've found!

Here is how our photo hunt works. 

First, give your child a camera (your phone would be excellent!) and have him or her take a picture showing a sign of Spring!

Then, to share your photo and/or comment on our "wall":

(1) Double-click on our Signs of Spring wall below. 

(2) A box will appear. Type in a comment. Upload a picture. Ta da!

(3) Marvel at all of the signs of Spring our students have found!

Thank you for NOT mentioning first or last names on our blog, as well as any other identifying / sensitive information.

What signs of Spring can you and your child find? We'll be checking this "wall" daily for new photos!

THEY'RE SO FLUFFY!!!

And so Friday began, with a classroom full of little Agneses, thrilled to see our fluffy little chicks! (thankfully minus the extra tight "Agnes squeeze")

We wasted zero time and decided these little fluff balls needed some gentle cuddles! The boys and girls learned they needed to sit while holding a chick, and to keep a hand under their feet as well as lightly on their back. 

It was such a lovely day to snuggle with our new little miracles.

While some students spent time taking in the new life, others tackled the illustrations for a rhyming booklet called "5 Little Chicks". The chicks in our illustrations are made from torn construction paper. The creative juices were flowing! Chicks are a captive audience, and we jumped at the chance to read our booklets to them! Watch for these sweet booklets to come home next week.

In between cuddles, we welcomed in countless visitors!


Mr. Marshall came to read us one of his favourite stories, Too Many Chickens! It's about a class who is hatching chicks, but the farmer forgets to come pick up the chicks once they have arrived! We had lots of good laughs as he read! Thank you, Mr. Marshall! 

Mrs. Beliveau and her brood are keeping careful watch this weekend over the new little life! As a class, we'll be caring for these beautiful chicks until mid-next week. 

It has been an AMAZING few weeks filled with loads of valuable science and language arts lessons. More importantly, however, are the lessons we have learned about new life, respect, patience, and compassion. God's work is truly amazing!

Thank you, God, for blessing us with this experience! We are in truly in awe of your amazing work and beautiful creations!

EGG-cellent Day!

Today our room was filled with joyful noise!

We arrived this morning to over a dozen little chicks who hatched overnight! The incubator was bursting with new life! 

We left our new "classmates" and spent the morning making Pysanky, traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs! This took lots of patience and creativity, and we did have lots of fun, despite the fact we couldn't bring our chicks along for the experience! Look at our masterpieces!

The chicks remain in the incubator until their feathers dry and they become fluffy, and then they are transferred to a space with dry shavings, food and water, all beneath a heat source. We were able to move several to their new home today!

So many little babies have joined our class! Tomorrow will certainly be filled with many soft fluffy cuddles! Today was truly EGG-cellent!