ABC Countdown Kickoff!

How many letters in the alphabet? 26! Our ABC Countdown started this week, 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!

B - BINGO!

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

We also squeezed in some summer bingo outside, too!

C - Chalk and Cup Stacking

Coffee? Chaos? Crazy? Yes, we had those three "c" words, too, but 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!

We tackled a partner adding game (linked here) 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! 8-sided dice made it even more challenging!

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

May: Praying with Mary

May is the month of Mary and we took the opportunity to learn to pray the rosary. To make this form of meditative prayer accessible for our little ones in Grade 1, we prayed one decade each day for five days.

To prepare for our Decade-a-Day prayer journey, we made single-decade rosaries. The decade of 10 beads can be moved around as each prayer is shared.

To connect our daily decade to the full rosary, we coloured in the 10 beads we prayed each day. 

Learning the Hail Mary prayer has been central to our exploration of the rosary. A "puzzle-piece" prayer came home. Consider praying this prayer as a family. 

Today we took part in a walking rosary. We were able to pray a full rosary ... outside! For each of the 5 decades, we walked to a new location! We prayed in the forest, near the playground, on the soccer field, and more! It was a beautiful, meaningful way to finish off the month of May. 

If you are interested in learning more about how to pray the rosary, this How to Pray the Rosary infographic is spectacular as well as the free app Laudate. 

Living and Non-Living!

We are beginning our Needs of Plants and Animals Unit! This week we are focusing on what it means for something to be living. 

We brainstormed ideas about what makes something living. Then we thought about something we knew for sure was living, such as a dog, and crossed off ideas on our list that didn't fit with what we knew about dogs. We also did this for other things we knew for sure were living, including a plant! 

To reinforce what makes something living, we enjoyed a clip from our pal on Sesame Street:

Then we studied a few examples using our criteria for what makes something alive:

To conclude our exploration of living and non-living, students tackled an an up-close, hands-on observation! Thrilled beyond measure, our scientists compared gummy worms and earthworms. We were able to see many examples that demonstrated that the earthworms are indeed living and gummy worms are non-living:

Now let's hunt for examples of living and non-living things with a photo hunt at home!

First, give your child a camera (your phone would be perfect!). Have him or her take some pictures of things that are living and non-living.

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

(a) Double click on our Living and Non-Living wall below

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

(c) Marvel at our learning!

(or just email me your photos/captions and I'll make it happen)

We will check this wall often next week to see the pictures that we all post!

Mamas!

It has been a week of mamas!

Chick Moms (and Dads!)

We've adored having 4 lovely little babies in our class and have enjoyed many moments snuggling gently with our new miracles. 

We tackled the illustrations for a rhyming booklet called "5 Little Chicks". The chicks in our illustrations are made from torn construction paper. Watch for these booklets coming home!

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!

Mother's Day

There has been lots of tiptoeing and hushed voices in our room ... we're keeping some Mother's Day secrets!

Using the iPad and a fancy background, we took special photos! Then we painted frames and popped in photos of our smiling faces. 

Our work was so colourful and creative!

We put together very special booklets for our moms, too. We worked for DAYS to get our ideas just right!

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 in Grade One!

With the Resurrection of Jesus and the arrival of Spring, we have been exploring new life in our class!

Planting

We welcomed in our Linking Generations grandparent, Grandma Theresa, to help us become gardeners! She read us "Tops and Bottoms", a clever little gardening story featuring a bear and a hare. 

Then we rolled up our sleeves and got dirty! Grandma Theresa helped us plant our very own bean seeds. We are hoping we have green thumbs!

Hatching

Genuine awe, amazement and excitement was written all over the faces of each and every student as we peeked in the incubator ... chicks! 

The chicks remain in the incubator until their feathers dry and they become fluffy, and then they are transferred to a box with dry shavings, food and water, all beneath a heat bulb. 

It has been amazing week of learning! More "chick fun" awaits next week!

EGG-citement in Grade 1!

We are nearing the end of our hatching journey! Next Thursday is day 21, when chicks should start hatching!

We've been busily preparing for our chicks arrival! To help guide our learning, we thought about what we already knew about chicks:

Then, we wondered together about what we wanted to find out:

We candled a few of the eggs in our incubator. Candling shows us if the egg is developing into a chick. We made our classroom very dark, and then, using a bright light, we were able to see if there was a developing chick inside the egg or not. Bright, lit up egg? No chick (left). Darker, shadowy egg? Chick (right)! 

In another week, when the eggs have been incubated for 21 days, the little ones growing inside the eggs will hatch. We can hardly wait!

We are learning about the miracle of life and have been exploring the life cycles. Ask your child to explain the life cycle of a chicken!

Lifecycle Craft-ivity adapted from I {heart} crafty things

EGG-cellent Learning!

Our week was filled with EGG-cellent learning!

We spent an afternoon making pysanky, traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs. This took lots of patience and creativity. It was wonderful to experience the beautiful Ukrainian culture.  Look at our hard work!

Good news travels fast! As I'm sure you've heard, we've begun our chick hatching journey. Each day we carefully monitor the incubator's temperature and humidity. Near the end of April, we hope it is full of sweet little chicks! 

We are so excited for day 21, also known as Hatch Day, to arrive! Until then, we will continue to pray for our little ones and marvel at the miracle of new life. God is so good!

So much EGG-citement this past week!