Reading, Creating, Discovering and Hatching!

We've begun exploring the parts of a story and together we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle:

After enjoying the book, we closely examined Mr. Carle's illustrations. He has a unique method for making designed paper and then cutting it into the pieces for his pictures. 

We followed Mr. Carle's paper-making technique. First, we painted our paper. We added drips, drops, stripes and spots in every colour!

No shortage of creativity in our class!

Once our paint dried, we cut shapes to make butterflies!

Our week ended with tremendous joy and wonder as new life filled our incubator! We were thrilled to welcome several ducklings into the world. Once they’re fully dry, they’ll move into a cozy little “barn” right in our classroom. What a beautiful reminder of God’s goodness!

Christ is Risen: Celebrating the Resurrection

Today we celebrated the risen Lord! Alleluia!

Resurrection Rolls

We made a special little treat together called Resurrection Rolls. 

We wrapped marshmallows in crescent roll dough. The students were careful not to leave any holes! Then, the rolls were dipped in butter and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar. Off to the ovens!

Look at how our rolls turned out!  But wait! Did you notice the roll is empty? We sure did! 

Not only did the rolls taste warm and sweet, they had a deeper meaning. Can your child explain how the Resurrection Rolls retell the Easter story? To make these simple treats, follow the Empty Tomb Marshmallow Delights recipe. 

Resurrection Gardens

During Lent, the students decorated pots and planted grass seeds, creating their own little gardens. 

Upon arrival back at school this week, we were thrilled to see our pots bursting with new life! These little "resurrection gardens" are a visual reminder of the journey from death to new life. Our pots will be sent home in the coming days so your family can enjoy the new life of the resurrection!

Christ is Risen! Alleluia, alleluia!

EGG-citement in Grade 1!

Our week was filled with EGG-cellent learning!

Today Mrs. Junck visited us. We compared the eggs and feathers of a turkey and a duck, learned how an egg forms inside a mama, and examined the development of ducklings inside the egg. 

Today marks day 14 in our incubation journey. We are halfway through incubating our duck eggs, and in two weeks our ducklings should be hatching. We were able to candle a few eggs and saw the growth of the ducklings inside. We could even see movement!

Eggs are a symbol of new life, which is why eggs are a symbol at Easter. We spent the afternoon making Pysanky, traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs. This took lots of patience and creativity, and we did have lots of fun! We kept reminding each other that "everything new is hard at first". 

So much EGG-citement this past week! Have a blessed Easter!

Hatching & Harvesting

Hatching

Our duck eggs are a quarter of the way in their growth! Mrs. Junck visits once a week to guide our learning.

Mrs. Junck is always full of surprises and she brought two grown ducks from her farm. We compared the drake (male) and the hen (female), noticing that the female is brown and camouflages well. This is because she has to sit on the eggs for 28 days and stay safe from predators. 

We candled a few eggs in our incubator. Candling shows us if the egg is developing into a duck. We made our classroom very dark. Using a bright light, we were able to see if there was a developing duck inside the egg or not. Bright, lit up egg? No duck (bottom R). Dark, shadowy egg? Duck (top R)! 

Harvesting

The seeds we planted in our tower gardens a few months ago have thrived! Today we sampled the fruits (or veggies?) of our labour and had a little salad! What a wonderful treat!

Our classroom is bursting with new life, signs of spring, and lots of joy!

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has sprung in Grade 1, and ducklings and seedlings are on the horizon!

Hatching Ducklings

Our duck hatching journey has begun! Our local farmer, Mrs. Junck, brought us duck eggs from her farm and is visiting us weekly to teach us about new life. Each day we carefully monitor the incubator's temperature and humidity. Near the end of April and into May, we will be welcoming our ducklings!

We are so excited for Day 28, also known as Hatch Day, to arrive! Until then, we will continue to pray for our little eggs and marvel at the new life growing inside. God is so good!

Planting problem

We arrived today, ready to plant seeds, but we had a problem … our seeds were missing!

We each received our own case files, with a list of suspects inside. We were challenged to work through several tasks. 

These tasks were a wonderful review of many skills, including comparing numbers, vowel sounds, shapes, blends, and more!

As we completed each task, we received a clue, eliminating a suspect. 

We found the culprit! The case of the criminal critter was solved and we found our seeds! We look forward to planting next week … stay tuned!

Our Faith-Filled Lenten Journey

We are learning about the Easter Story, and have focused on a very important symbol in our faith; the cross. Jesus suffered and died on the cross for each one of us. The cross is a powerful symbol that reminds us how much God loves us.

We made beautiful matchstick crosses as a reminder of God's love. The matches we worked with were already lit, cooled and very safe to touch. 

We patiently helped one another count out matches, glue, and check and re-check the intricate pattern. This took lots of patience and collaboration!

We even figured out how to carefully count matches using tallies!

What stunning masterpieces!

Have a safe, relaxing and blessed Spring Break! 

Cookie's Mischevious Week at St. Nicks!

This past week, we read the story Cookie's Week, all about a cat who causes mischief all over his house!

We jumped at the opportunity to write our own versions of this story! In our own stories about Cookie, we imagined this sneaky kitty spent a week at St. Nicholas. What kinds of mischief did this little trickster get into?

After a walk around the building, we brainstormed places he could make a little trouble. 

Then, using sentences frames, we wrote and illustrated our own stories!

These stories will take several days of diligent writing and creative, careful illustrating. 

We're having so much fun imagining the mischief Cookie would cause at our school! Watch for these stories to be shared with you next week!