Lent has Begun

This past week we celebrated Shrove Tuesday, a day of feasting and fun. Traditionally, this is a time to use up rich foods in the fridge that are not often eaten during Lent, such as milk, eggs, and butter. Add a little flour, and you have pancakes!

Earlier this week, our prayer table was green for Ordinary Time. Now that Lent has begun, it is purple. 

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. During this season, we take time to look at our hearts and think about how we can grow and become more like Jesus. We pray more, ask for forgiveness, and try to be kinder and more generous to others. For forty days, we prepare our hearts for the new life and joy of Easter.

Our Lenten wreath is brown and bare, symbolizing the desert where Jesus prayed for forty days, as well as the crown of thorns. Can your child explain the symbols on our wreath, such as the purple ribbon and the burlap cloth with a cross? As we journey through Lent, we will continue adding new symbols to help us better understand this liturgical season.

We celebrated Ash Wednesday mass as a school community. We all received ashes on our foreheads to remind us of Jesus' sacrifice for us. 

Lent is a time of reflection, prayer and service. May the 40 days of Lent help us prepare for the joy of Easter. 

Our Hearts are Happy, Healthy and Holy!

We continue to learn about Christ's love for us and have been celebrating friendship and kindness. With Valentine's this week, we've had a lot on the go, so here are a few highlights!

Step by step, we created spectacular mixed-media heart art explosions!

Aren't they joyful and unique, just like our kids?!

We were thrilled to make silly, creative Love Monster mailbags! 

What better way to celebrate our hearts than by heading off to the gym for some healthy heart-pumping skipping! We skipped in support of Jump Rope for Heart, a initiative supporting the Heart & Stroke Foundation. 

Valentine's Day gave us a chance to sharpen our numeracy skills! We tackled missing numbers to 20 ...

 ... and challenged ourselves with a number hunt, colouring in the numbers we found on a 100's board! Look at the hidden picture!

We hunted for hearts and wrote the missing end sound in each word. We love a challenge!

We certainly had fun celebrating Valentine's Day, but whether it's Valentine's or not, we share love and kindness in our classroom each and every day.

May you have a happy, healthy, and holy Valentine's Day!

The Case of the Hot Cocoa Caper

January 31st is National Hot Chocolate Day and we were so excited to celebrate this week! However, we had a problem ... our hot chocolate mix went MISSING!

We each received our own case file and a list of suspects. Our challenge was to work through several tasks. As we completed each task, one of the suspects would be eliminated!

These tasks were a wonderful review of so many skills we've built! We worked through rhyming, adding vowels, reading CVC words, working with a number line, measuring, and more!

Each time we finished a task, we received a clue eliminating one of the suspects!

After lots of teamwork, we found the culprit! The hot chocolate caper was solved and we were able to enjoy a delicious cup (or two) of warm cocoa together!

What a wonderful way to end a wonderful winter month! Happy Hot Chocolate Day, everyone! 

Winter Escape Room Activities and Centers are from One Sharp Bunch by Ashley Sharpe

Celebrating Family Literacy Day!

Family Literacy Day is celebrated annually in Canada on January 27 and encourages families to read and learn together each day.

While we may not be able to welcome every family into our classrooms to celebrate, we found a meaningful way to connect home and school. Students selected a favourite book from home, wrapped it, and brought it in to share with their classmates. Each day, we unwrapped a surprise book and enjoyed reading it together as a class.

The excitement each morning was infectious! This simple activity has been an exciting and engaging way to celebrate our shared love of reading and the important role families play in nurturing literacy.

Happy Family Literacy Day!

Sneaky, Snowy Sentences!

Our playground and field are covered in snow, so it was fitting this week to read Eric Carle's book Dream Snow!

In the story, a farmer falls asleep and dreams that snow covers his farm animals. This book is very clever! Clear plastic sheets, with "snow" on them, can be lifted to reveal the animal underneath! 

Armed with our knowledge of sentences, we made our own version of the book, but with a twist! Students each wrote clues about an animal of their choosing. Kids were challenged to write a sentence beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period.

An illustration of the animal accompanied their clues, too!

Just like in Dream Snow, a clear page with painted "snow" covered the animal, so it would be lifted up to reveal the animal hidden under the snowbank! The very best part of this was adding "snow"!

Here are the clues:

Peek under the "snow" to see the animal!

Because of their fantastic work, the hallway board near our classroom has curious students reading our clues and peeking under the snowbanks! Well done, Grade One!

Hibernation: A Blanket of Snow

Seasonal changes are something we explore year-round in Science. Recently, we've begun learning how animals hibernate, migrate, and adapt to the cold winter months. 

Animals who hibernate often burrow under the snow. But how can you be warm under something so cold? 

Our experiment was simple: bury one thermometer in a snowbank, and leave the other sitting on top of the snow. To protect the thermometers, each was safe in a box.

We left the thermometers all morning and checked their temperatures after lunch. We discovered that it actually warmer under the snow! Many animals have a better chance of surviving the cold winter when there is a lot of snow. This snow acts like a blanket. It traps heat from the earth, as well as an animal's body heat when an animal burrows deep. 

Bundle up and enjoy the heaps of snow, everyone!

Let's Play Junk It!

This week, we were introduced to a fast-paced card game, Junk It! It helps us recognize and order numerals to 10. 

Junk It is a 2-player game. Remove face cards, but keep Aces. Put 10 cards in two rows of 5 face down in front of each player. Place the remaining cards in the centre. 

The first player flips a card over, and places it in its numerical spot. She picked up a 7 ...

... so she put it down where the 7 goes. 

When she placed her card in the 7 spot, she picked up a 5 (formerly face down in the 7th place). Off the 5 goes to spot 5!

Notice how when she put her 5 down, she picked up the card in that spot? It is also a 7! She already has a 7, so she gets to call JUNK IT and discard it in the middle. 

Her opponent can either pick up the card that was just discarded, or select a new card from the pile. He needs a 7, so he picked it up. 

The first player to get all 10 cards flipped over in order wins! Isn't learning more fun when it's a game?

It is a little confusing to explain on our blog, but the kids are definitely the experts! Will you challenge your child to a game of Junk It?!?