Happy Halloween!

We are not sure where the Grade One's were today! They were nowhere to be seen! Sitting in their desks today were Spiderman, Tinkerbell, an astronaut, a police officer, a bunny, a skeleton, a cowgirl (complete with horse) and Lego Man, just to name a few. Hopefully Mrs. Beliveau's students return tomorrow!

Every minute of our day today was packed with Halloween fun!

We began the day sharing our Halloween stories with eachother. We have spent the last week creating our own pattern writing based upon the book It Didn't Frighten Me, by Goss and Harste. The students did a wonderful job finishing the rhyming pattern to make it their own. They also followed a set of criteria to create strong illustrations (e.g. no white spaces, colour in the lines, use colours that make sense, use 5 of more colours, etc). The projects turned out so well that they will be placed in the children's Evidence of Learning binders for your perusal in a few short weeks.

Sharing their stories with eachother

After a a brief breath of fresh air after a surprising fire drill and a heart-pounding trip through the Haunted House, we tackled our Snazzy Snack  for this month. We made Monster Mash! We added green food dye to vanilla pudding, and after drawing a spooky monster face on a clear cup, filled the cup with the green goo and added cookie crumb hair.  Tomorrow we will write out the recipe together. (Unfortunately there were no pictures of the final monsters ... they were devoured to quickly!)

After lunch, we had a costume parade around the gym and then hit the dance floor! Thanks, Mr. Roman, for the awesome beats!



We enjoyed the last part of our day rotating through several centres. Students built goofy and scary creations with sparkly play dough, challenged eachother to several rounds of Pumpkin Concentration and Ghost Bowling, relaxed with some favourite Halloween stories, and tried to get a line playing Halloween BINGO.

Hopefully the real Grade One students are back in their desks tomorrow!

A Visit to Our Church

What a wonderful end to our week!

Yesterday morning we were able to visit our church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, for a guided tour. We learned so many interesting things, and even a few secrets, too! Here are a few highlights from our tour.

This is the foyer. Much like the foyer in our homes, it is where we come in and take off our coats. This is the entrance of God's house.

In a small room just off the foyer is where our priests, Father Wilf, Father Jack and Father Dan, keep their vestments. Their vestments are the special clothing they wear for mass. The church calendar tells them what colour of vestments to wear. They wear green for ordinary days, purple during Advent and Lent, and red to celebrate martyrs. Father Dan wears brown robes because he is a Franciscan.

Just beyond the foyer doors is the baptismal font. Babies, children and adults are baptized here. The font is made of beautiful white marble. When we enter the church, we dip the tips of our fingers into the holy water, and cross ourselves.

A narrow shelf, mounted between the foyer doors behind the baptismal font, holds three special oils. These oils are used for baptisms, confirmations, and annointing the sick. Have you ever noticed these oils when you enter the church?



This is the Paschal candle. It represents Christ, our light. It is lit for all baptism and funeral services, marking our beginning and our end.

These pictures are the Stations of the Cross. They tell the story of Jesus' death. They were painted by Father Kenneth Kearns, the first parish priest at OLPH Church. A school in our district is named after him, and a student in our class even attened FKK School in kindergarten! The pictures are amazing and Fr. Kenneth Kearns was a very talented artist.

This is the altar. It is the special table where the priest stands to say mass.

This is the lectern. This is where the readers and the priest read the Word of God from the bible. 



This is where the priest sits during mass. We discovered that there is a secret compartment in the arm of the chair. When we peeked inside, we saw a few song books and the fire drill procedures!

There is a small room behind the altar. We were quiet as church mice when we entered here because parishioners were praying. This is where the tabernacle is kept. The tabernacle is the gold box where the body of Christ is placed. A small red light, hanging up high near the ceiling, shines when the body of Christ is in the tabernacle.



We saw the cupboard where the chalices and ciboriums are stored. During mass, the ciborium is the dish that holds the body of Christ and the chalice is the cup that holds the blood of Christ. They are made of precious metals because we only use the best for a meal with Jesus.

Down in the basement of the church is the Clothing Nook. People who are less fortunate are able to come here and shop for clothing for free. We thought the Clothing Nook would be a wonderful place to drop off our clothes when we outgrow them or don't need them anymore.

The last stop on our tour were the offices. We were thrilled to see Father Dan here, and even more excited that he had his guitar with him too! We didn't stay long, though. After a little sing-a-long, we left because there were many people hard at work helping the church run smoothly.

THANK YOU to the wonderful individuals who led us on our tour. We learned so much about our church! OLPH truly is a special place where we are all welcome.

 

Our Sensational Senses!

God blessed us with our 5 senses! This week we have been learning how we use our senses to make observations, how our senses keep us safe, and how we can take care of our senses.

Yesterday we met Senses Stan. The children thought his outfit was a bit goofy, but enjoyed completing the poster. 

Anchor chart idea adapted from Pencils, Glue and Tying Shoes.



Then, a bag of microwave popcorn and a coconut really woke up our senses! The highlight was when Mrs. Beliveau was hammering away on the coconut in the freezing cold as the children cheered from the window. The low point came when the power went out ... and we were just about to make microwave popcorn!

The children scoured magazines for pictures of different items that we use our 5 senses for, and created this bulletin board display.

Today we were thrilled to enjoy a Senses Presentation! We looked at large models of each of our five senses and learned how our senses gather information and send it to our brain.

In small groups, we travelled to centers examining each of our 5 senses. Here are a few highlights:



Reaching into the "feely bag" at the Touch Centre.
Look, she found a match!



Our eyes can play tricks on us!
Enjoying optical illusions at the Sight Centre.



At the Taste Centre, students blindly tasted many samples, including ketchup, lemon juice, chili powder, icing sugar, and cinnamon.
Looks like this student was surprised by what he tasted!



Little scented vials were a challenge at the Smell Centre!
Pine, marshmallow, and coffee were some of the smells. 



Identifying mystery sounds at the Hearing Centre.
Here, students are trying to identify shakers with matching sounds.



Learning about our senses has been interactive and engaging! Tomorrow a special guest will teach us what life can be like when one of your senses is damaged. Be sure to ask your child about this special guest!

Problematic Peas and Carrots

We like to joke in our classroom that our brains get really hot when we are thinking and working hard! Although it was a chilly day, we had warm brains in our Math class!

We continue to explore numbers to 20. Today we were presented with a problem:

The children collaborated to find a solution to this open-ended problem. Manipulatives (e.g. counters, blocks, bean bags), whiteboards, and chart paper were all on hand. The children were encouraged to use objects, pictures or numbers to explain their thinking.

Here are a few of the final solutions the children recorded in their Math Journals:

Did you notice that there is no one right answer? The children enjoyed the fact that there were many "right answers" to this problem.

When solving problems, the children are encouraged to draw functional pictures, not fancy ones. In fact, while pictures should be organized and legible, it is not uncommon for scribbles or arrows to be scattered across their work as they carefully count and double-check their answer with the information in the problem.

Many more open-ended problems are to come!

Are the Grade 1's scuba diving?

No, we're not scuba diving, we're subitizing!

We have recently begun a new math unit exploring numbers to 20. One of the major concepts we have tackled is subitizing. Subitizing is being able to look at a group and know how many are there, without having to count each individual item. In short, subitizing is "instantly seeing how many". We subitize when we roll a dice. You didn't have to count the dots to know you rolled a six, right?

We have really enjoyed the challenge of playing different games to practice our subitizing.

Subitizing BINGO



Enormous Snakes and Ladders using a set of
 subitizing cards rather than dice



 Memory



Interactive games on the SMARTboard



Kaboom!
 (based upon the traditional card game "war")


Subitizing helps us see patterns, identify relationships between numbers, and understand place value. We have subitized using a tool called a ten-frame. Ten-frames are two rows of five boxes, and can help us see how numbers relate to five and ten. Here is a ten-frame:

We made a giant ten-frame and filled it with crazy kids to show the numbers 1 through 10:

Ten-frames will also support us as we explore addition and subtraction in the coming weeks, and we can even put two ten-frames together to work with numbers to 20.

Are you up for a challenge? Play the subitizing game below. Can you quickly say how many dots there are on the ten-frame? Here is a hint: sometimes the empty frames can help us know how many frames are actually full. Careful, it's fast!

Seeing Circles

It appears we have a class full of budding little artists!

Yesterday we were introduced to the work of an artist named Kandinsky. Kandinsky was born in Russia in the mid-1800's. He didn't start painting until he was 30 years old.

One day, Kandinsky saw a painting that had fallen over. He didn't recognize the picture. Instead, he saw bright colours and many shapes. Kandinsky began painting abstract art. We learned that abstract art does not show people, places, or objects, and enjoyed several of Kandinsky's art pieces on the SMARTboard.

Colour was important to Kandinsky and he liked to use bright colours in his abstract paintings. We made colourful abstract art projects inspired by one of Kandinsky's paintings, Squares with Concentric Circles. 

Image courtesy of kandinskypaintings.org


We began our projects by choosing brightly coloured paper. Students shared a variety of round tracers to create their concentric circles. We then worked very hard on tracing, cutting and gluing.

For a while, our floor looked like one giant Kandinsky art project . . . colourful and abstract!

Patience was a big part of this project. Students were encouraged to trace carefully and cut smoothy. They had to wait their turn for tracers, as there were only so many available in each size. Because students were working with such care, most projects are on their way to becoming masterpieces and are not yet complete. Great art takes time!

We will be completing this project next week. Be sure to check the hall near the library to see our colourful and abstract Kandinsky-inspired art!

We also have some wonderful news on our classroom! Yesterday we met our new student teacher! She is in her second year of her Education degree at the University of Alberta.  She spent the day observing and lending a hand and will be back the next two Fridays in October. She will begin her full-time placement in our classroom after the November break and will be working with us until Christmas. We are thrilled to welcome her into our class and wish her the very best as she learns alongside us.

I read, YOU read, WE ALL read!

Making reading exciting is so important in developing engaged, lifelong readers. Our excitement was through the roof today as we welcomed in our first Mystery Reader!

Together, we examined a few clues about the Mystery Reader. Right away, the children discovered that not only one guest was coming, but two!

We were absolutely thrilled to welcome in the mother of one of our students, as well as the family dog, Thomas! The only thing the children were wondering was ... who would do the reading?

We enjoyed two doggie-themed rhyming books. The first was about Thomas' cousin, a weiner-dog named Schnitzel von Krumm, who was on the hunt for a new comfy bed to cozy up in. Can you guess where he finally decided to sleep?

The second book was by the same author, and was a fantastic rhyming book about several dogs who head out for a walk. What might have scared them all away?

Our Mystery Reader and Thomas were easily the highlight of our morning. We look forward to welcoming in more Mystery Readers soon!

We didn't limit the reading to our Mystery Reader, though. The students read, too! Each day, the children are partnered up to re-read their Home Reading book, as well as listen to a classmate read. The children read "EEKK". Does your child remember what EEKK means?

After reading EEKK with a partner, children choose a new book at their level. Choice plays a tremendous role in reading motivation. Then children record their new book in their log.

As they wait for their classmates to complete their logs, children read their new books quietly to themselves.

Thank you for reading the Home Reading book alongside your child each evening. Daily practice at a level that your child can manage independently is crucial in developing a strong foundation in reading.

Celebrate the successes! They are many!