An Hour in Grade One

Welcome! Come start the day with us!

Lined up at our doors and ready to start the day! Look at those smiles!

We begin each day in a similar way. After greeting eachother and checking agendas, we spend a few minutes warming up for the day by doing an interactive Brain Warmer! The activities change every day and the students love them! 

Then we gather on the mat and spend a few minutes working with a poem. We work with the same poem all week long. This allows the children to build their reading fluency. Then the poem is used at our Poetry Center the following week. 

News time! Each day a different student shares some news with the class. This activity is a quick and powerful way to integrate language arts mini-lessons into our morning, such as sentence structure, punctuation, Word Wall Words, syllables, vowels, consonants, phonics, word families, rhymes ... the possibilities are endless!

(1) On spring break I am going to my farm. (2) It is my little sister's birthday.
(3) I went to the lake. (4) I am making an igloo!

We move straight into exchanging our Home Reading books. Students re-read the book they took home to a partner. They exchange their book for one at the same level, record the title and date in their log book, and quietly read the new book. I am able to read individually with 4 to 6 students in this short time, allowing progress to be assessed, feedback to be given, and book levels to be adjusted. What phenomenal readers!

After exchanging home reading books, we move straight into Literacy Centres. Children are grouped by similar abilities, however groups are very flexible and change as students develop their skills and grow. Here is a peek at literacy centers this week:

(a) Computer Centre

These students are working on Lexia, and individualized reading program, or exploring Starfall. They love this independent time to refine phonic skills!

(b) SMARTboard Centre

A variety of interactive games are played at this centre. This week, children are playing a memory game focussing on word families. They are trying to match the beginning of a word to the end of a word. When they make a word, they record it on their sheet. They think the nonsense words they uncover are hilarious!

(c) Poetry Centre

After a poem is worked with as a whole group, it becomes the featured poem at the Poetry Centre. Children re-read the poem and then work with it in different ways; filling in missing words, highlighting rhyming or spelling words, or illustrating the poem. 

(d) Word Work Centre

There are many hands-on games students enjoy at this centre! Many different language skills can be practiced. Two favourites are JINGO, a rhyming bingo game, and Roll, Read and Cover, a game that tests their phonic knowledge as they read individual words. This week the students were introduced to Pancake Match, a memory and sight word game where they take turns flipping over two pancakes to see if the words match. Whatever the challenge, the students are up for it!

Roll a die, read a word from that row,
and use a bingo dabber to mark the word!

Using a real flipper makes Pancake Match a million times more fun!
Thank you to the wonderful parent who created this game for us!

(e) Guided Reading

As the rest of the class is engaged, it is a perfect time to quietly read with a small group. Here we work on applying our reading strategies with books at the students' reading level. After working with a book together, students re-read the book either individually into a Toobaloo or with a partner quietly. 

(1) Reading together in a small group (2) Reading quietly into a Toobaloo
(3) Our board with several reading strategies (4) Reading with a buddy

If you can believe it, after completing all of these activities we are not even at morning recess yet! We still have about 30 minutes to squeeze in a little more Language Arts, such as a directed writing task, a reading comprehension activity, or a phonics lesson. Whew! 


Time flies when you're having fun!

Our student news activity was inspired by Cara Carroll at First Grade Parade and the Roll Read and Cover game at centers was inspired by Miss Kindergarten at Freebielicious. 

Gymnastics is fantastic!

A portion of our phys ed curriculum focuses upon beginning gymnastic skills, such as balances, rolls, body awareness and movement. We have an energetic and generous parent volunteer who will be leading us through several activities over the next few weeks! She is a certified gymnastics coach with extensive coaching experience and a love of the sport. The children have been thrilled to work with her over the past week.

Imagine you are 6 years old and you walked into the gym to see this:

The students could hardly contain themselves!

They were bundles of energy during a whole-group warm up game of Signals, where they had to follow the directions from our parent volunteer ... but she gave these directions using her body actions, not her words!

Then the students were divided into groups to complete three different circuits. The goal was to keep the children moving, engaged, and learning. Here are several of the movements and skills the children were practicing in their circuits today:

2-foot hops

Log rolls

Inch-worm walk

(walk your hands forward, inch your feet forward)

Forward rolls

Star jumps

Safe landings

Side to side hops

Walk up the wall, count to 5

Snake crawls 

(careful not to touch the fire rope!)

Egg rolls

(this made many of us very hungry!)

Small 2-foot hops

This was only our second gymnastics lesson, and look at what we can already do! This unit is sure to be challenging and fun!

Many sweaty high fives were given to our energetic parent volunteer! Thank you for sharing your time and talents with our class over the next few weeks. What a wonderful start to our day!

100 Days Smarter!

Ta da! We are officially 100 days smarter!

The 100th Day of school is a big accomplishment for any class! But for us in Grade One, it is an important day because a large part of our math curriculum is developing our number sense to 100. It is also is another really fun way to sneak in loads of language arts curriculum, too!

The boys and girls were greeted like celebrities as they entered through our fancy door:

The children made fashion-forward party hats decorated with 100 bingo dots. They were careful to dab 10 dots on each of the 10 coloured strips.

Wearing their hats, they shared a goofy poem at assembly called 100 is a Lot! They read the 100 word poem confidently and proudly. Way to go, smarties!

We had no time to lose! The day was JAM PACKED with activities to celebrate this special occasion. In fact many activities spilled over into the 101st day, too. Too much fun for one day!

We each made tasty bags of 100th Day Trail Mix. Using a placemat, we counted out 10 of each treat, creating a snack with 100 treats! Yum!

Posted in the hall are our 100 item collections. Isn't it amazing that the bags all look different, but there are 100 items in every bag?

Sticky jewels, screws
hockey cards, Barbie shoes

Then the boys and girls hunted high and low for number cards.  When they found a number, they coloured it in on their 100's chart to reveal a secret message.

The boys and girls tackled a monumental project. Working in two teams, they created paper chains that we will use to help us skip count by 5's and 10's. The boys worked on the 5's chain, linking together five loops of red, and then five loops of blue:

The boys used a 100's chart on the SMARTboard
to keep track of how many loops they had made. 

The girls worked on a 10's chain, linking together 10 yellow and then 10 green, until they reached 100:

The girls worked on their 10's chain in the hall and
 used the pocket chart to keep track of their loops. 

These chains are hanging in our classroom and will be very helpful as we skip count!

The children got creative and created a self portrait ... when they turn 100 years old! Aren't they wrinkly?

Perhaps the most powerful activity we did showed the children how much they have learned in 100 days. Look at what we can do!

100 days ago I didn't know  ...
(1) how to skate  (2) how to read
(3) how to go on the smart board (4) how to do the monkey bars

Boys and girls, you are such hard workers and have learned so much. Mrs. Beliveau is very proud of you! 

You are 100 days smarter!

Keep up the amazing learning! 

The "100 year portraits" and "100 days ago I didn't know" projects are both inspired by Deanna Jump, the 100 day treat placemat is created by Kristen Smith, and our funky hats were inspired by Mrs. Williamson's Kinders. What excellent activities!

Happy Heart Day!

Today we celebrated friendship and kindness! We had a lot on the go, so here are just a few highlights from our Valentine's Day!

The children arrived to find little surprises on their desks, as well as a code they were challenged to crack. Cooperation was key, and they worked together to solve the puzzles and read the messages!

The boys and girls enjoy reading the series of books by Rob Scotton about the adventures of a cat named Splat. This week we read Love, Splat. Can your child retell this sweet, silly story to you?

After reading about Splat, we did a comprehension activity. We made personal connections to the story by writing about a time we felt loved, and then made our very own Splat!

The children's sentences were so thoughtful! Here are a few to enjoy:

I felt loved when my cousin babysat me. 

I felt loved when my papa took me to the pyramids. 

I felt loved when my mom took me bowling. 

I felt loved when I went skidooing with my brother. 

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than to get our hearts pumping! We danced, jumped and laughed as Mr. Roman blasted tunes for the primary classes to groove to in the gym. What a ball! (All of my pictures were unfortunately quite blurry ... but please blame the fast-moving dancers and not the photographer!)

To show kindness towards our classmates, the children delivered little surprises to their classmates. Aren't their Love Monster bags fantastic!?!

Delivering valentines (a.k.a. organized chaos)

Today was special because we celebrated our friendships. Happy Valentine's Day!


Special thanks to Royal Balloo for Crack the Code, to Cara Carroll for the Splat the Cat craftivity, and to The Teacher Wife for the Love Monster mailbag activity. 

Lent Begins: Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. The children noticed a big difference in our classroom when they arrived this morning. The cloth on our prayer table had changed from green to purple. Purple is the colour of Lent. 

Notice the bare wreath and orange egg carton?
As we journey through Lent, we will be using these items
to deepen our understanding of Lent and the Easter Story. 

We attended a very special Ash Wednesday mass at OLPH Church. We each received  ashes on our foreheads in the shape of a cross. The ashes are made from the blessed palms from Palm Sunday last year. The ashes are a sign to others that we are not perfect and that we make mistakes. Today we told God that we are sorry for our sins and that we will try to be better. 

Lent lasts 40 days. We use this time to remind ourselves of the promise we made to God at our baptism. While some people like to give things up for Lent, we are trying to make ourselves better by being kind, patient, and prayerful. 

As a school, our daily prayer is now the Jellybean Prayer. The colours help us focus on the meaning of Lent. 

We use the big plastic jelly beans to remind us
which colour comes next in the prayer.

On our prayer table is a Random Act of Kindness jar. Each day, as a class, one act of kindness will be drawn. Children are encouraged to carry out this act of kindness quietly, without looking for praise or recognition. 

Lent is a time of change; a change of mind and heart. May the 40 days of Lent help us prepare for the joy of Easter. 

Shrove Tuesday: Feasting and Fun!

Today is Shrove Tuesday. It is the last day before Lent. It is a day of feasting and fun!

Boy, did we feast today! Our energetic and generous Parent Council served a hot, delicious pancake and sausage lunch for everyone in the school. Can you tell we loved it?

Sometimes Shrove Tuesday is called Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. On this day, people would use up the rich  foods in their fridge that were often not allowed to be eaten during Lent, such as milk, eggs and butter. Add a little flour, and you have pancakes!

Thank you, Parent Council, for serving such a delicious pancake lunch! Many, many thanks to Save On Foods in Summerwood for sponsoring the event and generously providing all of the groceries, free of charge! 

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. It marks the first day of Lent. We will gather as a school community at OLPH Church for mass at 12 pm. We will all receive ashes on our foreheads. If your schedule allows, please consider joining us!