Famous Snowmen!

Well, our snowmen aren't exactly famous ... yet! But we're pretty certain they will be soon! For the month of January, our bird's eye view snowmen will be featured on a special bulletin board at the Strathcona County Library!

We had such fun this week creating our bird's eye view snowmen!

However, the project started in a boring manner. 

Very.

Very. 

Boring. 

Mrs. Beliveau asked everyone to draw white snowflakes on white paper. Hmmmph. Not exactly exciting, now is it?

However, soon the boys and girls were "ooooohhhh-ing" and "aaaahhhhh-ing"! Using watercolours, we were able to make our snowflakes appear, as if by magic! 

As our watercolours dried, we set to work on our snowmen. Using pastels, we traced the three balls of the snowman's body and used our fingers to smudge the pastels inward. 

After Mrs. Beliveau hot-glued the three snowballs together, including a little stack of cardboard in between to make each ball "pop" out, we were ready for the next step ... details!

Noses, arms, buttons, scarves, eyes, eyelashes, and even a set of kitty ears were added to give our snowmen personality!

Look how charming!

Tomorrow a lady from the Strathcona County Library is coming to share some winter-themed books with us, and will gather up our snowmen to post at the library. Be sure to head to the Strathcona County Library in the new year to see our kids' famous snowmen! They'll be there all January!

Project inspired by Ariel View Snowmen at tinyartroom. 

Share the Good News! The Christ Child is born!

This year's theme across our school division is Sharing the Good News with Joyful Hearts! What greater news to share than the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ!  

Today, the wondrous story of the birth of our King was re-told using beautiful prayers from the book "The Twelve Prayers of Christmas" by Candy Chand. Prayer and song was interwoven as the story of Jesus' birth was shared. 

The boys and girls in our class played the parts of the animals in the stable; the sheep, donkeys, cows and doves who were present that special night. We sang a peaceful song about the animals in the stable when Jesus was born. 

Jesus, our brother, kind and good,

Was humbly born in a stable rude, 

And the friendly beasts around Him stood,

Jesus, our brother, kind and good.

Our little "friendly beasts" were amazing. Absolutely radiant. From initial rehearsals beginning last month, to full costumed run-throughs yesterday and today, their consistent effort and energy was remarkable. 

Here are some special memories from concert week:

Many thanks to the patient mom who ensured our costumes were "up to snuff", and to the boys and girls in Grade 1, who captured the essence of the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ! This week marks the second week of Advent. Throughout Advent, we have been discussing how we are preparing our hearts for the arrival of Jesus. Students are encouraged to take time to pray and find ways to share kindness with others.  May your families be blessed with peace and joy this Christmas season!

Snow Day? Our fault!

It was our fault. 

We're pretty certain we caused last week's Snow Day. Whoops!

We had spent the week dreaming about a big dump of snow ... and then BOOM, piles and piles of snow arrived in Ardrossan! 

This is how it all happened...

Mrs. Beliveau kicked off the week by reading one of her favourite winter books, Dream Snow by Eric Carle. 

In the book, a farmer falls asleep and dreams his farm animals are covered by snow. The book has transparent pages with white "snow" on them. When the clear pages are lifted, we see the farm animal that was hidden under the snow. So clever!

We got right to work creating our own snow-covered animals, complete with clues! The boys and girls were dreaming of snow! Here was the criteria for our project:

In super-sneaky silence, the students wrote spectacular clues describing an animal of their choosing. Mrs. Beliveau's socks were completely knocked off by the complete sentences the boys and girls were writing nearly independently!

Then it was time to tackle the illustrations! Students drew their animal on a snowy landscape. 

Finally, we added a transparent page over our illustrations and got to work adding snow.

Look at the final product! 

Can you guess the animal that is buried under all that snow?

A baby chick!

The projects are complete and they are fantastic! So much for us to be proud of! 

Now the children will self-assess their work, based upon the initial criteria. This helps the students celebrate their successes and look for ways to improve as writers and illustrators. 

Come enjoy our bulletin board and see if you can guess what's hiding under all that snow!

And we apologize if our dreams of snow caused that big blizzard! 

Project inspired by Christina Bainbridge of Bunting, Books and Bright Ideas.

I'm stuuuck!

"Mrs. Beliveau, I'm stuck on this word!"

Boy, learning to read is challenging! A huge part of Grade One is arming the students with strategies they can apply when faced with a tricky word. 

We have a special bulletin board in our room that helps us remember useful reading strategies. There are many more strategies not posted on our board that can help a reader, but the ones we focus on are the ones that will help our beginning readers get "unstuck" most often. 

If you ever want to hear a funny story, ask Mrs. Beliveau about how her husband ended up buying all of these Beanie Babies!

We have not yet introduced all of the strategies posted, but have worked with several so far. Mrs. Beliveau frequently meets with small groups of kids who have similar needs to practice applying reading strategies.

Can you see the strategies posted behind our reading table?

Knowing the strategies your child is familiar with, as well as the vocabulary we use in class when discussing strategies, can be helpful when reading together at home. Here are the strategies we have worked with so far:

• Stretch out the sounds in the word slowly. (Stretchy Snake)
• Look at the first letter of a word. Get your lips ready to say the first sound. (Lips the Fish)
• Look at the pictures for clues. (Owl Eyes)
• Find a chunk/part of the word you know. (Chunky Monkey) 

Above all, always encourage your child to ask "Is what I'm reading making sense?". 

Watch for a strategy bookmark to come home with your child soon!

Reading strategy posters from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten. 

Braille and a Black Lab

Our Five Senses Unit is coming to a close, and we have learned so much! This past Friday, we had an opportunity to learn more about what people do when their senses are impaired. Several special guests visited!

Braille

Our first special guests were from down the hall! Mrs. Cooper is an incredibly talented Educational Assistant who has become very skilled at Braille. Joining her was a student with a visual impairment who was learning to read Braille. 

Braille is a set of raised bumps that you run your fingertips over. The bumps stand for letters, punctuation, or even whole words. A person would learn to read Braille if they their sense of sight was impaired or if they were blind. 

We were amazed that our special guests could read with their fingertips! We were treated to a story, read entirely in Braille!

What an amazing way to read! Many thanks to Mrs. Cooper, who also Brailled our names!

Dogs With Wings

Mrs. Montgomery, a former Holy Redeemer teacher and close friend of Mrs. Beliveau's,  generously set up a special visit from Dogs With Wings. Dogs With Wings is an assistance dog training organization that supports individuals with various disabilities, from visual impairments to mobility challenges. Mrs. Montgomery used to train puppies and still volunteers with the organization!

We welcomed in Susan and a 2 and a half year old black lab, Oakley! 

We saw several of Oakley's special skills that can help people be more independent and capable.

Here is Oakley helping Susan take off her shoes, coat and hat:

Oakley knows how to help someone cross a street or navigate a busy mall. Here is Oakley getting ready to help Susan cross a pretend street:

Labs are an especially focused breed of dog. One of our students was asked to distract Oakley by stepping over her several times. Do you think Oakley payed any attention to this little girl?

Look at how Oakley's attention remains on Susan

We learned that when we see a service dog out in public, we are not to pet it, talk to it, or distract it. We can identify a service dog because it wears a vest. 

Can we pet this dog? NO WAY, JOSE!

Can we pet this dog? YES!

Once a service dog's vest is removed she can be treated like any other dog. We all jumped at the chance to get in some puppy cuddles, too!

There are many ways to support Dogs With Wings. Susan said the organization is always looking for foster families to train the puppies. Of course, donations are always appreciated, as clients are only charged $1 when they receive their service dog. Susan even invited us to visit the dog training facility with our families so that we can play with the puppies!

Susan left our library with a new book, A Dog For Uncle Peter, written specifically for Dogs With Wings. Thank you, Susan, Oakley, and Mrs. Montgomery! Dogs With Wings is truly a blessing for so many!

There are so many ways that people with sensory impairments can be independent and successful. What an amazing day filled with learning!

It Didn't Frighten Me!

Halloween was SPECTACULAR! Last Friday was a ball! We had loads of fun busting a move at the dance, reading spooky stories, making a Halloween wind sock, and playing all sorts of active games, like Goalie Ghost!

But our Halloween fun began well before October 31st! For the past few weeks, the boys and girls have enjoyed the book It Didn't Frighten Me, by Goss and Harste. 

It is a pattern book about all of the things that didn't frighten a child late at night ... until a little brown owl shows up to do some scaring! Eeek!

We read the book several times, and then worked for days creating our own versions of the story! 

The boys and girls were introduced to the word criteria. We had two very simple criteria that the students were challenged to meet for this project: 

(1) print neatly with finger spaces

(2) draw neat pictures that fill the space

Ta da! Here are a few completed pages!

On Halloween, we shared our work with our Grade 5 buddies, and also snuck opportunities to read to anyone who was brave enough to hear a scary story!

Yesterday we reflected on our great work! We thought carefully about the criteria for the project. Then the students chose a colour they thought would best match their effort for the given criterion; green (excellent), yellow (proficient), or red (basic). 

We often use these monkeys when we self-assess and are reflecting upon where we are at on our learning journey. Can your child describe what these monkeys and their corresponding colours mean?

Watch for these amazing, scary stories in your child's Evidence of Learning binder, coming home after the November break!

Connecting to What We Read

Reading can become so much more meaningful when we are able to personally connect with the text! This past week we have been focusing on making a personal connection with what we are reading. This means the children have been challenged to connect the story to their own life, own experiences, and own feelings. 

Chart inspired by Cara Carroll at First Grade Parade

We enjoyed reading two books appropriate for the Halloween season, The Littlest Pumpkin and Where's My Mummy?. The Littlest Pumpkin is about a teeny tiny pumpkin that nobody picks from the pumpkin patch. Where's My Mummy? is about a little mummy who is lost and can't find his mommy!

Then boys and girls made meaningful text-to-self connections!

The little pumpkin was disappointed nobody picked her at the pumpkin patch. The boys and girls thought of a time they felt disappointed:

'I felt disappointed when mom made me nap."

"I felt disappointed when I didn't get to my aunty's house"

"I felt disappointed when Baba and Gigi went to Mexico without me"

We also enjoyed the story "Where's My Mummy?"! Where is little mummy's mama? Little mummy felt scared without mama! Here are our personal connections of a time we felt scared:

"When I'm scared a snack makes me feel better"

"When I'm scared I scream"

"When I'm scared I jump and close my eyes"

Continue to reinforce those personal connections to what your child reads. Connecting to the text is an excellent way to increase and develop your child's comprehension!