We are Terry Fox!

Terry Fox is, without a doubt, one of Canada's greatest heroes. He was a man of great depth who displayed unwavering courage and strength. Terry had a dream. He dreampt of a world without cancer. Despite no longer being with us, Terry's legacy lives on in each of us.

While today was our official run, preparations for our Terry Fox Run began a few weeks ago. 

On a crisp September morning we welcomed in a special guest, Mr. Darrin Park. Mr. Park is the Chair of the Edmonton branch of the Terry Fox Foundation. More importantly, however, he is a teacher, a father, and a cancer survivor. Mr. Park spoke to our students about his own personal journey with cancer, and we heard firsthand how the money we raise for the Terry Fox Foundation completely changed Mr. Park's life. It was a tremendously moving morning and we were all honored to meet Mr. Park. 

Today brought another special guest. We welcomed former Holy Redeemer teacher Mrs. Lavonne Leeson to encourage us with her inspirational story. Mrs. Leeson was diagnosed with leukemia about a year ago. She told us how important our run today was, and what we were doing to stop cancer and support Terry's dream was nothing short of the work of Jesus' hands. 

We were bursting with pride and enthusiasm as we ran, skipped, walked, and even piggy-backed our way around the ball diamond for our own Terry Fox Run! It was an absolutely inspiring journey that we set out on together, and hopefully the children will recognize their ability to carry on Terry's dream. 



We are Terry Fox!

Rhyming & Writing

Look what this little sweetheart shared with us today ... the items she put in our Rhyme Bag! 

Only things that rhyme may go inside. Ball, doll, and a picture of her sister ... because she is small! To the disappointment of Mrs. Beliveau, there was no "mall". 

Way to go, rhymers!

Each day we have been working on our writing skills. Writers share ideas, and our first few days of writing was focused on drawing detailed pictures to share our ideas. We are gaining confidence and the students are now encouraged to add labels to their drawings.

No, we don't know how to spell all of the words we need. 

No, Mrs. Beliveau isn't going to tell us how to spell every word we need. 

No, we aren't expected to spell each and every word correctly, we're only 6 years old!

However, using our knowledge of sounds, the boys and girls can "stretch out" the sounds in the words they want to write. This means they say the sounds in the word slowly. Students are encouraged to write as many sounds as they hear. 

We've had lots of success! Here are some recent pieces of writing:

"Dirt bike, shed, me"

"beach and lake"

This is a picture of one student's garden.
"blackberries, sunflower, carrot, tomato, onion, raspberries, Lamb's ears"

"The Pokemon Battle"

Writing is about sharing our message clearly and we have taken the first few steps towards becoming strong writers! Encouraging the students to carefully record as many sounds as possible is our focus, not printing every word perfectly. As we learn more spelling words, those will make their way into our writing, too, which will help us progress towards building sentences. 

We rhyme, we write, we're awesome!

Don't Let the Pigeon Break the Rules!

It all began with a book. A book about a bus. A book about a bus, with a pigeon who wanted to be the driver! A pigeon?!? Drive?!?

Mo Willem's Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus had us all howling with laughter! This spirited pigeon pulls out every excuse in the book to try and convince us, the readers, to let him drive the bus while the driver is away. Do you think he got to drive that bus? 

We loved this book so much that we wanted to be able to share it, so here is a goofy YouTube version of the story to enjoy at home:

We all took part in a guided drawing lesson to learn how to draw Mo Willem's pigeon:

Then the children were challenged to think of a school rule they didn't want their pigeon to break, we added in a speech bubble, and ta da!

The students are now doodling adorable pigeons everywhere, not to mention devouring other books featuring the pigeon!

Fingers crossed, the pigeon follows all of our school rules! Stop by our hall to see our pigeon masterpieces!

Guided drawing lesson was a free download courtesy of Heidi Songs. 

Pigeon writing project inspired by Art Dish with MJ. 

goodbye summer, hello fall

Mornings are crisper. Evenings are darker. We're wearing sweaters, mittens, and socks. Hello, Fall!

In Science, the boys and girls are exploring seasonal changes, and this bulletin board is guiding our learning:

As we examine changes in Fall, these "I can" statements focus us:

We've read books, watched a few YouTube clips, and have headed outdoors to examine the seasonal changes in Fall! The children have learned so much already! Today we grabbed sticky notes and jotted down a picture and/or word describing what we have learned about Fall:

Combines, pumpkins, and falling leaves!

As a class, we put key words into Tagxedo, a fun and fancy word cloud generator! We worked together to choose appropriate font colors and a fitting shape:

There are so many signs of Fall all around us! Let's share them together! Here is how our photo hunt challenge works:

We have a "virtual wall" where we can all contribute our signs of Fall. First, give your child a camera (it's as easy as handing over your phone). Take a picture

showing a sign of Fall!

Then, to share your photo / comment on our wall:

(a) Double-click on our Signs of Fall wall below. 

(b) A box will appear with a place for a written comment, picture, or audio clip! Type in a comment. Record an audio description. Upload a picture. Ta da!

(c) Be dazzled with all the signs of Fall we have learned about! 

Created with Padlet

Thank you for not mentioning first or last names on the blog, as well as any other sensitive / identifying information. 

Signs of Fall are all around! What can you and your child find?

Pattern Hunting

Now that we're into our second week of school, we're well into the learning!

Yesterday we were exploring the halls of Holy Redeemer, on the hunt for patterns! Boy, were we successful! In fact, we didn't even have to look too far at all, as these students were wearing their patterns! 

We were a great team and found many patterns, both in and out of our classroom. Check out the patterns we found!



We will now be working on describing patterns using colors, shapes, letters and numbers. Never a dull moment! Stay tuned!

Meet Our Boys, Girls, and Pete!

Our first week together has been a blast! We've been blessed with an energetic, warm-hearted group of students in our class, and they've been an easy bunch of kids to fall in love with!

But we've had one extra "student" join us this week ... Pete the Cat! This feisty feline has a way of overcoming a challenge by finding the positive! What an important message for the children to hear as they begin a new school year!

Our first project together was inspired by Pete the Cat, Rocking in My School Shoes. To help develop a sense of belonging in our classroom, we made a class-book on the very first day. Everyone's brand new school shoes are featured! Here is a peek inside our book:

Then we flip the page to see who the shoes belong to:

After reading Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, we couldn't resist making our own version! We brainstormed what Pete might step in, and then each student set to work completing their own page for our book!

The children really enjoyed flipping through our class-made book. They were so proud to see their work!

To finish off our week, we read Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus. Then we practiced singing the song using our names! We focused on using the first sound in our names to make our own verses. 

This little lady's name begins with the letter "M",
so her bus says "mumpity mump"!

We set to work making our own buses!

We added the first letter of our names ....

... and completed the Wheels on the Bus poem!

These projects gave Mrs. Beliveau an opportunity to get to know the boys and girls better. She got an extra peek at the children's abilities to follow directions, cut, print, colour and glue, as well as several other work habits, such as perseverance, problem-solving and time management. 

Pop by to see our hard work and flip through our class books ... but watch out, this tune has a way of getting stuck in your head!

Our Pete the Cat: Rockin in our School Shoes class-made book was inspired by the class book at Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes. 

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes book is inspired by the class book at Made for 1st Grade.

The Wheels on the Bus names activity is inspired by Deanna Jump's Names Unit: Literacy and Math Fun With Names.