Reindeer: Zoo Project Week 12

'Twas the week before Christmas, 

Holy Redeemer was a zoo, 

What was this week's animal focus?

The reindeer, that's who!

World's Cutest Reindeer

We read about reindeer,

Who couldn't fly Santa's sleigh,

By the end of the story,

They worked as team ... up & away!

The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett

We noticed in the word reindeer,

There are two squealy ee's

So we built some "ee" words, 

Like tree, queen and bee!

For our Math challenge, 

We used a hundreds board,  

And coloured the numbers we found, 

Just look at our reward!

Then we looked at the zoo map,

And the reindeer were found!

Using our mapping skills,

The ice cream shop was also around!

Then we carefully sketched & labelled

In our journals for Zoo School,

We are learning to work like scientists, 

Don't we rule?

Then things got silly, 

When we made our reindeer names,

Such as Bootsie Von Stride, 

What a hilarious game!

Reindeer Name activity from here

As the week came to an end,

And we became experts on reindeer, 

We hugged one another, 

Can't wait to see you all next year!

DASHing All The Way!

It is with great excitement that we welcome in two new students to our class, Dot and Dash!

Dot and Dash are robots that will help our students learn about coding and robotics!

Image courtesy of Wonder Workshop

Our first task was simple. In small groups, the kids practiced moving Dash, the larger robot on wheels, around various obstacles. They challenged one another to move Dash to different spots. 

Inspired by two weeks of chilly weather, we popped the bulldozer bar attachment on Dash and challenged one another to shovel the "snow". There was excitement, cooperation, frustration, patience, persistence, and lots of squealing and smiling!

Think Grade 1's are too young to code? Think again! What will Dash and the kids be up to next?

Ball Python: Zoo Project Week 10

With all of our concert rehearsals this past week, we had to stretch our focus on the ball python over two weeks! But we sure learned a lot about this amazing reptile!

During our week at Zoo School, we will get to meet, and touch, Sid the ball python! We wondered what he might feel like. Bumpy? Smooth? Warm? Cool? Slippery?

Mrs. Beliveau met Sid last spring

We read The Greedy Python, a story about a snake who eats every animal he meets in the jungle. This python was so very greedy, that in the end he swallows his own tail! We worked hard sequencing the events using pictures. 

Snakes have such unique patterns, and we had a blast making our own patterned ball pythons with play dough and glitter! Then we described our patterns using letters or numbers (e.g. AAB or 1122) and compared the length of our snakes using words like longer and shorter. 

Our sketching continues to develop! We are adding more detail and are able to label the parts of our animals. 

Who is excited to meet Sid, the ball python? Can't wait!

Advent: We Wait, We Prepare

This past Sunday marked the first Sunday of Advent. 

We have been learning about the liturgical calendar. Can your child point out Advent?

The liturgical calendar shows the seasons of the Church

Advent is a time of hope and anticipation. We are waiting for the birth of Christ! Please take a moment to watch this amazing little video, set to Mumford and Sons' song "I Will Wait", describing Advent. 




We changed our prayer table cloth from green, when it was Ordinary Time, to purple for Advent. Can you see our wreath? We light one candle for each of the four Sundays in Advent. This week we lit the first candle. As we light more candles each week, our world becomes brighter, symbolizing our growing anticipation of Jesus, who is the light of our world. 

At mass, the priest now wears purple vestments, the altar has a purple table cloth, and the advent wreath is displayed. 

Each day throughout Advent we will reflect on the birth of Christ by opening a box on our calendar. In each box is a symbol. We will read a bible passage relating to that symbol and will also make an ornament.  

The first box we opened had a candle, reminding us that Jesus is the light of the world. We made beautiful little candle ornaments! Please watch for these ornaments each day and ask your child how they relate to the Christmas story. 

As we journey towards Christmas, may we prepare our hearts with kindness as we wait for the coming of Jesus. 




Advent calendar activities adapted from The Truth in the Tinsel

Hedgehogs: Zoo Project Week 9

Soft. Cuddly. Fluffy. 

NOT words you'd use to describe hedgehogs, right? That's why we all had a laugh when we learned the names of the resident hedgehogs at our upcoming Zoo School ... Cotton and Cashmere!

Edmonton Valley Zoo's hedgehog named Cotton

Our math problem about hedgehogs had us counting carefully! We've been working hard to understand numbers to 20, and the boys and girls used manipulatives or pictures to solve this problem. 

We also enjoyed hearing Hedgie's Surprise! Hedgie the hedgehog helps his chicken friend when her eggs keep getting stolen from her nest. The students were challenged to solve the problem in a different way than Hedgie did, suggesting a new item to hide in the chicken's nest!

The students really enjoyed the non-fiction books this week, flipping through and placing post-its on pages they were curious about that we could further explore as a class. 

We learned that hedgehogs weigh about a pound and were eager to hold that much weight in our hands!

This week we put word lists in our zoo school journals. These lists are helping us label our sketches!

We also practiced sketching a moving hedgehog, much like we might see in the zoo, by observing this clip:






We can't wait to meet Cashmere and Cotton in April!

Rockin' at the Rink!

Today we tied up our skates, snapped up our helmets, and pulled on our mittens! We joined the Grade Two and Three classes for a recreational skate at the Ardrossan Rec Complex. What a fantastic afternoon!

Part of our physical education curriculum calls for students to demonstrate basic skills in a variety of environments. Today we skated (a basic skill) at the arena (an alternative environment). The curriculum also states that children require opportunities to demonstrate effort while participating in various activities. Boy, did we see effort from everyone! We had several sweaty little skaters!

After dividing up the ice into areas for skating fast and skating slow, students were encouraged to participate at a level they were comfortable with. This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to show GRIT and PERSEVERANCE, fitting perfectly with our focus on having a "growth mindset". Remember, having a growth mindset is when we believe that with hard work, practice, and mistakes along the way, we can all learn and improve!

Mrs. Beliveau became the learner and several Grade 1 students became the teachers, sharing their expertise on how to skate backwards. Mrs. Beliveau almost fell a few times, but got better with practice!

Some of the students in our class are hockey and ringette players, and they were wonderful at encouraging the new skaters in our class. The new skaters were very determined and positive, and all made a marked improvement by the end of our ice time! The afternoon was a tremendous success and an absolute blast! 

We'll be skating again in December, January and March! Thank you to the parents who tied skates, joined us on the ice, and encouraged our skaters! Lots of great memories!

We are Peace Makers

Remembrance Day can be a challenging concept for our littlest, so this week we took it down to their level; kindness, peacefulness, and gentleness became our focus. 

Together we read the book I Call My Hand Gentle.

Then we traced and decorated our hands, reflecting on when our hands are gentle. 

Would you like to see how gentle we are with our hands?

We also took time to read The Peace Book by Todd Parr.  Enjoy!

As a class, we made a book together about when we feel peace.

Peace is swimming.

Peace is counting the stars. 

Peace is a family supper. 

Peace is doing my nails. 

We were so excited we tweeted a few of our ideas to author Todd Parr himself ... 

... and he responded to us! So cool!

We spent some quiet time today creating some beautiful "stained glass windows" that can be hung at home during the fall break as a reminder to pray for all peacemakers. 

Today, we gathered as a school community to pray, remember, and express gratitude for all those who have worked and are currently working for peace.

What a meaningful week. Hopefully the boys and girls are able to look at the poppies on their collars with a little more understanding and a lot more gratitude. 

Bats: Zoo Project Week 8

It was a batty week!

Inspired by Halloween, our zoo school focus this week was bats! 

We spent the week learning about the Jamaican Fruit Bat, which we are excited to see in the nocturnal wing at the zoo. 

Photo courtesy of Edmonton Valley Zoo

The story Stellaluna was a wonderful introduction into the world of fruit bats! In this lovely story, a little fruit bat loses her mama and ends up living with some birds, learning a lot about herself along the way! 





We practiced retelling the story using our own little Stellaluna puppet sticks! Retelling a story is a skill we will revisit many times throughout the year. 

We did a measurement activity in Math, but not with a ruler! In Grade 1 we use "non-standard" units of measure, such as measuring with blocks or hand lengths. We enjoyed measuring a bat's wingspan using paperclips, cubes and pennies!

In Science we've begun learning about how our 5 senses help us to experience the world around us, and our popcorn activity was a great introduction!

Zoo School animals will be the perfect way for us to learn more about senses! Bats use their senses in unique ways!

We learned about "echolocation" and how a bat's sense of hearing can help it find food. 



Then we tried it for ourselves, at our very own "Echolocation Station"! One student whispers and another listens!

We also learned that a mama bat uses its keen sense of smell to find her babies! Students were given a mama bat. The mama bats smelled like vanilla, lemon, or mint. Then the challenge was on! The students were sent to find their baby bats that matched their mama bat's smell!  It was SO much fun using our sense of smell to find our babies. 

Our week closed with some calm sketching and labeling. 

We're batty for bats! 



Puppet Sticks from Linda Kamp.
Bat Measurement adapted from Kindergarten Connections. 
Sense of Smell activity inspired by Mrs. Ehle's Kindergarten.
Echolocation demonstration from Innovate. Motivate. Educate.