Monday. Tuesday.

Monday. 

Tuesday. 

Hmmm. Sounds boring. Doesn't sound exciting like Valentine's Day or 100th Day. No special guests? Hmph. No crazy Science activities? Blech. Just two days in a row with NO SPECIAL EVENTS? Does that even happen in Grade 1?!?

(That said, tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day and Thursday is PJ Day!). 

But even our seemingly "average" days are always interesting!

In Math we are using what we have learned about skip counting by 10's to help us efficiently count large groups of items. 

Group items into tens. Then count the leftovers by 1's. 

Yikes! That's a big pile! But we can use skip counting to help us
"10, 20, 30, 40, ... 41, 42!"

Look how skip counting by 10's helps us count:

Can your child count these items in the pictures?

Next we will tackle counting large piles of items using skip counting by 5's, so practice, practice, practice!

We have been developing strong writing skills! What makes a piece of writing easy to read and what might make it hard? We examined our work, each finding one piece that was really hard to read. We teamed up to brainstorm WHY it was so hard to read. 

We also chose a piece of our writing that was easy to read. What was this writing so much easier to read?

Here is what we've learned, and we've been applying it already!

Go, writers!

He's baaaaaaack! Remember when we first welcomed Dash? He has become a full on member of Grade 1!

This week's challenge was to use a bulldozer attachment to gather up "snow" to a snow collection area. Snow Patrol! 

One problem...1 Dash, 19 students. We used what we've learned about making fair decisions in Social and had a really thoughtful discussion. How can we all have a turn? Who will go first? 

It has been a learning curve as we learn to listen to others' ideas and respond when we respectfully disagree. Success! We made a plan and are all taking turns! Look out snow, Dash and the students are after you!

See? Never a dull moment!

Dash's Snow Patrol challenge was inspired by The Digital Scoop. 

100th Day Shindig

"This is the greatest day of my life!" (actual student words!!)

And that is how our 100th day began, with tremendous excitement and loads of energy!

We have been waaaaaiting for this day since the first day of school, when Mrs. Beliveau promised a mind blowing party!

Each morning we count another school day. We've had lots of practice regrouping, skip counting, and counting on. It has been a long journey, but today was the 100th day of school! Wahooooooo!!!!!

We all know, any awesome party requires planning. It requires careful fashion choices. It requires zazzy decorations. And of course, it requires food! Check out our amazing 100 day celebration!


These hats scream trendy. We used bingo dabbers to put 10 dots on each strip, making 100 dots! Then we visited various classrooms, sharing a poem with 100 words. 

We spent time compiling a list of 100 words we know! Aren't we smart cookies?

We each counted out 100 items. Isn't it funny how different 100 items can look? Some baggies look so empty, while others look so full.

We got crafty and made a portrait of ourselves ... when we are 100!

Using the Oldify app to turn us into wrinkly geezers, we were inspired to write strong (and hilarious) sentences!

"I would pull someone's ear." 

Counting by 5's is tricky, so we traced our hands and made a helpful bulletin board so we can practice.

Teams of students decorated with paper chains, now displayed in our room. One chain shows skip counting by 5's and the other by 10's. 

All this hard work can make a kid hungry! Never fear! We counted out 10 of each snack to make a delicious 100 item trail mix!

Energy renewed, the boys and girls searched high and low for numbers. They coloured in the numbers they found to reveal a secret message!

It was absolutely a day to remember! What learning and excitement will the 101st day bring?


Party hat labels from Cara Carroll at First Grade Parade. Hats adapted from Jessica Williamson. Door decor inspired by Sara Ann Culbertson. Snack placemat from Kristen Smith. 100 year portraits inspired by Deanna Jump. Hundred word list from Kinder Craze Blog. Number chart search adapted from Just Add Clipart. What fun ideas!

Valentine-o-rama!

Valentine's Day is heaps of fun! It's a crazy day that may appear to be silly, but take a closer look. Lots of opportunities to learn!

Together with our Grade 5 buddies we tackled Love Monster Mailbags! While flexing our creative muscles, we were also able to refine our fine-motor skills and practice following multi-step directions. 

We revisited a comprehension strategy first introduced in the fall, where we connect a story to our own experiences (remember this post?). We read Will You Be My Valenswine?, about a piggy who roams the barnyard looking for love. Then we made text-to-self connections by writing about a time we each felt loved. Such thoughtful work!

"I felt loved when my dogs kist me."
"I felt loved when my mom gave me hambgeres."

During this activity, however, one little guy put his head down. He wasn't writing. He wasn't drawing. He looked as if he couldn't think of a time he felt loved. But that wasn't his problem. "Mrs. Beliveau, I have too many ideas! I can't choose just one time I felt loved!". 

Nothing like using Valentine's Day to sneak in some practice with numbers to 100! Students hunted around the room armed with 100's charts. As they found numbers, they coloured them in to reveal a secret picture!

We delivered our cards to our classmates! We even remembered that names always begin with a capital. This activity was to blame for the noise in our classroom, which we prefer to call "joyful noise", rather than chaos. 

We also took time to make cards for the elderly at a seniors lodge. The winter months can be dark and lonely for many, so we wrote uplifting, kind messages and then added lots of "razzle dazzle"! 

To round out our day, we celebrated our friendships by playing Valentine Minute To Win It! Huh? We have to do WHAT in a minute? Yowza!

Here are the tournament highlights:

Candy Heart Stack - How high can you go?

Lava Heart - How far can you travel using only 2 paper hearts to step on?

Broken Heart - Can you gently pass a tissue paper heart with clothes pins?

As we enter into Lent, let us remember the true source of all love. 

Image courtesy of Decorate My Life

Love Monster Mailbags from The Teacher Wife. 
Minute To Win It games inspired by Mrs. Schmelzer's First Grade.
Will You Be My Valenswine? craftivity from Cara Carroll.
Hundreds chart mystery picture inspired by Lil Country Librarian
Valentine's Battleship from What The Teacher Wants

Learning disguised as play!

Graphic courtesy of  technology rocks. seriously

Learning is often disguised as play in our classroom. What better way to engage and involve our kids, all while having fun!

This week was another spelling word review week. Gah. Blech. Doesn't that sound like snoozeville?

No way, Jose!

We played several games this week to review our spelling words, and we had a blast!

HeadHunters
Each student stuck a spelling word to their noggin'. Everyone received a chart with all of the classmates' names. Then off they went, recording the spelling words stuck to their friends' heads in their chart!

WORDO
Wordo is much like Bingo! Students fill in a blank 3x3 grid with spelling words. If one of their words is drawn, they trace over it with a marker. But if a word is drawn that they do not have, they print it outside the grid on the edge. Lots of practice!

Musical Hoops of Doom
Adding "of Doom!" to any game suddenly makes it very, very exciting to a 6 year old!

We spread out hula hoops in the front entrance of the school, cranked the tunes, and boogied around! Music stopped? Hop in a hoop! Careful! If you're in a red hoop, you'll be asked a spelling word (but a friend can always lend a hand should the word be a stumper). 

KaBOOM!
This game isn't exactly spelling focused, but it reinforces students' abilities to quicky read our spelling words. KaBoom was a fun way to encourage word recognition. Pull a popsicle stick, read the word. But if your popsicle stick says KABOOM, you return your pile to the can. Who can read the most words?

But games aren't just for spelling words!


In Social Studies we are exploring ways to make fair decisions. Here is a quick chart we compiled to help us:

Bring in the games! Students were grouped into 3's, then challenged to play Connect 4. They needed to find ways to make several decisions fairly:

• Where will our group play within the classroom?
• It is a 2 player game. Which 2 students play first?
• Who will get the red pieces and who will get the yellow?
• What method will your group use to make these decisions?

To decide who would play first, these girls used popsicle sticks with
names on them and the boys played rock paper scissors

Games can certainly make learning engaging!



HeadHunters game inspired by Hurray For FDK!
KaBOOM adapted from Tickled Pink in Primary

Have a safe, kind recess!

Let's face it. Recess can be tricky! 

It is a less structured time, our teacher isn't always the one outside to help us, and sometimes we forget to be kind and caring. 

Our Social Studies curriculum challenges us to be good citizens, so we seized this opportunity and made a little movie all about having a safe, kind recess. We even shared it with other classes!

Have a safe, kind recess!