Teacher Problem: The Graffiti Table is Full

You never know how a new idea will play out in a classroom. Will it work for my students? Will it be a big disaster? Could it be made better with changes? 

Today's new idea was exciting. 

Yesterday after the students left, a table was wrapped in white paper and markers were set out. 

And then the kids arrived!

Interest was high! We set out a few rules. 

• The table is for pictures and words
• Please respect others' work on the table
• Share supplies and space
• Please don't eat snack or lunch there

Then we were off and running, our day filled with bus evacuation, phys ed, rhyme bag, patterning, and buddy reading. As children found themselves with free moments, they bee-lined to our graffiti table. 

What happened was magic. Absolute literacy magic.

Children started to draw. They added their names. They added labels. The best part? It was all student-directed and IT WAS FUN. 

"Sparkey" and "dog"

One little lady drew a cutie of a penguin and wanted to label it. One problem, though. She couldn't spell penguin. A classmate, who was familiar with our picture dictionaries, offered to show her how "penguin" can be found in the P section! Problem solved!

A surprising bonus of our Grade 1 Graffiti Table was the social aspect. Yes, frustrations such as "I don't have room" or "I can't find a blue marker" arose. But opportunities to share the supplies and space abounded. It was also exciting to hear children helping one another add words to their work!

Today's biggest problem? The graffiti table is full of pictures and words and needs to be swapped out. 

Pretty awesome problem for a grade one teacher to have. 

Otters! Zoo Project Week 2

Each week leading up to our special Zoo School Week, we will be studying an animal at the Edmonton Valley Zoo! Our weekly activities are focused around reading and understanding fiction and non-fiction, tackling math challenges, sketching and labelling, and more!

Graphic via Not Nerdy

This week we got to know a whole lot more about otters! We enjoyed learning more about river otters at National Geographic Kids. Our zoo has some amazing river otters, and after learning more about them, we are really excited to see them during our week at the zoo in April! 

Otters are fascinating! Did you know they hold hands when they sleep, so they don't float away from one another? They also use their tummy as a plate and a rock as a utensil when they eat! Otters are incredibly playful as well, just like us!

We sorted words by the short o sound, which is the sound we hear at the beginning of the word "otter". 

We made patterns with the foods otters enjoy eating!

Using our observational skills, we looked at a photo of an otter and took time to sketch in our journals, looking for shapes, adding details, and including labels.  

What animal might we be examining next week? Take an early sneak peek ... you can read more about it here!

Fantastic Fall Photo Hunt!

We are loving Fall! We've been hard at work discovering what animals are up to, how trees change, what plants are doing (think gardens!), and how we change our activities, clothing, and often what we eat in the Fall. 

Let's share some signs of Fall we've found!

Here is how the photo hunt works:

First, give your child a camera (a phone is perfect) and have him or her take some pictures showing signs of Fall!

Then, to share your photos and/or comments on the wall below:

(a) Click the pink circle with a + sign.

(b) A box will appear. Type in a comment. Upload a picture. Ta da!

(c) Be dazzled and amazed at the signs of Fall found by our hard-working students!

Created with Padlet

Thank you for not mentioning first or last names on our blog. If you run into any hiccups, feel free to email your photos and captions and I'll happily post them. 

What signs of Fall can we find?

It's Not A Rash, It's Dots!

Guess what!?! It's International Dot Week!!!!

Feeling boggled? Not sure what that is? 

It all starts with a book by Peter H. Reynolds, called The Dot! This book encourages children to embrace their own creativity and take a risk! Why not watch it with your child below?




We joined in with students from ALL AROUND THE WORLD to watch a live stream of Mr. Reynolds himself reading the book! Neato!

Creative juices got flowing and we designed brightly coloured dots ... and then brought them to life! Using the augmented reality app QuiverVision we made our dots 3-D! (think Pokemon Go). Check the bottom of your child's art page for directions on how to download the app and make magic!

It's beautiful, but you should see it in 3D!

The children were then tasked with a challenge! Following multi-step directions and with fine motor-skills warmed up, the kids made dot-tastic designs!

Art project inspired by Theresa Wells-Taylor

Keep making your mark, kids!

We're Going to the Zoo!

This year our Grade 1 class is going to be spending a week at the Edmonton Valley Zoo! We are very fortunate to be a part of a program sponsored by Suncor Energy Foundation that allows us to take our learning to a whole new level! Zoo School, here we come!

For the first week in April, we will be attending the zoo! Five whole days! We will have demonstrations, hands-on animal encounters, behind the scenes tours, speakers, and so much more!

An important part of Zoo School is creating your own year-long project. We began our project last week, called "An Ark Full of Animals". Each week we will learn about an animal at the zoo through fiction, non-fiction, math challenges, YouTube videos, and more. At the end of the project we will have created our own alphabet book of animals!

This week we began with the letter Tt! We read "A Tiger Tale" by Mike Boldt ... and were so fortunate to have a Skype visit this morning with him! It was so much fun to meet him, ask him questions, and take part in a drawing lesson. A wonderful book and a wonderful start to our week!

Using A Tiger Tale, we worked on a comprehension strategy. 

We tackled tiger-inspired patterning challenges in Math. 

We also enjoyed some non-fiction, too, and visited the San Diego Zoo Kids website to learn more! Did you know that no two tiger's stripes are alike? 

An important part of our week at the zoo is journaling. Today we practiced sketching in our journals, as we will be doing lots of this once we are on-site. We were patient with ourselves and tried to add as many details as possible. 

It has been exciting to see the students so engaged in their learning! Our ABC Animal journey has only just begun, but it is sure to be a blast! What animal could we be learning about next week?

We're Going to the Zoo!

This year our Grade 1 class is going to be spending a week at the Edmonton Valley Zoo! We are very fortunate to be a part of a program sponsored by Suncor Energy Foundation that allows us to take our learning to a whole new level! Zoo School, here we come!

For the first week in April, we will be attending the zoo! Five whole days! We will have demonstrations, hands-on animal encounters, behind the scenes tours, speakers, and so much more!

An important part of Zoo School is creating your own year-long project. We began our project last week, called "An Ark Full of Animals". Each week we will learn about an animal at the zoo through fiction, non-fiction, math challenges, YouTube videos, and more. At the end of the project we will have created our own alphabet book of animals!

This week we began with the letter Tt! We read "A Tiger Tale" by Mike Boldt ... and were so fortunate to have a Skype visit this morning with him! It was so much fun to meet him, ask him questions, and take part in a drawing lesson. A wonderful book and a wonderful start to our week!

We tackled tiger-inspired patterning challenges in Math. 

We also enjoyed some non-fiction, too, and visited the San Diego Zoo Kids website to learn more! Did you know that no two tiger's stripes are alike? 

An important part of our week at the zoo is journaling. Today we practiced sketching in our journals, as we will be doing lots of this once we are on-site. We were patient with ourselves and tried to add as many details as possible. 

It has been exciting to see the students so engaged in their learning! Our ABC Animal journey has only just begun, but it is sure to be a blast! What animal could we be learning about next week?

Flexible Seating

Welcome to our classroom! We love being together in and are learning to choose where we can do our best!

View from the door

Our classroom offers "flexible seating". This means the students are responsible for choosing where they can complete focused work. No assigned desks here!

While there is enough desk or table space to accommodate each student, there are also plenty of other work spaces to meet the needs of the variety of learners we have. 

View from my desk

Like stretching out? Grab a clipboard and find a place on the floor! Prefer kneeling? Find a pillow at the little blue table. Feel like standing? We have a desk for that! Many enjoy working at the couches using lap desks, too! 

We have a few unique chair options as well! Hokki stools (blue) allow students to rock back and forth, wiggling in an acceptable way. The ball chair gives children the opportunity to bounce up and down. Inflated wedge seats allow students to move without disrupting others. 

Using the couches, pillows and lawn chairs, we can all gather together in our couch area "living room" for a story or meeting. 

Exposing students to flexible seating challenges them to think about themselves as learners. Where am I most comfortable? Where can I get focused work done? Where can I do my very best?

Empowering our little learners to take responsibility for their learning is key and can increase engagement. Where does your child prefer to work?

Looks a little chaotic, but each student chose
their work space and is focused on their learning!

Please pop by and see our cozy little classroom! We are so excited to take more responsibility for our learning!

Hop on the Bus!

Our first week together has wrapped up, and boy has it been a blast!

We all love a good book, but EVERYONE loves a book that you can sing along to! Well... maybe not everyone, but it is certainly true for 6 year olds (and their goof of a teacher). We enjoyed singing The Seals on the Bus together. 

Then we practiced singing the song with our names! We focused on using the first letter in our names to make our own verses. 

This little lady's name begins with a B, so her bus says "bumpity bump"!

We set to work making our own buses!

We added the first letter of our names ...

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

This project gave me an opportunity to get to know my students better. I could see how the children played with and manipulated sounds. I got a good peek at the children's ability to cut, print, colour, glue, and follow two-step directions, as well as several other work habits, including perseverance, time-management, and problem solving. Whew!

Pop by to enjoy our bulletin board, but be careful, this tune can get stuck in your head! 

Spectacular week, kids! You knocked my socks off with your hard work and kindness!


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