Skating & Smiles

It is safe to say that there were likely many students who slept very well last night!

Today we tied up our skates, snapped up our helmets, and pulled on our mittens! We joined the Grade 2, 3, and 4 classes for a recreational skate at the Ardrossan Rec Complex. What a fantastic afternoon!

Part of our PE curriculum calls for students to demonstrate basic skills in a variety of environments. In our case, we were going to participate in skating (a basic skill) at the arena (an alternative environment). The curriculum also outlines 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. Many 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! 

An enormous THANK YOU to all of the parents who spent the afternoon tying skates, joining us on the ice, and encouraging our budding athletes. The success of our afternoon is because of your support, time, and patience. 

We will return to the rink for two more recreational skates in the new year. We can hardly wait!

Snowy Sentences

When we started Grade 1 together, we knew many of the sounds the letters make and some words, too (thank you, Mrs. Small!). You'll never believe it, but we are now working on writing FULL SENTENCES! 

We really began examining what a sentence was these last few days. 

We learned three things every sentence has:

Mrs. Beliveau revealed her hidden talent ... rapping!

Ask your child to rap for you!

We sorted letters, words and sentences as a class!

This week we read Dream Snow. In the story, a farmer falls asleep and dreams that snow covers his farm animals. This book is very clever! Clear plastic sheets, with "snow" on them, can be lifted to reveal the animal underneath! 

Armed with our knowledge of sentences, we made our own version of the book, but with a twist! 

Students each wrote clues about an animal of their choosing. Kids were challenged to write a sentence beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period. As well, students were required to spell Word Wall Words correctly (weekly spelling words posted on the wall).

An illustration of the animal accompanied their clues. Just like in Dream Snow, a clear page with painted "snow" covered the animal, so it would be lifted up to reveal the animal hidden under the snowbank! The very best part of this was adding "snow"!

Here are the clues:

Peek under the "snow" to see the animal!

Because of their fantastic work, the hallway near our classroom is packed with curious students, reading the clues and peeking under the snowbanks! Well done, Grade One!

Writing strong sentences is a skill we will work on throughout the year! Support your child by finding sentences in the books you read, by identifying components of a sentence in our daily agenda message, and by writing sentences together ... the sillier the better!



"Is It a Sentence" poster was from here. 
Pete the Cat Letter, Word and Sentence sort was from here. 
Writing project inspired by teacher Christina Bainbridge.