Subitizing: Seeing Spots and Polka Dots!

We have completed our math unit exploring numbers to 20! A major concept we have practiced is subitizing. Subitizing is being able to look at a group and know how many there are, without having to count each individual item. In short, subitizing is "instantly seeing how many". 

We subitize when we roll a die. You didn't have to count the dots to know you rolled a five, right?

What better way to practice this new skill of subitizing then to play games?

Here is our class playing an "I have ... Who has..." subitizing game together:

We also have many small group and partner subitizing games, too!

This group took on the challenge of playing a subitizing BINGO game:

These students play Snakes and Ladders, but rather than roll a die, they use subitizing cards:

Our memories are tested with this subitizing memory game:

Find It is a game we also enjoy!

Ready to subitize? Below is a link to a subitizing YouTube clip. Numbers appear on a 10-frame, a handy way we sometimes count in class. We know that a full frame is 10, and just one full row is 5. Sometimes seeing the empty spaces is more helpful than looking at the full spaces, too. Careful, it's really fast!




The skill of subitizing is key in developing our number sense, and will be integral in our exploration of addition and subtraction. 

Dressed in dots!

Kids Who Wiggle!

We wiggle. We shimmy. We squirm, we twist, we bounce! It is highly possible there are ants. In. Our. Pants. Lots of 'em! 6 year-olds just aren't built to sit still, so we change activities about every 5 to 15 minutes. The boys and girls are certainly not expected to sit still all day!

When we are in need of a wiggle break, and there is no Phys Ed or recess on the horizon, we visit GoNoodle! It is an online hub for goofy, sing along movement breaks! We stretch, we dance, we sing along, we shake it during Zumba, and we always laugh! Each time our class does a movement break, our "champ" grows! It is so motivating!

Here are the boys and girls in action:

Here is one of our favourite movement breaks from GoNoodle ... Milkshake!




Given that we are the wiggle experts of Jean Vanier, it only made sense that we read the book Lines that Wiggle! Silly monsters showed us so many different types of lines. 



So we got to work practicing our lines:

Then we drew 5 or 6 across a white page, added a small black frame and got to work colouring each "piece" inside the frame!

Look at this careful, creative work!

Enjoy are our fantastic, colourful, wiggly, squiggly masterpieces!

Sentence Exploration

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

We really began examining what a sentence was this past Monday. 

We learned three things every sentence has:

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

We sorted letters, words and sentences as a class ...

... and then continued our sorting independently!

During our writing blocks, we are practicing writing our own complete sentences.

Writing strong sentences is a skill we will work on frequently 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. 

Peaceful Hands & Hearts

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. How have others made our world peaceful? How can we thank them?  How can we be the hands of Jesus? Our focus this week was peace.  

As we often do, literacy introduced these topics:

Together we read the book I Call My Hand Gentle.

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

Please enjoy this little slide show of how gentle our hands can be!



We also took time to read The Peace Book by Todd Parr.  He is an author we all enjoy!

As a class, we made a book together about when we feel peace, inspired by Mr. Parr's book!

Peace is ... playing my iPad, when I pet my dog, playing the guitar, and reading in bed.

We spent some quiet time 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. 

May we all use our hands for gentleness and peace, as we are Christ's hands here on earth. 

You Can't Frighten Us!

We loved reading the pattern story It Didn't Frighten Me! The boys and girls were very excited to get to work creating their very own spooky stories! 

Here is the criteria they followed:

The students worked over several days to complete their stories.

The were sure to check our colouring criteria to ensure their illustrations were amazing!

Here are a few pages from these amazing books!

Students in Pre-K enjoyed hearing our stories, too! We were so excited to share our writing with them!

These spooky pattern books will be coming home with an assessment page tucked in the back. Happy reading!