The Week Before Christmas: JV Style!

Twas the week before Christmas,
And all through the halls,
The students (and their teacher),
Were bouncing off the walls!

To keep the kids focused,
To keep them engaged,
Loads of fun things were planned,
For the last 5 days!

As our week began, 
The third candle was lit,
The pink candle of JOY,
Oh, what a perfect fit!

We did an art project,
Built a stable of wood,
Added our Holy Family,
Beneath a star they stood.

We rehearsed for the concert,
Sang of the holy night,
We practiced and practiced,
No sign of stage fright!

As a treat for the audience
We coloured programs bright
Focusing on the true meaning
Of that wondrous night!

While the gym was very busy, 
We moved by stacking cups!
Dexterity and patterning
Made our cup stacks go up!

Each day we kept reading,
For math we had time,
These kids do love writing,
A favourite pastime!

We heard Axios mens choir
And a bandura was played
They sang Ukrainian carols
We wished they could stay!

Grandma Theresa shared games
She played as a child
Then we played our own games
And things got really wild!

We each had a friend's name
And wrapped socks for their feet
We unwrapped our surprise
To find our own cozy treat!

Cozy in jammies
We gathered to see
The movie The Star
Told by a special donkey!

The week reached it's end,
And the holiday drew near,
Merry Christmas to all!
See you in the New Year!

Love and Christmas blessings, 

Mrs. Beliveau

Winter Shenanigans!

Our Winter unit in Science has been lots of fun! We explored how plants and trees change. We have also learned how animals migrate, hibernate, and adapt. But what do people do?

We got our creative juices flowing when Mrs. Beliveau read Snow Day. In the book, a "snow day" is declared and kids must stay home from school! The children in the book do loads of fun seasonal activities, which became an excellent conversation starter for our class!

We brainstormed some of our favourite winter activities!

Then, Mrs. Beliveau promised we could do those Winter activities we just read about! Ski, sled, build a snowman, skate ... but how?

The boys and girls dressed in their warm woollies and posed as if they were doing a snowy activity. Can you guess what winter activity these kids are acting out?

Then students focused their efforts on writing a complete sentence about their activity, 

chose a whimsical Winter background, 

and glued their cutout with a few details to complete the picture!

This activity was so rich! We were able to focus on writing a complete sentence, paying careful attention to beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period, all while exploring seasonal changes in winter!

Can you guess what each student is doing? Visit our hallway bulletin board and flip the picture over to read the sentence on the back!

Project idea adapted from a project featured by Christina Bainbridge. 
Visit her blog at Bunting, Books and Bright Ideas.

Advent: Waiting for Christ's Coming

This past Sunday marked the first Sunday of Advent. 

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

Advent is a time of hope and anticipation. We are waiting for the birth of Christ!





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 morning, we will have a little Advent celebration during our daily Connection Time. 

Throughout Advent we reflect on the birth of Christ by adding to our Advent lapbook! These will come home prior to Christmas break. 

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

What is a Sentence?

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.

Look at some of our hard work!

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. 

50th Day Friendship Fruit Salad!

Today we celebrated our 50th day of learning together with a little fun ... we made Friendship Fruit Salad!

We all brought fruit to share, and together it made an amazing snack, much like how we make an amazing classroom family when we are all together!

We are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for; the friendships we have made, the learning and growth we have experienced, and the kindness we show one another. 50th Day Friendship Fruit Salad was a meaningful (and delicious) way to connect with each other!

Looking forward to the adventures that await! The first 50 days have been fantastic!

Love & Peace: Remembrance Day

This year, Remembrance Day falls during our Fall Break. To help the children better understand this special day, we spent lots of time this week learning about it's significance. How have others made our world peaceful? How can we thank them? How can we be peaceful? Our focus this week was peace.  

Together we read the books "I Call My Hand Gentle" and "Beautiful Hands". 

We wrote about how we are gentle, kind and loving with our hands. Then we painted our hand, adding a creative touch to our writing!

Pop by our hallways to see how we are gentle and peaceful with our hands. 

My hands are gentle when I play soccer.
My hands are gentle when I cook.
My hands are gentle when I pet my cat. 

We also took time to read "The Peace Book" by Todd Parr. As a class, we took time to reflect and, using our senses, made a book together about when we feel, smell, taste, hear, and see peace.

Peace looks like when I snuggle my family.
Peace looks like a sunset.
Peace feels like when I pet my cat.
Peace tastes like popcorn. 

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

We took part in an initiative through Veterans Affairs where we were able to write postcards of gratitude. The postcards will be delivered to Canadian veterans. 

Tomorrow we will gather as a school community to pray, remember, and express gratitude for all of 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. 

Pattern Stories: It Didn't Frighten Me!

With Halloween on the brain last week, we really enjoyed the pattern story It Didn't Frighten Me! The students enjoyed this story so much that we got right to work creating our own spooky pattern stories! 

Here is the criteria we followed for our illustrations:

The boys and girls worked over several days to complete their pattern stories. They are very creative authors!

Here are a few pages from these amazing books!

These spooky books will come home today! Enjoy!

A Batty Week!

It was a batty week!

Inspired by Halloween, our zoo school animal 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 the 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. 

Zoo School animals are 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, orange, cinnamon 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. 

We're batty for bats! Can't wait to see more of them at the zoo! Next we will continue exploring the 5 senses God blessed us with! 



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

'Twas the Day of Halloween

'Twas the day of Halloween
And all through the halls
The children were vibrating
They were bouncing off the walls!

We were surprised by a visit
From our grandma we adore
We enjoyed spooky stories
We begged her to read more!

Grandma Theresa from Linking Generations

Then a Locked Box arrived
And we puzzled over each clue
We opened three locks
These kids knew what to do!

After lunch we got dressed
And enjoyed the parade
We strutted our stuff
And cheered as we waved!

Then we moved through the stations
Crafts, challenges, and games
We were all so grateful
To the volunteers who came!

We're headed home for more fun
Think of what we learned with Safety Bear
Make smart and safe choices
Have fun and take care!

Thank you Constable Kelly!

I'll see you all tomorrow
November 1st is All Saints Day
More learning awaits
Don't forgot to wear your PJs!


Happy Halloween, friends!