Making Our Mark!

We love, love, LOVE reading books, and this week a brand new Peter Reynolds book was released, Say Something! Mr. Reynolds is an inspiring children's author and illustrator who creates stories with an important message. 





You'll never believe it, but over the weekend while our librarian Mrs. Nixon was visiting his Blue Bunny bookstore in Massachusetts, Peter himself bumped into Mrs. Nixon! Look what we have here at Jean Vanier now! Eeeeeek!

Excited by this special new book, Mrs. Beliveau declared our very own "Peter Reynolds day"! Here are a few favourites from our library that we are enjoying:

One of Mr. Reynolds' classic stories is called The Dot! The Dot encourages children to embrace their own creativity and take a risk. 

Feeling inspired, the children set to work making their mark! Using dots and paper strips, plus heaps of creativity, we made spectacular 3D art!

Such colourful, joyful dots!

Keep making your mark, kids! You are ALL God's masterpiece!

Hooray, Hooray, 100th Day!

It's time to party!

We're 100 day smarties!

100 days of school is a big deal in Grade 1. Huge! EPIC! 

A significant part of our Math curriculum focuses on working with numbers to 100, so celebrating 100 is an opportunity to tie in several Math activities, as well as many Language Arts tasks and even the perfect Religion lesson.

So, we began preparing for the 100th day ... on day 97?!?!?! Yup, its possible Mrs. Beliveau planned 100+ activities for our celebration, and we needed to get a jump start on the fun and learning!

Here is a look at day 97, 98, 99, and of course, day 100!!!

We worked over several days to write 100 words! Be proud of that amazing list, kiddos!

We made fabulous runway-worthy party hats! There were 10 strips of paper, and we counted 10 polka dots on each. Boom, 100 dots!

The boys and girls practiced and read a 100 word poem to several classes and even in the office, too!

We brought in collections of one hundred items. Isn't it funny how different 100 items can look? Some baggies look so empty, while others look so full.

Mr. Marshall showed up in our room with a delivery! He had a box. A very, very LOCKED box. And a few clues. Our Grade 1 Breakout Box challenge was about to begin! The goal? Break into the box!

A Breakout Box is similar to a breakout room, but students use curricular skills to break into a box instead of breaking out of a room! Using teamwork and our knowledge of the 100-chart, we were able to open a number lock, word lock, and directional lock to open the box! Ask your child what was inside!

We got crafty and made a portrait of ourselves ... when we are 100! These are definitely the classiest geezers around JV!

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

Counting by 10's, we assembled trail mix. 10 of each snack item made 100 tasty treats!

To bring our special day to a close, we settled ourselves and heard the story from the bible about the lost sheep. We looked at 100 cotton balls, thinking of them as 100 little sheep, and wondered Would God worry if one little sheep went missing? Wouldn't having 99 sheep be enough? No! If we stray from God, He worries and looks for us. He always welcomes the lost little sheep back. 

Happy 100 Day, boys and girls! Be proud of your hard work!

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 Kerry. 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! 

Adoration: Praying with Jesus

This week we are blessed to experience a very powerful form of prayer called Adoration. Adoration is an ancient form of prayer. The root of the word is "adore". Essentially, Adoration is an opportunity for us to show our deep love for Jesus. 

What sets Adoration apart from other forms of prayer is that Jesus is present with us in a consecrated host. We are able to pray with Jesus before us, who is truly present in the Eucharist. 

Before entering into Adoration, we familiarized ourselves with the prayer format our adoration will follow using a little personal journal. We reflected upon and drew our personal thoughts for the Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication prayers. 

On Tuesday, we celebrated a beautiful school mass with Father Jim. He reminded us to love God and to always love one another. 

After mass, we placed a consecrated host, the Body of Christ, inside a beautiful gold Monstrance, and placed it in the chapel. Jesus is truly present!

Classes spent some time in prayer this week. As we entered Jesus' presence in the chapel, we showed our deep respect by genuflecting, bowing low on one knee. Then we moved through a series of prayers; Adoration prayer, Confession prayer ("I'm sorry for ... Please forgive me"), Thanksgiving Prayer, and a Supplication prayer (our prayers for others). Quiet time in prayer and reflection was embraced by our students. 

This was a beautiful week and this experience drew us closer to one another and closer to Jesus. 

Adoration Booklet from Look To Him and Be Radiant. 

Lego, Learning & Laughter!

Today Bricks 4 Kidz visited our classroom! The program perfectly complimented our Science Unit: Building Things!

Using Lego bricks, we deepened our understanding of building. Lots of  teamwork, perseverance, problem solving, and communication got the job done! We constructed a windmill and a car ... and they were both motorized!

What an engaging and exciting morning!

A Chair for a Bear!

Our Building with Fairy Tales continues! Last week we experimented with different materials while building houses for the 3 pigs, and this week our challenge was focused around Goldilocks and the 3 Bears!

Our task was to create a chair for baby bear! The criteria? The chair must have 4 legs and a bear figurine must fit in it. 

Using popsicle sticks, plasticine, and card stock, students set out to make a chair fit for a bear! Lots of planning, teamwork, discussion, and problem solving went into our creations! 

Success! We met our criteria and made some amazing, functional chairs!

Fairy Tale STEM Activities for Primary Grades from Dancing Into First