The Cross is a Symbol of Love

We are exploring the Easter Story and have focused on a very important symbol in our faith; the cross. Jesus suffered and died on the cross for each one of us. The cross is a powerful symbol that reminds us how much God loves us.

We created beautiful burned matchstick crosses. Don't worry, the matches we worked with were already lit, cooled and very safe to touch, of course! We patiently helped one another count out matches, glue, and check and re-check the intricate pattern. This took lots of patience and perseverence!

After leaving the crosses to dry, we were able to cut them out. They are up in our hall and will come home soon!

The symbol of the cross reminds us of Jesus' everlasting, infinite love for us! 

Parr-fect Portraits

This week we were inspired by Todd Parr's creative illustrations and messages of acceptance and inclusivity! His books rock!

After a week of painting and creativity, our It's Ok To Be Different projects are complete!

For this painting project, we were asked to use one warm colour and one cool colour. We began by painting our background and an outline of our face. 

After some clean up and a little drying time, we assembled our work and carefully added black details!

Check out our creative, "Todd Parr-inspired" portraits! 

We also seized the opportunity to celebrate our uniqueness and made posters about our special differences! 

(1) I like minty foods. (2) I don't like pizza. 
(3) I have glasses. (4) I like worms. (5) I know how to fish. 

We are God's masterpieces! He made us unique and with intention, perfect in His eyes and truly amazing!

P.S. If you are looking for a new cardio program, consider painting with 6 year olds. 

Monday. Tuesday.

Monday. 

Tuesday. 

Hmmm. Sounds a little boring. Doesn't sound exciting like Valentine's Day or 100th Day. Blech. Just two days in a row with NO SPECIAL EVENTS?!?! Does that even happen in Grade 1?

(That said, tomorrow is Rainbow Day!)

But, even our seemingly "average" days are always interesting!

In Math we are using what we have learned about skip counting to help us efficiently count large groups of items. 

Yikes! That's a big pile!

We began by grouping items into tens. Then we counted the leftovers by 1's. 

We can use skip counting to help us!
10, 20, 30, 40, 50, ... 51, 52, 53

Students got into pairs to count their own piles of manipulatives. Look how skip counting by 10's helps us count:

We also tried counting the same pile of items using skip counting by 5's:

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 ... 51, 52, 53!

We grouped the same heap of items into piles of 5 and counted the leftovers:

Why did we have the same count both times? Because, as one little one pointed out, "we didn't change the pile, we just changed how we counted them"!

The students are on their way to becoming skip counting experts, but please continue practice at home. These skills need to be automatic before being successfully applied in counting situations such as these. 

Please find time to practice skip counting:

• by 2's to 20

• by 5's to 100

• by 10's to 100

Learning to skip count helps us count large groups of items accurately and efficiently, and is a life skill.