EGG-cellent Day!

Today our room was filled with joyful noise!

We arrived this morning to over a dozen little chicks who hatched overnight! The incubator was bursting with new life! 

We left our new "classmates" and spent the morning making Pysanky, traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs! This took lots of patience and creativity, and we did have lots of fun, despite the fact we couldn't bring our chicks along for the experience! Look at our masterpieces!

The chicks remain in the incubator until their feathers dry and they become fluffy, and then they are transferred to a space with dry shavings, food and water, all beneath a heat source. We were able to move several to their new home today!

So many little babies have joined our class! Tomorrow will certainly be filled with many soft fluffy cuddles! Today was truly EGG-cellent!

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! 

Winter Adventures!

Our Winter unit in Science, which focuses on seasonal changes, has been lots of fun!

Not only are we learning about how animals and plants/trees change in winter, but we are also exploring what people do in Winter. 

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!

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, with a capital letter and period,

chose a whimsical Winter background, 

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

Look at what we made! Can you guess our activities?

Isn't Winter fun?

Ball Python: Zoo Project Week 10

With all of our concert rehearsals this past week, we had to stretch our focus on the ball python over two weeks! But we sure learned a lot about this amazing reptile!

During our week at Zoo School, we will get to meet, and touch, Sid the ball python! We wondered what he might feel like. Bumpy? Smooth? Warm? Cool? Slippery?

Mrs. Beliveau met Sid last spring

We read The Greedy Python, a story about a snake who eats every animal he meets in the jungle. This python was so very greedy, that in the end he swallows his own tail! We worked hard sequencing the events using pictures. 

Snakes have such unique patterns, and we had a blast making our own patterned ball pythons with play dough and glitter! Then we described our patterns using letters or numbers (e.g. AAB or 1122) and compared the length of our snakes using words like longer and shorter. 

Our sketching continues to develop! We are adding more detail and are able to label the parts of our animals. 

Who is excited to meet Sid, the ball python? Can't wait!

Foxes! Zoo Project Week 5

This week felt as though we had two animals to learn about! The Edmonton Valley Zoo has two types of foxes, the Fennec Fox and the Arctic Fox! Can you guess which one lives in a hot climate and which one lives in a cold climate?

Fennec Fox photo courtesy of here

Arctic Fox photo courtesy of here

Mrs. Beliveau's tongue went numb trying to read Dr. Seuss' Fox in Socks book, and then we continued our focus on rhyming by matching words that rhyme.

Our math challenge this week was graphing who wore silly socks and who did not. We were able to count with accuracy and compare sets of items, using words such as more and less. 

Children were able to sketch the fox of their choice. Aren't our sketches detailed?

Look at the view of our playground! We felt like little arctic foxes today! 

Have a warm weekend!

We're Writing Sentences!

When we started Grade 1 together, we knew the sounds the letters make (thank you, Mrs. Lemire!) and a few words. 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:

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

Ask your child to rap for you!

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

... and then continued our sorting independently as we hunted around the room!

As a class, we worked together to correct sentences, adding capitals and end punctuation. 

Then during our Daily 5 language time (more on this soon!), we practised writing our own complete sentences!

"I am playing Barbies."

"When I was at Goofy's Cafe I saw a peanut
butter and jelly pizza it was a blast."

"This is me in the crowds cheering."

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. 

Amazing Animal Reports!

Now that we have wrapped up our Needs of Living Things Unit in Science, we have spent the last week researching an animal of our own choosing!

Students were tasked with drawing a detailed, labeled drawing of their animal and writing three facts, complete with accompanying illustrations! We used the San Diego Zoo Kids site to gather information, as well as a really neat function through Google, called Read and Write for Google, that actually READ the text to us! Cool, huh?

Although students researched their own individual animal, they worked in teams on the Chromebooks. This partnership allowed them to troubleshoot issues on the computers, gather information from challenging text, and collaborate to write strong sentences. 

This was a challenging project, but we rose to the challenge! Students shared a computer with a peer. They gathered information and put it into their own words, wrote complete sentences, and illustrated with detail. 

Please watch for your child's report in his or her Kanga this week, along with a little reflection for you to complete and return. 

Awesome job, kids!

Spring Fever!

March has been SO MUCH FUN!!!

It seemed like there was something extra special taking place almost every day! 

After a month of fierce competition, we held the finals for our March Madness book tournament. It has been an absolute BLAST reading with Mrs. Haston's Grade 2's each day, and it was no surprise that the kids were thrilled to read every day! I couldn't be happier about having so many kids SO EXCITED ABOUT BOOKS AND READING!

Our winner? Memoirs of a Hamster! Ta da! Fantastic read aloud about the challenges of being a hamster. The illustrations are so detailed and realistic, and the writing is catchy and suspenseful. THANK YOU to the super-mom who put us on to the "memoirs" series!

If you would like to borrow our class copy of this book, please write a note in your child's agenda.

A huge focus this past month has been our Lenten Initiative, which supported the Holy Childhood Association. This week was our final opportunity to donate to "break a rule". Students brought in their money so they could watch a movie in class! 

Boy, did they enjoy an oldie, but a "goodie", The Land Before Time! Produced in 1988, this movie was one of Mrs. Beliveau's favourites as a little girl! 

The students were so generous with their donations, and while we do not have an exact total at this minute, we know we blasted our goal of $1,500 out of the water!!! The most recent count has us at $1,600!

We worked really hard, and had loads of fun, raising money for children around the world who are less fortunate. Please enjoy photos from our Lenten Journey:

To finish up the month, we headed to the rink for our last opportunity to skate! CAN YOU BELIEVE WHO SHOWED UP TO SKATE WITH US?!?!

While the kids are ALWAYS excited to skate with Mrs. Haston,
the giant bunny was the biggest hit!

As the snow begins to melt and the birds begin to sing, may the blessings of Spring be a constant reminder of God's presence in our lives!

March Madness!

Did you know March is Read Aloud month? 

Today we had a guest from the Strathcona County Library come and kick off March by reading a few books and sharing information about the read aloud contest sponsored by the County (log your minutes here). 

But, like any other day in Grade One, the fun didn't stop there! March Madness began today! Whaaaaaat?!?

March Madness has the primary kids going bananas for books, not basketball! We have a 16-book tournament ahead of us:

Here is a close up of the books playing off:

We asked Mrs. Haston's Grade 2 class to share in the fun, and today we read our first two books of the tournament! Mrs. Beliveau read The Pout Pout Fish and Mrs. Haston read Memoirs of a Hamster. 

Overwhelmingly, the winner was Memoirs of a Hamster! 

Mrs. Beliveau posting today's results ... and thoroughly confusing
several students with the tournament draw!

Be sure to ask your child about the books we are reading, which was his or her favourite, and why. March Madness playoffs will continue tomorrow!


March Madness idea inspired by Playdough to Plato.