Our Hearts are Happy, Healthy and Holy!

We continue to learn about Christ's love for us and have been celebrating friendship and kindness. With Valentine's this week, we've had a lot on the go, so here are a few highlights!

Step by step, we created spectacular mixed-media heart art explosions!

Aren't they joyful and unique, just like our kids?!

We were thrilled to make silly, creative Love Monster mailbags! 

What better way to celebrate our hearts than by heading off to the gym for some healthy heart-pumping skipping! We skipped in support of Jump Rope for Heart, a initiative supporting the Heart & Stroke Foundation. 

Valentine's Day gave us a chance to sharpen our numeracy skills! We tackled missing numbers to 20 ...

 ... and challenged ourselves with a number hunt, colouring in the numbers we found on a 100's board! Look at the hidden picture!

We hunted for hearts and wrote the missing end sound in each word. We love a challenge!

We certainly had fun celebrating Valentine's Day, but whether it's Valentine's or not, we share love and kindness in our classroom each and every day.

May you have a happy, healthy, and holy Valentine's Day!

The Case of the Hot Cocoa Caper

January 31st is National Hot Chocolate Day and we were so excited to celebrate this week! However, we had a problem ... our hot chocolate mix went MISSING!

We each received our own case file and a list of suspects. Our challenge was to work through several tasks. As we completed each task, one of the suspects would be eliminated!

These tasks were a wonderful review of so many skills we've built! We worked through rhyming, adding vowels, reading CVC words, working with a number line, measuring, and more!

Each time we finished a task, we received a clue eliminating one of the suspects!

After lots of teamwork, we found the culprit! The hot chocolate caper was solved and we were able to enjoy a delicious cup (or two) of warm cocoa together!

What a wonderful way to end a wonderful winter month! Happy Hot Chocolate Day, everyone! 

Winter Escape Room Activities and Centers are from One Sharp Bunch by Ashley Sharpe

Let's Play Junk It!

This week, we were introduced to a fast-paced card game, Junk It! It helps us recognize and order numerals to 10. 

Junk It is a 2-player game. Remove face cards, but keep Aces. Put 10 cards in two rows of 5 face down in front of each player. Place the remaining cards in the centre. 

The first player flips a card over, and places it in its numerical spot. She picked up a 7 ...

... so she put it down where the 7 goes. 

When she placed her card in the 7 spot, she picked up a 5 (formerly face down in the 7th place). Off the 5 goes to spot 5!

Notice how when she put her 5 down, she picked up the card in that spot? It is also a 7! She already has a 7, so she gets to call JUNK IT and discard it in the middle. 

Her opponent can either pick up the card that was just discarded, or select a new card from the pile. He needs a 7, so he picked it up. 

The first player to get all 10 cards flipped over in order wins! Isn't learning more fun when it's a game?

It is a little confusing to explain on our blog, but the kids are definitely the experts! Will you challenge your child to a game of Junk It?!?

One Hundred Days Smarter in Grade 1!

100 days of school is a big deal in Grade 1. A big 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 some Language Arts tasks and even the perfect Religion lesson.

After a week at Zoo School, we kept our celebration a little more low key. We took part in four centers:

(a) We hunted for numbers up and down the hallway, colouring them in on a 100s chart to reveal a mystery message!

(b) We played a partner dice game, roll to 100

(c) Using our building skills, we made creations out of 100 cups... 

...and built 100 piece puzzles!

(d) We also relaxed with a 100 day count and colour challenge

We brought in collections of one hundred items. Isn't it interesting how different 100 can look?

To bring our special day to a close, we 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 100th Day, kiddos! Be proud of all your learning and hard work!

Making 10 Card Game

We are working on addition to 10, and today we learned the card game Make 10!

Mrs. Beliveau modified the rules from the original game posted here. 

A game board will go home with each student, but more can be printed here. Have a deck of cards? Then you can play at home!

Take out the face cards. This game uses Ace through 10. We treat the Ace as a 1. Using the game board, put out four cards on the spaces 1, 2, 3, and 4. Turn the rest of the deck over on the space marked "deck". 

Can you make ten using up to 4 cards?

Look, she found an easy 10! Set the 10 aside, and put out another card from the deck. 

Replenish any empty spaces with cards from the deck. 

Here's another 10!

Can't make 10? Choose one card to put on the bottom of the deck, and take the top card. 

There are lots of ways they made 10!

The kids have played today and should be able to explain the rules and play independently at home. Happy counting!

Numeracy Games

We're building our numeracy skills with numbers up to 20, and have two awesome games that we've learned that can also be played at home!

Friends of 10

Friends of 10 is a game that builds understanding of 10. Using a paper clip, spin a number. Work out how many more you would need to make 10 (you can use the 10 frame to do this). Cover your answer with a counter. The aim is to cover all of the numbers. 

For example, if you spin 3, figure out how many more it takes to get to 10. We know it takes 7 more, as 3 and 7 are friends of 10. Cover the 7 and spin again. 

A copy of the game board will be coming home with your child. 

Junk It

Junk It is a fast-paced card game that helps us recognize numerals and order them to 10. 

Junk It is a 2-player game. Remove face cards, but keep Aces. 

Put 10 cards in two rows of 5 face down in front of each player. Place the remaining cards in the centre. 

The first player picks up a card from the center pile, and places it in its numerical spot. She picked up a 3 ... 

... so she put it down where the 3 goes. 

When she placed her card in the 3 spot, she picked up a 4 (formerly face down in the 3rd place). Off the 4 goes to spot 4!

Notice how when she put her 4 down, she picked up the card in that spot? It is a 3! She already has a 3, so she gets to call JUNK IT and discard it in the middle. 

Her opponent can either pick up the card that was just discarded, or select a new card from the pile. He needed a 3, so he chose to pick it up. 

The goal is to get all 10 of your cards in order, before your opponent!

We loved this numeracy challenge!

It is a little confusing to explain, but the kids are definitely the experts! Will you challenge your child to a game of Junk It?!?

Friends of 10 is from Rainbow Sky Creations. 

Building Numeracy: Junk It Game!

In case you haven't heard, we were introduced to a fast-paced card game, Junk It! It helps us recognize numerals and order them to 10. 

Junk It is a 2-player game. Remove face cards, but keep Aces. 

Put 10 cards in two rows of 5 face down in front of each player. Place the remaining cards in the centre. 

The first player flips a card over, and places it in its numerical spot. 

He picked up a 3 ... 

... so he'll put it down where the 3 goes. 

When he placed his card in the 3 spot, he picked up a 4 (formerly face down in the 3rd place). Off the 4 goes to spot 4!

Notice how when he put his 4 down, he picked up the card in that spot? It's another 3! He already has a 3, so he gets to call JUNK IT and discard it in the middle. 

His opponent can either pick up the card that was just discarded, or select a new card from the pile. She chose to pick up from the pile. 

The first player to get all 10 cards flipped over in order wins! Isn't learning more fun when it's a game?

It is a little confusing to explain on our blog, but the kids are definitely the experts! Will you challenge your child to a game of Junk It?!?