We Are Sentence Smarties!

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

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

Using supported sentence frames, we are practicing writing our own complete sentences! In a few weeks we'll learn how to independently use the criteria checklist, in the top right corner.

Writing strong sentences is a skill we will work on throughout the year. We've got so much progress to be proud of!

Superb Sentences!

When we started Grade 1 together, we knew the sounds the letters make and a few words, too (thank you Mrs. Greschner!). You'll never believe it, but we are now working on writing FULL SENTENCES! 

We've been examining what a sentence is. 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!

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

Using supported sentence frames, we are practicing writing our own complete sentences! In a few weeks we'll learn how to independently use the criteria checklist, in the top right corner.

We've got so much progress to be proud of!

"Is It a Sentence" poster was from here. 
Pete the Cat Letter, Word and Sentence sort was from here. 

Sneaky Snowy Sentences

Before Christmas, we examined what a sentence is.

We learned three things every sentence has and Mrs. Beliveau revealed her hidden talent, rapping!

As a team, we sorted letters, words and sentences:

Now that we're back, we've set to work practicing our sentence writing skills. We tackled a project this past week, inspired by the book Dream Snow. In the story, a farmer falls asleep and dreams that snow covers his farm animals. This book is very clever. Clear plastic sheets, with "snow" on them, can be lifted to reveal the animal underneath! 

Armed with our knowledge of sentences, we made our own version of the book, but with a twist! Students each wrote clues about an animal of their choosing. Kids were challenged to write a sentence beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period. As well, students were required to spell weekly words correctly. 

An illustration of the animal accompanied their clues, too!

Just like in Dream Snow, a clear page with painted "snow" covered the animal, so it would be lifted up to reveal the animal hidden under the snowbank! The very best part of this was adding "snow"!

Here's a peek at the final masterpiece:

Peek under the "snow" to see the animal! It's a bat!

Because of their fantastic work, the hallway board near our classroom has curious students reading our clues and peeking under the snowbanks! Well done, Grade One!

Writing strong sentences is a skill we will work on consistently throughout the year. Support your child by finding sentences in the books you read, by identifying components of a sentence in our daily home reading books, 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. 

Strong Sentences!

When we started Grade 1 together, we knew many of the sounds the letters make and even a few words, too (thank you Mrs. Sombyk!). You'll never believe it, but we are now working on writing FULL SENTENCES! 

We began closely examining what a sentence was this past week. 

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 following the writing process, by brainstorming, drawing, labelling, writing and sharing.

Writing strong sentences is a skill we will work on throughout the whole 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. 

The Wheels on Our Bus!

We like to laugh while we're learning, and this week we began by playing with the sounds in eachother's names. It got pretty silly!

We read Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus. Then we practiced singing the song using our names! We focused on using the first sound in our name to make our own silly verses. 

His name begins with a D,
so his bus says "Dumpity Dump"

We set to work making our own buses!

We added the first letter of our names with a foam sticker ... 

... and completed the wheels on the bus poem!

This project gave Mrs. Beliveau an opportunity to get to know the kiddos better. She got an extra peek at the children's abilities to follow directions, cut, print, and glue, as well as several other work habits, such as perseverance, problem-solving, and time management. 

Look at our amazing work! Careful, though ... this little tune can really get stuck in your head!

The Wheels on the Bus names activity is inspired by Deanna Jump's Names Unit: Literacy and Math Fun With Names.

Sentence Superstars!

When we started Grade 1 together, we knew the sounds the letters make (thank you, Mrs. Sombyk and Miss Wilson!) 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!

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

... and then continued our sorting independently!

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

Using supported sentence frames, we practiced writing our own complete sentences! Soon we'll learn how to use the criteria checklist, in the top right corner.

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. 

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. 

A "Purrr-fect" week with Pete!

Our first week together has been "purrr-fect"! We've been blessed with an energetic, warm-hearted group of students, and they've been an easy bunch of kids to fall in love with!

But we've had one extra "student" join us this week ... Pete the Cat! This feisty feline has a way of overcoming a challenge by always finding the positive! What an important message for the children to hear as they begin a new school year!

After reading Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, we couldn't resist making our own version! We brainstormed what Pete might step in, and students set to work completing their own page for our class book!

The children really enjoy flipping through our class-made book. They are so proud to see their work!

We also enjoyed reading Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus, because we found a way to sing the song using our names! We focused on using the first sound in our names to make our own silly verses. 

This student's name begins with the letter M, so his bus says "mumpity mump"!

Then we made our own buses, added the first letter of our name, and personalized our poems!

These projects gave Mrs. Beliveau an opportunity to get to know the boys and girls better. She got an extra peek at the children's abilities to follow directions, cut, print and glue, as well as several other work habits, such as perseverance, problem-solving and time management. 

Today was so exciting! As we were reading through Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses, we discovered Pete's glasses were locked in the box! Yikes!

Using teamwork, patience, and our amazing enthusiasm, we collaborated by solving clues to open a letter lock, directional lock, and number lock! 

Ta da! We retrieved the sunglasses from inside the box ... and also earned delicious strawberries and blueberries! 

Ask your child why we got berries!

What a fabulous start to an amazing year!

Pete the Cat Breakout Box activities adapted from here. 

Pete the Cat Roll and Cover dice game from Little Miss Hypothesis.

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes book is inspired by A Classroom on Cloud Nine. 

The Wheels on the Bus names activity is inspired by Deanna Jump's Names Unit: Literacy and Math Fun With Names.