Sneaky, Snowy Sentences!

Our playground and field are covered in snow, so it was fitting this week to read Eric Carle's 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.

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 are the clues:

Peek under the "snow" to see the animal!

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!

Cookie's Mischevious Week at St. Nicks!

This past week, we read the story Cookie's Week, all about a cat who causes mischief all over his house!

We jumped at the opportunity to write our own versions of this story! In our own stories about Cookie, we imagined this sneaky kitty spent a week at St. Nicholas. What kinds of mischief did this little trickster get into?

After a walk around the building, we brainstormed places he could make a little trouble. 

Then, using sentences frames, we wrote and illustrated our own stories!

These stories will take several days of diligent writing and creative, careful illustrating. 

We're having so much fun imagining the mischief Cookie would cause at our school! Watch for these stories to be shared with you next week!

Dream Snow Animals

We read 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 Word Wall Words correctly (weekly spelling words posted on the wall). 

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 are the clues:

Can you guess the animal? Peek under the "snow" to see!

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

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. 

Kids in Winter!

Our Winter unit in Science has been lots of fun!

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 many fun seasonal activities, which became an excellent conversation starter for our class!

Mrs. Beliveau promised we could do those Winter activities we just read about! Ski, sled, build a snowman, skate ... but how?

First, we brainstormed winter activities we enjoy doing. 

Then we dressed in their warm woollies and posed as if we 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, 

chose a whimsical Winter background, 

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

Look at what we made! 

We sure do know what people do in Winter!

Project idea adapted from a project featured by Christina Bainbridge. 
Visit her blog at Bunting, Books and Bright Ideas.