Mystery Readers: Making Reading Exciting!

To develop a love reading is a huge goal in Grade 1. If the children are excited to read at this young age, it is very likely that they will continue to read and be avid readers throughout their lives. 

One way we have been getting really "pumped" about reading is by welcoming in Mystery Readers. By some stroke of luck, we had two last week ... and have more scheduled!

First, the children read three clues about the Mystery Reader. Then, the Mystery Reader is welcomed in to share a story!

For our first Mystery Reader, we welcomed in a grandma! We worked as a team to read her 3 clues and then settled in to enjoy her story. What a fantastic way to begin our Mystery Reader fun! 

We had another reader join us, too! She has a daughter in Grade 1 ... and also a granddaughter!?! Those clues really challenged us, but we loved figuring out that tricky puzzle and meeting Mrs. Beliveau's mom! She brought a fantastic Halloween book!

If you are interested in coming in as a Mystery Reader, or have a family member who is, please get in touch. You don't have to be a grandma (but we sure do love them!). We will find a convenient time and you are welcome to select a book or one can be provided. It really is a simple way of making reading exciting!

Connection Time: Building Relationships One Day at a Time!

Before we can learn and grow, we need to understand and trust one another. This is why, each morning, we begin our day with "Connection Time"! This invaluable time helps us ease into a busy day and prepare us for our best learning!

When we gather, we sit in a circle on the rug so we can see eachother. Even Mrs. Beliveau skips her cozy chair for a place in the circle!

Have a peek at some highlights from our morning Connection Time meetings:

1. Prayer
God is at the center of all we do and all we are, and we always begin in prayer. "Father in Heaven, I give You today, all that I think, and do, and say. Amen". 

2. Say Hello!
We have learned the importance of eye contact when greeting our classmates. While we have practiced our eye contact while giving a firm handshake, we also say hello in silly ways, too, like the stinky shoe greeting!

3. News
This time allows the students an opportunity to share what's on their minds, thereby helping us focus on learning later in the day. News can be both good or bad, and everyone is given an opportunity to share if they wish. So far we have heard about several lost teeth, soccer games, grandparents visiting, fish passing away, and even discovered a student can wiggle his ears! 

4. Social Scenario Problem Solving
To help the children develop age-appropriate critical thinking skills, they are presented with a social problem to solve. In partners, they brainstorm possible ways to solve the problem and then we come together as a large group to share and discuss. 

We talk about how some problems are "mouse problems" (small) or "elephant problems" (big), and small problems don't require an elephant-sized reaction. 


Some of the problems we have tackled include:

• not being able to find your indoor shoe after recess
• a classmate pushes ahead of you in line
• you notice a friend crying at their desk but don't know why
• someone wants to be your partner but you don't want to work with them

It is important for the students to see that there is no one way to solve a problem and that they do not always need an adult's help. 

5. Story
We close Connection Time with a story. Each book is carefully chosen and has an important lesson. 

Here are a few we have enjoyed already:

While Connection Time seems packed, it rolls along rather quickly and sets a positive tone for our day! This is time very well-spent and enjoyed. Connection time truly is about building relationships and seeing the masterpiece in all of us. 

My favourite message our room!

Connection Time is inspired by the structure outlined in the Morning Meetings by Kriete and Davis

Social Scenario Problem Solving Task Cards from Pathways 2 Success

Don't Let the Pigeon Break Our Rules!

It all began with a book. A book about a bus. A book about a bus, with a pigeon who wanted to be the driver! A pigeon?!? Drive?!?

Mo Willem's Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus had us all howling with laughter! This spirited pigeon pulls out every excuse in the book to try and convince us, the readers, to let him drive the bus while the driver is away. Do you think he got to drive that bus? 

We all took part in a guided drawing lesson to learn how to draw Mo Willem's pigeon:

Then the children were challenged to think of a school rule they didn't want their pigeon to break, we added in a speech bubble, and ta da!

The students are now doodling adorable pigeons everywhere, not to mention devouring other books featuring the pigeon!

This was a fantastic way to introduce the word "responsibilities" and focus on making kind, positive choices. Fingers crossed, the pigeon follows all of our school rules! Stop by our hall to see our pigeon masterpieces!

Guided drawing lesson was courtesy of Mo Willems. 

Pigeon writing project inspired by Art Dish with MJ. 

Meet Our Classroom Family!

We have been together for almost a month now, and are a sweet, energetic, helpful little group!

Meet our Grade 1B Classroom family!

This is a very hard-working, creative group of learners. Keep us in your prayers as we journey through this school year!

The Dot: Making Our Mark

Guess what!?! We celebrated International Dot Day!

What is Dot Day, you ask?  It all starts with a book by Peter H. Reynolds, called The Dot! This book encourages children to embrace their own creativity and uniqueness and take a risk! It is celebrated on September 15th-ish and encourages kids to make a positive mark on the world!




Creative juices got flowing and we designed brightly coloured dots ... and then brought them to life! Using the augmented reality app QuiverVision we made our dots 3-D! (think Pokemon Go). Check the bottom of your child's art page for directions on how to download the app and make magic!

Feeling inspired, we kept our creativity flowing as the children set to work making their mark! Using dots and paper strips, plus heaps of creativity, we made spectacular 3D art!

Such colorful, joyful dots!

Keep making your mark on the world, kiddos!

Goin' to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

This year our Grade 1 class is going to the Edmonton Valley Zoo for Zoo School!

For one full week in March we will be attending the zoo! Five whole days! We will have demonstrations, hands-on animal encounters, behind the scenes tours, speakers, and so much more! It is a phenomenal way to learn!

To get ourselves excited and prepared for this adventure, we will be learning about the animals we will see at our zoo! Each week we will learn about an animal through fiction, non-fiction, math challenges, YouTube videos, and more. By the time we head to Zoo School, we will have created our own alphabet book of animals!

This week we began with the letter Tt! We read "A Tiger Tale" by Mike Boldt, about a little girl who wakes up for her first day of school and discovers she has grown a tiger tail! Yikes!

Using A Tiger Tale, we worked on a comprehension strategy, connecting the story to our own experiences. 

We tackled tiger-inspired patterning challenges in Math!

We also enjoyed some non-fiction, too, and visited the San Diego Zoo Kids website to learn more! We LOVED the live tiger cam! Did you know that no two tiger's stripes are alike? 

An important part of our week at the zoo is journaling. We practiced sketching in our journals, as we will be doing lots of this once we are on-site at the zoo. We were patient with ourselves and tried to add as many details as possible. 

It has been exciting to see the students so engaged in their learning! Our ABC Animal journey has only just begun, but it is sure to be a blast! What animal could we be learning about next week?

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.