100's Chart Tic Tac Toe!

We're working hard exploring the number patterns in our 100's chart! The numbers to 100 are laid out sequentially and we are becoming confident counting to 100. 

The numbers horizontally all start with the same numeral (excluding the tens number at the end of each row):

The numbers vertically all end with the same number:

This week we played a partner game called 100s Chart Tic Tac Toe that sharpened our skills while we had fun! Each player chooses a different colour pen to play the game. 

Take turns writing in a number on the blank 100s chart. Say the number aloud that you've just printed (this is an opportunity to practice naming numbers). Try and get 3 numbers of your colour in a row! Keep track of how many "three in a rows" each player gets! We had a completed 100s chart handy to refer to throughout the game if needed. 

Any opportunity to collaborate is always welcomed by these kiddos! They had a blast, worked very hard, and helped one another! Some even played a little offence and blocked their opponent!

This is a FANTASTIC way to challenge and test your child's knowledge of the 100s chart! A blank game sheet is coming home this week ... are you and your kiddo ready? 

This is an excellent way to see how well your child understands the 100's chart and a great opportunity to practice naming numbers! Happy counting!

Wacky Winter Fun!

Our Winter focus in Science continues to be lots of fun!

Recently we began 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?

First, we brainstormed winter activities we enjoy doing. 

Then 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?

Next, students focused their efforts on writing a complete sentence about their activity, 

they each chose a whimsical Winter background, 

and glued their cutout with a few construction paper 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 here!

O Come Let Us Adore Him!

Christmas break is upon us! Despite the unexpected move to online learning, our students were still able to deepen their faith and prepare their hearts with kindness for the coming of Jesus!

Have a look at our journey through Advent!

May your families be blessed with peace, joy and health throughout this Christmas season!

Christmas blessings and lots of love, 

Mrs. Beliveau

Dream Snow!

Last week we read 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:

Peek under the "snow" to see the animal!

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!

Advent: A Season of Waiting

 This past Sunday marked the first Sunday of Advent. 

We have been learning about the liturgical calendar. Can your child point out Advent?

Advent is a time of hope and anticipation. We are waiting for the birth of Christ!

We changed our prayer table cloth from green, when it was Ordinary Time, to purple for Advent. Can you see our wreath? We light one candle for each of the four Sundays in Advent. This week we lit the first candle. As we light more candles each week, our world becomes brighter, symbolizing our growing anticipation of Jesus, who is the light of our world. 

At mass, the priest now wears purple vestments, the altar has a purple table cloth, and the advent wreath is displayed. 

Today our class led a school-wide virtual assembly, celebrating the first week of Advent and lighting the candle of hope. 

Families can share in our celebration from home:

Each morning, we will have a little Advent celebration during our daily Connection Time. As we journey towards Christmas, may we prepare our hearts with kindness as we joyfully wait for the coming of Jesus!

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. 

Spend a Morning in Grade 1!

Ever wondered that a morning in Grade 1 looks like? Come spend some time with us! Although the pandemic has changed how we move through our day, our learning continues to be rich and our classroom community strong. 

We begin each day in a similar way. After announcements and agendas, we head to the empty room next door for Connection Time! We always begin with prayer. Then we greet each other in different ways each day . . . and today was a dancing greeting! "1, 2, 3, 4, Come on (student), hit the floor! We're so glad you're here today! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!"

Then we all share our news! Today we heard about wiggly teeth, a cat's birthday, a new outfit, a homemade movie theatre, and a show and tell that was earned from reading!

Then we solve a social problem as a class, and close Connection Time with a carefully chosen story. For more about our daily Connection Time, click here!

We head back to our classroom to count our days! We also work with the same poem or rhyme all week long. This allows the children to build their reading fluency. This week's focuses on reading with expression.  

Can you believe we have only been in class for 40 minutes?!?

We sharpen our literacy and numeracy skills using our daily Building Skills activity!

We are starving! Snack time, and then out for recess! Each day our grade 1 cohort has a different place to play. Today we are on the big wooden park!

Back inside and we are off to buddy read! We re-read the home reading book we took home last night to a friend, then quietly exchange for a new book. 

Each day we review our 5 weekly words, and today we played an individual dice game and did some play dough to practice!

Today in Math we continued to focus on writing addition sentences. We acted out a variety of problems, and recorded the addition sentence on our whiteboards. We also practiced this skill in our math books, too! 

Thank you for "joining" us in our classroom for a morning. Please know that I very much miss having family members present in our school, and it is my hope that this post helps you get a feel for what learning looks like during this pandemic. These children have adapted to the protocols and we have created a wonderful classroom family to learn with each day.