Making Our Mark!

We love, love, LOVE reading books, and this week a brand new Peter Reynolds book was released, Say Something! Mr. Reynolds is an inspiring children's author and illustrator who creates stories with an important message. 





You'll never believe it, but over the weekend while our librarian Mrs. Nixon was visiting his Blue Bunny bookstore in Massachusetts, Peter himself bumped into Mrs. Nixon! Look what we have here at Jean Vanier now! Eeeeeek!

Excited by this special new book, Mrs. Beliveau declared our very own "Peter Reynolds day"! Here are a few favourites from our library that we are enjoying:

One of Mr. Reynolds' classic stories is called The Dot! The Dot encourages children to embrace their own creativity and take a risk. 

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

Such colourful, joyful dots!

Keep making your mark, kids! You are ALL God's masterpiece!

Hooray, Hooray, 100th Day!

It's time to party!

We're 100 day smarties!

100 days of school is a big deal in Grade 1. Huge! EPIC! 

A significant 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 many Language Arts tasks and even the perfect Religion lesson.

So, we began preparing for the 100th day ... on day 97?!?!?! Yup, its possible Mrs. Beliveau planned 100+ activities for our celebration, and we needed to get a jump start on the fun and learning!

Here is a look at day 97, 98, 99, and of course, day 100!!!

We worked over several days to write 100 words! Be proud of that amazing list, kiddos!

We made fabulous runway-worthy party hats! There were 10 strips of paper, and we counted 10 polka dots on each. Boom, 100 dots!

The boys and girls practiced and read a 100 word poem to several classes and even in the office, too!

We brought in collections of one hundred items. Isn't it funny how different 100 items can look? Some baggies look so empty, while others look so full.

Mr. Marshall showed up in our room with a delivery! He had a box. A very, very LOCKED box. And a few clues. Our Grade 1 Breakout Box challenge was about to begin! The goal? Break into the box!

A Breakout Box is similar to a breakout room, but students use curricular skills to break into a box instead of breaking out of a room! Using teamwork and our knowledge of the 100-chart, we were able to open a number lock, word lock, and directional lock to open the box! Ask your child what was inside!

We got crafty and made a portrait of ourselves ... when we are 100! These are definitely the classiest geezers around JV!

Counting by 5's is tricky, so we traced our hands and made a helpful bulletin board to help us practice.

Counting by 10's, we assembled trail mix. 10 of each snack item made 100 tasty treats!

To bring our special day to a close, we settled ourselves and 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 100 Day, boys and girls! Be proud of your hard work!

Party hat labels from Cara Carroll at First Grade Parade. Hats adapted from Jessica Williamson. Door decor inspired by Sara Ann Culbertson. Snack placemat from Kerry. 100 year portraits inspired by Deanna Jump. Hundred word list from Kinder Craze Blog. Number chart search adapted from Just Add Clipart. What fun ideas! 

Adoration: Praying with Jesus

This week we are blessed to experience a very powerful form of prayer called Adoration. Adoration is an ancient form of prayer. The root of the word is "adore". Essentially, Adoration is an opportunity for us to show our deep love for Jesus. 

What sets Adoration apart from other forms of prayer is that Jesus is present with us in a consecrated host. We are able to pray with Jesus before us, who is truly present in the Eucharist. 

Before entering into Adoration, we familiarized ourselves with the prayer format our adoration will follow using a little personal journal. We reflected upon and drew our personal thoughts for the Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication prayers. 

On Tuesday, we celebrated a beautiful school mass with Father Jim. He reminded us to love God and to always love one another. 

After mass, we placed a consecrated host, the Body of Christ, inside a beautiful gold Monstrance, and placed it in the chapel. Jesus is truly present!

Classes spent some time in prayer this week. As we entered Jesus' presence in the chapel, we showed our deep respect by genuflecting, bowing low on one knee. Then we moved through a series of prayers; Adoration prayer, Confession prayer ("I'm sorry for ... Please forgive me"), Thanksgiving Prayer, and a Supplication prayer (our prayers for others). Quiet time in prayer and reflection was embraced by our students. 

This was a beautiful week and this experience drew us closer to one another and closer to Jesus. 

Adoration Booklet from Look To Him and Be Radiant. 

Lego, Learning & Laughter!

Today Bricks 4 Kidz visited our classroom! The program perfectly complimented our Science Unit: Building Things!

Using Lego bricks, we deepened our understanding of building. Lots of  teamwork, perseverance, problem solving, and communication got the job done! We constructed a windmill and a car ... and they were both motorized!

What an engaging and exciting morning!

A Chair for a Bear!

Our Building with Fairy Tales continues! Last week we experimented with different materials while building houses for the 3 pigs, and this week our challenge was focused around Goldilocks and the 3 Bears!

Our task was to create a chair for baby bear! The criteria? The chair must have 4 legs and a bear figurine must fit in it. 

Using popsicle sticks, plasticine, and card stock, students set out to make a chair fit for a bear! Lots of planning, teamwork, discussion, and problem solving went into our creations! 

Success! We met our criteria and made some amazing, functional chairs!

Fairy Tale STEM Activities for Primary Grades from Dancing Into First

Amazing First Families

Yesterday we welcomed in Nadine from the Strathcona Wilderness Centre! She spent the afternoon sharing with us how families used to live a long time ago. We learned so much about the Inuit people of the Arctic, the Plains First Nations, and the Woodlands First Nations of Eastern Canada. 

Nadine began by explaining why the first families in Canada thrived. There were no stores, like Save On or Costco, so these people were excellent hunters. They lived in community, supporting each other in many ways, such as sharing food and child care. The children had chores and responsibilities that helped their families survive, too. While they didn't attend school, children learned from elders how to hunt, make clothing, cook, and so much more. 


The Inuit

The Inuit lived in the north, often in igloos. Nadine shared many fascinating items with us from the Inuit people. We touched a ring seal fur. Fur from ring seals was used to make clothing and "kamiks", or shoes. One student tried on a cozy seal fur parka, which is very warm, as well as caribou kamiks! He gave snow goggles a try, too, which are wooden glasses with thin slits that protect the eyes from the sun's glare off the snow. 

The Plains First Nations

The people of the plains would follow the buffalo and hunt them. They often lived in tipis, which could be quickly and easily set up, taken down, and  transported. 

Nadine shared that the Plains First Nations were known for their love of celebrations, or "powwows". She shared an elaborate fan that the women would use, and when it waved it sounded as though birds were flapping overhead! She dressed up one of our students in some traditional celebratory clothing. She wore a bone and bead choker, beaded moose moccasins, a breast plate (often used as chest protection during battle), and a moose skin wrap. The most amazing piece she wore was the replica headdress. Traditionally it is made of eagle feathers (although this one was not), and each eagle feather on a headdress represents a brave or kind deed. 

The Woodland First Nations

The Woodland First Nations lived in the forests of eastern Canada around the Great Lakes. They were amazing hunters. Nadine shared a variety of beautiful furs with us. 

The Woodland First Nations lived near many lakes, and made canoes from the bark of birch trees so they could travel through the water. 

After hearing so many interesting facts and seeing the amazing collection of artifacts, it was time to touch them ourselves! The students most enjoyed feeling the silky furs and pelts, and many tried out the birch bark horn!

Then the students were challenged to get creative! Using paper, feathers, and markers, the children got to work designing their own fans. They were encouraged to draw scenes from nature, and many drew rainbows, flowers, animals and more!

Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was learning several of the games the children would have played. While they were simple, with few rules or game pieces, they were challenging and fun for everyone! 

With a bit of energy left to burn, we headed outside to learn one last game. Kick Stick had us cheering and laughing, as classmates kicked sticks in teams in a relay race. The children were excellent sports and enjoyed the challenge of the simple games. 

Our First Families program last week was fascinating, packed with new information, and so much fun!

Fairy Tale Fun!

We are so excited to have begun our "Building Things" unit in Science! 

We're exploring the following learning outcomes:

• I can choose appropriate building materials
• I can describe the job of each part of an object I made
• When I look at 2 things, I can describe what is the same and what is different

Inspired by fairy tales, we tackled our first challenge, building a house for the three little pigs! This was a perfect way to experiment with effective materials. 

We read many versions of the fairy tale! We choose one version, retold the story in partners, and then reviewed the parts of a story:

Just like the pigs, we built with "straw" (paper shreds), ...

"wood" (foam blocks), ...

... and "bricks" (Lego)!

We had a great discussion together, learning so much about choosing the best materials for the job.

Keep your eyes peeled for our next fairy tale challenge! Rumor has it we may get a call to repair chairs for some bears in the woods!



Fairy Tale STEM Activities for Primary Grades from Dancing Into First