How Time Flies!!!

We have been so busy this month that we haven't had a chance to blog about all the cool and exciting things we have been up to.  We figured out that we are now 67 days smarter.  We have been very busy at our math work stations inquiring about different number combinations, counting by 2's to 50 and 5's and 10's to 100.  We turned the book area into a bookstore to help us learn about money. Everyone wanted to be the cashier. We also learned about time to the hour.   We had to do jumping jacks to find out of long a minute was.  Last week, we participated in the hour of code.  We are becoming junior computer programmer.  It was a blast!  Check out the pictures of us in actions.  

Working with numbers

Number train

Coding with Scratch Jr. 

Hour of Code.

Meet our new class robots

Yesterday we had some new friends join our grade one class.  Dash and Dot join us all the way from the wonder workshop.  We are having a great time getting to know our new friends and teaching them to walk and talk through coding.

Dot and Dash

Count by 5's song

Math Work Station

Every morning we spend 15 minutes at our math work stations.  We play games to help us learn how to add and take away.  We learn to count by 5's and 10's.  We are also learning to use different math strategies such as  doubles, grouping and more/less. We also learn through technology by playing cool games like Dreambox and Mathletics.

Pumpkin Exploration

The students will now be the ones blogging. Here's what they had to say about our pumpkin exploration. We found out what was inside the pumpkin.  It was orange slime and seeds. We counted the seeds.  One pumpkin had 430 seeds and the other had 360 seeds. We decided that counting by 10's was the most efficient way.  We made a bunch of groups of 10. We also counted the lines on our pumpkins. We weighed our pumpkins. We have decided to try and grow a stem.  Stay tune to see what happens. 

Grade 1 Elections

With the Canadian elections taking place today,  I decided this would be a great teaching opportunity.
We began our elections by meeting our candidates, Scaredy Squirrel, Spike the Hedgehog and Spot the Dog.  We then sat through the campaign speeches. Finally, the time had come to vote.  One by one we went to the voting station and voted for the best class Prime Minister. Once everyone had a chance to vote for their favourite candidate,we had to decide how to count the votes.  We then incorporated some math and discussed how we could use a tally to help us get the results. We practiced counting by 5's.  It was a close race but Spike the Hedgehog won by 3 votes.

  Meet our new class Prime Minister, Spike the Hedgehog. 

Pattern

Over the last few days we wrapped up our patterning unit.  We really enjoyed sorting stuff , playing musical patterns and creating various patterns with changing attribute.  To wrap up the unit we read the book "Pattern Fish"by Trudy Harris, then we created our own under the sea pictures with many different patterns.  Check them out!! See how many patterns you can find.

Celebration

All four grade 1 classes got together this morning to give thanks. We prayed, laughed and ate some delicious fruit salad together. What wonderful way to begin our day. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Clean up the capital

Today the students took their learning outside.  We worked together and had fun cleaning up our school yard. We learned about the importance of a clean and safe environment.

St. Emily Retreat

Yesterday was are school wide retreat, the students enjoyed a morning of singing and dancing. Everyone had a great time, while learning about the importance of loving each other.

Snapshot

We are continuing to explore the different areas within the classroom. Many friends investigated different materials while building patterns with 2 changing attributes. Some friends sorted natural materials and others built patterns with blocks.  It is interesting to watch and listen to the children interact with each other and with the different materials set out in the classroom.  I'm really enjoying getting to know your child and what sparks their interest. Here is a little snapshot of our learning this week. Enjoy!

Creating patterns with friends

Demonstrating an AAB pattern 

Working together on a science inquiry.

Sorting natural materials .

WWW Containers

Some of the word wall words containers are falling apart. Feel free to use a container from home and decorate it as your new word wall words container. Have fun playing with your words.

 Let's get ready to wonder, explore and discover!

Grade One is an amazing year of wonder, exploration and discovery! It is a magical time for learning.  Our goal is to provide your child with an environment that stimulates, excites and engages them to learn. We will play, discuss, collaborate, share ideas, write, research and discover concepts as a classroom family.  Parent involvement in learning is encouraged and welcomed! We look forward to getting to know you and being part of your child's journey this year!

Here's our day at a glance!

Collaborating to show what 5 is.

Being creative at the writing centre.

Planting seeds

Creating patterns

Writing about a drawing.

Welcome Back!!!

Family TreeOur classroom will have a family tree in it that students can look at to remind them of home. If possible, please send a family photo with your child (remember to write their name on the back). These will be returned to you by the end of the school year.

Snacks     Just a reminder that our school is nut free so please do not send any nuts or nut products (i.e. peanut butter) in your child’s lunch or snacks. If you send a snack with WOW butter in it, please put the sticker on so we know exactly what it is.     Your child will have 2 snack times (morning and afternoon) as well as a lunch time. We are trying to encourage healthy eating so, if possible, please send nutritious snacks for your child to eat (i.e. fruits and vegetables).     We would also ask that you not send in treats for your child’s birthday. However, if you feel that you would like to send something on their special day, you could send in a wrapped, age-appropriate book that your child can unwrap, read as a class then donate to the classroom library.

Final Notes     Volunteers are more than welcome at school and in our classroom! If you would like to volunteer, please do not hesitate to contact me and we can set up a convenient time for you to volunteer.

Last Week in Grade One!!!!

We have been so busy, we haven't had time to blog.  Better late then never.

All three stages of the life cycle of a frog. 

Enjoying the Wet and Wild day. Playing with chalk.

Having fun outside.

Monkeying around!!!

Creative Minds at Work!

Hard at work creating our portraits.

Field Trip to Bonnenfant Outdoor Education

We all had an amazing time on our field.  We wondered, explored and discovered!

We found a rock that came out of an iceberg. 

A woodpecker was hard at work.

During our pond exploration we found a water bug, mosquito larva and tons of seashells.

We have been so busy this last month.  The students have been very curious about spiders.  They have been reading books and researching  all the different types of spiders and webs.  They have made it their mission to try to scare me with a new pet spider every day.

Someone friends are still inquiring about rocks and minerals.  Thanks to Elliot for bring his rock collection to share with the class. 

In math we have been playing and exploring area.  Last week, we created our very own "Mindcraft"

characters.  The children had a blast designing and creating their character.  

On Thursday April 23,  the students will be going to the book fair.  The cost per book is between 25 cents to 2 dollars. All book are gently used. Happy Shopping!

We have been really busy these last few weeks in our Grade One classroom.  We built teddy bear chairs which allowed us to show our knowledge of structures and explore stability.  We then created  a video using the "Showme" app to help us explain how we built our chair and explain the science behind it. We had a great time designing and building our chairs.

After all that hard work, it was time to have some fun and learn about tennis. 

Growing Crystals

Wonderful World of Crystals

The students were wondering about crystals, so we decided to grow some crystal using Borax and some hot water.  They are having so much fun watching their crystals grow and making notes about their observations. So far their crystal look like tiny little pieces of ice.  

Our Crystal Growing Station

Take a look at what we've been up to!!!!

The students decided they wanted to know how long we were at school for.  Check up the cool strategies we came up with.

Dance workshop. We had so much fun!

          100th Day Celebration

3-2-1 HOORAY! Hooray for the 100th Day !!! We started our day by sorting and counting our collection in the most efficient way.  We then did a gallery walk to see and discuss how our friends had decided to count their collection.  

Bringing Music To Life!

Bringing Music To Life!

We have been really busy learning about music.  We talked about different beats, rhythms,  tempo and dynamics.  We learned about some amazing composers such as, Camille Saint-Saens who composed "Carnival of the Animals", Beethoven, Vivaldi and Mozart.  We got to compose our very own music and perform for our friends.  Yesterday, we got to use all different kinds of music instruments to act out the book "Mmm Cookies" by Robert Munsch. I was happy to use instruments.(Chase) We were excited. (Kaitie) I got to play the triangle. (Yoel) I was excited to use a tambourine and a paint brush to spread the icing on the cookie. (Avery) We all had a lot of fun.  Stay tune for one of our performance. 

Warrior

Meet Warrior

Here is the new addition to our classroom. We decided to call him Warrior. We spent sometime researching Betta fish and found out that they don't like other fish. They are fighters, they breath under water, they like to eat protein pellets.  

We conducted a survey to help us decide his name. Then we created a bar graph.  It was no contest. Warrior was the winning name. 

Iam happy to have Warrior in my class. (Christian), We were really excited!(Avery),  We will take care of Warrior.(Kaitie), He likes his new bowl. (Gabe)  Thanks to everyone!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Homework calendar will begin again on Wednesday January 7.  There are new word wall words and again I encourage you to practice them at home.  This will help your child become a better reader.