Where on Earth do we Live?

We have recently begun a new unit in Social Studies about maps.  We started off by looking at a map of our town.  We then found out what our province looks like on a map of Canada.  Students enjoyed looking at road maps of Saskatchewan and trying to find their own towns.  We learned that blue on a map represents water, pictures of airplanes show airports and red lines are roads!

Awesome Readers!

Here is a look into our classroom during DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time.  Each day after lunch recess, our class becomes quiet as students find their reading spots, get comfortable and read from their book baskets for 10-15 minutes.  This is how we build fluency and reading stamina!  (If your child's picture is not included, it is because they were visiting the dental hygienist during this time today!)

Gymnastics

This morning we went to the Rec Plex for Gymnastics!  Mr. M. (the students' phys ed teacher) arranged for some of his high school students to help the grade ones practice their gymnastics skills using the community gymnastics club's equipment.  Students had lots of fun jumping, swinging, rolling and balancing on the equipment!

What is in the Box? Solving a Math Problem

This week in Math we have been solving problems using what we know about numbers.  This is the problem we were solving today:

     There are 12 stickers in a box.
     Some are red and some are yellow.
     There are 2 more yellow stickers that red stickers.
     How many yellow stickers are there?

We began by thinking of all the ways that we could show 12 using addition sentences (0+12, 1+11, 2+10, 3+9, etc.).  
Students then used two-sided counters to try the Guess and Check strategy. They spilled 12 counters and compared how many red and yellow appeared. Then they drew a picture and checked to see if it matched the clues that were in the problem. If it didn't, they tried again.  After a few guesses (some students were very lucky and got it on the first try!) the correct answer was reached:  There were 7 yellow stickers in the box!

This student is comparing the red and yellow "stickers" to see if there are two more yellow than red.  This guess was not correct, so he had to try again.

What's Up?

This afternoon our (small) class - 6 people were away - made cute snowmen!

Students had fun cutting out snowmen and making colourful scarves.

Here is what we have been working on this week:

• reading and spelling words with the long a sound (specifically the word families - ate, -ake, -ame)
• learning how good readers ask questions before, during and after reading or listening to stories
• making adding stories
• playing games to memorize the doubles adding facts up to 12 (1+1, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5 and 6+6)
• learning how our 5 senses help us find out things in our world
• using our senses to describe objects (in Writers' Workshop we tasted, then wrote about Zebra cookies - aka Oreos)
• using patterns called "ostinatos" to accompany our songs and poems in Music

Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope all of you had a relaxing holiday.  
This week we have begun some new units of study.  Here are some things that we are working on:

• long vowel sounds (ee, a-e, o-e, i-e, u-e words)
• writing "how to" stories
• showing different combinations of numbers and learning how to make our own addition stories
• the five senses (Science)

In Art this afternoon, the students made beautiful snowy silhouettes.

First they painted the background, then used black paper to make silhouettes of trees and snowmen.

Painting the background with blue and purple.  Students used paintbrushes and sponges.

The black lines are made with black glitter glue!