April 19 News

 A few updates on what has been going on in our class this week:

• We have been working a lot on place value.  Students have learned how to show numbers greater than 10 as tens and ones.  We have been using base ten blocks and a variety of other manipulatives to help us understand the concept of place value (see picture below).
• In Science we are getting ready to build our objects.  We made a plan telling what we are going to make and the materials that will be needed.  Students need to have all their materials at school for tomorrow.  Earlier in the week, we read a version of The Three Little Pigs.  Students tried (some more successfully than others!) to build model houses out of bricks (lego), wood (popsicle sticks) and straw.  See pictures below.

(A good website for looking at characteristics of materials can be found at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/characteristics_materials.shtml

• We have started a new individualized spelling program.  Each week, students choose 6 words to practice and study.  Three of the words are from their personal Words to Learn List and 3 words are from a spelling pattern that we are studying.  This week's words include long a spelled ai and ay.
• We have been getting ready for Earth Day by learning different ways that we can reduce, reuse and recycle.

Using base ten blocks to build numbers






A house of bricks! (actually lego)






A house  made of straw






A house made of sticks

Water Colour Easter Eggs

Here are our beautiful water colour Easter egg paintings!

Make a free digital scrapbooking design

Spring is Here!

First, let me apologize for not having written for so long!  It has been very busy!  Students have been learning lots of new and interesting things.  Here are a few things that we've been up to during the past two weeks:



We've been learning about the "slider" sounds:  oi, oy, ou and ow.  Students went on a scavenger hunt to find, read and write words that were posted around the classroom.





In Math we have been working on place value.  To practice the concept of tens and ones, students did an activity called "Scoop and Sort".  They put the objects they scooped (beans, pennies, cubes, cheerios, etc.) into groups of tens and the placed the extras on the Ones side of their place value mat and then counted the total amount.



We had Art this afternoon!  Students experienced water colour paints for the first time by painting beautiful Easter eggs.  We still need to do a frame tomorrow.  Stay tuned for a picture of the final product in the near future.



Our current Science unit is Objects and Materials.  Today we tested different kinds of fabric (cotton, rayon, nylon and linen) to see which absorbed water the best.  Students counted how many drops of water could be placed on the material before it soaked through into the cup.  The blue material (nylon) didn't absorbe any water!  It just ran over the edge and made a mess on our desks!

Students will not be bringing home their Home Journals or Reading Duotangs over the Easter Break. 

Have a wonderful holiday.  Happy Easter!

Exploring Materials and Objects

This week we began a new unit in Science called Objects and Materials.  Students were placed in small groups and given a bag of objects.  They were instructed to sort the objects according to their own sorting rule.  Students tried to guess each other's sorting rules. Then they investigated which objects could be marked with chalk, crayon and pens. (See pictures below.)  This is a very hands-on unit and students are already excited about the final project when they get to "construct" a special project!  Watch for a note that will come home with a request for various materials.


We also began a new unit in Math on Place Value.  In this unit, students will explore numbers to 100 by learning counting patterns (forwards and backwards by ones, counting forwards to 20 by 2s and counting forwards to 100 by 5s and 10s) and place value concepts.  


Thank you to all parents who came to Student-Led Conferences last Monday and Tuesday.  The students were very excited to show you what they have been learning!

Measuring by Comparing

Last week we began a new Math unit on Measuring.  In Grade One, the Math Outcome in this area states that students are to "demonstrate an understanding of measurement as a process of comparing by ordering objects and making statements of comparison".  We use words like:  longer, shorter, heavier, lighter, more, less, etc. to compare different objects.  Our focus for this part of the unit is length.  (We will learn about mass, capacity and area later in the year.)  The pictures below show some of the students using a piece of string to find things in our classroom that are longer, shorter and equal to the string.

Looking at Globes

This afternoon, students had a chance to work in small groups to see what they could learn about globes.  Here is a list of what they noticed and discovered:

• The bumpy parts on the globe represent mountains.
• Some globes show mountains in the oceans!
• All the coloured parts are different countries.
• Blue on a globe means water.
• Everyone found Canada and Saskatchewan.  Some groups found Mexico and Jamaica too!





• The North Pole and the Arctic is at the top of the globe and the South Pole and Antarctic is at the bottom of the globe.

Lion or Lamb?

We have had a busy week since coming back from our week long holiday!
Here are some of the things we have been learning about:

• Language Arts - Our Phonics lessons have centred around the "bossy r" sound (ar, or, er).  We have been learning how to read and spell words with these patterns.  We have also been learning how to retell stories to improve our comprehension skills.  Next week, students will be taking turns retelling books that they've read or have had read to them.  We learned that a good retelling includes the following:  story title, character names, setting (where, when), beginning, middle and end events in order, a problem (if applicable) and solution.  This retelling will take place during our regular Sharing Time each morning.  Writing lessons have focused on organization; making sure our stories have a good beginning, middle and end, as well as including interesting details.
• Math - Students have been practicing writing adding and subtracting stories.  The focus has been on students' understanding the difference between combining groups (addition) and separating (subtraction).  Next week we will have a test to see how well students understand these concepts. The children need to be able to write their own math story, draw a picture that represents the action taking place and write a number sentence.  Example:  There are 7 children at the park.  Then 4 go home.  How many are left? (7 - 4 = 3)
• Health - Our current unit is about the heart, lungs and brain and how we can take care of these organs and keep them healthy.
• Social Studies - Students are really enjoying learning about maps.  We started off by looking at the map of our town, then our province and now our country.  We have had fun using Google Earth to see a "bird's eye view" of the area where we live.
• Art - We made lions and lambs!