Terrific Turkeys

We made colourful turkeys in art this afternoon!

A New Month!

Today we are starting our Home Reading Program.  Please read the information (the first 3 pages) inside your child's Home Reading duotang to learn about how this program will work.  The students are excited to share with you some little books that they are beginning to read!

Today was the 20th day of school.  Zero the Hero visited our class last night and left a special treat for us!  (He comes every 10th day of school.)  We counted out 20 marshmallows on our ten frames and then got to eat them as we counted backwards!

One way to show 20 is two groups of ten.

These ten frames show 14 - ten and four.  (This was after 6 got eaten!)

We have finished our second lesson of sight words (AKA popcorn words).  Students practiced reading words with partners.

Then they used the words to make all kinds of sentences.

In Math we are learning how to read number words to 10.  We matched the numbers with the words.

Terry Fox Run

It was wonderful to see the sun today after two rainy days!  It was perfect weather for our annual Terry Fox Run/Walk.  We walked to the bridge and then some students ran all the way across and back!
Thanks to all who donated coins for cancer research - our school raised over $750!

Before,

During...

...and after! Everyone enjoyed a popsicle treat after the walk!

Have a great long weekend!

Word Work and Playing Instruments

Despite the rainy weather, today was a great day!  This morning we practiced six different Word Work activities.  Later on, students will be using these routines independently to help them practice spelling our sight words and word family words.

Magnet Words - students use magnets to spell words.

Magic Glove - students use a dry erase marker to spell words on a plastic plate and then use a "magic glove" to erase.

Play Dough Words - Students use playdough to spell words

Rainbow Write - students use three different colours to spell their words, tracing over the letters several times to make a rainbow!

Speak it, Write it, Stamp it

Blue Consonants Red Vowels - students write the words using red and blue to show which letters are consonants and which are vowels

In Music, students got to play our barred instruments for the first time!  We learned the song "Engine Engine" and then practiced keeping a steady beat by playing xylophones, metallophones and glockenspiels.  They played very well for the first time!

We learned how to hold our arms when holding the mallets - it's just like riding a bicycle!

We played the C and G bars together to make a chord to accompany the song "Engine Engine".

Before playing the instruments, we had to practice a steady beat by "Patsching" on our knees.

Tomorrow is our Terry Fox Run.  Be sure to send warm clothes with your child because it can be chilly on the bridge!

Fruit Patterns video

Here is our Fruit Pattern video.  My apologies to the first student on the video - I couldn't figure out how to get him turned around!

Geese in the Sunset

In Science we are doing a short mini-unit about Seasonal Changes.  Yesterday we discussed all the different signs of fall that we know:  weather becoming cooler, leaves falling, geese migrating, etc.  After a lovely walk across the bridge last night (beautiful sunset and lots of cranes and geese flying overhead), I thought we should paint sunsets in Art today!
We looked at some photographs of sunsets and listed the kinds of  colours we could see:  reds, oranges, blues, yellows, pinks and purples.
We got our paint shirts, went to the Art room and painted the background for our pictures.  After the paint was dry, we glued on silhouettes of geese. 
Aren't they beautiful?

Painting the background

Beautiful art hanging in the "gallery"  outside our classroom!

Yesterday we made fruit pattern kebabs in Math.  Students planned out what kind of pattern they wanted to make, using bananas, pineapple, watermelon, honeydew or grapes.  They then put their fruit on a wooden skewer to show their pattern.  I tried to make a video but I am having some technical difficulties.  When I get it figured out, I will post the video on the blog!

Collaboration

This morning, several teachers from our school were involved in a workshop regarding 21 Century competencies.  Our school division is working on two specific competencies during this school year:  critical thinking and collaboration. So... this afternoon, Grade ones did some collaborating of their own!  In Science we have recently begun a unit on Characteristics and Needs of Living Things.  We have learned that living things need food, water, and air to survive, they can reproduce, they can grow, and they die. 

Our task today was to look at pictures of living things and think together about how we could sort them into different groups.  The boys and girls worked very well together to determine their own sorting rule.  I was so pleased with the high level of thinkers we have in our class!

Students worked together to come up with their own sorting rule for the pictures of animals on the smartboard.

Sorting Rule:  animals that live on land and animals that live in water

Can you figure out this sorting rule?

Sorting rule:  Animals that have horns or tusks and animals that don't.

Animals that don't have legs and animals that do have legs.