February 22nd

It has been a week of projects in 1D - some we finished and some are still in progress.  After extensive studying of what animals do in winter, we began our winter project.  This project was based on the book Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner.  This is a beautiful story about a boy and his father who are out skiing over the snow for the day.  In it, they discover all kinds of life happening under the snow and over the snow.  After reading this book, the students did some amazing writing.  I gave them the sentence starter "Over the snow....." and "Under the snow...." and they took off writing some great paragraphs.  For this writing assignment, I was looking for capitals at the beginning of sentences, periods, correct spelling of familiar words, and application of some of our spelling strategies for unfamiliar words.  I was also looking for writing sentences that had descriptive details.  I have to say that they all did an exceptional job with their writing. Each student was able to impress me with how far they have come with their writing.  I just love reading all of them.

When the writing was complete, then came the fun part.  We collaborated as a class and created a mural showing the life that is happening over the snow and under the snow.  Each child was responsible for different parts of the mural, and we helped each other when needed.  We worked so hard on this all afternoon and they didn't want to quit.  It turned out really well. Our mural will be on display outside our classroom with the writing attached next week, if you would like to come and take a look.

Some other winter projects are in the works, to be completed next week......

Fingerprint Snowmen

We will write about what they are doing out there in the snow!

 Birch Trees

We tore the tape and painted with watercolours.  

Next week we will pull off the tape and create some cool birch trees!

We were FINALLY able to get outside to build our ice sculpture!

The students carried those blocks over to our spot and worked collaboratively to build an ice sculpture. Each student had a different job, whether it was carrying the block over, choosing a place for it, holding it there, or pouring the water over to "glue it".  It turned out beautifully, especially in the sunshine!

 After we were done with the sculpture, we had some fun spraying coloured water on the snow.

In Math we have been working really hard at representing our numbers to 20 using base 10 blocks.  I think they have a solid understanding of numbers to 20 now and we are ready to begin addition!

 CONGRATULATIONS TO BELLE FOR BEING STUDENT OF THE WEEK!

February 16th

Well, all of our daily counting to 100 paid off and the THE MOST EXCITING day of the year finally arrived on Friday.  It was the 100th Day of School!!  The students were more excited about this day than they were at Christmas or Valentine's Day! One student even said, "This was the best day of my life!" 

In the morning, we read 100th Day Worries, did lots of math (of course), and spent time talking about and writing about what we would be like when we are 100 years old. The students had some pretty hilarious things to say about that: 

I will wear pyjamas all day.

I will have an oxygen tank.

I will sleep all day.

I will wear a hospital gown.

I will die.

We took some hilarious pictures on the Aging Booth app that turned us into very old looking people.  Some students were not very happy with these photos.  One student cried and another said "I look hideous!"

In the afternoon, we did some exciting 100th Day Centres, which included building structures with 100 cups, making a necklace with 100 beads, decorating 100th Day glasses, and making a picture out of the number 100.

The thing the students were MOST proud of was their 100th Day t-shirts.  What a phenomenal job they all did!  So creative and fun!  Well done, helper parents!

Our big project in Language Arts and Science right now is learning about how animals survive in winter.  Three key ways are: hibernating, migrating adapting.  Through books and videos, we have been studying a variety of animals that fit into these categories and doing several activities with them.  This week we created webs for each category after brainstorming the types of animals that go into each.  The students drew pictures, cut them out and glued them on the correct web. Our project next week includes writing and making a big class mural.

Unfortunately, our skating days were cut short this week due to the terribly cold weather. But we did manage to get out on Monday.  I am so proud of all the kiddos - every single one of us knows how to skate all by themselves now!

  

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO LANE FOR BEING STUDENT OF THE WEEK!