Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to build we go!

Remember when your baby was little and the wrapping paper 

and the box seemed more interesting to him or her, than the 

actual present did?

Maybe you have a cat and it loves to find a paper bag

to hide in, even more than the cat bed you bought.

That's how I view Keva planks.  They are nothing

out of the ordinary, but when the Littles get their hands

on them, the most amazing thing happens.

From their website:

The simplicity of KEVA Planks means they not only complement any decor, they also complement all manner of interests, ages, abilities, time, and space. I'm not saying we've created a silver bullet, but KEVA planks come pretty close. Every person in your family can play together and have equally as much fun. KEVA planks engage your school-age children in stealth learning, strengthening their will-power and independence, as well as an understanding of physics, design, art, and engineering. Your younger kids practice fine motor control. Grandparents aren't relegated to watching on the sidelines. Young adults have an activity to chat over.

KEVA planks give you hours of quiet creativity or a crowd-pleasing group activity. We are delighted to offer hours of fun for whatever crowd crosses your threshold.

This was the kiddos first time with them and they were all so

engaged. It was simple...the students were told to just try these out.

 I can't wait until we have the opportunity to learn

how to use these simple wooden planks to create something

special, in January. The lessons will not stifle

their creativity, just focus on how to get the planks

to do what we want them to do.

Here are the simple bits and pieces that each student started off with on Friday.

These 'fun' activities are always so much more.

This is the time that the students are really working on

their fine motor skills.  These tasks help the muscles in

the hands do what the messages from the brain are

telling them to do.  Puzzle building, finger painting,

wringing out a dish cloth, zipping up a coat, pulling on the 

boots....these are things we must

have our children do.  Yes it is quicker and easier

for us to do them instead of waiting for the child, but

without this important practise, how will they

become confident and independent?

Once the houses were 'built', the Littles had the chance

to plan out their decorating.  They knew which

candies they were going to put where.

The look of success..

and the feeling of confidence because each

Little could honestly say "I did this by myself"!

Did you hear about the Big Bad Blow Dryer?

COVID Rules...no visitors in the school.

How are we going to test out the houses we built

if the Big Bad Wolf can't huff and puff?

We invited the Big Bad Blowdryer instead!

Our problem to solve in our science Building unit

was to build a house of straw, a house of sticks, and

a house of bricks.  The students paired up,

planned and then executed that plan using

materials we could find such as yellow strips of paper,

wooden coffee stir sticks and lego bricks.

Most chose glue as the fastener.

The pairs of students got to share their building ideas

and their predictions about whether the BBB would

blow the house over the line, into the next half of the table

or off the table.

Their favourite by far was the one that blew right off the table

(and I managed to capture the moment for you to see!)

The students and I discussed our thoughts, about

why the houses moved or didn't move and how

we could change the building to make the house

not move.  Lots of talking and thinking!

That's how to solve a problem!

The project was a success!

Oh What Fun It Is to Learn in a Grade One Class Today! Hey!

Each teacher was asked to decorate their classroom door

for the season.  Here's ours...

Since we can't move about the school to use different classrooms,

and we were painting a special Christmas picture, which was

drying on our desks, we got to do some work on the floor!

That doesn't happen very often!

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Our science unit is about Building Things and we worked in pairs

to plan and then build one of the Three Little Pigs houses BUT we

have the challenge to make our houses better than the pigs' houses were.

Tomorrow the Big Bad Blowdryer is coming into class and he

will try to blow our houses away!

We are hearing many, many versions of the 

Gingerbread Man story.  Did you know that in one

version, the Gingerbread Man is not eaten by the fox?

We got to eat a Gingerbread Man today but we had

to keep track of which part of the cooky we ate

first, second, third and fourth.

We are using that information to make a graph,

and create a book.

We all agreed that the cookies were delicious!

Really...they are enjoying this activity!

For the first time, the students got to use a set of headphones

and listen to a Christmas story.  The students went to our Google Classroom

and chose the topic NEONS.  The books on the shelves in the picture

were all wonderful and each student could choose which story or two they wanted

to hear.

Thank you parents for helping your kiddos find something to share that showed our classmates

some group that the child belongs to.  The kiddos loved the activity and were proud to answer questions.