As February ends.....

My camera is not the greatest, but the pictures do give you the

idea of how much the students like Flashlight Friday.

It's like they are getting away with something....

Do you remember taking a flashlight and hiding under the covers

so that your parents wouldn't know that you were reading?

That's what it is like in the classroom....

It's so lovely to watch the kiddos fully immersed in their books!

An even more engaging activity was taking Fruit Loop cereal

and laying out enough to cover 100 circles,

then stringing those cereal circles onto a ribbon,

to make a necklace.

They were so happy to do this (and there was the added

bonus of having to count to 100 AND work those little fine 

motor muscles at the same time!)

Outside in our hallway over the coat cubbies, are the students'

writing about what they could not do on the first day of school

that they can now do on the 100th day of school.

HOORAY!

We are really focusing on putting small groups together,

or taking a large group and making it into two smaller groups.

These plastic plates are helping the students think of those numbers 

as part-part-whole.

They worked on telling stories about the numbers on their own first,

and then sharing their stories with another student in the room.

It might have sounded like this:

I have seven Santas.  My mom has three Santas. 

(there would be 3 and 7 in the smaller compartments of the plate)

When you put seven and three together, there are 10 Santas.

(the two groups would be moved into the larger compartment,

to show the whole number)

Shrove Tuesday!

Thanks to the wonderful mommy who came in and made these delicious

pancakes for us.  (AND AN EXTRA BIG  THANK YOU TO THE

PARENTS WHO OWN HEADQUARTERS RESTAURANT FOR  

MIXING UP AND DONATING THE BATTER TO OUR SCHOOL!

Here's what 100 little pancakes look like!

Our question to answer was 

"Can a Grade One class eat 100 pancakes?"

The answer was "Absolutely!!"

We asked that question because the wolf tries to fatten up the 

chicken for his stew by leaving her 100 pancakes, 100 donuts, 

and a 100 lb. cake on her porch.

The students paired up and read this shortened 'rebus' version

of the story.

After recess, the students went on a hunt to find the 100 chicks from the

story that were hiding around the classroom.  The real challenge was to

put those little chicks onto the 100 board when there were no numbers on the board.

I was really impressed with their thinking.  I heard these great conversations:

I put the 45 there because I saw 40 at the end, and then I counted these empty boxes

41, 42, 43, 44 so I knew that the 45 needed to go here.

I put 67 here because I know you count like this:  65, 66 and next would be 67.

I put 21 here because you count down like this:  1, then 11 and then it would be 21.

All those mornings at Calendar work is paying off!!

This is a catch up on life in our classroom...

Sometimes life in the classroom is far too busy!  I realize that we shared our 100th day bottle activity in the classroom way back on February 21 but I didn't get this photo onto the blog.  Here it is now!

The final bear that we used as the jumping off point for our reading and writing lessons is the sweet little bear named Corduroy. (The students didn't know that the word corduroy was the name for a particular type of fabric!  You never know where learning will occur)  The students worked very hard on learning how to use elaborate detail, to describe a character or a setting.  They will be working on this aspect of writing throughout the year, and started by describing the toy bear and the setting of the second book, the laundromat.

The RCMP school liaison officer stopped by on the day we all wore pink shirts in support of the campaign to stop bullying, and brought a friend, who offered each student a free hug!

Thank you to the REAL Foundation, a group who supports our Catholic school district in ways that allows our students to experience the joy of being Catholic through concerts and retreats.  On Shrove Tuesday, Face to Face ministries worked with all the students at our school to see that we are meant to Know God, Serve God and Love God.  The photos aren't the best because of the lighting in the gym, and all the movement.

The students raised the roof, lifting their voices in song.

They showed their joy by dancing.  They loved it!

Another huge thank you is owed to Mrs. Phelan and her junior hight students who flipped pancakes ALL MORNING LONG in order to feed our entire school population.  So many of the students told me that they love pancakes.  

There was juice and fruit to round out the meal, which is always part of the day before LENT begins.

Aren't these puppies the cutest?  This was a fun activity to kick off our next set of books that will lead our reading and writing activities in March.  Who is the star of these stories??

It is Clifford, of course!

 
I have noticed that there are not many parents who are taking the time to read the blog, so here's the deal.  I have a prize for each student in my class who can tell me on Monday morning, where I spent the afternoon on Faith and Wellness day.  The pictures should offer you all a clue!  I would love to be able to give away 22 gifts!!

Mixing Math and Religion!!

With our silly February schedule, every lesson has to do double duty!  Today is the very important last day of Ordinary Time before we begin Lent tomorrow.  We tied the traditional way to use up the butter, milk and eggs (making pancakes) with the upcoming 100th day of school.

We read this story, The Wolf's Chicken Stew, and then wondered if the 21 students in our class could eat 100 pancakes.

We took a quick pole and the results are shown above.

We use a hundred chart every morning during our Morning Meeting.  In a practical way to see if the students understand and can use the 100 chart, recognizing the rows and columns and the way that the numbers relate to each other, the 100 chicks from the story scattered around our classroom.

Together, we figured out, through lots and lots of discussion, how to put the chicks onto a blank chart with 100 spaces.  Once done, the children went looking around the classroom, trying to find the rest of the little chicks.  As each child brought back a chick, he or she put it onto the chart, explaining their thinking or reasoning.  It gave me a practical opportunity to assess where the students might be making mistakes in their understanding of the place of numbers in relationship to other numbers.

In the meantime, our volunteer mom was busy making 100 pancakes!

They were silver dollar size.

100

We passed them all out and found out that almost every student had a pile of four pancakes, but some students got to have a heap of five!

Along with syrup, an apple juice and some banana pieces, the students enjoyed

their Shrove Tuesday treat.

Yes!  21 students can eat 100 pancakes!

Good Deeds

Everyone loves to play with clay.  Each child was given a piece to roll out,

and then add to their table partners' pieces to create one long rope.

They worked together to bring the three long pieces to one table,

where the three pieces were braided together.

The braided clay was wound into a circle, and the children instantly saw that it looked like a crown.  We added toothpicks and discussed how our transgressions even today, add to Jesus' pain.

Father asked us at the Ash Wednesday Mass to do one small, kind deed each and every day of Lent.

Each morning, the students who have done so, can remove one thorn, from our representation of Jesus' crown of thorns.  Our prayer table has representations for the three aspects  of Lent that we are striving to add to our daily lives: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

It is soooo exciting to have out iPads all up and running.  The students were given their first opportunity to search for an answer to a question I posed.  We discussed that you must read the little 'teaser' at each site before you go to it, in order to know if it is an appropriate site, or if it will be a waste of time.  Since almost all of the students have earbuds, it was a quiet session as they engaged in the task.

The Ministerial Order that will see a shift in the manner in which schools deliver curriculum to 21st century learners, includes as its first goal to:
"enable all students to achieve the... outcome(s)....

be Engaged Thinkers and Ethical Citizens with an Entrepreneurial Spirit.."

When students are set a task in which they choose the manner in which they will solve the problem imposed, they are working on that entrepreneurial spirit.

 

More about that as we continue our learning journey!