Learning, learning, learning

Poor Sneezy!  He is freezing, but every time he tries to get warm, he melts!

The different projects that we do are just plain fun and the students

love to make them, but they are always helping with learning.

This set of three circles placed one on top of the other, helped the students

experience 'perspective'.....they are looking down on Sneezy as he melts,

and he is looking up at them!

The projects are also allowing the students to work on their fine motor

skills.  This time, the students were asked to make small back and forth movements

with their crayons as they went around each circle.  From the three examples

that I am showing, you can see that this was not easily accomplished by all.

That just means that their little wrists are in need of more work to

strengthen them.  We will continue to find ways to work those muscles!

They loved the project!  They loved Sneezy!

Every morning since the students came back from Christmas holidays

they are met with a task at their tabletops.  This one was interesting

because it was meant to worked on as a small group.  Each table had a set of snowmen.

Each snowman had a word and when the words were moved about

they made a sentence.  It was a challenge for some.  Fun and learning

go hand in hand.  Challenges make little brains grow!

Another reading strategy was introduced this week.

The students are being introduced to the many ways that vowels

make the long sound (that is to say...they say their own name in the word)

The strategy is that if one vowel sound (usually the short one) does not

sound right, flip it to the other sound that the vowel can make.

Some of the practise that was done for the 'Magic' E!

Our last student sharing the 'group' he belongs to.

As each student shared, I took a picture of them and those

photos are now on a GROUPS bulletin board.

The majority of the students brought something that

showed that they belonged to a sports group, but

there were collector, music and Catholic groups as well.

We recognized that we all belong to a class in a school,

and that we all are born in Canada so we belong to a country group as well.

This ties in so well to our next unit of in Social Studies.

Thank you so much parents for helping your littles bring in something to share.

They were so proud!

We are learning

Do you ever wonder what we do all day?

Most of the time we are just sitting around.

Well, actually that's not quite true.

We do sit with a partner and practise reading.

These are the little books we have been making and they contain

many of the sight words that we are learning to read and spell.

Learning to read is hard work, but our friends in our class do not judge us.

They help us get better.  That's what friends are for!

We have started to learn a bit more about ourselves within our

community.  We all belong to families, but families do not all

look the same.  People in our families love us and that is what

is important!

The students created their own family glyph.

Glyphs are often used by children as a way to gather and

depict data, in this case, a picture form of their family.

Who lives in this child's house?  This child said that they have a mom, dad, sister, 

grandparent and two pets that live with him or her.  The white square is the child.

Can you tell if this is your child?

Maybe this represents your family or

maybe it is this one.  The students were able to talk about their

family in a concrete manner using the glyphs.

These two fellows were so proud!  During language learning centre time,

where the various work tubs are full of activities (many that are working those time motor

muscles that are so important) these two created the whole alphabet!

What looks like play is real learning!

Even though we prayed for better weather, God chose to let the rain come down.

Our Terry Fox 'run' turned into a walk with Grades One and Two classes

doing laps within the gym.  We all know that Terry is a Canadian HERO

and we are proud to continue his Marathon of Hope.

All the students got to decide who they were running for.

Here is the little guy who was able to put a chocolate and whipped cream 

pie in my face!  He was sweet and didn't smash me!  It was worth

the need for a bath tonight, because the students in my class were very

interested in learning about Terry, our hero!

The students got to paint using watercolours.  This is just the 

first step in a multi-medium project that they are working on.

Wait until you see the final product!!

A little bit late!

Somehow or other, I sort of forgot that I had not put these photos onto the blog.

Father Jim came into our class on Maunday Thursday.  He worked with the students to make the connection between Jesus' words and actions at the Last Supper, and the gift of His Body and Blood that the children will receive through Communion.  He was very impressed with their understanding.

He also thought that the students were doing a lovely job of recreating Leonardo Da Vinci's painting. The students were trying to remember the names of all of the 12 Apostles.

It was a lot of work....

...but I hope that you were able to display this labour of love at your Easter table.

The students also worked hard on telling the story of Passion Week.  The stories will continue as they hear more about Jesus' work with the disciples, helping be ready for his final ascension into Heaven.

We have finished our stories about Kaya, an Indigenous girl from the New Perce nation in the USA.  It is an important new curriculum requirement that students in Alberta have an understanding and appreciation for our First Nation peoples, and I believe that the students in my class see that those who came before us, lived a life that reflected values based on respect for the laws of nature. 

Indigenous understanding

Our school community was lucky enough to meet and interact with the author Christy Jordan-Fenton.

She brought with her, the grandmother of her children and this lovely soft spoken lady, shared her experiences of her childhood when she left her community at the age of eight and spent two years at school.  

The three books that were written about 'grandmother' will now be housed in

our school library, where our children will be able to read them and remember the 

resilience and strength of a girl who wanted to learn to read.

Thank you to Mrs. Borowski for organizing this author visit, which touched all of our hearts.