Have brush....make art!

The students thought about who lives in their house.

Using that information, each student made a glyph.

It's a funny word that means using a non-verbal symbol to tell information.

This is the chart of how we showed she lives in our house.

Maybe you can find your family?

The students started with themselves and pasted a white square to their

house to show that why lived in their house.  They added dad (red), mom (purple),

brothers and sisters (green and blue) and pets (brown).  No one in the class

had a grandma or grandpa living at their house.  

It was a great way to see information without using words!

I'm not sure why so many of our creative projects have

involved painting in the last few weeks.  The week before,

the students had chosen a colour to paint their canvas.

I tried to find a variety of ways to draw the word 

"Joy" onto their boards.

They then got to choose another colour to paint in the letters.

They were patient as I delivered the different colours

to their classmates and then they carefully

painted in the letters.

Our school district's theme this year comes from

1 Peter 3:15

Choose Joy

The reason for our hope

The canvases will sit above each little artist's coat area for the year.

It is not always easy to make the CHOICE

but it is easy to find JOY

in watching these little ones

enjoy their life at school.

What!  More painting??

Wait until you see what it becomes!

Make a mark! We celebrated International Dot Day!

Peter Reynolds wrote a great inspirational book for children.

It is all about how one should not be afraid to 'make a mark.'

Watch the video to hear the story.

For many years, teachers have been celebrating 'International Dot Day'

as close to September 15th as possible.  It gives our students a chance to

see that they too can do great things if they try.

It is important that my 'littles' know that they can do hard things.

Using paper squares in the colours of their choosing, and a pair of

scissors, they cut circles, without drawing or tracing first!

They layered the circles and signed their work (another important lesson,

which is 'be proud of what you do...)

I am super proud of their efforts and more importantly, they are too!

We worked on the alphabet after listening to, and then finger pointing

as the story was read again and again, the Bill Martin Jr. book

"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"

The students were given alphabet stickers and were

asked to put them in order onto their 'coconut' trees.

It was easy to tell which children still need to work on

 knowing how the letters in the alphabet go.

We worked on a number of 'dot' activities during the week.

Each of the activities were fun for the students, but they gave me

a chance to watch and see who can listen, follow directions, is independent,

and who needs support.  These are activities that allow me to

do some assessment that will guide my teaching over the next few 

weeks.  Even 'fun' is learning!

The students made three books this week that focused on some

of the sight words that they will be spelling on Friday.

They are being encouraged to point under a word as they track

from left to right, developing the early reading skills that are

needed.

Colour is a great assistant and so the students used three colours 

and three different ways to identify the three words on these

pages that were part of their sight words to learn this week.

Next Monday is the beginning of the season of Autumn.

Using the 'dot' idea and some fall-is colours, each student created

a bright and colourful tree.

The first week of school..September 2020

Choose Joy

The reason for our hope

1 Peter 3:15

This is our school district's theme for the 2020-2021 school year.

How appropriate!  We could choose negativity, despair, unwillingness to adapt because of the 

situation that the world is facing BUT

Our God tells us that we need joy!

I asked all the littles to tell me what brings them joy after reading this lovely book by Corrinne Averiss.

I took their photos on the first day of school and their words and photos are welcoming them into the classroom.  You will see a photo from earlier last week, before I had met them all, showing how the door

into the classroom looks.

Every classroom has a sanitizing station at the door and the kiddos are quickly adapting

to what they need to do to help keep them safe.  They understand that wearing a mask means

that we care about others and that by wearing a mask you are keeping others safe.  THANK YOU

for sending your child in a clean mask everyday.

Door to the classroom (Room 111)

We are doing our best to be as far apart as we can be.  Each table has two littles at it.

The blue bin is for their own supplies because AHS says we cannot share.  The light blue bin

is the 'tidy tub' so when they cut and have little papers to recycle, they go in the bin, thus

there is less moving around the classroom.  I wash tables every morning, they wipe their tablespoon with

a school provided wipe before snack and before lunch.

David is such a beloved book character!  We read these two books

during the staggered entry days.

The students followed my verbal directions and watched each step as I drew

David, on the SMARTBoard.  Step by step, they too drew David and they are

on display in our classroom.

The classrooms on the main floor are extremely luck to each have a working sink.

The students wash their hands before eating snacks and eating lunch.  They noticed how

many soap bottles I have lined up for their use.  The red cup covers the water fountain

because AHS has told us that we cannot use them.

Thank you for sending a water bottle that meets my criteria.  That means that the

water comes out through a straw, like the one on the left or has a spring loaded

mechanism, the the one on the right.  This helps avoid the accidents that can happen

in backpacks (and yes, we have had one of those already) and the ones that happen

in our classroom (not yet....but you never know!)

The type of water bottle that I would kindly ask you to avoid is the type

that requires you to completely take off the lid, or that if it was put on it's side, the water

would spill out.  Could you please choose a different bottle to send with your child, if

this is the type you have been sending?  I would appreciate it!

I like to avoid the tears that go with water spilling all over on their tables.

We have a morning snack.  I ask the children to choose a fruit or vegetable if possible.

Could their snack not be put into their lunch kit?  We are trying to avoid too

many students in the hall at a time (social distancing) and if your child has to unzip the

lunchkit, find the snack....or choose because there are yummy things and they want to

eat them all....it means that instead of 10 minutes, the whole exercise is taking 25 minutes.

My own social distancing attempts to avoid touching the students' food.  These littles often

need help with opening their containers.  I sanitize all the times that they do, so please know

that if they need help, I won't say no, but it might be helpful if each student can open their

own containers.  Many of them do not know how to open a prepackaged cookie or cracker bag.

Perhaps this is something that you can help them learn how to do at home.

I will always help, but I really want to be careful to ensure that they stay healthy.

One last thing...the system I use for blogging has gone through an update since I last used it in March,

so it doesn't look as colourful as it used to.  I will look into trying to 'spiffy it up' this weekend.

Come meet the Cat in the Hat

Dr. Seuss makes me smile!  How can you not when his words are

so silly, the pictures are of creatures that I have never seen, and 

each and every one of his books are full of wisdom and lessons to

learn in the best of ways....through stories.

I loved when I. learned that the publisher and Dr. Seuss had a bet

that Dr. Seuss could not write a book for children (that they would

want to read) with only 50 words.

He did it and Green Eggs and Ham was born!  We checked

and there are only 50 words.  Each and every one of my students

should be able to read this book.  We practised with partners in the

classroom.  Reading such as 'long' book made them very proud of

their learning so far this year!

What else do you think of with Dr. Seuss books?

You probably remember that he liked to 'play' with words and

that many of the nonsense words that he made up rhyme with

words in the English language.  These couple of weeks with

Seuss, we are focusing on reading and then spelling rhyming words.

We made our own fish bowls gull of handprint fish.

The most famous cat in the world was created by Dr. Seuss.

That was the little movie that the class watched for their dollar 

donations to Valeda House.  We then talked about how the book

and the movie were similar and different.  Great observations were

made by the students!

We then were asked the question "Would you like the Cat in the Hat

to come to your house?" and created little people that might or

might not resemble the students in the classroom.

"I would not like the cat in the hat to come to my house because 

He would make a big mess."

"I would like the Cat in the Hat to come to my house because he would 

play with me."

"I would like the cat in the hat to come to my house because my house is 

not fun os the cat in the hat is fun."

Now I bet you are wondering which Dr. Seuss books will be featured this

coming week!

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!!