Our Work This Week - April 19-23

 Despite our crazy Spring weather, we managed to spend some more time outdoors and extend our learning into our environment.  Here is some of the work we have been doing:

In Science, we focussed on the signs of Spring that are appearing around us.  Students went outdoors to look closely at the emerging plants and how the trees are changing.  They also hunted to see if they could find bugs or any signs of animals that are becoming active again.  They documented their work in their visual journals.  

With Earth Day falling on April 22nd, we talked about what the Earth provides for us and what our responsibility is to care for our planet.  Students learned of a number of different actions that they can do to make a difference to our environment and each student chose an action and made a pledge to work on this action for the coming year.   We drew and wrote our pledges on blue paper that was shaped as a raindrop and then created a garden mural for our rain to nourish. 

We wanted to add some extra art to our Earth Day projects, so students looked at the globe and some pictures of the planet from space and create a visual using blue and green.  They coloured their Earth with washable markers and then we sprayed them with water to make the colours blend.  With a black and starry background, the art is quite striking.  

We began our work with Sound Kreations this week and have enjoyed learning some moves.  We are working on making a dance to go with the hip hop song "The Three Pigs Rap".  We will be working towards mastering the dance in the coming weeks and I will be filming the final performance so that we can share it with you at the end of our school wide dance unit.

Upcoming

Monday April 26 - PD Day - No School for Student

Tuesday April 27 - Home Reading - Afternoon Coulee walk

Thursday April 29 - Home Reading Exchange

Friday April 30 - Library Exchange - Fun Snack

 

This Week's Learning - April 12-16

The week has just flown by.  We have been busy practicing our skills and tackling some new concepts.  Here are some of the highlights:

This was a great week for working on our soccer skills both inside and outside.  We are developing ball control, passing and shooting skills.  Students are working to move the ball towards a goal and to try defending against another player.

In Language Arts, we have begun focussing on developing our descriptive vocabulary.  We are practicing thinking of interesting adjectives to describe a variety of objects.  We will continue to build our vocabulary and practice adding more interesting words to our writing.  We began another story writing project this week.  We read the book "Corduroy" and decided to write a story about a lost object.  Students brainstormed ideas about what they could have lost and created a story map about places they could look for the lost item and what else they might find along the way.  We then wrote the beginning of the story and tried to include some descriptive words.

In Science, we continued to explore colour through investigating how paint interacts with a variety of materials.  We used the scientific method to experiment with materials and record our observations.  

We also explored materials that are transparent, translucent, and opaque.  We used black card stock, coloured cellophane, wax paper, tissue paper, and tin foil to create a stain glass window to demonstrate these three properties.  We have put our projects up in the windows of our classroom, so please come by and view our work.

Next week we will begin our work with Sound Kreations.  We will be learning about the Hip Hop style of dance.  It should be very exciting.

Upcoming

Monday, April 19 - Home Reading

Tuesday April 20 - Sound Kreations dance sessions begin

Thursday April 22 - Earth Day - Wear Green and Blue - Home Reading Exchange

Friday April 23 - Library Exchange

Monday April 26 - PD Day - No School for students

Tuesday April 27 - Home Reading Exchange - Coulee Walk in the afternoon. 

Back and Busy Learning - April 6-9

 It is so great to see everyone back after our Spring Break.  We are diving right back into our learning with some great activities and new concepts.  Here is what we have been up to:

Our Language Arts this week has been focused on stories.  We enjoyed sharing stories of our adventures over the holidays with our friends.  We used a story circle as a way to make sure everyone had a chance to share their ideas and then recorded our stories in our writing journals.  The students are becoming more confident in their writing and can easily express their ideas in complete sentences that are easily read by others.  They are also beginning to use more descriptive vocabulary in their personal writing.

We were also excited to meet with our Blackfoot Elder, Saa'kokoto, via video this week.  He talked to us about the importance of the land and the tradition of giving thanks for the coming of Spring.  He told us a traditional story, "Thunder".  His stories are deeply moving and give us lots to think about.  The students told Saa'kokoto that his story taught them several lessons including "Stand up for yourself", "Never give up even when something is hard", and "You need to have courage".

In Math, we continued to explore the concept of subtraction.  Students are learning to make accurate calculations in subtraction using a variety of materials including a number line, counters, their fingers, and their beaded number line.  Students are becoming more practiced at using counting backward to help with some simple subtraction.

We integrated our Science, Math and Art this week in our exploration of colour.  We reviewed our primary and secondary colours and learned about colours classified as warm or cool.  We then took what we know about patterns to paint two papers: one with a cool pattern and one with a warm pattern.  Finally, we chose one of the colour pallet patterns to be our background and the other colour pallet became the animal in the foreground.  The art pieces are quite striking.

In Gym, we began our unit on soccer.  With the nicer weather, students are keen to play soccer during recess times, so we are using our Phys. Ed time to help students develop some skills for the game.  We will also be working in the coming weeks on how to play a friendly game cooperatively so that everyone can have fun.

Upcoming

April 12 - Home Reading

April 15 - Home Reading 

April 16 - Library Exchange

This Week's Learning - March 15-19

 This week has been full of new and interesting learning.  Here are some of our highlights:

We have been learning about 2D shapes in Math this week.  We learned the mathematical language of lines and angles.  We noticed that shapes with 4 lines, also have 4 angles.  Shapes with 3 sides also have 3 angles.  We worked to draw and recognize a variety of triangle, rectangles, squares, and hexagons.  We used our shape blocks to create interesting pictures and designs.

In gym we moved from red balls to basketballs.  We began working on dribbling and moving with control.  Students are very proud of how they are advancing with these skills.  We are now learning to pass with a partner using the chest pass and the bounce pass.  We have also begun trying to shoot into the baskets.  We sanitize before and after each gym class to ensure that students are not spreading germs while using the basketballs.

For St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday, students enjoyed showing off their green clothing and eating their healthy green food.  We read a story about a leprechaun and wrote about what we would do for others if we found a pot of gold.  We had some good discussions about "being green" and decided that we would help the environment by picking up garbage on the schoolyard.  With the sudden melting of the snow, we were able to find many things that had been hidden/lost during the winter.

Our Science work this week has been to review primary and secondary colours and to experiment to see what happens when you add black or white to a colour.  Students learned about the scientific process of experiments and explored scientific terms - hypothesis, procedure,  observation, and conclusion.

We carried over our colour work into our art.  Using primary colours, students were able to experiment with mixing colours to create a variety of secondary and tertiary colours.  They used these colours to create a unique combination on their canvas.  They then added gold highlights and black stenciling to create a one of a kind piece of colourful art.

Upcoming

Monday March 22 - Unique Sock Day and Home Reading Exchange

Thursday March 25 - Home Reading Exchange

Friday March 26 - Last Day of Classes before Spring Break

Tuesday April 6 - Students return to class

Our Short Busy Week - March 8-11

Although our week has been short, we have packed in a lot of learning.  Here are some things we have worked on in the past few days.

In Gym, we have started work on ball skills.  To get used to complex ball control, we are starting with the red playground balls.  We are working on dribbling the ball in one spot, dribbling while walking (or running), and throwing and catching the ball.  Students are working to show that they have control during our activities and that they are not spending time chasing the ball across the gym.  It is a work in progress.

In Language Arts, we have continued our work on story writing.  Students have been working on a circle story and some are nearly done.  I will be reading these to you during conferences.  Although students are in various stages of their writing development, I am very impressed with the ideas that they came up with for their stories.

In Science, we have begun our work on colours.  This week our focus has been on the primary and secondary colours.  Students had fun creating their colour wheels to show what primary colours mix together to make which secondary colours.  We are combining our Science with our language development in order to build up some great colour based adjectives - example - ruby red, robin's egg blue, shimmering yellow,  lime green, etc.

We were very excited to be able to meet with our elder, Saa'kokoto this week via video chat.  He talked to us about numbers  and told us the story of Bitta

In Math, we have shifted gears a little and are working on some measurement skills as part of our unit on Space and Shape.  We will be working on this unit for the next 4 weeks or so as students develop their understanding of the concepts of measuring, comparing and recognizing 2D shapes and 3D objects.  This foundational work that will support our upcoming work in Science and Art.  We will continue to practice our addition facts through games and activities a couple of times per week and will return to a focus on strategies and understanding of addition and subtraction computation later in April.

I am glad that everyone was able to book a conference for this week.  I am excited to share your child's progress with you and explain how you can further support his/her learning.

Upcoming

Friday March 12 - No School for Students - Conferences

Monday March 15 - Crazy Hair Day - Home Reading Exchange

Wednesday March 17 - Wear Green for St. Patrick's Day

Thursday March 18 - Home Reading Exchange

Friday March 19 - Library Exchange

This Week's Learning - March 1-5

 It is so nice to have such mild weather at the start of the new month.  Of course, we know that winter is not over yet, so we are still prepared for the snow and cold that will come our way.  Here are some things that we worked on this past week:

Students worked hard to demonstrate their understanding of what is happening with trees, plants, animals, and people during our winter seasons.  We shared some things that we do in our houses and yards to cope with winter and also talked about some of our favourite winter activities.  Students have become much more independent in showing their ideas in pictures and labels.  They are also able to express their ideas and their creativity in this work.

In Language Arts we have been working on using writing to share our thoughts and ideas about work we have done in class.  Students are learning to reflect on their own work and how they feel about it.  They are able to share what is meaningful to them and to have others read what they have written.

In Art, students have been working to develop their observation and sketching skills.  We practiced making a variety of types of lines and shapes.  We went outside to sketch a tree in winter.  We also looked at a picture of a dear and looked for shapes that could help us to create a realistic picture.  We learned how to use light and dark lines and shading to give our sketch some texture.

Next week we will have a chance to talk via video conference about your child's progress in grade one.  Please make sure that you log into your Powerschool account to book a conference for Thursday afternoon/evening or Friday morning.

Upcoming

Monday March 8- Home Reading Exchange

Thursday March 11 - Early Dismissal - 12:40 - Conferences 2:00-8:00 pm

Friday March 12 - No School for students - Conferences 8:00 am - Noon