See You in 2015!

Grade 1 B had a blast today at our Christmas Party. Half way through, when we were about to play the 'winter clothing relay' one of the students asked if we could have a fashion show. I thought it was a brilliant idea! Below is a snapshot of our impromptu Grade 1 B Fashion Show.

The 7th Annual Gingerbread Extravaganza

Today we built gingerbread houses, one of my favourite events of the entire year. The grade 8 students came from Summitview School to help us out and Mrs. Price even made a special appearance! Mrs. Hammer and I have learnt a lot since our first gingerbread day seven years ago. We now use meringue powder icing and have students build free-standing houses (instead of building them onto milk cartons). I am extremely impressed with how well all students did, and am especially pleased with the number of multiple-room houses I saw being built. I hope all students enjoy their sugary creations as much as I enjoyed gingerbread day!

Gingerbread and Parachutes

This week we had a great time with Miss Burge as she led us in some parachute games. My favourite parachute game is 'Shark Attack' because the sharks grab your feet and pull you under. We also made gingerbread cookies and they were delicious! Friday we start Amazing Race, I wonder which team will win?

Happy Sinterklaas Day!

All week the students have been learning about Sinterklaas and how people in the Netherlands celebrate Sinterklaas Day on Dec. 5 and 6. We even had a chance to video conference with my mom to learn some Dutch and ask questions about Sinterklaas. After writing a note for Sinterklaas and leaving carrots for his horse we hoped and wished that he would find us way over in Canada. Guess what? He did! The students were overjoyed to find treats in their shoes on Friday morning. The speculas and paper notten were a big hit with all, as were the Sinterklaas games we played and the home-made gift exchange we had. Vroljke Kerstmis!

Cold, Snowy Day

This past Friday we only had 5 people in the class, 5!! It was a great morning of Christmas songs, a visit to the computer lab, creating Dino Ramas, and decorating the Christmas tree! Starting next week we will open a wrapped book each day from under the tree to read in class. What is your favourite Christmas story?

Flat Grade 1s Visit Mega Munch

Mrs. Broda (my mom) received the Flat Grade 1 students and she was off and on a mission! Today they visited many places in Regina, including the museum where they meet Mega Munch. Tomorrow they will take a trip to my old elementary school, Ruth Pawson. Maybe the flat students will try their hand at the monkey bars!

 

What a Busy Week

This week Grade 1B started a dinosaur study. We all love dinosaurs and everyone seems to know more about dinosaurs than I do! 'Dinosaurs of the Day' included Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and T-Rex (my favourite!).  We made dinosaur art, proposed our own research questions, started some dinosaur research, and did a few dino-math themed activities. Next week everyone is excited for our video conference with a paleontologist and the creation of our 'dino'ramas! Check out some of our work below; please note that one of the projects we completed this week was a Tourist Flat Stanley to tie in with our Flat Stanley Project.

Tropical Rainforest Birds

Grade 1B teamed up with Mrs. Hammer's grade one class to create beautiful tropical rainforest birds using painted paper. I got the idea from Deep Space Sparkle, a website full of great art projects for kids. Prior to the art lesson, we 'visited' the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo via video conferencing technology. The host of the video conference introduced us to the levels of the rainforest, the animals in the rainforest, and the things you may see, smell, taste, hear, and feel in the rainforest. Learn more about the zoo here. I am excited for how the projects turned out and impressed with the students' ability to use their imagination when creating their birds.

Happy Halloween!

Grade 1B had a fantastic Halloween party with a lot of games, snacks, prizes, and of course the parade! It was great to see so many families at the parade either watching on the curb or joining in on our walk, thank you for supporting our school! This week is a short week due to Remembrance Day, so I will see everyone on Wednesday!

Paper Mache!

BOO!!! Happy Halloween! Today we began to paint our paper mache pumpkins with the other grade 1 classes. Paper mache is made from wall paper paste and water. It is messy, but fun! We had to paint the pumpkins white first and tomorrow we will paint them orange and black so they can be jack-o-lanterns. I wonder what everyone will be for Halloween on Friday?

 

 

 

 

Mmmmmm, Pumpkin Cookies

This week we had a wonderful time teaming up with Mrs. Hammer's grade 1 class to bake pumpkin cookies. Mrs. Hammer was the super chef and showed us all her tried-and-true recipe for soft and sweet cookies. The class used their 5 senses to describe the cookie; my favourite part was using our sense of taste!

Owl Trioramas

This week was Owl Week. We watched a video about owls to research some owl facts. We also made an owl foldable, looked at 'ow' words, and chose our favourite owls for our owl graph. Our final project was making our owl trioramas. A triorama is similar to a diorama but it is a triangle shape. I was blown away by how many owl facts the students knew and how creative they were when making their background and foreground of their trioramas. Next week is Pumpkin Week, oh boy!

 

 

Turkey Hunt

Tankard the Turkey ran away! He was trying to stay safe so that no one would eat him. Our class combined with Mrs. Hammer's class to earn food to lure Tankard out of hiding. Students solved word problems and then scanned the correct QR code into the IPad to check if they won any food with their answer (only correct answers would win food). I was so proud of all students for working together and solving the difficult math problems.

My Pet Monster

After reading Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems, we designed our own pet monsters. Everyone had a wonderful time deciding their monster's name, favourite food, special talents, and character traits. I loved seeing all the unique monster creations! I think if I had a pet monster he would be named Georgie and I would take him for walks around the town.

 

 

 

Leaf Pile Kids

We have been talking a lot about Fall this past week and something I always enjoyed doing when I was little was jumping in a pile of leaves. We made Leaf Pile Kids and wrote about our favourite thing to do in the Fall.

Fall is Here!

To celebrate the first day of Fall we did an art project with coffee filters, paper, and markers. I like how each Fall tree picture is different and unique, just like the trees are in nature. Tomorrow we will go on our nature walk and find some unique leaves.

Apple Week

This week in grade one we studied apples. Before tasting different apples and then tasting apple sauce, we looked at the various parts of apples. The students did a wonderful job at naming and labeling their own apple. I love apples!

 

Knuffle Bunny and our class

Last week we read a story about Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems as a part of our author study. We learnt about what 'setting' meant and looked at how Mo Willems used black and white for this settings and colour for his characters. We then made our own story scenes using photos of settings we took around the school. Below you will find a sample of our great work!

 

We have been reading, viewing, and listening to A LOT of stories by Mo Willems. Below is our latest work - pages from our class story book titled, "Rules for the Pigeon". In many of Mo Willems' books the pigeon is not allowed to do anything it seems (have a cookie, have a hot dog, stay up late, drive the bus, etc). We made our own set of rules for things the pigeon is not allowed to do. 

 



What a Week

The first week of grade 1 is completed and wow, we have done so much already. We covered the letters S,A,T,P,I,N,H,C/k, and E and made words with our self-created letter cards.  All students discovered that they can be story writers and blew me away with their creative ideas. Next week we will continue to learn about Mo Willems and his characters. We will also finish our ice cream sundae art and will practice writing and reading number words. Students, click here to practice reading/writing number words or here to practice making words.

Get Ready, School is on it's Way!

Hello from Sheldon Coates School! I am busy getting my classroom all ready for eager grade 1 students to enter the doors on the first day of school. September will be an exciting month as our class embarks on an author study on Mo Willems, an exploration of our 5 senses, and we will begin to develop our writing and reading skills. What a great start to an amazing year! 
Check out some information on Mo Willems and his stories here and here. Test your knowledge of the 5 senses here.