Grade 1 Farmer's Market

This past week 1B and 1H participated in Farm Week. Each group was assigned a farm to create and all week they learned about crops, animals, fruits, and vegetables. It was exciting to see the various food items they created with the products from the multiple farms. At the end of the week their products came to life and were made into samples for family and friends to try. All students did a fantastic job at explaining their farm, animals, and crops. Thank you to all parents for coming to visit!

Aloha from Hawaii!

We combined with 1H to take a trip to Hawaii today. The students packed their bags, made it through security, boarded the plane, watched an erupting volcano, and then partied in Hawaii. We all had a blast learning to surf, making leis, and enjoying fresh pineapple. Sadly we had to return to Grande Cache to get home in time for lunch. Aloha!!!

 

Click Clack Moo, Cows that Paint?

Today we drew and painted cows to go with the story 'Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type'. We love this story and are excited to read and listen to more stories by Doreen Cronin. It is amazing to see how much the students have improved with their artistic talents since the beginning of the year. Even they commented on how they didn't even know how to paint before and now they were using a lot of detail in their art work! We finished the day off by enjoying ice cream floats. The delicious floats were a prize to our class for winning the door decorating contest during education week. Way to go 1B!!

The Leader in Me

This past week I was in Edmonton with other teachers from Sheldon Coates to learn and be inspired about the Leader in Me process. It was a life-changing symposium and was honored to be chosen to take part in the event. I am excited to begin implementing the process in our school and know that it will help our great class become greater.

Kids Group

The students worked as a team to create a beautiful abstract mural which they titled, "Kids Group". We started by tracing everyone in various poses onto a large piece of paper, then everyone pitched in to paint each section a different colour. I love standing back and looking at the mural because the more you look, the more shapes you can find! This coming week we will learn about photography and make a picture book.

Fairy Tale Ball

Dancing, food, costumes, photo booth, and games; what more could you want in a Fairy Tale Ball? We had a blast on Friday as we celebrated the end of our fairy tale unit with a wonderful party. Miss O'Krafka did a fantastic job at decorating and we all had a great time dancing and playing. There were dragons, knights, princesses, and a king. We ate fairy cookies and fairy-coloured popcorn.
Have a wonderful Spring Break and a happy Easter and I will see everyone on April 13th!

 

 

 

Sunflowers with Miss O'Krafka

Today we finished our sunflower pictures in art class. Miss O'Krafka taught us about texture, painting, and explained how van Gogh created his sunflower painting. I am very impressed with how they turned out and am excited to put them on the bulletin board once they are dry. Way to go 1B!

 

 

Grande Cache, connecting with Peru, van Gogh, and Stone Soup

We had a busy week in 1B, with all of our many projects on the go. We are finishing up on the building of our model town of Grande Cache and the students are beaming with pride! They designed, built, and set up the entire town and I couldn't be prouder of them. We also began our study on van Gogh and students recreated Starry Night, one of van Gogh's most famous paintings. The students loved watching the animated video of the painting, which you can check out here. The parcel of school supplies, art work, and books was shipped off this week as well. The students waved good-bye to the very heavy box and wished it safe travels as it zooms off to find Jhinanti in Peru. She will use the items to help out students in need. Grade 1B hopes that the students in Peru will love the valentines that they made for them. Finally, we finished off the week by making stone soup. The students learned that by sharing ingredients we could create a delicious soup to share with all. A huge thank you to our parent volunteers for doing the slicing, monitoring, and cleaning of the soup!

Building our Community

Last week the students took an icy walk around the town to take photos of places in our community. They snapped pictures of a church, trailers, the school, the rec centre, houses, and much more. We then looked at where in the world Grande Cache lies by using Google Earth. Finally, we mapped out our walk on Google maps and made a plan to build Grande Cache. The next day students began to turn recycled boxes into buildings that are in our community. We will finish up the project this week. Take a look at the map we made!

Snowshoeing and Valentine's fun

What a busy week we had! We finally had enough snow to try out the school's snowshoes so we set out on Thursday to explore the schoolyard. We quickly learnt that snowshoeing was hard work but a lot of fun! Friday was our Valentine's party and we enjoyed playing games, having snacks, and dancing the day away. Next week is a short week due to Family Day on Monday and I hope everyone enjoys a relaxing day with their family.

Ready for Valentine's Day!

Today we created our Valentine's Day bags. After showing the students some ideas and teaching them how to measure their paper so it fit the front of the bag, the students got right to work. I was amazing by how creative they were in coming up with ideas and designs for their bags. I feel that each has their own personality. This week we also welcomed Miss O'Krafka to our class. She is a student teacher who will be working with us for 9 weeks. I am excited for the pattern unit and the fairy tale unit she is planning for us.

Survivor!

This past week we teamed up with Mrs. Hammer's grade 1 class to help save 'the family' (made up of Little People toys) survive on the iceberg on which they got trapped.  Each day the students created new items for the family in hopes of helping them meet their basic needs of food, water, shelter, and comfort. Each team of students did an amazing job at creating innovative items that the family really appreciated. Monday from 6-7 is the Open House for parents to see the students' creations and to watch the introduction and finale videos, which explain the entire project.

Polar Bear Week

This past week we took time to research polar bears. We watched a video full of polar bear facts and made a bubble map about what we learned. Then we started planning our polar bear informational movies which we will finish this week. Even I learned many new things about polar bears, such as how their skin is black and their fur is oily enough to make it waterproof. Today we made polar bear art using chalk and the art technique of smudging and blending. Check out our finished projects below!

Happy New Year!

I had a phenomenal trip to Peru and Bolivia over the Christmas break and am very excited to be able to share my experiences with the students next week. The Flat People also tagged along with me on my adventures and the students will have a chance to see those pictures as well. Above is a picture of me at Machu Picchu in Peru and below is me with my sister in the Amazon Rain Forest in Bolivia.