The students had a great time tapping into their imaginations and creativity to create leprechaun traps on Wednesday and Thursday. Thank you very much for generously supplying materials for this project! Today, our Grade 4 buddies came for a visit and the Grade 1s had to explain how they designed their traps to catch a leprechaun. We will have to wait until Monday morning to see the results! :)

The traps will get sent home at conferences as this will be the easiest way to ensure they make it home in one piece. I also have a lot of student artwork to send home next week. Can you please have your child bring in a shopping bag for this purpose? Thank you. Once again, I will keep the art until I meet with you at conferences and give it to you then. If you are not booking a conference, please let me know and I can send home everything with your child.

This week, the students were given a photograph of a double rainbow in a field and were asked to write about 4 things they would love to find at the end of the rainbows. Some children got right to work, knowing exactly what they'd want while others were surprisingly challenged to come up with ideas!

In Math, we continue to look at reverse and equivalent equations. An example of this is, the reverse equation of 3+4 is 4+3. Equivalent equations can use any operation. An example of this would be 5+3 = 10-2. We also did a number talk where the students were challenged to think of as many equations as they could that would give the answer 11. Below is a photo of the SmartBoard with equations students wrote. Number/Math Talks are fantastic for eliciting diverse thinking. The students benefit from sharing with and listening to their classmates share multiple ways to reach the same answer.

This week in Word Work, we focused on words ending in "ng" and talked about how the sound of the vowel preceding "ng" changes from its short or long sound when it combines with these two letters. Every day, the students practiced reading sentences containing the following words; rang, sang, stung, swing, and long.

Next week:

Parent-Teacher Conferences can be booked starting next Saturday, March 16. Please see our MTS website for more information.

Conferences will be held from 4 - 8pm Thursday, March 21 and 8am - 12pm Friday, March 22. I hope to meet with all of you to share your child's progress. 

The Book Fair will be held in the library during these same times. We will be viewing the Book Fair offerings on Tuesday and the children will have a chance to purchase on Wednesday.

Spring Break is March 25 - April 1. Students return to school on Tuesday, April 2.

We have been keenly observing the eagle live cam from Big Bear Valley in Southern California again this week. The three eggs have not hatched yet but we are hoping to see eaglets soon!

This week, in Social Studies we began to learn about maps and parts of a map. We did a tour of our school to locate landmarks on our school's map (each student had a map to reference). We learned how to orient the map and looked at symbols on the map that represented doorways, stairs, and large furniture pieces i.e. the reception desk in the office. We learned about a compass rose and the names of the four cardinal directions. The students also created their own maps using a template on which they needed to include specific symbols.

Our focus words this week all ended in double consonants. They were: pass, tell, sniff, buzz, and still.

We read the book Some Things Are Scary and then had a discussion about some of the things that scare us. Each student created a page for a class book based on this story. I will share the class book with you at Parent-Teacher Conferences.

In Math, we did three different addition "store" problems. The students had to figure out how to spend set amounts of money at a shape store, a pet store, and a candy store by choosing a variety of items. They were asked to find as many different combinations of items as possible. Here is an example of one of the "stores" that Mrs. Webber created and shared with us.

Thank you to those of you who sent a box in with your child for next week's Leprechaun trap building project. I hope you all received the green note I sent home on Thursday with a list of suggested items you may wish to send in for communal use next week. Please let me know if you have any questions about this project. This is always an exciting creative project that elicits many imaginative writing and storytelling opportunities. Thank you for your support. :)

Please return Home Reading by Monday. This is the day I have set for exchanging reading materials and do not usually have time on other days to do so. I appreciate your cooperation.

Parent-Teacher Conferences can be booked starting next Saturday, March 16. Please see our MTS website for more information.

Conferences will be held from 4 - 8pm Thursday, March 21 and 8am - 12pm Friday, March 22. I hope to meet with all of you to share your child's progress. The Book Fair will be held in the library during these times.

Spring Break is March 25 - April 1. Students return to school on Tuesday, April 2.

This week we focused on consonant blends with the letter "l". Our focus words were: black, clap, slip, glad, and flat.

In Math, we learned about fact families and how addition and subtraction equations are connected. We practiced listening carefully for key vocabulary in word problems to determine which operation is needed to achieve the correct answer.

In Science, we learned how to take jot notes about Polar Bears to complete a fact page that included information about a Polar bear's habitat, food, life cycle, appearance, and adaptations.

In Social Studies, we began to discuss what defines a community and we learned about three main communities: urban, suburban, and rural.

On Pink Shirt Day, we read the book The Invisible Boy and discussed how being kind and caring towards others can make a person feel a sense of belonging. The students designed their own paper pink shirts and wrote one thing they can do and/or already do to show kindness to others at school.

Recently, we have started to observe a male and female eagle who are tending their nest with three eggs in Big Bear Valley, California. The students are excited to witness the hatching of the eggs. At this point, there hasn't been any indication that they will start to hatch soon but we're checking in daily. If you are interested in doing the same, here is the link to the live cam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE

The students will be building leprechaun traps beginning the week of March 11th. Please have your child bring in one shoe box or cereal box next week, if possible for this project.

Please remember that Home Reading books are exchanged every Monday. If you prefer to have your child keep their books over the weekend, this is fine but please ensure they bring them back on Monday to receive new ones. Thanks, as always, for your support with Home Reading.

Thank you for helping your child count out and bring in 100 items for our 100th Day celebration this past Wednesday. We have the following display up in the classroom to show many different object representations of 100.

The students enjoyed rotating through four of the Grade 1 classrooms on Wednesday afternoon to take part in different learning activities focused on 100. Our classroom's activity was a workout that included 10 sets of 10 different active exercises and 10 sets of 10 stretches and yoga poses.

Our weekly words were: ill, spill, all, fall, small. The students had daily practice reading these words in a variety of sentences and created their own written sentences using these words. The students' writing is constantly improving. I am really impressed with their willingness to sound out words by applying many of the phonics skills taught so far this year. 

We started to work on a class research page on Polar bears today. We have been learning many interesting facts about these mammals and are learning how to organize our learning into the following categories; Food, Habitat, Life Cycle, Appearance, and Fun Facts.

In Math, we have shifted our focus from addition to subtraction. The students have been practicing using a number line and a hundred chart to solve subtraction problems. Next week, we will be learning about fact families and will see how addition and subtraction are related.

Today, we met up with our Grade 4 buddies. Mrs. Miller talked to the students about Black History Month and read them a book about an artist named Alma Thomas who lived in the United States. The students made bookmarks inspired by Alma's art. Mrs. Miller also spoke briefly about Viola Desmond and showed the students Viola's picture on our $10 bill.

Please return Home Reading book bags on Monday and library books by Tuesday.

Next Wednesday is Pink Shirt Day. Please encourage your child to wear a pink shirt to school as a reminder to be kind to others.

Next week, Mrs. Burch and I hope to take the students on a community walk to look at some of the landmarks in our community as well as to make observations of nighbourhood elements such as; community mailboxes, bus stops, pedestrian crosswalks, fire hydrants, light standards, etc. Our walk will be weather-dependent but will most likely occur later in the week.

Unfortunately, I was away sick for most of the three days this week, aside from Monday morning, so this week's blog will be short and sweet.

Our focus words were: lost, must, just, best, and fast.

The students listened to stories about love and kindness and wrote ways in which they can demonstrate both this emotion and virtue towards family, friends, and strangers.

We continued to learn about polar bears by reading books and watching video clips and we recorded interesting facts about their appearance, their adaptations, and how they hunt.

In Math, we continued to work at adding 3 addends, practicing different addition strategies, solving oral word problems involving 3 addends, and playing a game to practice identifying odd and even numbers.

The students did a Valentine's heart line-art project which involved using many different types of lines and colours. They also decorated a Valentine's Day card bag.

I will be sending home new books on Tuesday for those who are doing Home Reading. I apologize that I was unable to send new materials home this week.

Please remember that there will not be school on Monday, Feb.19th due to Family Day.

*** Important 100th Day of School Information***

Next Wednesday, February 21, we will be celebrating our 100th day of school. We will be celebrating this day with different learning activities all focused on the number 100. The students will be rotating through 4 stations on Wednesday afternoon to participate in the different activities. We have been learning how to represent 100 through tallies, ten frames, and base ten blocks and we'd love to see other representations of 100 from the students.

* If possible, please have your child bring in 100 small items in a small ziploc bag with their name on it to show to their classmates. The items could be things such as Lego pieces, buttons, macaroni noodles, cereal pieces, beads, dried beans, etc. Please have your child count these with you to ensure you have 100. You may wish to have your child sort the items into groups of 5s or 10s for quicker counting. The items will be returned the following week. We will be making a temporary display of the items in the classroom for the students to see all the different "looks" of 100. Thanks for your support!

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful Family Day long weekend! :)

Our focus words this week were all from the "ick" word family: pick, quick, thick, chick, and kick. We practiced reading, spelling, and writing these words in sentences throughout the week.

We have started to learn about polar bears as part of our Science curriculum. We've read non-fiction books and watched videos to learn facts about these incredible animals. The students have especially enjoyed watching videos of young cubs as they emerge from their snow den for the first time in their lives. Here's a link for a BBC two-minute video, if you're interested. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwZH_aT0FGI

Two facts about the polar bears we learned this week and found to be very interesting were about the colours of polar bears' fur and skin. You may want to ask your child to share this information with you.

We did a polar bear art piece using chalk and oil pastels yesterday. I forgot to take pictures but will try to remember to post some next week. In the meantime here's an example:

In Math, we practiced adding the numbers 0 - 10 to 10 and continued to review and practice adding doubles up to a sum of 20. I will be sending home two games with the students next week that we have been playing in class to strengthen our skills.

The students have really enjoyed being introduced to the game of curling in Gym over the past two weeks. They have learned the correct form to use when throwing a curling rock and have learned how to score. Please see Mr. van Sluys's blog post for more information and photos.

Today we met with our Grade 4 Buddies. The students listened to a story read by Mrs. Miller called Nian, The Chinese New Year Dragon. Afterward, they made a paper dragon puppet to celebrate this holiday that begins today. 

Upcoming dates:

Wed. Feb 14th - Your child is invited to wear red or pink or both to celebrate the day. We will be doing learning activities in class related to kindness, caring, love, and friendship next week.

Valentines Day Information

Your child is welcome to bring in Valentines' Day cards for each of their classmates, if they choose but CBE policy is that no candy can be attached to these cards. Also, please have your child sign only their name to the cards and simply leave the To:____________ section blank or write To: My friend. This makes the passing out of cards much quicker and easier. There are 24 children in our class.

There is no school Thurs. Feb. 15 or Fri. Feb. 16 due to Teachers' Convention and no school Mon. Feb. 19 for Family Day.

Mrs. McLean will be away next week so we will not be doing a book exchange at the library. Your child is welcome to keep their book until Feb. 27.

Please return Home Reading books on Monday if you have not yet done so.

Our focus words this week were: do, bring, back, of, ate. We also focused on the letter blends "pl" and "gl".

This week in Math we continued to practice the effective use of a number line for addition and focused on learning and/or reviewing the double facts - 2+2, 3, 3+3, etc.

In Science we completed our Winter Booklet, focusing on what different animals do in winter as well as significant natural signs of the season. The students also completed their Under and Over the Snow art. I meant to include some photos of their art in this week's blog for you to see but forgot to take pictures - my apologies. I will make sure they are included next week!

We have been using picture prompts to inspire writing recently. This week, the students were given a drawing of two children playing in a snowy park and were asked to describe what they saw with as much detail as possible. We are beginning to add colour, size, and texture words to our writing as well as more details to answer questions such as, Who?, What?, Where?, When?, and Why?.

Today, we watched short clips of Groundhog Day celebrations in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and here at home. The groundhogs in Ontario and Nova Scotia predicted that spring is on its way while our Balzac Billy told of more weeks of winter. We shall see! 

Please refer to last week's blog post for important information regarding Valentine's Day and upcoming dates.

I hope you all enjoy a relaxing weekend and perhaps the chance to play in fresh snow! Enjoy. :)