Hexagons and Young Actor’s Project

We have been very busy learning all about hexagons and other shapes that can create a hexagon. The students have been exploring and creating hexagons with “pattern blocks” all week.

Exploring with Hexagons

Pattern block creations

Check out our amazing hexagon cell structures just like bees make in their hive! We worked together just like bees to make these structures strong and tall.

Young Actors Project

Thank you to the PAC for funding the Young Actors Project in our classrooms!

Savannah visited us today (first of three visits) to guide us through so many fun and imaginative activities! We learned to communicate without using our voices, pretend to be different animals, and become people in different situations.  Looking forward to our upcoming visits with Savannah!

Filling our Buckets

Ask your child to explain what the term,” Filling your bucket” means!

A reminder that there is no school on Monday!!!

Have a lovely (and finally sunny) weekend!

Gardening, Bees and more

Fortunately, the weather cooperated for outdoor learning on Wednesday. We were able to get into our garden and plant our bean plants. We also had a chance to look closer at the daffodils and tulips that we planted in November.

Bees

We are continuing to learn about bees. Your child should be able to tell you many facts about bees.

Now we must wait patiently for the weather to improve so we can place the bee cocoons outside to hatch.

Wordle

One of my favourite things to do lately is play “Wordle” with my own children. I introduced the game to our class during snack time this week. Some of the kids definitely understand the concept. Unfortunately, the mystery word was SLUNG which was not the easiest word to figure out.

Reading

The Grade One students are improving their reading skills every week. Thank you so much for continuing the home reading program.

Now the Kindergarten students meet with me in small reading groups. They are so excited to be “reading” books too! I will be sending weekly books home for the K students to read to you. You can keep them at home to re-read.

…and, as always, lots of fun and teamwork through play this week!!

Sports Day

As we return to somewhat “normal” school activities, we will be having “Sports Day” on Friday June 10. There will be an early dismissal around 1pm. I will be sending home more information closer to the date but I just wanted to let you know because parents will be welcome to observe on the school grounds outside. Most events will be happening outside. Each child will be allocated to a team and will be encouraged to wear clothing of that colour. I’ll keep you posted!

Have a great weekend!

Bees, beebots and Student Led Conferences

We had the pleasure of a visit from Winston the Beekeeper this week! What a wonderful way to kick off learning all about bees. We are especially excited to watch our mason bee cocoons hatch as soon as the weather is warm enough.

Beebots

We had a lot of fun learning how to tell our beebots what to do (coding and sequencing). It was a great lesson in learning that robots will only do what we program them to do.

Student Led Conferences

Your child brought home their Learning Portfolio today. Please read the purple paper inside the folder. I suggest setting aside about 20 to 30 minutes this weekend to have your child show you all of their learning. As noted on the purple paper, please return their Poetry/Songbook, journal, and completed purple paper on Monday, May 2. You may keep the rest of the work at home.

Have a lovely weekend!

Earth Day!

We spent time today thinking of the ways we are grateful for the Earth.

Check out this beautiful story titled “Thank you Earth.”

Click on the hyperlink to watch the story.

We wrote promises to the Earth to describe ways we will take care of and protect Earth.

Our plants are growing 

Celery Experiment

We observed the way that coloured water travels through the celery stalk to reach the leaves.

Outdoor Learning

Being present in nature provided us with many ideas for our discussion about ways we can take care of the Earth. Thank you Anita for the photos!

Measurement in Math

A lesson about longer vs shorter turned into such an awesome collaborative project. Everyone worked together to try to make the longest cube train possible! This class really knows how to work so well together!

Have a lovely weekend!

Reminder that there is no school for students on Monday as it is a Pro-D Day.

Our Beanstalks are growing!

Outdoor Learning

We have been reading the story Rosie’s Walk. During outdoor learning we created a story map for Rosie’s Walk showing where the main character walked during the story.

Please send your child to school wearing boots during this transitional weather on Wednesdays for our outdoor learning . Only 3 kids had boots on Wednesday so we could not visit our usual park after Tuesday’s big rainstorm.

Easter activities

Today we completed our Easter Egg paintings and dyed hardboiled eggs to take home.

Dates to remember:

Friday April 15 – Good Friday – School Closed

Monday April 19 – Easter Monday – School Closed

Monday April 25 – Pro – D Day, No school for students

Happy Easter, Ramadan, Vaisakhi and Passover!

Planting, Outdoor Learning, and Jack and the Beanstalk

Planting Beans and other veggies for our garden

Everyone had a chance to plant a bean seed (like the magic beans from Jack and the Beanstalk). We are looking forward to watching them grow so tall. We wonder if they will grow as high as the clouds.

Outdoor Learning

This week the students practiced being mindful of their surrounding by listening for 5 sounds at their “special spot.” Then they worked on an activity where they drew things that are “up in the garden and down in the dirt.”

Jack and the Beanstalk 

We read different versions of this classic story to compare similarities and differences. The Grade 1s performed a Reader’s Theatre of the story for their Kindergarten friends.

More classroom moments from this week:

Dates to remember:

Friday April 15 – Good friday – No school

Monday April 18 – Easter Monday – No school

Monday April 25 – Pro – D Day – School closed for students

Friday April 29 – Students will be taking home their “Student Led Portfolio” to show you some of their learning.

Weekly update: April 1

This week flew by so quickly that I forgot to take photos!

Lucky for us, Arjun’s mom took some photos while we were at the park for Outdoor Learning.

Outdoor Learning

We had a lot of fun exploring the park and learning about boundaries and safety while enjoying the sunshine.

We will continue visiting the park every Wednesday afternoon.

Learning about money/coins

We have been learning all about coins this week. Everyone has a good understanding of coin names and values. If you would like to practice at home, you can teach your child how to add the values of a few coins. For example, if you have 2 nikels and 1 dime, how much money do you have?

Tuesdays

I will continue to take one day each week to tend to family needs but it will now be on Tuesday.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Welcome back to school!

I hope you all had a restful break. It is exciting to return to school and note the warmer temperatures and signs of Spring.

Tomorrow is Class Photo Day – I just wanted to let everyone know that class photos are scheduled for tomorrow. I am not sure of the time of day but I will request early in the day.

Wednesday Outdoor Learning – We will be walking to the park every Wednesday afternoon. Please send your child to school dressed for the weather as we will go to the park regardless of weather (unless it is torrential downpour). Thank you to the following parents for offering to accompany us on our adventures: Anita, Annie, Parm, and Oliver’s grandmother.

Masks at school – As you are aware, masks are not mandatory in classrooms anymore. I have told the class that I will not be wearing my mask when I am distanced from the group (storytime, teaching to whole group, in gym, and outside). I will try to wear my mask when I am working closely with the students.  If you wish for your child to continue to wear a mask at school, please talk to your child at home about this. I will not be reminding students to wear their mask or give out spare masks.

Good bye to Reet – We will be saying goodbye to Reet later this week. We will miss you and wish you all the best at your new school!

Happy Spring Break!

It hardly feels like “spring” with snow flurries this morning, but I think everyone is ready for the “break”.

The class has continued to grow and develop together as a team this term. You should all be so proud of the awesome little people that you are raising. As their teacher, I absolutely love being a part of their progress and development!

Pow Wow Dancing

We had the opportunity to join an online lesson about Pow wow dancing. The lesson was quite detailed and long but the class was patient and persevered.

Card Games

The students learned the card game “war”. If you have some time over the break and a deck of cards, ask them to teach you how to play it.  “War” reinforces the math concepts of greater than, less than, and equal to. We also had a great discussion about winning/losing and being a good sport.

A few reminders:

-school reopens on Monday March 28

-please return your child’s report card envelope after the break if you did not send it today.

Wishing you a wonderful break!

Spring is in the air! It has been so lovely to enjoy the warmer days and begin to observe the first signs of spring.

We have been busy this week continuing to discuss our theme of families and learn more about the science of rainbows.

Gymnastics

For the month of February we have had the opportunity to explore the gymnastics equipment. I tried to capture one photo of every students but unfortuantely some students were absent that day. Here are some photos of the kids climbing, jumping, balancing, and hanging.

Making Rainbows

We were fortuante to have a glimpse of sunshine today so we could make rainbows using glass prisms!

Math games

We have been reinforcing addition (even 3 digit addition) and number recognition by learning new dice games. Lots of fun this week!

Have a wonderful weekend!