Grade 1/2 Experiences at Rosser Elementary
We had a very fun-filled afternoon as the whole school worked in the gym carving pumpkins. Division 5 was partnered up with Division 2 for our first ‘buddy’ activity of the school year. Everyone seemed to have a very good time getting to know their new buddy – plus, of course, cleaning and carving their pumpkin.
These great looking jack o’lanterns will be picked up from our school tomorrow and will be set up at the Confederation Park train for their display for Hallowe’en tomorrow evening.
As a follow up to our experimentation with wax crayons in primary colours (red, blue, and yellow), where we made the intermediate colours (orange, purple, and green), we had fun last Friday working with Solucryl acrylic paint and water.
We began by working on regular bond paper to get used to using this media. Most of the students had previous experience with tempera paint but this paint has a different texture and maneuverability than regular paints.
I then gave them each a sheet of 140 lb. water colour paper to work with. Their instructions were that they needed to: 1) only use the three primary colours given to them 2) create an abstract (not realistic) picture 3) cover the entire paper (no white showing) and 4) have all six colours represented in their finished work.
Most students managed to complete their artwork with all four criteria covered. Come and check out the bulletin boards outside of our classroom. I think they look great!
Last week we began our bat study with the reading of this great book. Students then did a sequencing activity which resulted in the creation of their own little booklets. Through this story students learned a lot of valuable information about bats – and the differences between them and birds. We will continue to explore these differences as we learn more about these flying mammals – bats.
As part of our exploration of bats, today we did a survey of how we feel about these interesting – and sometimes scary looking – animals. Students decorated their own bat (with whatever colours they wanted) and then we placed these in one of three columns in our bulletin board bat cave. Students had the choice of “I like bats . . .”, “I don’t like bats . . . “, and “I am not sure how I feel (about bats) . . .”
I have been encouraging students to make up their own minds and not to choose the option that their friends – or the majority of the class – chooses. This has been a bit of an issue with our morning sign-in graph as many students just put their ‘doodle bug’ name where they see everyone else answering – oftentimes without even reading the question. We will continue to work on this.
We have been learning about one of the elements of art – colour theory. Students were directed to use only the three primary colours – red, yellow, and blue – to create the three intermediate colours – orange, purple, and green. Students began by creating a design of a variety of shapes with a felt marker. They then filled these shapes in by blending the primary colour wax crayons to create the intermediate colours. They experimented with differing degrees of pressure (for darker and lighter hues) and different amounts of each primary to create a variety of shades and tints.
The final decision is in and the plan has been made. If you are by the office in the next little while you can see the artist rendering of what our new playground will look like. It is on a large white poster board. The plan is to have the old playground removed and the new one installed in the next few weeks! This will be determined by the weather, of course, so we are hoping that our dry spell will hold on for a little while longer.
Division 3 is holding a bake sale this Wednesday at Recess and Lunchtime. They are hoping to raise enough money so that they can sponsor an owl at the rehabilitation centre. Please help them with their cause by sending some cash with your child on Wednesday so they could purchase a baked item.
When students are doing their ‘seatwork’ assignments there is a wide variety in the final outcome of what each student will produce. There are, of course, different learning outcomes for different subject areas; just as there are different levels of expectations for each grade. I use this visual to explain the difference between a minimal effort and one that has met all the expected criteria. This idea is used for all areas of our curriculum – not just their artwork – and visually demonstrates what is meant by including ‘details’. For artwork they can see what is meant by ‘details’ through the gradually more developed pictures. In their written work, students are reminded that ‘details’ are the way their writing has answered the reader’s questions of ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’.
Today we launched our new science based theme – bats!! We began by recording what we KNOW (or think we know) about bats. I asked the students for their input and wrote out their responses on chart paper. There were no ideas left out (right or wrong).
We then made a similar chart paper with the things that we WONDER about (i.e. our questions about bats):
We are all looking forward to learning more about these fascinating animals!!! We will keep you posted.
Last weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving. Before the long weekend we had some class discussions as to what it meant to ‘be thankful’. I put the students into partnerships with one student from each grade together. Here are a few of their thoughts:
