Grade 1/2 Experiences at Rosser Elementary
Students had a great week of badminton lessons last week. Coach Thomas taught them the correct way to hold the racket and how to hit the birdie. They also used balloons to learn how to be gentle with the rackets and to use a light touch to keep the balloons aloft.
Many students were able to keep the balloon in the air for a long time. Some counted over 100 hits before the balloon got away from them!!
We spent the first two weeks’ Art periods working on our Snow Families. We began by painting the blue ‘sky’ backgrounds onto watercolour paper. We then cut or ripped up white tissue paper and glued it to the bottom portion of the paper, making the snow base. This was then drizzled with liquid glue and sprinkled with white crystal glitter.
Students then added the snow bodies using white paint and different sized round sponges – making a snow-figure for each person in their ‘immediate’ family (mum, dad, brother, sister).
The next week, when these were all nicely dried, we added all the extra details. I made a name banner for each family and the students decorated the snow people with hats, scarves, beads/sequins, etc. They drew on faces and stick arms with Sharpies.
I think that they look quite amazing. They are displayed on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. Check them out, in person if you get a chance, or below …
This week we began our fairy tale unit with the story, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. We read the traditional version and a few ‘fractured’ or ‘twisted’ versions. One of these was ‘Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs’, and another was ‘You and Me’. The students debated on whether Goldilocks was ‘naughty or nice’. On the ‘naughty’ side they decided that she: didn’t listen to her mother to stay out of the woods, and therefore got lost there; she broke into the Bears’ house; ‘stole’ their food (porridge); broke Baby Bear’s chair; and then ‘trespassed’ in their beds. On the ‘nice’ side they decided that she was a good girl who just made some wrong choices and that she didn’t ‘intend’ to do anything illegal or harmful. It was a good group discussion and was meant to show the students that there are usually two – and sometimes more – sides to any issue.
Students then had fun creating WANTED posters about Goldilocks.
They especially enjoyed deciding how much of a reward should be set for capturing this notorious criminal 🙂
We are beginning a unit on Fairy Tales. We will be reading and doing many activities with a variety of different stories. A letter will be coming home this week asking for your child’s favourite recipe for our Fairy Tale Cookbook. Please send it back (renamed with a fairy tale name) by the due date so that I can get them put together before the holidays.
We had a really great trip to the pumpkin patch on October 6, 2015. We were lucky to have so many parents willing to give their time to help make this a fun day for our students. The weather was spectacular which added to our great experience.
Here are some of the highlights of our trip:
The Petting Zoo
The Play Farm
The Forest Villages
The Corn Maze
and … panning for ‘gold’.
We also enjoyed a tractor ride, snack time, and hunting for the perfect pumpkin in the field.
A HUGE THANK YOU to all the parents who helped out by driving us to the farm and helping to supervise while we were there.
On January 16th we were lucky to have a visit from the Mobile Dairy Classroom. A huge trailer came onto our school grounds with a mother dairy cow and her baby calf. Students learned what cows eat, how they have 4 stomachs to digest their food, and how they produce milk. They saw the cow being milked by the milking machine and saw the calf being feed this milk via a baby bottle.
It was a very enjoyable and educational experience for all of us.
Students have been working on being ‘kinder’ to each other. Under Ms. Sue’s direction they have been doing ‘acts’ of kindness. They are working on reaching 100 acts. These are displayed on individual small hearts made into groups of 10 onto larger hearts on our bulletin board in the hallway.
They also planned and videotaped a mini-movie showing many of these acts. Students really enjoyed the process of deciding on scenes and then recording each other. This video was introduced by students and shown to the whole school this afternoon during our Celebration of Learning Assembly. When the movie was over all students in the class took small hearts (that they had made with nice sayings on them) and gave them to different students and staff members in the assembly.
I think it was a great process of learning and it was enjoyable to see their pride in a job well done!
The students have been learning about all different kinds of families. The covers of their booklets are drawings that they made of their faces.
As you all know, our student teacher (Ms. Sue) has now entered the full immersion phase of her practicum. She is in her second week of ‘taking over’ the class.
Students have been enjoying her theme unit on ‘family’. This is part of our Social Studies curriculum which we are doing this year at a very opportune time as we just celebrated Family Day. I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend.
There is a letter coming home tomorrow about a family crest project. Please help your child get some ideas on their paper and return it on the date stated in the letter. This will ensure that your child completes their project at school successfully. Thanks for your continued support.
Students are also learning 2-D shapes in her geometry unit. They enjoyed a great story and then created their own ‘geometrical’ mice. I think they look great on our bulletin board!
What do you think?
We have spent the last two weeks wrapping up our Fairy Tale unit. We explored a variety of “Cinderella” stories and learned that almost every country / culture has its own version of this tale.
We then created our own fairy tale booklets in the style of The Jolly Postman – books which we began our unit with in December. These are hanging on display on our bulletin board in the hallway.
Each booklet has three ‘envelope pages’ which contain: a Three Pigs jigsaw puzzle; a letter to the Three Bears from Goldilocks (apologizing for her behaviour); and a Jack and the Beanstalk activity. The students all worked very hard with the many steps involved in putting together these booklets. I think they look great.
