Exhibition Of Learning

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Ms. Fischer

A big Thank You to all our parents, family members and guests who attended our Exhibition of Learning last night.  I could tell by the expressions on your children’s faces that they were all thrilled to share their learning journey with you!  I was also aware of how proud you all were of them, their growth and their accomplishments.  Sitting at my desk, I watched them confidently lead you from one learning experience to the next and was amazed!

I hope you all had a great time measuring, playing badminton and word games, viewing the art and science projects and seeing the growth in their reading and writing!

Once again thank you all for making the time to come and share this time with your child.

 I hope you made some happy memories!

 

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Stupid Cupid?

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Ms. Fischer

We’ve been working on a new dance in class–to the song “Stupid Cupid” by Connie Francis.  We’ve been focused on moving as a team–concentrating on doing the same actions at the same time!  This is hard work!!!!

You can try it at home…

 

Dance away!

Categories: Arts, Special Events | 1 Comment

Read Aloud

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Ms. Fischer

“My Cat Likes To Hide in Boxes” was our read aloud story today.  (you can read along at home to the link above)  

Why do we read aloud?

Reading aloud is one of the most important things parents and teachers can do with children.  Reading aloud to young children is not only one of the best activities to stimulate language and cognitive skills; it also builds motivation, curiosity, and memory.

Reading aloud builds many important foundational skills, introduces vocabulary, provides a model of fluent, expressive reading, and helps children recognize what reading for pleasure is all about.

After finishing our story, we checked out another cat who likes to hide in boxes:

Maru!  Check out some of his silly videos on Youtube!

We’ve also added a story building invitation to our Games & Choices time–including the words of the story with pictures.  Our task is to put the story in sequence following the book.  A few of the girls REALLY loved this activity!  They did it over, and over, and over again!

 

 

 

 

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Watercolour Techniques

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Ms. Fischer

This week we explored a new watercolour technique to create a ‘textured’ background SALT!

We used two different varieties of salt (coarse and table) to create an interesting background for our snowflakes.  We had a great time mixing and blending the liquid watercolours, and learning about polychromatic colour schemes.  We learned quickly that we needed to add the salt while the paint was still wet, or we wouldn’t achieve the desired effect.

We also worked on developing our fine motor skills by folding paper and cutting small shapes or pieces out to create our own snowflakes.

Check out our gallery below to see the work in progress, as well as the finished product–or stop by and check out our bulletin board display.

[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”5″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_slideshow” gallery_width=”320″ gallery_height=”240″ cycle_effect=”fade” cycle_interval=”10″ show_thumbnail_link=”1″ thumbnail_link_text=”[Show picture list]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″] 

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Reading Strategies

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Ms. Fischer

We use reading strategies every day!  

We use them before reading, during reading and after reading…

In the last few weeks we have been working on two specific strategies:

  1. Making Predictions
  2. Asking Questions

We’ve been developing our ability to use these strategies as a group through read aloud.  

To work on Making Predictions, we read the book Enemy Pie.  We read through the book, stopping periodically to make predictions about events in the story.  We drew our predictions, and shared them out loud with the class.  Come into the school and check out our bulletin board with our prediction books!

We used the story The Great Fuzz Frenzy to aid us with our Asking Questions strategy.  We worked together to create a web of questions that came to mind before, during and after our read aloud.

These are great strategies that you can try at home…as you read aloud to your child (or as they read to you) as them to predict what the story is about based on the cover, or what will happen next…share with them the questions that pop into your head as you read–and ask them to share their questions too!
Happy Reading! smiley-face-reading-a-book

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Painting Snow

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Ms. Fischer

Today we painted the snow!  

We were expecting some rain, but luckily the weather cooperated, and we were able to go outside and create! The students were buzzing with excitement, as we made our way out to the playground.  We each picked out an area that we wanted to create our art.  

We had a variety of colours to choose from: red, blue, green, orange, purple, pink and black.  Using large tempra brushes we began to paint.  Some of us chose to work in the style of Jackson Pollock-splatter away!!  Some of us chose to use shapes to create an abstract piece.  While some of us created specific images-like lightsabres or flags.

There were a few spills, and some paint splattered onto our coats (hopefully it will wash out!) but overall we had a great time.  After finishing our ‘pieces’, we went inside to watch a slide show of the images captured of art in progress.

Here are a few images:

[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”4″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”100″ thumbnail_height=”75″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show as slideshow]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]If you have a chance, come and check it out–it’s over by the flag pole and fences by the front of the school.

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Hour Of Code

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Ms. Fischer

Today we participated in the Hour Of Code!  We worked together with a partner, or by ourselves to solve a series of puzzles…writing code to move our ‘fuzzy’ friend along a series of increasingly difficult paths.

You can check it out online and try one of the many games at home.

We want to thank our parent volunteers for helping us out-Stan & Teresa-we couldn’t have done it without your help…so thanks again.

Coding is great fun!

 

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Alfie the Shelf Elf

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Ms. Fischer

elfWe’ve had a visitor in our classroom–a shelf elf.  

He arrived on December 1st with a letter of introduction and instructions that we should name him.  After a discussion and vote, we decided on: ‘Alfie‘.  

We each have a daily journal and are keeping track of his adventures each night by writing a sentence and illustrating it.

Since he arrived he has been up to some mischief in our room.  The first night he was left alone he made a naughty and nice list…he put ALL the students on the nice list and Ms. Fischer on the naughty list!!!

The second night he got out the finger twister game, and played with a few of the Barbie dolls.  He set up his game right in the block building area…so the students had to build elsewhere.  That naughty elf!

Last night he got into the magnet letters and tried to spell our 5 words of the week.  He got all the letters right, but had them all mixed up.  It took us a while, but we finally figured out what he was doing and helped him unscramble the words.

I wonder what he’s doing right now???  Can’t wait to see tomorrow!

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A Charlie Brown Christmas!

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Ms. Fischer

We had a great time today travelling to the Carousal Theatre to see a live production of A Charlie Brown Christmas!  

We had an early lunch, then headed with the 5 other primary classes onto the school buses.  For some of us it was our first trip on a school bus–that alone was worth the trip!!!  And off to Granville Island we went…

We piled off the buses into a line-ready to enter the theater–first a bathroom pit stop, then into the theatre we went!  We had the best seats to enjoy the show–rows 2 and 3. The show was wonderful–full of laughs and songs of the season.  Sorry–no photographs allowed… 🙁

Thanks to all the parent helpers who came along–I hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did!

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Scientist Discoveries

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Ms. Fischer

The Big Idea:

“Humans interact with matter every day through familiar materials.”

In the past month or so we have been working on developing our skills as scientists in the following areas:

Questioning and predicting:

  • Demonstrate curiosity and a sense of wonder about the world (K/1)
  • Make simple predictions about familiar objects and events (K/1)

Planning and conducting:

  • Make exploratory observations using their senses (K)
  • Make and record observations (Gr.1)

Processing and analyzing data and information:

  • Discuss observations (K)
  • Represent observations and ideas by drawing (K)
  • Compare observations with predictions through discussion (Gr.1)
  • Identify simple patterns and connections (Gr.1)

Applying and innovating:

  • Transfer and apply learning to new situations (K/1)

Communicating:

  • Share observations and ideas orally (K)
  • Communicate observations and ideas using oral or written language, drawing, or role-play (Gr.1)

We have conducted a number of experiments as we develop these skills:

  1. canstock21792965Candy Corn Experiment: What will happen to the candy corn in 4 different ‘solutions’  (water, salt water, baking soda water, vinegar water)?
  2. Raisin Inquiry: What will happen to raisins in water vs. soda?
  3. Gummy Bear Experiment: What will happen to the gummy bear in water vs. soda? 21ea7b54f1754b88a55c854cca8d08cf

We’ve had a great time discovering what will happen, and of course sampling the experiments as well! Mmmm…good!

What science can you try at home???

 

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