Month: January 2016

Snow Families

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 …

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Happy New Year

I hope that you all had a great break.  We have had a busy first two weeks back.  It does seem to have taken the students a little bit to get back into the ‘swing of things’.  We have had a few ‘chats’ about expectations and following routine.

We will be finishing up our Fairy Tale unit in the next two weeks.  This week we are looking at Cinderella – the traditional story and a lot of the variations from different cultures around the world.  We will then be putting a lot of our fairy tale activities together in our own Jolly Postman booklets.   Our next Social Studies unit will be ‘Family’.

In Math this week we will be doing a mini-unit on fractions.  This has meshed in quite nicely with our performance of “I am a Pizza” for this Friday’s Celebration of Learning Assembly (COLA) – with Division 1 –  as we are using pizzas to learn ‘half’ and ‘quarter’.  Next week we will begin working on ‘measurement’ in Math.

If you get a chance to come to Rosser on this Friday morning (9:00 a.m.) our class will be performing the song we have been practising.  The students are looking forward to this.

Check the ‘Upcoming Events’ page to see what will be happening in the next month or so.

** Please ensure that your child has a pair of shoes that they can wear as ‘clean, indoor’ shoes – especially in this wet weather.  When students come in from the wet and muddy field their shoes need changing so that our carpet – which is sat upon – is not covered in all that wetness or mud.  Thank you for your support in this.

** A lot of students are reporting that they are not doing daily reading practise at home.  This is becoming evident in the groups that have pink and blue homework sheets sent home weekly.  Please take 10 minutes each night and go over those homework sheets with your child.  This is generally the only ‘homework’ given in grade one.  All words on these sheets should be read with proper phrasing and fluency.  There should no longer be too much hesitation or sounding out of the passages that they should now know.  One of the groups will be bringing home a yellow duotang with extra practise sheets in it this week.  Please work with your child on this each evening and return it when your child is reading all sheets competently (phrased and fluent).  Reading is a major focus of the grade one programme.  It impacts all other subject areas.

We are approaching the mid-point of Grade 1.  It is amazing to think how quickly this year is passing!!  We have many more areas of exciting things to learn and experience.  We will keep you updated as things progress.  Keep checking back …

Pancake Breakfast, Santa, and Bingo

On December 18th we had a fun-filled day.  We began by joining Division 1 in the gym for a very yummy second breakfast of pancakes made by the parent group. Santa, and his elf helper, showed up and gave out goodie bags to all students.  A huge “THANK YOU” to the PAC for all their hard work and generosity!

Between Recess and Lunchtime we participated in the school-wide Bingo.  We had previously made our own personalized Bingo cards.  We were joined by three Grade 7 students who came down to help out.  Thank you to Jenae, Hasib, and Tina!!!  In between Bingo games the winning names of the raffle baskets were drawn.  We were lucky to have winners for both baskets and Bingo.

During the afternoon our class got together with the K class for some joint Centre time.  The Grade 1’s had fun re-visiting their old classroom and getting to know the K students for the first part of the afternoon.  The K’s then came to our classroom where our students introduced the K’s to our Centre activities.  The Grade 1’s seem to really enjoy being the ‘big buddies’ for the afternoon.

At the end of the day I read, “The Night Before Christmas” to my class and then we were surprised by a delivery of some very COLD LETTERS from the North Pole.  Santa answered the letters that the students had written to him.

I hope you all had a very nice break.  We are rested and ready to take on the second term!!!

Clay Snowpeople

We spent several days in December working on the students’ presents to their families.  For many of the students this was their first experience working with clay.

Students began by building the clay into three rings around a wooden doweling form. They learned how to join the clay sections and make it smooth with small bits of water. They pulled out ‘carrot’ noses and then created hats for their people.  Holes were put into the sides of the snow people and the students’ initials were carved onto the bottom of the forms.

These clay forms needed to spend a week drying in the class before they were put into the school’s kiln where they underwent their first ‘firing’.  When they came out of the kiln the students glazed them, and their hats, and then they went back into the kiln for their second (and last) firing.

Students collected twigs from the playground which were used for the snow-people’s arms.  Students made felt scarves by gluing small bits of felt onto a longer piece. They chose three pom poms for the buttons and used a black Sharpie pen to draw on the mouths.  When the pieces were all put together the snow people all looked very festive indeed!

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I hope you all enjoy having these as part of your holiday celebrations for years to come!

The Polar Express

During the last week, before the Christmas break, we read, “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg and did a buddy activity on it.  These mini-booklets are displayed on the bulletin board outside of our classroom.

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Our class watched the movie on the Thursday morning.

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All students seemed to really enjoy both the book and the movie.

Heritage Village Field Trip

A huge (belated) “THANK YOU” to all the parents who drove, and stayed to help supervise, on our field trip.  In spite of the rainy weather we had a good day.  The students reported that the highlights, for them, were: the blacksmith shop, the school house, the tram, and the carousel. It is great to see how people used to live in the 1920’s and compare it to our lives today.