Grade 1/2 Experiences at Rosser Elementary
We started our look at community by brainstorming things that we find in a community.
We then made a grid and learned about mapping using grid coordinates.
Each section was set up with a road network and transferred onto heavy cardboard pieces. Students then ‘paved’ their road sections with black plasticine. Buildings were made from tag board and hot glue gunned onto the cardboard.
Stay tuned for further updates as we progress through the final stages of our project.
When Ms. Teal was with our class she taught the class weaving. She chose these earthy colours as it was part of the unit on the Coast Salish people.
Art done using aboriginal shapes.
Ms. Teal read the students a story titled, “Have You Filled a Bucket Today”. This is about how our words and actions can make other people feel. Students created their own buckets.
Monday, February 19th was a busy day in our class! It was the 100th day that we have been in school.
Students worked with the number 100 in a variety of ways. This included: counting by ones, twos, fives, and tens up to 100. Students made headbands with 20 groups of tally marks (5 each). They counted Fruit Loops into groups of ten and put ten groups together on a string to make a necklace.
Students had worked on a 100 Day poster at home. They also worked on a booklet with all sorts of 100’s activities.
We had a very busy week (February 13-15) with our Valentines celebrations and those of the Lunar New Year.
Our class performed a song (with divisions 4 and 6) and we also did a poem (What Colour Were the Dragons) on our own at the school-wide assembly.
Our lovely lanterns have been hanging in our classroom.
We enjoyed a delicious potluck luncheon. Thank you to all who donated food to our feast!
Firstly, a huge thank you to all the parents who helped their child get ready for this week of building!!
Students spent the week creating their habitat for their chosen animal. The shoe boxes went from a plain old box to a wonderful home for their plasticene animals.
I hope you agree … here they are …
These are on display on two tables in the hallway outside of our classroom and in the display case on the second floor. I hope you get a chance to see them when you are in the school. These pictures don’t really do the work justice, especially the glare from the display case glass 🙂
I hope you enjoy them as much as the kids did making them!
We spent time during February working on a project for the biennial Arts Alive competition. This is open to elementary school classes every second year – alternate years with the secondary schools. Every year there is a set theme. This year’s theme was, “Place, Home”.
As we have been looking at aboriginal art styles this year we created a project that incorporated the coastline of our glorious province and the four different styles of aboriginal art: North Coast; Mid Coast; West Coast (outer part of Vancouver Island); and South Coast. Each of the styles have similarities and differences mainly in reference to the shapes and the colours that are used.
Students each chose an animal which they practised drawing on their own. They made a ‘good copy’ of it and then adorned it with the colours allowed from the style of their animal.
These animals were affixed to a canvas that was transformed into the coastline of BC. A variety of different students painted (base or mottled top layers), separated cedar fronds, soaked off the title labels, or created the human pictures. Cedar was chosen as a representation of how important this tree was to aboriginal peoples. All in all it was a whole class project with everyone doing something to contribute.
Normally for Arts Alive each year every student would create an individual project from class lessons about the year’s theme. The Jury Panel from the BAG comes to each school on a specific day in the final week and a few of the individual projects would be chosen to be taken to the Burnaby Art Gallery for their annual exhibition. This year we were asked to do a whole class project with the idea that most, if not all, of the participating classes would have their project taken.
At Rosser our class, along with Divisions 1 and 2, participated this year. The Jury Panel came on February 28th and each of the three divisions had their projects taken back to the Burnaby Art Gallery. These collected works will be put on display for the Annual Exhibition.
The Opening Night for this exhibition will be on Thursday, April 13th at 6:00 p.m. I will be there and I hope some of you can come to see the students’ great work. The picture here doesn’t really show how great the individual animal pictures are – so seeing them in real life would be best:)
On Friday, December 16th we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with our big buddies from Division 2 …
and then Santa and an elf arrived …
After breakfast we began to watch “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” as we had finished reading the book two days before. We discussed some of the differences between the book and the movie.
Between Recess and Lunch we participated in the school-wide bingo that has become a Rosser tradition. The raffle baskets were also drawn at this time. After lunch we finished watching the movie. In the new year we will begin reading the second book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.
Just before we left for the holiday break a very cold delivery arrived in the form of return letters from Santa. I hope you all had a happy and peaceful Christmas break. Happy New Year!! I look forward to our next six months together.
Reminder about the notice re: The Most Magnificent Thing project which was sent home that last week. On Tuesday, January 3rd we will be having an assembly at 10:00 a.m. to describe this activity to the students. For this project students will need to bring in a box that they will be transforming into something. Please help your child find a box for Wednesday, January 4th.
On Thursday, December 15th students created gingerbread houses out of Graham Wafer crackers, icing, and candy. Thank you to the moms who came to help us out with this fun activity!!! Here are the results:
