The Easter Bunny's Assistant

Today we read a story called "The Easter Bunny's Assistant" by JanThomas.  It was about the Easter bunny and his assistant, Skunk.  The Easter Bunny was busy making Easter eggs, but every time the Skunk got excited, he made a stink!!  We thought this book funny.  We made our own recipe book about how to make our own Easter eggs.  Here are the steps:

Step One:  Boil the eggs
Step Two:  Make the dye
Step Three: Draw the crayon on the eggs
Step Four: Look for skunks and get rid of them!!
Step Five:  Dye the eggs.

We will be bringing home our recipe books tomorrow to share with you.

Munsch, Munsch, and More Munsch!

We have been studying author Robert Munsch.  In our study, we have learned that Robert Munsch's is known for three key components in his stories.  First, he uses a lot of noise words in his stories.  This makes his stories come to life and makes you feel like you are really in the story yourself.  Secondly, he stretches out and exaggerates a lot of his words.  Lastly, his stories are usually about a real child.  We have enjoyed reading many stories.  We have had many laughs.

Check out Robert Munsch's website:  http://robertmunsch.com/

Oh...and he is also Canadian!!

Addition Fun!

Today, we continued our work on addition.  We have been practicing addition using a variety of hands-on strategies including counters, building tower blocks with cubes, our fingers, and drawing pictures.  We are now learning about mental math strategies--that is ways we can solve questions in our head.  Today we learned the add one more strategy.  This strategy works for questions such as 4 + 1.  We learned that we don't need counters or our fingers.  We can just count up one from 4 in our head.  We had fun practicing this by playing a game with a deck of regular playing cards.  It is called Add One memory.  It is played just like regular memory, except instead of finding an identical  matching pair like a 4 and a 4, you have to match by finding the card that is one more.  For example if you turned over a 6 first, your matching pair would be a 7.  Try it at home.

A Visit from Officer Strand

Today we had a visit from Officer Strand.  As part of our S4 program, Officer Strand has been connected to our class.  We have been learning about developing healthy strategies to help us cope with life changes.  Today Officer Strand showed us her tool belt and described how she uses these to help her do her job and keep her and others in the community safe.  She then read us the story "Llama Llama Misses Mama".  It was about a llama who was sad at school because he missed his mom.  We talked about the different ways he made himself feel better.  We then brainstormed the different ways that we can make ourselves feel better.  Here are some examples:

*go for a walk
*get a drink
*punch a pillow
*take deep breaths
*ride a bike
*talk to a parent or teacher
*go shopping
*go for a run
*go to my quiet spot

We then made our own tool belt and wrote down our three favorite tools to make ourselves feel better.  Ask your child what tools they chose.

First Grade Update

We have been very busy in our classroom lately.  Here is an update on what we have been working on in the last few weeks.

Language Arts:  Every day we write in our "quiet books" or journals.  We are working on including finger spaces, using our words from our personal word books, adding more descriptions to our sentences, and starting to write simple stories.  In our word work, we have focused on the "an" family, short vowels, and building our sight words.  Here are some links to check out:

 An Family Game

Short Vowels Game

Sight Words

Math:  In math, we finished our mini-unit on equality and inequality.  We are now working solving addition questions to twelve using a number of strategies such as adding with our fingers, using manipulatives, using a number line, creating a cube train, and drawing a picture.  We are beginning to explore adding numbers using mental math strategies such as counting on.  Check out the math pages for some cool links to practice addition questions.

Science:  We have been investigating the three primary colours.   When mixed in different combinations, they create the secondary colours.  Have your child go to the science page.  They can show you what they have learned through some fantastic science links.  Today, we began to explore the colours of the rainbow and what makes a rainbow.

Health:  We have started our S4 project with the Calgary Police Service.  Officer Strand of the CPS has visited our classroom and helped us with one of our science lessons.  We enjoyed having her in our classroom and the extra set of hands!  We are learning how to identify our emotions and to identify certain "fire crackers" or things that really get under our skin and can cause us to become really upset and potentially loose control.    For example, we brainstormed a list of some fire crackers.  Our list included people budging in line, calling us names, hurting us, tattling on us when we didn't do anything, saying bad words, stealing our things, not letting us play with them, ect.      We are now starting to work on a list of strategies to help us to calm down and not get to the point where we become out of control and make poor decisions.

First Nations Teepees, Equality, and Chunky Monkey!

We have been working very hard over the last week in our class.  We have been enjoying the lovely snow at recess time as well!  In gym we have started our movement gymnastic unit and are just loving it!

In Social Studies, we are continuing to study the Blackfoot and the role of the First Nations in our community.  Right now we are creating our own miniature teepees.   We are learning the different symbols that were painted on them and are connecting the importance of the 4 seasons to the life and movement of the Blackfoot community.

 Check out this really cool website from the Glenbow museum:

Glenbow Museum Blackfoot

We have been using it in class to learn how the Blackfoot lived in their community.  You can also find the link under the Social Studies page.

In Math, we have been exploring the concept of equality.   Using a scale, we have learned to balance both sides.  For example, on one side of the scale we put 4 + 3 blocks.  On the other side we put 7 blocks.  When we did this, the scale became balanced.  We learned that another way for saying balanced is equal.  We also have been exploring inequality.  For example, on one side of the scale we put 7 + 3.  On the other side we put 8 blocks.  We discovered that the side that had 7 + 3 in it was heavier and was not equal.  Check out the Math page.  There are some really great links to further explore the idea of equality.

We met another reading friend in Language Arts.  His name is Chunky Monkey.  Chunky Monkey taught us that when we come to a word we don't know, one strategy we can use to figure it out is to look for small chunks in the word.  For example, today we learned about the "at" family.   We learned that if we can read "at", we can easily read cat, mat, hat, sat, rat, ect.   So, if we come to a word like Saturday, we can recognize the "at" chunk in it which helps us to figure out the word quicker.  Have your child show you how many "at" words they can create by going to this link:

 At Word Family Game

Foot Math

In math we have been working on a measuring activity using our feet.  We traced our foot and had to figure out how many cubes long our foot was.  We then used our "cube ruler" to go and find a friend in the classroom whose foot was longer and shorter than ours.  

In Social Studies we are continuing a project we started before Christmas and are continuing to work on creating our gingerbread men communities.  Stay tuned for upcoming pictures!

In literacy, we have had help from our reading buddy "Stretchy the Snake".  He helps us to remember to "stretch" out the sounds when we read and write words.  We have been writing about New Year's goals for this coming year.  Here are some of our goals:

This year I plan to ride my bike to Superstore.--Arian

This year I plan to sleep better in my bedroom downstairs.--Jordan

This year I plan to make my bed by myself.--Alyssa

This year I plan to clean my room by myself.--Jeremy

This year I plan to be better at drawing pictures.--Joshua

This year I plan to pass the puck better to my teammates.--Shaun

This year I plan to learn to skate because I want to play hockey.--Enata

Check out the new links on the Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science pages for some really cool learning websites!